Really ... most of us feel imposter syndrome (the persistent inability to believe that one's success is deserved or has been legitimately achieved as a result of one's own efforts or skills) at least some of the time.
I don't want to re-invent the wheel - many people have already written many insightful things about this feeling. There's a good one here.

I would, however, like to comment on imposter syndrome in terms of how I've seen it impact people's job searches.
After I've worked with a client - providing them a new resume and / or updating their LinkedIn - they often say, "I needed you to put my achievements in the right words."
Words are my livelihood and of course I think they're important, but once I've used more impactful language and cleared away any typos or grammatical errors, I think there's something more important a new resume offers.
Confidence.
People also often say, "I hardly recognize myself." When they read this new resume, or LinkedIn profile, it may be the first time they've seen a clear, accurate version of themselves.
I believe it's the confidence that comes from that clear vision that propels clients to go out and apply for jobs.
Don't get me wrong - strong resumes are important. Having said that, the resume you use is always better than the one you don't.
My experience has shown me that a new resume not only makes a better impression on potential employers, but motivates candidates to get out and show it to those employers.
And, no surprise, the harder you work, the more results you get.
(and just in case you think I'm an imposter for spelling it "imposter" instead of "impostor" - both spellings are acceptable!)

Resume writers can experience imposter syndrome, too! I know the decision to hire me often comes at a crossroads in my clients' lives, and that's a responsibility I take seriously.
One thing I've done to help me feel up to the task is to join the Career Professionals of Canada (the story I linked to above is on their website).
Being part of a respected group makes me feel supported, offers me professional development resources, and gives me a community I can call on for advice.
If your industry has an association you can join, you may find it worthwhile for the same reasons.

I understand that one of the problems of experiencing imposter syndrome is that you may not feel you can put your own achievements in the best light.
That's what I'm here for! If you need assistance with LinkedIn, or your resume, you can visit my website or contact me.
To get my resume and LinkedIn tips straight to your inbox, sign up for my newsletter.

Above Top Secret? Angel: The Series? Aquatic Therapy Symposium? Unfortunatlely, it's nothing as fun as those. ATS (for the purposes of this newsletter) stands for Applicant Tracking System and, whether you know it or not, if you've applied for a job in the last few years, it's very likely you've been assessed by an ATS.
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Companies use ATS to organize candidates for hiring and recruitment purposes. The ATS collects, stores, and analyses your application. In many cases, the ATS decides whether a human will ever see your resume.

Of course, you don't want your resume to be discarded before a person even sees it. For that reason, it's important to optimize it for the ATS "robots."

However, when a person does read it, it's important that your resume appeals to them.
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It can be challenging to write a resume that works as well as possible for both scanning software and human eyes, but there are some things you can do to improve your chances of success:

1. Avoid using background colours or images that can make your text difficult to scan.
2. Go chronological - the ATS uses dates to classify and rank your experience. Using a functional resume can make it hard for the ATS to know when, and for how long, you gained certain experience.
3. Avoid boxes and tables - or at least don't put anything important in them. Often ATS won't read graphically separate text.
4. Stick with left to right for your text. ATS read like we do. It may be tempting to use columns, sidebars, etc. but that may result in garbled interpretation of your information.

Feeling overwhelmed? Don't worry - I just completed the Career Professionals of Canada's ATS Resumes course, and I can help you with best practices to create ATS and human-friendly resumes.

Please reach out with any questions!

That's why you're here, right? Because you're open to opportunities?
Chances are you already know about the function on your LinkedIn profile letting you tell employers and recruiters you're open to opportunities.

If so, great. If you 're not familiar with it, here's some information about the #OpenToWork feature.
Did you also know you can be quite specific about the opportunities you're looking for? LinkedIn allows you to specify:

• Job titles
• Workplaces (on-site / hybrid / remote)
• Job locations
• Start date
• Job types
  
  

You can also choose who sees that you're open to work - it can be recruiters only, or you can choose to let everybody know, in which case a green frame will appear around your profile picture, declaring you "open to work." This blog post dives more deeply into the pros and cons of each approach.

Small steps. That’s my mantra right now. Small things will make a big difference to how we all feel through these uncertain times, and how we come out of them.

In that spirit, one small thing I can do is share a bit of my resume / LinkedIn / personal branding knowledge to help those of you who would also like to take small steps forward.

One small, but concrete, improvement you can make is to update your LinkedIn URL.

What do I mean by this? Go to your profile and have a look at the URL which appears when you’re viewing it. This is mine: www.linkedin.com/in/tudorrobins/.

If yours also ends in just your name, then great – no need to keep reading! Some of you, however, will see your name followed by a string of numbers and letters. I’m going to tell you how to remove those.

Why Should You Do It?

Not only does a streamlined LinkedIn URL make it easier for people to find you, as well as looking cleaner on resumes, business cards, etc., it also shows you’re technologically savvy, detail-oriented, and that making a positive impression is important to you.

How Can You Do It?

LinkedIn does have an explanation for this, which you’ll find here, however, in my experience, some people find visuals helpful. If that’s you, please follow these steps:
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In the top right-hand corner of your profile click on the option to "Edit public profile & URL":

​Click on the pencil:

Type in the suffix you’d like – LinkedIn gives you five to 30 characters to do this (no spaces, symbols, or special characters). Hopefully you can choose your own name just as it is, however, it’s possible this URL could already be in use. If so, you could use dashes (these are allowed), add a number, include a middle initial, or add something after your name which describes your professional brand – for example, a nurse could add “RPN” or an accountant could use “CPA.”

Once you click "save", you can begin sharing your new, clear and customized LinkedIn URL!
If this was useful to you, please let me know - if so, I’ll share other tips in the future.
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And please feel free to reach out to me with resume, LinkedIn, or personal branding questions, because in times where many things are beyond our control, it can be helpful to take control of the things we can.