Briefcase Coach Resume and Career Search Services

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Briefcase Coach Resume and Career Search Services Reimagining career marketing & management. Executive resumes. Interview coaching. Job search support. For Sarah, it was easy. She fell in love with recruiting.

When Sarah Johnston was an undergraduate student at the University of Georgia, she took a class through her Leadership Fellowship that encouraged students to reflect on their career goals. As a 20 year old college student, she decided her mission was "... to place people in positions I see them really flourishing". After college, she went to work for one of the largest privately held companies in the southeast. Sarah loved meeting diverse, interesting people and was passionate about uncovering their talents, strengths and dreams. In 2008, Sarah married a wonderful and driven man with a career that has required them to move about every three years. Sarah has lived in five states and through experience and successful networking has been able to break in to new communities and land jobs at top, competitive employers. At the beginning of 2017, after coming back to work as a recruiter for the nation's largest children's hospital from her second maternity leave, Sarah had her aha! moment. While she loved her employer and her colleagues-- her true passion has always been helping individuals succeed. She also recognized that in her family, moving to a new city is always a possibility. Creating a business--like the Briefcase Coach-- gave Sarah the flexibility to build a company that she could take anywhere-- but also the opportunity to build a resume and career search firm that truly values people and relationships.

11/02/2026

Did you know that in the US, your political party affiliation is public record?

In one quick Google search of your name, I can quickly figure out your political party.

And then make a whole bunch of assumptions about you as a person.

Or... at least that's what petty-minded people do.

We forget that politics are complicated. And that people are multi-dimensional. And just because you vote XX doesn't mean you fully endorse every decision that the political party makes.

The average person can't make this distinction.

And for executives, political affiliation can become an unnecessary reputational liability.

Here's my potentially controversial take:

If you're a senior leader, it may be worth considering whether you want to remain publicly affiliated with a political party.

I'm not suggesting you abandon your convictions, stop participating in the political process, or become politically indifferent.

Quite the opposite.

I'm suggesting that you think strategically about what information is publicly available about you and how it might be interpreted by people who don't know you.

If you're a CEO, board member, or senior executive leading a politically diverse workforce, serving a broad customer base, or representing an organization with stakeholders across the political spectrum, your party registration could invite assumptions that have absolutely nothing to do with your ability to lead.

And let's be honest-- sometimes we are voting between bad and worse. Sometimes we leave the voting booth thinking, "I voted for X. Can't say I feel good about it, but I did my best with the information that I had."

Do you really want to stake your whole reputation on your "better than bad" decision?

Your voter registration tells people which political party you're affiliated with. It doesn't tell them who you are.

But not everyone will give you the benefit of that distinction.

One practical consideration: Each state has its own set of rules around this. Depending on your state’s rules, you may only be allowed to vote for the political party you are registered with in a presidential primary or caucus. In my state of North Carolina, voters affiliated with a political party may only vote on their party's ballot and may not vote in another party's primary.

You can have strong political convictions without making your political affiliation part of your public professional identity.

What do you think? Agree? Disagree?

09/28/2026

I don't cook dinner anymore. đź’Ł In fact, I haven't cooked a week night meal in two years.

And no, we don't eat fast food for dinner every night.

I'll let you in on a deep, dark secret: I am human, and I cannot do it all. I have limits.

Yes, I AM capable of cooking dinner. And I genuinely enjoy cooking.

But in the season of life that I'm currently in, I was drowning between 5PM and 8PM.

My husband and I have demanding jobs. My kids are involved in a lot of activities that require me to drive them across town. And our family prioritizes eating dinner together.

Trying to make that all happen meant I was constantly rushing, stressed, and feeling like I was failing at everything.

I was talking to another entrepreneur about my schedule, and she said, "WOAH. Why are you working so hard?"

"You have choices about the way you spend your time."

She encouraged me to think about my values.

Our family prioritizes togetherness. I didn't want to outsource driving my kids because I genuinely value that time in the car with them. Those little conversations between activities are some of my favorite moments.

We also value sitting down together for dinner. And we care about eating healthy.

And here's the thing I've realized:

Sometimes the answer isn't getting better at managing your time.

Sometimes the answer is deciding what doesn't deserve your time.

I needed to give something up.

But it wasn't going to be time with my kids.

It wasn't going to be family dinner.

And it wasn't going to be our health.

It was cooking.

She reminded me that I didn't have to cook dinner just because I could.

So I hired a college student to come to my house every Monday and prep meals for the entire week.

I plan the meals.
I buy the groceries.
She does the chopping, prepping and cooking.

And every night, we sit down together and eat a healthy meal.
And I still get to cook when I actually want to cook.

What I don't get anymore is that 5:00 p.m. feeling of panic because I'm trying to figure out how to make dinner while answering emails, getting someone to soccer and remembering who needs to be where at 6:30.

For you, maybe it's cooking.
Maybe it's laundry. Grocery shopping. Cleaning. Yard work. Bookkeeping. Or something completely different.

Whatever the thing is that consistently makes you feel like you're drowning, here's your permission slip:

You don't have to keep doing something just because you're capable of doing it.

Ps. I’m not in the meal-planning business, but if you’re considering outsourcing dinner, I’ll share an example of our family meal plan in the comments. I’ve spent the last two years figuring out what works really well for us. There’s definitely a method to it: we usually have fish on Mondays because it has the shortest shelf life, and soup on Thursdays because it holds up for a few days.

09/25/2026

Have you ever stopped to consider that the job you choose could have a very real impact on your marriage—and your family?

We spend a lot of time evaluating jobs based on compensation, title, flexibility, travel, commute, growth potential, and prestige.

But how often do we ask: What will this job require of the people I love?

There is new peer-reviewed research from the AMA Alliance Physician Family Experience Survey found that *only* 38% of respondents—people who identify as married to a physician—said they would choose a physician as their partner again.

This is not just medicine.

Research has repeatedly found connections between the demands of work and relationship strain:

• A 2002 study of World Bank employees and their spouses found that nearly 75% of traveling staff and about half of spouses reported high or very high stress related to international business travel. The researchers found that lengthy, frequent, and unpredictable travel negatively affected many spouses and children, particularly young children.

• A 2020 study published in the American Economic Journal: Applied Economics found that promotions into top jobs were associated with a doubling of the baseline probability of divorce for women in the study, while the same pattern was not found for men. The researchers also found a widening gender gap in divorce following promotion to CEO.

• Research from Umeå University examining Swedish couples found that when one partner had a commute of 45 minutes or more each way, couples were about 40% more likely to separate.

• A study published in the Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology, using 2000 U.S. Census data across 449 occupations, found that dancers and choreographers had the highest observed divorce/separation rate in the dataset, at about 43%. Importantly, the study identified an association—it did not establish that the occupation itself caused divorce.

None of this means you shouldn't take the promotion.

It doesn't mean you shouldn't travel for work.

And it certainly doesn't mean a demanding career automatically leads to an unhappy marriage.

It means your career decisions have consequences beyond your career.

When you're evaluating a new job, don't just ask:

What will this job do for me?

Also ask:
What will this job require from my spouse?
What will it require from my children?
What will our evenings look like?
How much travel is actually sustainable for our family?
What happens when the promotion comes with more responsibility, more visibility, or more hours?
And are we both genuinely choosing this life?

Because sometimes the most important question in a career decision isn't:
“Can I do this job?”

It's:
“Can we build a life around this job that we actually want?”

08/17/2026

My husband and I are on a 90's movie binge. After many, many Amazon new-release disappointments, we've decided to go back and rewatch many of the old classics. They don't make 'em like they used to.

The Matrix? It's held up remarkably well.
Forrest Gump? Still my favorite.
The OG Devil Wears Prada? Brilliant writing.

And I'll say it: I'm over comic book movies.

Which got me thinking about job searching.

There’s a recent Harvard Business Review article titled “AI Has Broken Hiring” that makes an interesting point: For years, corporate hiring has increasingly favored candidates who could present a polished résumé, deliver highly structured interview answers, and essentially learn how to “perform” well in the hiring process.

Now generative AI makes it dramatically easier to do all of those things.

You can produce a flawless résumé in seconds.
You can generate a polished answer to virtually any behavioral interview question.
You can even practice until your response sounds perfectly calibrated to what a recruiter or hiring manager wants to hear.

The problem?
If everyone can look polished, polish stops being a differentiator.

The HBR article focuses largely on the problem from the employer’s perspective: How do you identify actual competence when AI can help candidates convincingly demonstrate competence they may not actually possess?

But there’s another side to this problem that I think job seekers should be paying attention to.

The competition is starting to look eerily similar.
The same resume language.
The same leadership buzzwords.
The same “results-driven strategic leader” headlines.
The same perfectly structured STAR stories.
The same AI-generated LinkedIn posts.
The same carefully optimized personal brands.

And ironically, the more we use technology to make ourselves look “right” for the job, the harder it can become to actually stand out.

So maybe the answer isn't another AI tool.

Maybe it’s the career equivalent of going back to the classics.

Maybe it's going back to something that technology can't replicate very well:
Being human.

Get out from behind the screen.
Go to the industry event.
Join the professional association.
Attend the conference.
Have coffee with the person who knows the hiring manager.
And don't just collect connections on LinkedIn. Take the connection offline.

Find the decision makers.
Introduce yourself.
Ask good questions.
Have an actual conversation.

Tell them what you're working on. Ask what they're seeing. Listen. Be curious. Let them get to know you as a person—not as a résumé, LinkedIn profile, or AI-optimized candidate.
Because when everyone has access to the same technology, your ability to produce a polished digital version of yourself becomes less valuable.
Your ability to create a real relationship becomes more valuable.

Maybe the old stuff isn't old-fashioned after all.
Maybe some things just hold up.

08/05/2026

"Your services are much more affordable than I was expecting."

A prospective client—a middle manager at a regional bank—said exactly that during a recent call.

She continued, "I really needed some help with my job search, and I appreciate that you have a range of services."

It made me realize that many people assume executive career coaching and resume support are only available through expensive, all-inclusive packages.

That's never been our philosophy at Briefcase Coach.

While we're best known for our white-glove, done-for-you executive branding services for senior leaders, we also believe that sometimes a single conversation can completely change the trajectory of someone's job search.

That's why we offer standalone services that deliver immediate, actionable value:

✅ Resume Review — $135 (30 minutes)
Meet one-on-one with one of our senior executive resume writers. We'll review your resume together in real time, identify what's working, what's holding you back, and give you specific recommendations you can implement immediately. Clients consistently tell us this service exceeds their expectations.

✅ Interview Coaching — $245 (60 minutes)
No long-term commitment. No requirement to purchase a coaching package. Just an hour of focused preparation to help you tell your story with confidence, answer difficult questions, and perform at your best when the opportunity matters most.

Not everyone needs a complete resume rewrite. Not everyone needs months of coaching.
Sometimes you just need an experienced professional to help you see your blind spots, refine your message, and move forward with confidence.

One small favor: These services are available for direct purchase on our website, making it easy to schedule at your convenience. Because they're designed to be affordable, self-service offerings, we're not able to provide complimentary 30-minute discovery calls beforehand.

If you know you're looking for a resume review or interview coaching—not a bespoke executive branding package—PLEASE purchase the service directly through the website rather than scheduling a discovery call. It helps us reserve those calls for executives considering our comprehensive, custom engagements while allowing us to keep these lower-cost services accessible.

Thank you for helping us make expert career guidance available to professionals at every stage of their careers.

Ps. If you know a job seeker, consider GIFTING them one of these sessions.

08/04/2026

I started the morning off with a 6:30 am interview with NewsNationtion's Markie Martinartin about a workplace trend that's generating a lot of debate:

Parents are becoming increasingly involved in their adult children's careers.

They're calling hiring managers.
Attending interviews.
Negotiating benefits.
Even calling in sick for their adult children.

As a career coach, I have a slightly different perspective than many people discussing this trend.

I don't think the story is about helicopter parents.

I think it's about parents who love their children and are watching them enter one of the toughest job markets in recent memory. They're responding the way parents always have—by trying to help.

The problem isn't wanting to help.
The problem is crossing the line between preparing the child for the conversation vs. having the conversation.

The parent's role should be the coach, not the player.

Here's what I encourage parents to do instead:
✔️ Conduct mock interviews.
✔️ Review résumés and LinkedIn profiles.
✔️ Proofread important emails.
✔️ Open doors through your network.
✔️ Help them research companies.
✔️ Talk through difficult workplace situations.
✔️ Be their biggest encourager after rejection.

But when it's time to talk to the employer...

Let your child do the talking.

Every interview.
Every difficult conversation.
Every negotiation.

These aren't just moments in the hiring process—they're opportunities to build confidence, resilience, and independence
One of the greatest gifts we can give our children isn't removing every obstacle.
It's helping them discover that they can overcome obstacles themselves.

Parents, your role doesn't disappear when your child enters the workforce.
It evolves.
Move from being their manager to being their mentor.

I'm curious: Where do you think the line is between supporting an adult child and stepping in for them?

https://www.newsnationnow.com/us-news/helicopter-parents-hiring-job-interviews-gen-z-x/

07/27/2026

I've spent 5,000+ hours interviewing some of the world's most accomplished executives.

People assume I write resumes for a living.

I don't.

I interview leaders.

I'm talking about two-hour conversations with CEOs, CTOs, COOs, founders, and executives from some of the world's most respected organizations, where we unpack every major career decision, leadership challenge, and accomplishment.

(That interview is our secret sauce. It's the reason our resumes aren't just a laundry list of responsibilities, but instead tell a result-rich story)

Here's what I've learned over the years:

1. Most successful people didn't start their career with an end goal in mind. Or at least, they allowed the end goal to evolve and change.

Serendipity mattered.

So did a willingness to raise their hand, embrace uncertainty, and work incredibly hard when opportunity knocked.

2. Money is not the primary driver for the most successful people I've worked with. Don't get me wrong—they're happy to make a lot of money. But most would take a major pay cut to work on something cutting-edge or to have an equity stake.

3. "Learning" is a core value for most of the most successful people I've worked with. And it started from a young age. I can't tell you how many stories I've heard about executives who spent their childhoods taking apart computers just to see how they worked, building businesses in middle school, reading far beyond what was assigned, or obsessing over a hobby until they mastered it.

4. One of the biggest surprises from thousands of executive interviews has been that there is often an inverse relationship between ego and accomplishment. I've gone into interviews intimidated by Fortune 25 CEOs and global executives, expecting them to be guarded or rushed. Instead, they've been incredibly generous with their time. They've remembered my daughters' names from previous conversations. They've asked about my business. They've stayed on the phone long after the interview was supposed to end because they genuinely enjoyed the conversation.

5. Everyone wants "feedback"-- even the CEO. I've done a lot of interview coaching with CEOs and senior executives, and they're often the most receptive clients I work with.

They don't want compliments. They want honest, direct feedback. They know the stakes are high. They hold themselves to incredibly high standards. And they're constantly looking for ways to improve.

Do any of these surprise you?

07/10/2026

Let's talk about something nobody seems to discuss enough: job search intensity.

Job search intensity is simply the amount of focused time and effort you dedicate to finding your next role each week.

Research suggests most job seekers spend anywhere from 3 to 17 hours per week on their search.

But here's the thing...

It's not just about time spent. It's about time well spent. Purposeful hours beat busy hours every single time.

Now let's call a spade a spade...

Some of y'all aren't spending nearly enough time on your job search.

You say you want a new job, but you're treating it like a hobby instead of a priority.

If you only spend an hour here... 20 minutes there... and skip it altogether on Fridays, don't be surprised when your search drags on for months and months!

Finding your next opportunity is a part-time job until it becomes a full-time job.

So what does meaningful effort actually look like?

âś… There is glory in the spreadsheet. Build a list of target companies. Identify decision-makers, hiring leaders, recruiters, and people in your network who can open doors. Great job searches are organized.

âś… Measure conversations, not just applications. Your goal shouldn't be "How many jobs did I apply for?" It should be, "How many decision-makers did I talk to this week?" Conversations create opportunities. Applications simply put your name in a pile.

✅ Prioritize face-to-face conversations whenever possible. Research consistently shows that your "weak ties"—people you know but don't interact with regularly—are often the most valuable connections in a job search. Don't overlook the former coworker from 15 years ago, the parent you chat with on the sidelines of your kid's soccer game, or the neighbor you wave to every morning. Opportunities often come from the people you least expect.

The good news? Job search intensity is one of the few things you can actually control. Increase both the quantity and quality of your effort, and you'll give yourself a much better chance of landing faster.

One final reality check...

If Netflix knows you're still watching... your next employer should know you're still looking.

06/22/2026

A client recently shared a story that (sort of) surprised me.

He was recruited into an Executive Director role through a retained search firm. The opportunity looked solid. Strong compensation. Great mission. Engaged board.

Then, a few months into the role, he made a misstep with a board member.
And... not just any board member.

This individual had significant influence within the organization and had been instrumental in selecting the executive search firm that ran the search.

The relationship deteriorated quickly.

Then the executive learned something he hadn't known when he accepted the role:
Many retained executive search firms offer a replacement guarantee.
Industry-wide, these guarantees often last 6 to 12 months. If the placed executive leaves—or is terminated for cause—during that period, the search firm conducts a replacement search at no additional professional fee.

That's not a small concession.

Retained search fees can easily range from 20% to 30% of an executive's first-year compensation.

The board member knew the guarantee window was still open.

Before long, the executive was out, and the search firm was preparing to recruit his replacement.

The lesson isn't that executive recruiters are hiding something.

The lesson is that your recruiter is not responsible for conducting due diligence on your behalf.

A good recruiter won't lie to you. But they may not volunteer every political dynamic, difficult stakeholder, or historical challenge associated with a role unless you ask.

When evaluating a leadership opportunity, consider asking:
• Who are the stakeholders whose support is critical to success?
• What happened to the last person in the role?
• Is there a board member, department chair, donor, founder, or executive with outsized influence?
• Has this role experienced high turnover?
• What challenges have previous leaders faced?
• Is there anyone known for being particularly difficult to satisfy?

The higher you climb, the more important these questions become.

Most executives spend their due diligence evaluating the company.
The smartest executives spend just as much time evaluating the people.

06/15/2026

The average new college graduate has parents who were listening to Lauryn Hill, NSYNC, and Third Eye Blind when they graduated from college.

The average college graduate's parents graduated college between 1997-1999.

That got me thinking...

If you were launching your career in the late '90s, what did your job search actually look like?

Did you:
Snail mail resumes?
Cold-call employers?
Circle opportunities in the newspaper classifieds?
Attend on-campus recruiting events?
Network without LinkedIn?
(Please tell me someone faxed a resume.)

I'm fascinated by how much has changed—and how much hasn't.

At its core, job searching is still about building relationships, telling your story, and finding someone willing to take a chance on you.

For those who graduated in the late '90s: What do today's graduates have easier? What do they have harder?

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