Blog
Debra Wheatman, President of Careers Done Write, provides expert insight to the job search process that puts your career in gear with tips for interviewing, networking, job search strategies and how to create a winning resume and cover letter.
Spray and Pray Isn’t an Effective Job Search Strategy
Applying for jobs can feel like a full-time job in itself. You spend hours tailoring your resume, writing cover letters, and clicking "apply" on dozens, or hundreds, of job postings, only to be met with silence or automated rejection emails. It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that job hunting is a pure numbers game. The logic seems sound: the more applications you send out, the higher your chances of landing an interview. However, this high-volume, low-effort approach, called the "spray and pray" method, rarely produces the results you want. Instead of maximizing your odds, it often leads to burnout, frustration, and a low response rate…
The Latte Lament
… I keep seeing these videos in my feed with people talking about why you should not bring an iced coffee to an interview. Then there are conflicting takes, in which the person says that bringing a beverage to an interview is a non-issue. I never thought about this before, but now I’m curious. Is it okay for me to bring my iced latte with me to an in-person meeting? …
The Cost of a Careless Post
In today's digital landscape, the line separating our personal opinions from our professional identities has dissolved. Social media is no longer just a casual space to blow off steam or debate strangers; it is an extension of your professional brand. Every public comment, retweet, and reply is permanently tethered to your reputation, and by extension, the organizations you represent….
The High Cost of Verbal Hedging in the Corporate Workplace
In modern corporate environments, technical competence, domain expertise, and strategic vision are only part of the formula for career advancement. A significant portion of professional mobility relies on a subjective metric: executive presence. How ideas are delivered often dictates how they are evaluated. When professionals rely on softeners, permission-seeking openers, tag questions, or filler words, it creates an immediate friction point between their actual capabilities and their perceived authority….
Is, Ought, and Your Career
David Hume’s famous observation in A Treatise of Human Nature—often referred to as the Is-Ought Problem or Hume’s Law—posits a fundamental barrier in moral philosophy: one cannot logically derive a moral imperative (an "ought") purely from a set of factual statements (an "is"). In simple terms, no amount of objective data, statistical facts, or observational reality can tell us what we should do without an underlying human desire, value, or emotional commitment driving the transition. Although Hume originally framed this concept to critique conventional moral systems, applying Hume’s Ought Theory to professional life offers a surprisingly practical blueprint for navigating career decisions, evaluating market demand, and preventing professional burnout….
The Evolution of “No One Wants to Work”
No one wants to work. This generation is lazy. Unproductive. Entitled. It’s ridiculous. In my day, we pulled ourselves up by our bootstraps and did what we needed to do. Nowadays, these kids just want everything handed to them!….
Four Daily Habits That Quietly Accelerate Your Career
Elevating your career trajectory doesn’t always require a complete professional overhaul, an expensive executive degree, or an extra twenty hours of overtime every week. Often, the biggest leaps come from refining the foundational behaviors that shape how leadership, peers, and clients perceive you….
Shifts in the US Labor Market: What These Changes Mean for You
A recent article in The Wall Street Journal examines a significant structural shift in the United States labor market. Historically, the economic fortunes of college-educated and non-college-educated workers moved in tandem, rising during economic expansion and falling during recessions. However, recent data analyzed by the Burning Glass Institute, a labor-market think tank, reveals an extraordinary divergence. While young workers without a bachelor's degree are experiencing one of the strongest job markets in decades, young college graduates are facing one of their most challenging environments in recent history….
What Labor Day Means for Modern Professionals
The long weekend at the start of September is universally recognized as the unofficial end of summer. For corporate professionals across the United States, it offers a welcome pause—a chance to step away from endless email threads, wrap up final summer plans, and recharge before the busy autumn quarter begins. Yet, beneath the end-of-season barbecues and back-to-school sales lies a historic American holiday with roots deeply embedded in the modern employee experience. Labor Day was created to honor the contributions, sacrifices, and economic achievements of the American worker. Understanding its origins provides valuable context for the workplace protections and standards that shape corporate life today….
Architecting Your Professional Life: Why Your Career Deserves More Strategy Than Your Vacation
We will spend roughly 80,000 hours of our lives at work. That is about one-third of our entire adult existence, second only to sleeping. Yet, most people do not devote intentional time to planning out their professional paths. Most people spend more time researching hotel reviews than mapping out their next five years of career growth. We obsess over optimizing a seven-day trip to ensure maximum enjoyment, but treat our daily work life as something that simply happens to us by default. Breaking this cycle and taking control of your career architecture is essential for several critical reasons….