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Setting ourselves up for success in 2026

Greetings from Paris! Here are some ideas for wrapping up the end of the year!

December 08, 2025

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Checking in! 👋

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind! Work has been extremely busy (which is a good thing in the recruiting world)! I hosted Thanksgiving, and then took off for a couple of weeks in Europe where we’re making our way across lots of Christmas markets (and all the other fun sightseeing stuff).

I’ve had to deprioritize this newsletter the past few weeks as a result. And now, with the time difference and being focused on sightseeing, I’ll be sending this at some one-off times as I’ll be writing it during train rides. 🙂 1

P.S. If you have any suggestions for Switzerland or Austria, send them my way!

Obligatory Eiffel Tower pic…if I look tired, it’s because I’m running on about 5 hours of sleep in the last 60 hours.

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Ending the Year Strong

I think the end of the year is a really natural time to set yourself up for a successful 2026.

This includes things like demonstrating strong performance, preparing for performance reviews, and reconnecting with your networks.

For those who are employed:

  1. Revisit your goals for the year.
    Make sure you document progress, challenges you overcame to make that progress, reflections and learnings from things that didn’t go as well. This is going to help you prepare for performance reviews which I know many will have early in 2026.

  2. Have a growth conversation.
    Have you and your manager checked in on your professional and personal goals? Have you discussed where you stand? Pathways to promotion? Ways to expand your role in the next year?
    This is the time for those conversations. This will help you have focus going into 2026, and ensure that you and your manager are on the same page.

  3. Connect with your network.
    Often, when someone is laid off, I hear them say, “I wish I’d kept in touch with my former colleagues.” That’s not the only reason to reconnect of course, but I do think often people neglect their networks until they need something and you don’t want your first interaction with someone in years to be asking them for help.
    Some things you can do:
    - send out an end of year update, consider adding a link to schedule coffee chats for those who want to catch up live.
    - think through former colleagues and managers, pick 5-10 that you most wish you’d kept up with, and write each a personalized message checking in, sharing updates, and asking how they are.
    - make posts on social media (Facebook, LinkedIn) recapping how things are going

For those who are unemployed:

I would do pretty much the exact same things!

  1. Reflect on your goals and priorities.
    Analyze how your search is going - are there tweaks you want to make based on where you are/aren’t making progress? Are there areas you want to prioritize for building new skills? Are there things you want to do in terms of building backup plans (like consulting or fractional work)?

  2. Prioritize 1-2 strategic shifts.
    For example, maybe you’ve realized you’re not getting interviews for jobs in an industry you really want to work with - then figure out either what you need to do in order to be competitive, or pivot away from applying in that field and do some research to better understand where the best fit might be.
    Maybe you’ve been talking about using AI - this could be the time to take a course and build something with AI.
    Perhaps this is the time to do some research to explore the path towards building your own business.
    Whatever it is, use this as a time to take action towards areas you’ve been thinking about.

  3. Connect with your network.
    You likely have more advocates than you realize out there. Use this time to share end-of-year updates via email or social media. Offer a coffee chat. Remind people of what you’re looking for in your search. Highlight how you’ve evolved since your last work with someone. Let them know that you’re open to fractional opportunities.

🙋Answering Your Questions🙋

Each week, I’ll answer one (or more!) of your questions in this section. You can submit your questions here.

When you are going through multiple interviews, each with different people at an organization or company, is it okay to use the same examples when you get questions that are very similar? I've had many "can you tell me about a time you X" type questions across interviews, where X is similar or the same thing that was asked about in a prior interview with that organization. I'm never sure if I should use my strongest example (even if I already used it in an earlier interview with someone else) or use another example.

Overall, I think it’s better to have a variety of examples. When teams come together to debrief, if they feel like you relied on just 1-2 examples throughout, it might suggest that you have just one or two successes to lean on.

That said, if it’s really the perfect example, what I would do is say, “I spoke about XYZ previously, but I think it’s really relevant here as well. Would it be OK to speak to that, or would you prefer another example.” That way, if it’s important to them to get multiple examples, they can ask you to prioritize something else, or if it comes up that you shared similar examples a few times, they have some context.

I’m currently working full-time in SaaS while also actively interviewing, and the logistics have been challenging to navigate. I’m in the office four days a week, have a commute, and manage two kids’ varying pickup and drop-off schedules, so I keep a very tight calendar, and I have to be careful with how often I step away from work to interview.

Right now I’m in the middle of a five-step interview process for a role I’m really excited about, but I’m having an extremely tough time coordinating with the recruiting scheduler. She hasn’t answered my questions about times or alternatives and has instead sent calendar invites without context or options. It’s creating a lot of anxiety because I need to plan my week, minimize time away from my current job, and still show up well for this opportunity, but I don’t want to come across to the lead recruiter as difficult or inflexible.

Do you have any advice on how to approach this professionally or how to advocate for clearer scheduling or alternative times without jeopardizing my standing in the process?

Thanks so much for any guidance you can share.

That’s really frustrating, and it’s entirely possible the recruiter isn’t away that this is happening with the coordination team.

What I would do is email both the recruiter and the scheduler to flag the challenge, share as much availability as you can, and also offer to self-schedule with Calendly links if that’s possible.

You might write something like, “Hi X and Y! I’m really excited for the next stage, but scheduling has been a bit of a challenge due to commitments in my current role. I wanted to share my current availability for the next week. I’ve blocked these times in my calendar so if we’re able to make any of these times work, that would be ideal. Or if you can share availability for the hiring team, I can let you know what works best.”

That will clue in the recruiter to challenges here without throwing the coordinator under the bus, and hopefully they can support their coordination team with addressing the issue.

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