Hello Everyone & Happy Tuesday!

Summer is flying by; we hope you have been able to enjoy the warm weather and take some time to relax. As fall approaches, many people start to get back into their job searches. If that’s you right now, then this week’s newsletter is just what you need. Enjoy!

It's the 1-year anniversary of "Coldplay Gate" - the story of two executives whose lives were ruined when they were caught on a camera at a concert. The PR crisis was real. The impact on their careers and personal lives was huge.

In this episode, JT talks with PR Crisis Expert, Jerry Rice on how important it is to build a Credibility Footprint as an executive. Content that helps people understand you as a professional is the secret to being given a fair assessment in the public eye.

Don't miss this powerful episode so you can learn what to do to build your own Credibility Footprint - BEFORE you need it.

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I get this question all the time. People want to enjoy their summer. They don't want to spend it filling out applications. But they still want to be sitting in a new job by September or October.

Here's the good news. You can have both. But only if you understand what's actually happening in the hiring world right now.

Let's talk about why things get quiet in July and August. It's not because companies stop needing people. It's because the decision-makers go on vacation. And when you've got multiple people who need to sign off on a hire, every one of those people taking two weeks off drags the whole interview cycle out.

Then September hits. The kids go back to school, everybody's back from vacation, and hiring picks back up almost overnight. We call it the September surge, and it happens every single year like clockwork.

So if you're waiting until September to start looking, you're already behind. The people who get hired in that surge are the ones who did their homework over the summer.

I know a lot of you are thinking, "I don't want to kill myself filling out applications all summer. I want to enjoy my time off." Totally fair. But I need you to understand something important: if you think applying online is how you're going to land your next job, you're working off an outdated playbook.

Here's what's really going on. Recruiters are quiet hiring. If a company only needs to fill one role, they're not posting it publicly anymore. Why? Because they don't want a flood of hundreds of applicants, especially now that AI tools are flooding their inboxes with candidates who aren't even real matches.

So what are recruiters doing instead? They're going straight to LinkedIn. They're using the search tools to find candidates directly and reaching out to them personally. That means the jobs filled during the September surge are largely going to people recruiters already found, not people who applied cold.

This is where the good news comes back in. You don't need to spend your summer grinding through job boards. You need to spend a little bit of time getting found.

That starts with getting your LinkedIn profile in real shape. But a profile alone isn't enough anymore. The single most important thing you can do is post.

I call it the give-get method. LinkedIn changed its algorithm around how you show up in recruiter searches, and here’s how I like to explain it: if you're not actively giving, meaning commenting on other people's posts and genuinely engaging in the community, and you're not getting, meaning engagements from other people on your original content, LinkedIn doesn't see you as an active, real, human professional. And if LinkedIn doesn't see you that way, you won’t show up in recruiters' searches.

The fix doesn't have to eat your whole summer. A little consistent effort, spread out over these next couple of months, is enough to have you fully prepared when that September surge hits.

I know that's a lot to figure out on your own, so I built something to make it easier. It's called the LinkedIn Recruiter Attraction Plan, and I build these personally using your resume, your LinkedIn profile, and job descriptions you feel you're a strong match for. From there, I use my experience along with a tool I built to hand you a very specific, personalized report. It tells you exactly how to position yourself to recruiters on LinkedIn, and it even lays out the next 20 things you should post about to feed that give-get algorithm and start showing up in recruiter searches.

If you want to spend a little bit of intentional time this summer instead of a lot of wasted time later, this is exactly the kind of head start that pays off in September. You can grab your own LinkedIn Recruiter Attraction Plan HERE.

Enjoy your summer. Just don't waste it. A little work now means you're the one recruiters find when hiring picks back up, instead of the one still refreshing job boards, wondering why nothing's happening.

Go get ‘em!

J.T. O’Donnell

If you're a professional who's tired of feeling invisible or undervalued, J.T. O’Donnell’s new book PRO VOICE: Turn What You Know Into What You Earn is for you!

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This isn’t about going viral—it’s about getting visible to the people who matter most. If you're ready to future-proof your career and finally earn what you’re worth, this book is your roadmap.