Episodes

  • Job Searching Is a Numbers Game. Here’s How to Improve Your Odds.

    Job Searching Is a Numbers Game. Here’s How to Improve Your Odds.
    May 19 2026
    Episode 335 - Most job seekers focus on applying more. But in a tougher market, volume alone is not enough. Kyle Austin Young explains how “probability hacking” can help professionals improve their odds, de-risk career change, prepare better for interviews, and make smarter career decisions. Most professionals do not think about their careers in probabilities.They think in effort.They think, “I have worked hard.”They think, “I have good experience.”They think, “I am qualified for this role.”They think, “If I apply to enough jobs, something will happen.”And sometimes, something does happen.But in a tighter job market, hope is not a strategy. Volume is not always a strategy either. The experienced professionals I work with are often surprised to discover that the most important question is not, “How do I apply for more jobs?”The better question is: How do I improve the odds that the right opportunity will convert into an interview, an offer, and a good career decision?That question was at the centre of my conversation with Kyle Austin Young, the guest on Episode 335 of The Job Hunting Podcast. Read the full Blog on the Website 31 Days of Action for Job SeekersFind Your Talents: Learn About Your Strengths, and Watch Your Career GrowJoin 5,000+ Readers of The Job Hunting Newsletter: Subscribe NowLear More About Renata's career coaching and coursesTimestamps to guide your listening:00:00 The Journey to Consulting and Writing10:32 Strategies for Career Success15:13 Building a Personal Brand20:10 Navigating Career Pivots27:15 Identifying Weak Links in Job Searches33:30 Navigating Job Hunting Strategies35:02 Building a Personal Brand37:26 Leveraging Social Media for Networking38:31 The Importance of a Portfolio39:28 Practicing Communication Skills41:41 Dealing with Rejection and Failure46:50 Learning from Setbacks49:25 Understanding Employer Needs55:31 Final Thoughts on Goal SettingLinks mentioned in this episode:Kyle's LinkedIn profileKyle's websiteKyle's book, Success Is A Numbers GameAbout the host, Renata BernardeHello, I'm Renata Bernarde, the Host of The Job Hunting Podcast. I'm also an executive coach, job-hunting expert, and career strategist. I teach corporate, non-profit, and public professionals the steps and frameworks to help them find great jobs, change, and advance their careers with confidence and less stress. Watch the Episodes on YouTubeFollow Renata on Social Media:LinkedInInstagramFacebookX / Twitter
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    57 mins
  • How Headhunters Really Work

    How Headhunters Really Work
    May 5 2026
    Episode 334 - Executive headhunter Gerard Miles explains how search firms identify, assess, and approach candidates, and what experienced professionals can do to become more visible, relevant, and memorable to the recruiters who matter.Many experienced professionals reach a point in their career where the job market starts to feel strangely opaque.Earlier in their careers, they could apply for advertised roles, hear back from recruiters, attend interviews, and move through a relatively visible hiring process. But at senior levels, the rules change.The hiring process is quieter. The shortlist may be built before a role ever becomes public. And the people being considered are often not actively looking.This is why so many senior executives become frustrated when they approach the job market the same way they did ten or twenty years ago. They update their resume, apply for roles online, wait for responses, and assume that if they are good enough, the market will find them.But executive recruitment does not work that way.In my conversation with Gerard Miles, a headhunter specialising in the games and entertainment sector and co-founder of Mission One, we discussed what really happens behind the scenes in senior hiring. And although Gerard works in a very specific niche, the lessons are not limited to gaming.Replace the word “gaming” with mining, education, retail, health, technology, financial services, or government, and the same principles apply.At the senior executive level, hiring is less about applications and more about relevance, reputation, timing, and trust. Read the full Blog on the Website 31 Days of Action for Job SeekersFind Your Talents: Learn About Your Strengths, and Watch Your Career GrowJoin 5,000+ Readers of The Job Hunting Newsletter: Subscribe NowLear More About Renata's career coaching and coursesTimestamps to guide your listening:00:00 The Journey into Gaming and Entertainment06:52 Headhunting in the Gaming Sector12:25 Sourcing Candidates: The Headhunter’s Process18:33 Navigating the Hidden Job Market21:16 Patterns of Successful Candidates24:27 The Current State of Gaming and Entertainment31:15 Building Relationships with Headhunters39:17 Effective Networking Strategies42:00 Navigating Career Opportunities in 2026Links mentioned in this episode:Gerard's recruitment firm, Mission OneGerard's Podcast, Mission One: The Executive EdgeGerard's LinkedIn ProfileHalt and Catch FireAbout the host, Renata BernardeHello, I'm Renata Bernarde, the Host of The Job Hunting Podcast. I'm also an executive coach, job-hunting expert, and career strategist. I teach corporate, non-profit, and public professionals the steps and frameworks to help them find great jobs, change, and advance their careers with confidence and less stress. Watch the Episodes on YouTubeFollow Renata on Social Media:LinkedInInstagramFacebookX / Twitter
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    51 mins
  • Why Workers Over 45 Are Being Left Behind

    Why Workers Over 45 Are Being Left Behind
    Apr 21 2026
    Episode 333 - Workforce participation drops sharply after 45, despite strong demand for experienced talent. In this episode, we explore the structural barriers, age bias, and outdated career models holding professionals back, and what individuals, employers, and governments can do to better support longer, more productive working lives.We have all fallen in love with NASA's crew for its Artemis II mission, the first crewed mission to orbit the Moon in more than half a century. What stood out to me was the composition of the team. Every astronaut selected was Generation Xer, in their 40s and 50s.When the stakes are high, we do not default to youth. We choose experience. That's what NASA did . They choose judgment. They choose people who have navigated complexity before and can do so again under pressure.And yet, in the labour market, we continue to behave as if the opposite were true.This contradiction sits at the heart of what has been described as the “longevity paradox”: We are living longer, healthier lives, but participating less in the workforce as we age. For the corporate professionals I work with, this is not an abstract concept. It is a lived experience, often emerging in their mid-40s and becoming more pronounced thereafter.This issue has become more personal for me recently. At the age of 54, I have just become a grandmother. It has prompted a different kind of reflection about time, work, and what the next decades should look like. Like many of my clients, I am not thinking about slowing down. I am thinking about how to work in a way that is sustainable, meaningful, and aligned with the realities of a longer life.The question is whether our institutions are prepared to support that. Read the full Blog on the Website 31 Days of Action for Job SeekersFind Your Talents: Learn About Your Strengths, and Watch Your Career GrowJoin 5,000+ Readers of The Job Hunting Newsletter: Subscribe NowLear More About Renata's career coaching and coursesTimestamps to guide your listening:00:00 Introduction to the Longevity Economy Paradox06:14 Understanding Workforce Participation and Aging09:02 Personal Experiences with Career Transitions12:09 The Role of Technology and AI in the Workforce15:22 Challenges of Ageism in Recruitment18:09 Strategies for Job Seekers Over 5021:23 The Importance of Networking and Community Support24:16 Midlife Career Checkup: Questions to Reflect On26:57 Final Thoughts and Action Steps for ListenersLinks mentioned in this episode:Michele Lemmens' LinkedInRebecca Hall's LinkedInAbout the host, Renata BernardeHello, I'm Renata Bernarde, the Host of The Job Hunting Podcast. I'm also an executive coach, job-hunting expert, and career strategist. I teach corporate, non-profit, and public professionals the steps and frameworks to help them find great jobs, change, and advance their careers with confidence and less stress. Watch the Episodes on YouTubeFollow Renata on Social Media:LinkedInInstagramFacebookX / Twitter
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    1 hr and 1 min
  • What Professionals Need Most in 2026

    What Professionals Need Most in 2026
    Apr 7 2026
    Episode 332 - Natalie Moore joins me to explore what leaders and professionals need most in 2026: courage, self-awareness, emotional intelligence, and space to think. We also discuss burnout, work design, hybrid work, and how career pivots can happen through small, intentional steps. The themes in this week's podcast episode are not really about personal reinvention in the lifestyle sense, but they're also not hot takes about work culture. They sit at the intersection, as so many issues do when it comes to career and our personal lives. How to we reinvent leadership, organisational design, career strategy, and human behaviour so we can cope with the new ways of working? That is where many of my clients live. They are not junior workers trying to “find their passion.” They are experienced corporate professionals, senior managers, and executives trying to make good decisions in a labour market that has become harder to read, less forgiving, and more emotionally demanding. Here is what I keep seeing in my coaching work. My clients are not simply struggling with job search mechanics. Yes, they need resumes, LinkedIn positioning, networking strategies, and interview preparation. But those are not the only things making this moment difficult. Many are also dealing with return-to-office mandates they did not choose, leadership cultures that speak the language of wellbeing without redesigning work, and AI-driven hiring processes that make the market feel more opaque than ever. LinkedIn reported in January that nearly two-thirds of people say finding a job has become more challenging, while U.S. applicants per open role have doubled since spring 2022. At the same time, 93% of recruiters say they plan to increase their use of AI in 2026. Those are not small shifts. They change how people experience work, how they think about security, and how they approach career planning. In my conversation with Natalie Moore on The Job Hunting Podcast (332), what emerged most clearly was that professionals who are coping best right now are not necessarily the most confident. They are the ones who are able to think clearly under pressure, notice when an environment is no longer working for them, and act with intention before their options narrow. Read the full Blog on the Website31 Days of Action for Job SeekersFind Your Talents: Learn About Your Strengths, and Watch Your Career GrowJoin 5,000+ Readers of The Job Hunting Newsletter: Subscribe NowLear More About Renata's career coaching and coursesTimestamps to guide your listening:00:00 – Welcome Back: Natalie Moore Returns01:11 – Reinvention After Closing a Business03:10 – Headline Hopes for the End of 202606:42 – How Leaders Can Stop Reacting and Start Responding08:59 – True or False: Can Resilience Training Fix Burnout?09:47 – True or False: Will Good Workers Naturally Adapt to AI?10:55 – True or False: Do Career Pivots Require a Big Leap?12:42 – Three Questions to Ask When You Feel Flat at Work16:45 – What Stress and Burnout Really Look Like in High Performers21:45 – Listening to Your Body and Noticing Your Triggers24:03 – What We’re Leaving Behind in 202625:22 – Showing Up Differently in Business and on LinkedIn28:40 – Why Workplace Wellbeing Still Feels Surface-Level30:32 – Is It Time to Redesign the Workday?32:55 – When Training and Development Add to Burnout35:19 – The High-Performance Habits That Need to Go36:50 – Why White Space Matters at Work and in Job Search38:08 – Natalie’s Career Change Story and the Power of Slow Pivots39:21 – What Matters Most in 2026: Confidence, Courage, or Clarity?41:43 – AI, Human Work, and What Still Makes Us Valuable43:34 – The Human Capabilities Professionals Need Now45:44 – Final Thoughts and Where to Find NatalieLinks mentioned in this episode:Natalie Moore's LinkedIn ProfileFollow Josh Piterman on Instagram to find out when he's running breathwork workshops in MelbourneJosh Piterman Inside TimerEpisode 130 - Post-pandemic Stress and Other Factor Affecting Your Wellbeing at Work, with Natalie Moore and Lisa SaundersEpisode 72 - Systemic Gender Biases, Double Standards, Mental and Physical Dangers Affecting Women in the Workplace - with Hannah Piterman Ph.D.About the host, Renata BernardeHello, I'm Renata Bernarde, the Host of The Job Hunting Podcast. I'm also an executive coach, job-hunting expert, and career strategist. I teach corporate, non-profit, and public professionals the steps and frameworks to help them find great jobs, change, and advance their careers with confidence and less stress. Watch the Episodes on YouTubeFollow Renata on Social Media:LinkedInInstagramFacebookX / Twitter
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    47 mins
  • Body Language for Interviews

    Body Language for Interviews
    Mar 24 2026
    Episode 331 - Your experience may speak for itself on paper, but in interviews your body language is speaking too. Linda Clemons shares practical ways to project confidence, warmth, and authority so experienced professionals can perform better in interviews, networking events, and high-stakes conversations. In Episode 331 of The Job Hunting Podcast, I speak with Linda Clemons about body language, executive presence, and the ways experienced professionals are often misread in interviews. Our conversation explores how stress shows up physically, why long tenure can mask unhelpful communication habits, and what candidates can do to present themselves with greater clarity, warmth, and authority.Experienced professionals often assume that interview performance is mainly determined by the strength of their track record and the quality of their answers. That assumption makes sense. After all, senior candidates are usually selected for interview because their credentials already suggest competence. Yet many still leave the process confused by the outcome. They feel they answered well, understood the brief, and showed relevant experience, but did not turn the opportunity into an offer. In many cases, the missing factor is not substance. It is presentation in the broadest sense of the word.This does not mean superficial polish or fake self-confidence. It means the interaction between verbal and nonverbal communication: posture, tone, pace, facial expression, emotional regulation, and the overall impression of steadiness. Employers do not assess these factors separately from capability. They fold them into their judgment of capability. For experienced professionals, especially those who have spent a long time inside one organisation, this creates a specific challenge. They may be highly competent, but no longer practised in making that competence clear to strangers in a short, high-pressure setting.That issue came through clearly in my conversation with Linda Clemons, a global expert in nonverbal communication and executive presence. One of her most useful observations is that people are constantly judging alignment. They listen to the words, but they also notice whether the rest of the person appears to support them. When language, tone, movement, and emotional state line up, credibility rises. When they do not, doubt enters the room, even if nobody says it out loud.Read the full Blog on the Website31 Days of Action for Job SeekersFind Your Talents: Learn About Your Strengths, and Watch Your Career GrowJoin 5,000+ Readers of The Job Hunting Newsletter: Subscribe NowLear More About Renata's career coaching and coursesTimestamps to guide your listening:00:00 The Evolution of a Podcast Host01:14 Understanding Body Language and Nonverbal Communication04:04 The Impact of Posture on Communication06:55 Reading Nonverbal Cues in Real Life10:01 Preparing for Job Interviews12:56 Navigating Interview Dynamics16:01 The Importance of Presence in Communication18:17 Body Language and Interview Presence21:03 Navigating Behavioral Questions23:37 The Importance of Authentic Communication26:01 Understanding Communication Dynamics28:09 The TAP Framework: Truthful, Authentic, Purposeful30:33 Vulnerability in Leadership33:11 Emotional Barriers: Frozen, Flooding, and Flat38:00 The Impact of Long Tenure on Interview Performance43:35 Linda's Book and Final ThoughtsLinks mentioned in this episode:Linda Clemons LinkedIn ProfileLinda Clemons' BookAbout the host, Renata BernardeHello, I'm Renata Bernarde, the Host of The Job Hunting Podcast. I'm also an executive coach, job-hunting expert, and career strategist. I teach corporate, non-profit, and public professionals the steps and frameworks to help them find great jobs, change, and advance their careers with confidence and less stress. Watch the Episodes on YouTubeFollow Renata on Social Media:LinkedInInstagramFacebookX / Twitter
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    46 mins
  • Behind the Hiring Curtain: What’s Really Happening

    Behind the Hiring Curtain: What’s Really Happening
    Mar 10 2026
    Episode 330 - Patrick Dunlop, organisational psychologist and Future of Work professor, shares what he learned from studying recruiters, what’s overhyped, what’s still painfully manual, and how experienced candidates can move with confidence through modern selection processes.Spend enough time around job seekers and you will hear the same diagnosis: “Hiring is broken.”Spend enough time around recruiters and you will hear a different one: “We’re drowning.”Both can be true. What has changed in the last few years is not simply the technology inside recruitment. It’s the volume, the noise, and the mismatch between what candidates think is happening and what is actually happening inside organisations.In my conversation with Professor Patrick Dunlop, an organisational psychologist at Curtin University, one theme kept resurfacing: the biggest misunderstanding is not about AI. It’s about realism. Hiring varies wildly from one organisation to the next, and much of what candidates assume is “automated” is still surprisingly manual, uneven, and dependent on human judgement.What follows is a structured, evidence-informed way to think about modern hiring if you are an experienced professional, particularly in your 40s and beyond.Read the full Blog on the Website31 Days of Action for Job SeekersFind Your Talents: Learn About Your Strengths, and Watch Your Career GrowJoin 5,000+ Readers of The Job Hunting Newsletter: Subscribe NowLear More About Renata's career coaching and coursesTimestamps to guide your listening:00:00 Understanding Assessment Tools00:52 The Importance of Job Analysis03:48 Designing Effective Assessment Processes06:53 The Role of Simulations and Case Studies09:59 Concerns About Psychometric Testing12:56 Faking in Assessments and Its Implications15:50 Cultural Differences in Assessment Responses26:44 Cross-Cultural Assessment in Personality Testing30:57 Candidate Experience and Recruitment Processes36:10 The Impact of AI on Job Applications39:04 Adapting to New Technologies in Job Search49:19 Future Trends in Recruitment and AssessmentLinks mentioned in this episode:Patrick Dunlop's LinkedIn ProfileAbout the host, Renata BernardeHello, I'm Renata Bernarde, the Host of The Job Hunting Podcast. I'm also an executive coach, job-hunting expert, and career strategist. I teach corporate, non-profit, and public professionals the steps and frameworks to help them find great jobs, change, and advance their careers with confidence and less stress. Watch the Episodes on YouTubeFollow Renata on Social Media:LinkedInInstagramFacebookX / Twitter
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    1 hr and 7 mins
  • Executive Presence Without the Mould: Ageism, Culture, and Code-Switching

    Executive Presence Without the Mould: Ageism, Culture, and Code-Switching
    Feb 24 2026
    Episode 329 - We unpack what interviewers are really reacting to, how to show agility at any age, and how to stay authentic while adapting to different cultures and expectations. I understand why Brené Brown and Adam Grant can say “thumbs down” on executive presence and get a standing ovation. In their conversation on Dare to Lead, they frame executive presence as “party of one” and contrast it with leadership as a “collective capability.” It’s a compelling point, and a necessary correction for leaders who confuse charisma with competence or confuse performative confidence with real stewardship.But in my day-to-day work as a career coach for experienced corporate professionals, executives, and senior technical specialists, executive presence is not a fad, a buzzword, or an outdated corporate relic. It is a hiring variable. It’s the most searched term on my podcast’s website. And pretending otherwise leaves job seekers at the mercy of unspoken rules.That’s why I devoted Episode 329 of The Job Hunting Podcast to executive presence, alongside two experts who don’t treat it as a personality type or a costume: Dr. Alexa Chilcutt, executive coach and faculty lead for the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School’s Executive Education Business Communication Certificate, and Dr. Carl DuPont, Associate Professor of Voice at Johns Hopkins University’s Peabody Institute and Executive Education faculty at Carey.What I took from our discussion is this: executive presence is real because the question isn’t whether it exists. The question is whether we teach it responsibly, in a way that helps professionals be read accurately, without forcing them into a narrow mould.Read the full Blog on the Website31 Days of Action for Job SeekersFind Your Talents: Learn About Your Strengths, and Watch Your Career GrowJoin 5,000+ Readers of The Job Hunting Newsletter: Subscribe NowLear More About Renata's career coaching and coursesTimestamps to guide your listening:My websiteMy InstagramSubscribe to my newsletterGroup coaching wait listWork with Renata: All my courses and coaching servicesAlexa Chilcutt, PhDCarl DuPont, DMAAlexa and Carl's websiteAlexa and Carl's book - for 25% discount, enter the code Pres26 at checkoutLinks mentioned in this episode:00:00 Introduction to Executive Presence01:51 Defining Executive Presence04:43 The Importance of Communication07:36 Challenging Traditional Views on Executive Presence09:54 Navigating Ageism in the Workplace12:52 Cultural Dissonance and Code Switching28:33 Authenticity vs. Performance in Executive Presence32:27 The Evolution of Personal Branding34:22 Navigating Cultural Expectations in Professional Appearance37:42 The Role of Voice in Executive Presence41:23 Embracing Diversity in Professional Narratives46:52 The Art of Communication: Finding Your Voice52:03 Overcoming Barriers to Executive PresenceAbout the host, Renata BernardeHello, I'm Renata Bernarde, the Host of The Job Hunting Podcast. I'm also an executive coach, job-hunting expert, and career strategist. I teach corporate, non-profit, and public professionals the steps and frameworks to help them find great jobs, change, and advance their careers with confidence and less stress. Watch the Episodes on YouTubeFollow Renata on Social Media:LinkedInInstagramFacebookX / Twitter
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    59 mins
  • Two Sports Psychology Tools That Make Job Searching Easier

    Two Sports Psychology Tools That Make Job Searching Easier
    Feb 10 2026
    Episode 328 - I borrow two tools from elite sport psychology: the difference between thoughts and attention, and the difference between internal and external focus. You’ll learn how to stop fighting your nerves and start directing your attention.Job searching can feel deeply personal, but the mechanics of it are closer to a high-performance environment than most people want to admit. You are assessed in real time. You are compared, often invisibly, against other candidates. You are expected to communicate with clarity, confidence, and restraint while navigating uncertainty, rejection, and the emotional weight of change.For experienced corporate professionals and executives, this becomes even more complex. The stakes feel higher, the stories are longer, and the margin for error can seem smaller. Many of the people I work with are excellent at their jobs, yet they find the job search uniquely destabilising. That’s not because they are not capable. It’s because job hunting creates a different cognitive and emotional context than most leadership roles do.Read the full Blog on the Website31 Days of Action for Job SeekersFind Your Talents: Learn About Your Strengths, and Watch Your Career GrowJoin 5,000+ Readers of The Job Hunting Newsletter: Subscribe NowLear More About Renata's career coaching and coursesTimestamps to guide your listening:00:00 The Competitive Nature of Job Hunting03:26 Understanding Thoughts vs. Attention19:27 Internal vs. External Focus in Job Search33:02 Applying Focus Techniques in Real ScenariosLinks mentioned in this episode:My InstagramSubscribe to my newsletterGroup coaching wait listReset Your Career online courseAll my courses and coaching services:Video with Alex Cohen that I mentioned on the podcastMovie WimbledonNetflix series Break PointAbout the host, Renata BernardeHello, I'm Renata Bernarde, the Host of The Job Hunting Podcast. I'm also an executive coach, job-hunting expert, and career strategist. I teach corporate, non-profit, and public professionals the steps and frameworks to help them find great jobs, change, and advance their careers with confidence and less stress. Watch the Episodes on YouTubeFollow Renata on Social Media:LinkedInInstagramFacebookX / Twitter
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    44 mins