What is a Career Influencer?

How the unicorns of the professional world can help you kickstart your career

Photo by schach100 from Pexels

Last fall, I discovered a new species of humans on LinkedIn and I was fascinated. I observed them closely, dissecting their insights, tracking their daily post times and feeding them comments and reactions of my own. This species was unlike any other I’d met. They weren’t new grads looking for someone in industry to review their resumes. They weren’t salespeople offering a 20-minute demo with wild hopes of me convincing my manager’s manager that the solution to our corporate problems had fallen into my inbox.

Nay, this new species was selfless — offering their time and writing about their experiences for all to read.

Career influencers are not interested in anything you have to offer. They don’t need to know what your strengths and weaknesses are or what your work history looks like. You don’t have to leave them an endorsement on LinkedIn. You don’t even need to throw them an obligatory office party on their birthday. All you need is a dream of the professional variety and an unshakable belief in your own ability to bring it to life.

I’d always been interested in career development. Right after I plopped my belongings in the room of my freshman dorm, I booked it to the career center. The primary reason (I thought) I was in school was to get a job. I decided I would leave no time wasted.

Unfortunately, no matter how many seminars I attended, a lot of the “help” provided at the career center was the same stuff we’ve all heard a thousand times — polish your resume, apply to jobs, and wait. They also told us about this thing called networking. The worst was when they used this phrase: “if you’re not networking, you’re not working”. But every networking event and career fair felt like being a stranger at someone else’s party. It was awkward, forced, and extremely unhelpful.

You can imagine how cautious I was when I found answers to questions like “How to Network: 4+ Strategies for Connecting, the Right Way”, “Interview Tips That Will Get You Hired” and “How to Get a Job Anywhere Without Applying Online” with actionable answers, concrete examples, and tangible real-life success stories, all for f-r-e-e. It was almost too good to be true.

Career influencers are basically industry phenoms who have hacked the job search system and are now choosing to devote their precious free time to helping others reach their maximum potential. They’re influencers because the advice they give works, as evidenced by the hundreds of success stories on their profiles and sites, and are followed by thousands!

One of my all-time favorite career influencers is Austin Belcak, CEO and founder of Cultivated Culture. Whenever I start to lose steam in the job search, I take a moment to dig up an old LinkedIn or blog post or podcast episode. Ten minutes is all it takes for me to feel motivated again.

Here are 10 additional reasons why I love Cultivated Culture:

1. Austin Belcak provides actionable advice. My favorite piece of advice, if I absolutely had to choose one, is to create a Value Validation Project to demonstrate the ROI you can bring to your future dream employer.
2. His most memorable line, “Passion stems from action, and action is the result of trying new things.” -Austin Belcak
3. His blog includes tips for your LinkedIn Profile including customizing your own URL, the importance of a great profile picture and how to leverage LinkedIn filters to identify the people you should be networking with.
4. His handy-dandy resume scanner gives you a crystal clear picture of how your resume stacks up to the requirements of the job you’re going for. It highlights the keywords you’re missing so your resume can end up on top of the Applicant Tracking System.
5. His bullet analyzer scores your bullet so you can pack a punch with a single line.
6. Need to send a cold email, but not sure where to start? Pop the info you have into his email finder and let his data inform your next move.
7. He offers personal coaching calls and 1:1 sessions — if you’re lucky enough to score one that is.
8. He just launched a podcast so you can take his insight with you on the go (aka level up your career while driving, exercising, or doing chores!)
9. He also runs an Insta account so you can get pointers as you’re mindlessly scrolling.
10. He’s extremely positive and encouraging.

I haven’t yet become one of Austin’s success stories. You can read about his success stories here. What I can tell you is that I follow his content religiously, practice it daily and am seeing real results. I’ve gotten more interviews in the last two months since I found him than in the six months prior to that fateful day of discovery.

Invest your time and energy in listening to what career influencers have to say. They can’t guarantee you’ll be worth billions, but leveraging their knowledge will pay dividends. With advice from people like Austin, I know I will land my dream job. Find your career influencer (or follow Austin) and you will too.