Recently, Blair Search Partners CEO, Trevor Blair, and Managing Director, Torrey Albertazzi, went live with career development expert, coach, and founder of The Job Huntr, Kolby Goodman, for a timely and practical conversation on navigating today’s evolving talent landscape.
As part of our Building a Winning Team LinkedIn Live series, the discussion explored what it truly takes to execute a strategic career pivot, how to stand out in a saturated market, and why both candidates and hiring leaders must rethink how they define value in a competitive environment.
Meet Kolby
Kolby’s work in career development did not begin with a textbook strategy, but with disappointment.
Early in his career, he worked in IT support and did everything he believed would lead to advancement. He stayed late, took on additional responsibilities, and followed the traditional formula of working hard and keeping his head down.
When he went up for promotion, he expected the next step. Instead, he received a “meets expectations” review.
Reflecting on that moment during the LinkedIn Live, Kolby shared how destabilizing it felt. He had followed the formula, yet the outcome did not match the effort. That experience forced him to rethink how careers actually progress.
He realized that organizations do not reward effort alone. They reward impact.
That shift from job doer to problem solver became the foundation of his approach. Over the past 12 years, he has helped thousands of professionals reposition themselves not as task executors but as strategic contributors who deliver measurable outcomes.
Reframing the Career Pivot
Most professionals approach a career pivot from a place of evaluation. Will they choose me? Am I qualified enough? How do I compete with everyone else applying?
Kolby challenged that mindset.
Instead of asking, “Who will give me a job?” he encouraged professionals to ask, “Where are the problems I am uniquely built to solve?”
That shift moves the focus from comparison to contribution.
When professionals center their search on being selected, they tend to minimize their experience and mirror job descriptions. When they center it on problem solving, they begin identifying the through lines in their career. Where have they stepped into complexity and created structure? Where have they strengthened systems, stabilized teams, increased revenue, or improved outcomes?
A strategic career pivot is not about abandoning one role for another. It is about recognizing the type of impact consistently delivered and intentionally seeking organizations that need that strength now.
The Lizard Brain and the Freeze Response
Career transitions are strategic, but they are also deeply emotional.
Kolby spoke candidly about what he calls the “lizard brain,” the instinctive fight, flight, or freeze response that often activates during periods of uncertainty. While many people think of fight or flight, he emphasized that freeze is just as common, especially during job searches.
Professionals facing layoffs or extended searches can become overwhelmed by options or paralyzed by fear of rejection. Instead of taking imperfect action, they do nothing.
Kolby’s advice is to start with the worst case scenario.
Rather than trying to silence fear, articulate it. Map it out. Ask what would actually have to happen for that feared outcome to become reality. Often, the exercise reveals that the perceived catastrophe is far less immediate or inevitable than it feels.
Fixing the Resume Problem
Candidates often position themselves as strong job doers. As a result, most of their resumes read like job descriptions. They list responsibilities and outline duties. They show qualification, but they rarely show differentiation.
Kolby explained that this forces hiring managers to do the interpretive work themselves. The problem is that hiring managers are not just hiring for task doers. They are hiring solutions.
Kolby challenged professionals to shift the question from “What did I do?” to “What changed because I was there?”
The reason is simple: every role is tied to value, whether through revenue growth, operational efficiency, donor retention, team performance, or program expansion. Organizations evaluate hires as investments, and there must be a return.
LinkedIn as a Strategic Platform
Kolby acknowledged the emotional weight of rejection and the natural urge to publicly vent frustrations. The process can feel deflating, especially after multiple rounds of silence or near-misses.
At the same time, he emphasized the importance of being intentional. Before posting on social media, he encouraged candidates to consider what kind of response they want to generate. Is the goal connection, credibility, visibility, or simply validation?
When platforms like LinkedIn are used strategically, it becomes less about broadcasting frustration and more about reinforcing expertise. Sharing insights, lessons learned, industry commentary, or thoughtful reflections positions someone as a contributor to the conversation rather than a passive applicant within it.
Kolby also reframed networking more broadly. Instead of pursuing cold outreach at scale, he encouraged starting with existing relationships. The hidden job market, particularly for leadership roles, operates through trust. Many opportunities surface through conversations long before they are ever formally posted.
Winning the Interview
When the conversation turned to interviews, Kolby challenged the traditional power dynamic that many professionals bring into the room.
Historically, candidates enter interviews feeling evaluated by a gatekeeper. Kolby offered a different perspective:
“It’s no longer manager and candidate,” he said. “It is problem-haver and problem-solver.”
In this framing, the interview becomes a collaborative conversation between two parties assessing alignment. The goal is not to prove worth but to understand the organization’s challenges and explore whether there is a meaningful match. Rather than attempting to predict and memorize every possible question, Kolby encouraged candidates to prepare strong, authentic stories for the interview.
He also addressed one of the most common and most open-ended prompts: “Tell me about yourself.”
Instead of offering a chronological summary of a resume, Kolby suggested sharing what he calls a “radioactive spider” moment. This is the turning point that shaped a career path. What experience sparked the shift? What insight changed the trajectory? Why did this work become meaningful?
A compelling origin story establishes alignment and connection early in the conversation. Technical qualifications matter, but likability, clarity of purpose, and authenticity often carry just as much weight.
What’s Next?
A huge thank you to Kolby for sharing practical, mindset-shifting insights on how professionals can navigate career transitions with clarity, confidence, and measurable impact.
As today’s talent landscape continues to evolve, one thing is certain—professionals who position themselves as strategic problem solvers and organizations that clearly define the challenges they need solved will be the ones who move forward with momentum.
Stay tuned on LinkedIn as we continue to meet with top experts in and around the nonprofit and public agency sectors to explore the challenges, opportunities, and leadership insights that help organizations and individuals alike build a winning team.
If you’re curious about Blair Search Partners, on the hunt for a new role, or looking to fill positions in your organization, reach out and let’s see what we can do together!