A free resource for job seekers
Whether you're writing your first resume, graduating into a tough market, or making a bold career change, Career by Design gives you the tools, frameworks, and confidence to land what's next.
Choose your path
Everyone's job search looks different. Choose the path that fits your stage. Each one builds on the core resources below with guidance specific to your situation.
Building your first resume, landing your first internship, and learning how to present yourself professionally for the very first time.
First steps
View PathFor post-secondary graduates entering a competitive market. Learn to build a compelling story, beat the ATS, and negotiate your first offer.
Post-secondary graduates
View PathYou've built a career. Now you're pivoting. Learn how to reframe your experience, close skills gaps, and make a confident case for the role you actually want.
Established professionals
View Path
Core resources
These six areas form the foundation of any successful job search, regardless of your background, industry, or experience level.
Clarity before strategy. Know what you're actually looking for before you start applying.
Know the industry, the company, the role, and the people, before every conversation.
Your LinkedIn profile is often the first thing a recruiter sees. Make it work for you.
The hidden job market is real. Most roles are filled before they're ever posted.
Competency-based interviews ask you to prove past behavior. The STAR method is your foundation.
Pairs with the STAR Method: see below ↓
A strong cover letter won't get you the job, but a weak one can cost you the interview.
Path: High School
For high school students applying for their first job, internship, or volunteer opportunity. Six practical sections: no experience required to begin.
Sports, clubs, babysitting, family responsibilities: it all counts. Learn how to identify your experience and frame it the way an employer thinks.
One page. Clear. Simple. A before/after table shows the difference between weak and strong bullets, plus a full draft worksheet to build yours from scratch.
How to write a professional email, set up a proper voicemail, and follow up after applying, with ready-to-use templates for both.
Where to look, how to apply, what to have ready, and how to follow up, including a checklist of everything to prepare before you submit anything.
What to wear, what to bring, what to say, and how to follow up. A practice worksheet covers the eight most common questions you'll be asked.
The relationships you build now open doors later. How to identify who's already in your network, maintain those connections, and start your LinkedIn profile.
You don't need to know what you want to do before having these conversations. Learn how to talk to professionals, what to ask them, and how to use what you learn to find your direction.
Read the complete High School Guide: all seven sections with worksheets including an activity inventory, resume draft builder, email templates, interview prep questions, a reference tracker, and a career exploration conversation tracker.
Path: Early Career
For post-secondary graduates entering a competitive job market. Six sections that address the specific challenges of building a career from a shorter professional history.
Internships, campus leadership, research, and part-time work are all legitimate professional evidence. Learn what counts and how to frame it.
Length, structure, strong bullets, and the before/after examples that show the difference between activity-focused and outcome-focused writing.
Most resumes never reach a human. Learn how applicant tracking systems work and how to optimize your resume to get past them.
Academic projects, campus involvement, and extracurriculars are valid STAR stories. A source-to-competency map shows you exactly how to use them.
Employers aren't just evaluating your experience. They're assessing coachability, curiosity, work ethic, and fit. Know what they're looking for.
Most new graduates leave money on the table. A practical framework for evaluating an offer, doing your research, and asking for more, professionally.
70–80% of jobs are filled through networking before they're ever posted. Learn how to find the right people, reach out strategically, and convert conversations into opportunities.
Read the complete Early Career Guide: all seven sections with worksheets including an experience inventory, resume bullet builder, ATS keyword mapper, STAR story bank, offer evaluation table, and informational interview tracker.
Path: Career Transition
This path is for established professionals making a deliberate move into a new field, function, or industry. The seven sections below give you the frameworks to do it strategically.
You are not starting over. You're reframing. Learn the three mental shifts that separate confident pivoters from those who undersell themselves.
Inventory what you've built, map it to what the new field values, and identify your honest strengths before you start applying.
Identify what's missing between where you are and what the role requires, and build a realistic, concrete plan to close it.
Every field has its own language. Learn to translate your past into terms that resonate with a new audience, without losing what makes it powerful.
Answer "why are you making this change?" with a story, not an apology. Build a 60-second narrative that makes your transition feel inevitable.
Understand the three tiers of target roles (reach, target, and bridge) and build a focused list of realistic entry points into the new field.
Build relationships before you need them. Learn the four circles of outreach and exactly what to say to people who don't know you yet.
Read the complete Career Transition Guide: all seven sections with worksheets including a skills audit, gap analysis, resume reframing worksheet, STAR story bank, pivot narrative builder, role targeting worksheet, and networking tracker.
Every strong career starts with knowing how to tell your story.
Explore the resources
Interview framework
Every behavioral interview question ("Tell me about a time when…") deserves a structured answer. STAR gives you that structure.
Set the context. Where were you, when was it, and what was the challenge or opportunity you faced?
What was your specific responsibility? What were you accountable for in this situation?
What exact steps did YOU take? Focus on your individual contribution, not the team's.
What was the measurable outcome? What did you learn, and what would you do differently?
About this resource
Hi, I'm Carlos.
Since 2010, I've watched talented people undersell themselves because they didn't have the right tools or anyone to help them connect the dots.
I've been that person too. My career has moved through clinical practice, school systems, education administration, and into HR: none of it linear, all of it intentional. Every pivot required me to figure out how to tell a story, position my skills, and show up with confidence in rooms that weren't built for people like me.
Career by Design started simply: I'd built up a collection of materials over the years (frameworks, templates, strategies that actually work) and I kept sharing them one by one with mentees through Chicago SHRM's mentoring program. At some point it made more sense to put it all in one place, organized and accessible to anyone who needed it.
So that's what this is. Practical tools, built from experience, completely free, because good career coaching shouldn't depend on who you know or what you can afford.
~ Carlos Solis, Founder, Nurturing Expectations