Southwestern Family of Companies

10 Tips for Writing Effective Emails

By ThinkingAhead

No wonder our inboxes are cluttered. Over half of the entire planet uses email right now. According to a 2018 Radicati Group study, there will be more than 3.8 billion email users before the start of 2019, over 100 million more than the previous year. You only have a few seconds to catch someone’s attention. If you want to punch through the noise, you’ll have…

Rounding the Bases: Recruiting, Careers, and Baseball

By Jay Boone, Partner and Manager, Banking

Rounding the Bases: Recruiting, Careers, and Baseball It’s baseball season, and baseball has long been an enduring part of American culture. The sport teaches us the values of discipline and teamwork; for this (and other) reasons, baseball is a powerful metaphor for our lives — and our careers. Every professional has endured their fair share of strike outs, home runs, and dramatic…

The Struggle is Real for Job Seekers

By Shayne Merrick, Partner and Manager, Sales

Overqualified?! “We’re very impressed with your resume, but we feel you’re overqualified.” For an active, eager job seeker, the word “overqualified” can deflate egos and derail the entire job hunting process. It’s the human resources version of the dreaded relationship ender: “let’s just be friends.” Sometimes, hiring managers use the “overqualified” as an excuse to cover a perceived flaw that’s hard for them…

What should I do if my company announces a “Restructuring”?

By Tim Knight, Vice President, Banking

With the economy growing and unemployment at its lowest levels since before the Great Recession of 2008, we have not heard of many companies needing to restructure or the need for the dreaded reduction in force. In recent weeks, we have talked with professionals whose situations have changed due to their companies need to make necessary organizational changes through restructuring…