In my group last week we discussed how we tailor our networking to both our style and our strengths – and what I realized is that my style is vulnerable, casual and in workout gear. YES! 

That’s why I LOVED our last Career Walk and Talk in Prospect Park where we went deep – got honest about our careers and asked each other for intros and support – all while moving our bodies and taking in some fresh air. Sounds better than a stuffy conference room or even a zoom square to me! 

Many of you reached out to say you wished you could make it last time and you’d be in for September – so now’s your chance! Let’s revel in the most beautiful colors and temperature Prospect Park has to offer for our September Career Walk and Talk! 

Join us on September 26th at 5pm at the 3rd street entrance to Prospect Park. 

Register for the walk - rachelbgarrett.com/walk

Feel free to send the link to friends who may want to join!

I can’t wait to catch up with you for a low-key chat about how it’s going in your career right now. 

Summer is officially over. There’s much grief that comes along with that statement – and that reality. For many, summer allows for a slower pace, more rest, travel and visiting family.

If you’re someone who has been feeling the nudge that career change is on the horizon, all the reasons to put it off a little longer may have disappeared and now you’re up against that moment you were avoiding.

You must do something about it.

Yet even the idea of it gives you the stomach swirl.

The uncertainty.

The uncertainty of what could be next and how to get there usually paralyzes people into inaction.

That’s why I created an unlikely secret weapon - structure.

I built a career shift framework to support you through each step of the process with tools and strategies.

You only need to focus on one step at a time which allows you to tolerate the discomfort of the uncertainty – bit by bit – instead of letting it pull you entirely out of the game.

Knowing you can accomplish each part of the process gives you the momentum and confidence you need to get through that last leg of the work with your networking, interviewing and negotiating an offer that’s on your terms.

I will be there with you, to guide you and to bear witness to all of your ideas and possibilities that actually live within that dreaded uncertain stew.

Good news, bad news – it’s where we find all of your creativity and the good stuff you’ve been pushing way down.

So if you’ve known September is your time, but the uncertainty has you tied in pumpkin spiced knots – let’s talk about how I can walk you through – one reflective exercise, one LinkedIn strategy at a time.

You can set up a free 30-min zoom call to discuss how you can tap into your career desires even if you don’t know what they are yet.

As we wrap up summer, I want to report from the front lines. I'm seeing clear signs that this tight job market is opening up.

Current and former clients have been reaching out in the last month to set up tight-turnaround sessions to discuss offers – and I do mean offers plural – that they are currently negotiating.

One client called to discuss two offers from her vacation.

So here’s a tip – if you want to finally get the offer – go on a two week vacation.

In my world – 2024 job searches did take longer than those in 2023 – but one thing is consistent.

In all of my nine years coaching, my focus has always been to help you find a role that is on your terms, based on your life priorities. And that is exactly what happened in this tougher job market.

With those clients weighing offers, together, we go back to their non-negotiables that we discussed in the very beginning of the process. We make sure those terms are present in the offer and we strategize how to negotiate to meet or exceed those terms with the final offer.

I’m proud to say that while the processes may have been extended in this market, 100% of my clients who landed new roles this year, stuck to their non-negotiables and were not seduced by the good on paper (with all the red flags) roles that preceded the jobs they accepted.

So if you’ve been wondering if you should dip a toe into the search, but have been fearing what you will face out there, come on in…the water is much more fine that it was a few months ago.

And – of course – I’m here to help you navigate it in a focused and strategic way. So you don’t feel like you’re trying a million things without an idea of what's going to stick.

To learn how to get started you can go to rachelbgarrett.com/clarity to set up your 30-minute clarity call!

The past few weeks have been a cocktail of adrenaline and inspiration. A mixture of so many things that fuel me.

Truth Telling.

Vulnerability.

Seismic changes in leadership.

The validation of a talented and underestimated woman meeting the highest stakes moment with embodied confidence.

Women of all ages speaking powerfully about reclaiming our rights to make choices about our own bodies.

Strong men standing in solidarity and in support of women leaders.

Humans with diverse perspectives in community, working together toward a common goal.

There’s been a fleeting feeling in my body that goes beyond hope and optimism. And I can’t let it all the way in, just yet.

It’s safety.

It’s calm.

We might be ok. Our country might be ok.

But there’s a lot of work to do to get there. The first and easiest thing to be done is to make sure your voice will be heard.

Priority number one: Check your voter registration to make sure you will be able to vote on November 5th or before with early voting.

Go to ➡️ https://iwillvote.com/to confirm you’re registered and/or register – there’s still time!

I’m so excited to be voting for Kamala Harris to be our next President of the United States – our first woman president and my heart is full for the direction of our country when she takes office.

As you may remember, I have two daughters in the New York City Public School System.

Now that my younger daughter is starting 8th grade, I’m embarking on my 2nd needlessly complicated, impossible to explain to anyone outside of the 5 boroughs – New York City High School Process.

With my type a, overfunctioning wind at my back – I have this complex project tightly organized in all the Google shared docs and, mind you, the process hasn't even officially begun.

But I also have another secret weapon to help us along: My kid and the joy and creativity she brings to life.

When I asked her to sit down to watch a pre-recorded virtual tour for a high school one summer evening we were on our own, she said, “Only if we can make it a game.”

This isn’t exactly how my brain works (unless we’re talking Hunger Games) so at that moment I was unclear how that would even look.

Choosing curiosity instead of doubt, I asked…how might we do that?

“Let’s make a High School Tour Bingo Card!” She said “And as we hear the words that come up on our card, we can mark them off to see who gets Bingo first. ”

Uhm…brilliant – and more fun than I expected.

So we made two different bingo cards with the words/phrases in different spots so we could play against each other.

"Rigor"

"Restorative Justice"

"Inclusive"

"College Acceptance Rates"

"Put us first on your list!"

All made it to the final cards.

We played our first round. She won and we were successful at making a pretty boring thing that we have to do into something that turned out to be pretty fun.

While you may not believe me at first, the same is possible with your job search.

You can gather a few friends who are also job searching and compete on how many people you’re reaching out to.

You can see how many times you can drop your elevator pitch into a conversation in one day as you’re going about your workday, errands and social gatherings.

Or – you can see how many people you can help with their respective careers and job searches in a week for a feel-good experience of giving back in this process.

What other ways can you make your search joyful, fun – even like a game?

Feel free to send me your ideas so I can share them with the folks who are in the muddy slog of it all.

As always – if you need support in your transition or your search, feel free to sign up for a complimentary 30-min zoom call to learn more about coaching.

Sometimes I hear clients say - I love my company, the people feel like my people and I have the flexibility to be the parent I want to be, yet…

I’m still hungry for something new.

It’s often followed up with…am I crazy?

In a word, "No!"

For those of us who love learning and thrive with a diversity of projects and skills – this makes total sense and you may be able to have exactly what you want – at that organization that already respects you for the value you bring.

In the past couple of years I’ve been bringing this internal career pathing work to thoughtful, people-driven organizations with my signature workshop:

You Are The Driver Of Your Career

The workshop includes interactive exercises, group coaching and tools from my proven career pathing framework to help employees take command of their careers and drive them forward on their own terms.

It offers tactics they can leverage to speak confidently about their gifts, while meaningfully connecting with internal advocates and sponsors who can help open and widen doors.

Lastly, it empowers leaders with career pathing conversation guidance so they can compassionately support their direct reports with the psychological safety and resilience required for transitions.

I‘ve delivered this powerful work to a select group of my corporate clients who include:

• American Express

• Broadridge Financial Solutions

• Council for Urban Professionals (CUP)

• Expand the Room

• FactSet

• The United Nations

• Urban Land Institute (ULI)

One client shared:

Last month we were incredibly fortunate to have Rachel join us at FactSet as part of our speaker series and in conjunction with our Internal Recruiting organization to give an inspiring talk to all FactSetters, "You are the Driver of Your Career." The talk was focused on owning and growing your own career through inner clarity and intentional action. She provided some very useful tools to help unlock new ideas around what we want in our careers. Equally important, her tips for managers were practical and easily applicable. Many FactSetters I have spoken to have begun using these new tools to think differently about their careers at FactSet.

It was a great experience to work with Rachel. She is an effective speaker and she has deep knowledge and a wealth of experience to draw from. She took the time to understand our needs and goals for the session and she crafted and influential and meaningful session that I know provided a lot of take-aways and long-lasting impact. I look forward to the opportunity to partner with her again.

- FactSet, Marcy DeMassa - VP, Associate Director, Leader - Agile Coaches

I’d love to partner with you to bring this work to your company!

Learn more and get in touch at rachelbgarrett.com/speaking.


Looking forward to helping you turn the role you have into the one you want.

Last week I was in a session with a client who is in the middle of a career transition.  

While she continues to look for a full time role, to make some money and spend the time productively, she’s trying out a part-time gig in a helping field  that is radically different from the intense roles in the startup tech world she’s  spent most of her career. 

As often happens, the part-time role has been incredibly rewarding–energizing work with a supportive boss. If that’s not a winning combination, I don’t know what is. 

We talked about how she can deepen or broaden this work so it could meet more of her non-negotiables. Continue to experiment along this path to see if it (instead of her current job search on other paths) could check all the boxes. 

And she said something I hear from many clients. ”I feel like I’m always experimenting!”

In essence – when am I going to get to the final destination already?

My response: Yes, that’s life. 

Life is experimenting and constant tweaking and shifting and changing. 

As much as we want certainty, there is no final destination – I mean, not while you’re still breathing and still – truly who knows about that part either.  

Careers are fluid. 

We get into trouble when we put rigid rules and restrictions around them. 

Those are the career cages we build for ourselves. 

So, if you catch yourself thinking–I’ll finally be happy when I find the perfect job, the perfect partner or the perfect dog, remember those things () don’t exist. 

Life is learning from our experiments as often as we can and as many times as it takes. 

Next week, I have a big birthday. Hey there, 50. I’m coming for you. Or you, me.

It’s caused me to be more reflective than usual. Some may wonder, how is this even possible? You can just ask the people who live with me.

But truly – I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about how I want the second half (eternal optimist!) of my life to look. Who I want to show up to be. What I want to accomplish.

Yet, when I sat down to compile my thoughts on the matter today, I was drawn to the past instead of the future. It’s been a time of tremendous growth and I decided to switch gears to marvel at the multitudes contained within this one decade of my life.

The losses of too many humans I loved/love.

The creation of a business and commitment to an entirely new career path.

A steady and meaningful writing practice.

The work of self-acceptance and the countercultural belief that I am enough exactly as I am right now.

The addition of a new lens to re-envision my past with compassion for my ancestors, knowing they did their best and that I also want to do better for my kids.

The parenting of two of my favorite people and the chance to lovingly usher them into the confounding teenage years.

Continuing to find my homebase in a two plus decade partnership between two people who have changed and grown and have never stopped supporting each other through so much damn changing and growing.

I don’t think there’s a decade I’ve been prouder of the risks I took and the mistakes I made.

Even in the roughest of moments this past ten years, my actions came from a place of self knowledge and an honoring of the true me.

I’m grateful to have taken the time for this accounting to know – I’m entering my 50’s from this place and I’m dreaming up the next decade from a calm awareness that I like the artist in charge.

If you’re coming up on a big birthday, anniversary or a meaningful milestone for you, I invite you to look back before you forge ahead. Absorb the learning and the celebration and take a beat, so you can honor the gravity of the path you’ve taken to create this life.