Being good at your job isn't enough anymore.
For most of your career, the formula was relatively simple:
Do good work.
Work hard.
Get results.
Get promoted.
Repeat.
And for a long time, that worked.
But there's a problem.
The market can't reward value it can't see.
You can be exceptional at what you do and still be overlooked for the next opportunity.
Not because you're not capable.
Because the people who could open the next door don't know.
They don't know what you are particularly good at.
They don't know what you think.
They don't know what problems you solve.
They don't know what you've achieved.
And they certainly don't know what you want to do next.
Meanwhile, someone else with less experience may be getting the opportunities simply because their value is easier to see.
That's uncomfortable.
But it's important.
Your reputation is working whether you manage it or not.
Every senior professional has a reputation.
The question isn't whether you have one.
The question is:
Are you deliberately building it?
What do people associate with your name?
What would a former colleague say you're exceptionally good at?
What would someone who has never met you discover if they searched for you today?
What would an executive recruiter find?
What would an AI system say about your expertise?
And when the right opportunity appears, are you one of the people who comes to mind?
This is where Career Practice becomes different from traditional career advice.
It's not about becoming better at looking for jobs.
It's about deliberately building the conditions that create opportunities.
Think about the difference.
Traditional career thinking:
“I'll look for something when I'm ready to move.”
Career Practice:
“I'll continuously build the reputation, relationships and visibility that make the right opportunities more likely to find me.”
One is reactive.
The other is proactive.
One starts when you need something.
The other starts long before you do.
This is why the Four Moves matter.
Position makes your value clear.
Signal makes your expertise visible.
Target makes sure you're visible to the right people.
Relationships create the human connections through which opportunities move.
And The Window makes sure your reputation can be discovered beyond your immediate network.
None of this means becoming an influencer.
You don't need to post every day.
You don't need thousands of followers.
You don't need to become a personal brand.
You need to become known for something valuable by the people who matter to your career.
That's a very different objective.
The career mistake I see most often
Senior professionals spend enormous amounts of time doing the work.
Almost none of their time is spent making sure the market understands the value of that work.
Then, when they're ready for their next move, they expect a resume and a few applications to communicate 10 or 15 years of professional value.
That's a lot to ask from a document.
Your resume should not be doing all the work.
Your reputation should have been doing some of it for years.
Because the strongest career position isn't:
“I need a new job.”
It's:
“People already know what I can do, and the right people know I'm open to the right opportunity.”
That's when things start to change.
You stop relying entirely on applications.
You stop waiting for recruiters to find you.
You stop hoping someone remembers your name.
You start building a career that is discoverable.
And that is the point of Career Practice.
Don't just do great work. Make sure the right people know what you're great at.
See you next week,
Cheraine
Stop Applying. Get Approached.