Tips For Work And Life With Andrew Lacivita

Let's talk about the thing that's sitting in the back of a lot of people's minds right now… "Is AI going to take my job?" I get it. You're seeing layoffs. You're hearing nonstop noise about automation. But here's the problem… Most people are asking the wrong question. They're thinking about AI like it's coming to take a fixed number of jobs. That's not how this works. Every major wave of technology does two things at the same time: It eliminates certain roles in the short term. And it expands the total number of opportunities over time. The real issue isn't "Will AI take my job?" It's…

There is no faster accelerator in your career than communication. And there is no bigger drag. Think about it. You have skills. Experience. Judgment. Ideas that could help your team, your company, and your customers. But between everything you know and the value you deliver sits one thing: Communication. It's the wrapper around everything you know. It either broadcasts your value or it traps it inside. Most professionals think their communication problem is clarity. It usually isn't. It's process. When someone asks for an update, a proposal, or a recommendation, most people open a blank page and start writing. While they're writing, they're also… figuring out what they want to say. organizing the information. editing the sentences. All at the same time! That's the mistake. Great communication isn't winged. It's constructed. In today's Tuesday Tips lesson, I'm going to show you the exact system I use to create every form of communication I produce. These steps helped me write this newsletter, the talk I'm g

One of the biggest mistakes job seekers make in interviews is trying to sell their skills. They walk through their résumé. They explain what they know. They talk about tools and responsibilities. They assume the employer will connect the dots. But employers are not hiring skills. They are hiring value. Skills are just the ingredients. Value is the outcome. Two candidates can have the same skills. Why does one get the offer and the other doesn't?

Happy St. Patrick's Day. ☘️ If you're counting on luck in your job search, we need to talk. Let me say something that might sting a little. Your skills aren't the reason you're not getting offers. And they're definitely not the reason you'll get one. Most job seekers think interviews are about listing what they know. "I'm certified in…" "I've done Agile…" "I've led teams…" "I implemented…" That's a menu. Employers don't buy menus. They buy outcomes. They buy transformation. They buy the feeling that when you walk in the door, their problem walks out. (Not to break up the speed at which you're reading this, but you can't imagine how long it took me to come up with the previous line you just read.

There is at least one moment in a job interview you can count on.  Whether it happens literally or figuratively, it's this: "Tell me about your accomplishments." What do many people do when they hear this? They panic. Not because they don't have wins.  But because they don't know how to talk about them without feeling awkward, arrogant, or self-promotional. And that's where offers disappear. Whether you're interviewing for a new role or discussing your impact with your current employer, one thing matters more than anything else:  Can you clearly explain what you've accomplished and why it mattered? If you can't, the interviewer fills in the blanks for you. And they usually get it wrong. That's why today's lesson is focused on how to share your wins without sounding like you're bragging. This lesson will help you talk about your achievements in a way that sounds confident and credible, not self-important. If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places wher

If you've ever felt overlooked or misunderstood or plain ole underappreciated, this is my gift to you today. It doesn't matter if it's you job search or job. You're welcome. If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings:  1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums. 2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel. 3. Grab any of my four books related to career development, interviewing, hiring, and goal setting. All can be found on my Amazon Author Page. 4. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), TikTok, Threads, and Facebook. 5. Stay in touch with me in your email inbox by joining my newsletter here! --Andy

Most professionals don't struggle because they lack experience.  They struggle because they can't remember the details that give their accomplishments life. When resumes need updating or interview stories come up, people realize how much context and impact they've lost over time. And memory is a terrible career strategy. That's why today's lesson shows you how to capture your career wins so you can build a stronger résumé, tell better interview stories, and create more job opportunities.  Career wins aren't just promotions or big projects.  They're problems solved, improvements made, systems built, and results created along the way. If you don't document those wins as they happen, your experience gets watered down. What should sound impressive ends up sounding average. Today, I walk you through a simple system to capture your career wins so your experience leads to more vivid stories, stronger positioning, and better outcomes. If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of

I hate that I even have to write this. But fake recruiters and fake job postings are everywhere right now. And job seekers are being targeted hard. That's not because you're careless. It's because scammers go after people who are motivated, hopeful, and actively searching. That's you. What makes this worse is how convincing these scams have become. In fact, a couple months ago, one of my clients showed me a recruiter message that fooled me! The company looked real. The LinkedIn profile looked legit. The email sounded professional. It wasn't. That's why this week's lesson is about how to protect yourself. Not with fear. With awareness. In today's video, I walk you through 10 clear warning signs that help you quickly answer one critical question: Is this real…or is it just a scam? You'll learn: What to check first when a recruiter emails or messages you. How fake job postings give themselves away. Why Gmail addresses, rushed language, and vague roles should always make you pause. What legitimate recruiters nev

Few interview questions create more damage with fewer words. Not because it's hard. But because people answer it at the worst possible time, with the least possible leverage. Most candidates think this question is about money. It isn't. It's about timing, power, and whether you understand how hiring decisions actually get made. Say a number too early and you either leave money on the table you'll never get back or price yourself out before anyone truly understands your value. And here's the part nobody teaches. There isn't one "right" answer to this question. There's a sequence.  A progression of responses that protects your leverage, keeps the process moving, and positions you to negotiate when your stock is highest, not lowest. In this week's lesson, I break down: Why giving a number early almost always works against you. What recruiters are really trying to confirm when they ask. And the exact recruiter-proof responses I use to control this conversation without sounding evasive or combative. If you've ever

Does it feel like you're not growing in your career? Perhaps not learning much? Or building new skills? Or not sure which skills to even build? Maybe you're noticing other people passing you by. You're thinking, Why does she get the promotion? I'm just as good. If any of those questions are tugging at you, you're in luck, because I've got a lesson today wrapped in a little story with a big punch that'll shed some light on the answers. But first, one more question. Do you think pulling together and delivering a status report is boring? If you answered yes, drop what you're doing and give me four minutes. Because you won't believe what I think of them, and how the secret to knowing which skills to build is sitting right under your nose every single week when you prepare this "simple" deliverable, or any of your deliverables! Listen to This is How You Determine Which Skills to Build! If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings:

If you're rehearsing your stories five minutes before an interview, you're cooked. I'm not saying that to be dramatic. I'm saying it because it's true. Right before an interview is not the time to cram, memorize examples, or mentally sprint through your résumé. This will just get you tense, not to mention self-focused (

January is one of the busiest and most misunderstood periods of the hiring year. Behind the scenes, companies are launching new initiatives, trying to staff teams faster than most job candidates realize, and, unfortunately for them, replacing unexpected employee departures.  Recruiters are active. Hiring managers are under pressure. Roles are opening that weren't planned just days earlier.  Today, I'm covering why January creates both urgency and opportunity for job seekers and how to work the right activities that'll give you a leg up on getting hired. If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings: 1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums. 2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel. 3. Grab any of my four books related to career development, interviewing, hiring, and goal setting. All can be found on my Amazon Author Page. 4. Follow me on

Let me ask you something honest. Have you ever looked at your effort and thought, "There's no way I should still be here?" You show up. You work hard. You try to do the right things. Yet your career, your goals, or whatever you want still feel out of reach. I've coached thousands of people through this exact frustration. The problem is almost never effort. Most people work plenty hard. That isn't what keeps them stuck. It's something else. In this lesson, I'm sharing a personal story from 2019. It starts with me sitting in my favorite chair, coffee in one hand, my dog Harley

Everyone is trying to predict the job market right now. Most of them are staring at headlines and waiting for someone to tell them what's going to happen in 2026. That's the slowest way to build your career. There's a much better approach, and that's what I'm teaching in this off-schedule Sunday lesson. You'll learn why I never chase trends and how I make decisions that stand the test of time. Then, you'll understand how to think the right way and why that beats any tactic or tool you use in your search. If you feel stuck or confused by mixed job market messages, this lesson will give you a better direction. I'll show you: ✅ The two timeless forces that always tell you where opportunity is hiding. ✅ How to spot industries that will stay strong in 2026 and beyond. ✅ Why your thinking matters more than any job search strategy. ✅ How to realign your search when you feel like nothing is hitting. ✅ How to read connections between industries so you can see around corners. This approach changed the way I make d

Job searching can be brutal. It tests your patience, your confidence, and your resolve. But if you shift your focus from results to wisdom, everything changes. That's what I'm teaching in this week's lesson, how to use your job search to make you a better professional. In the podcast, I share a personal story about recently finishing my new book. It's now off and running with the publisher, moving through the production process. The moment I hit send, I sat in my favorite Pottery Barn Wells swivel chair and thought for 20 minutes about nothing but the "agony" I'm going to endure over the next 12 months. Kidding aside, I genuinely did this. I didn't think about how many copies I might sell or what it'd take to make a bestseller list. I focused on something more important, the skills I need to strengthen over the next year as I market and launch this new book. You might think that because this is my fifth time around, I'd have mastered it by now. But if you assumed that, you'd be completely wrong. Yes, I've don

Most job seekers prepare for interviews the wrong way. They start by memorizing answers to questions like "Tell me about a time you disagreed with your boss" or "Describe a challenge you overcame." But that's backwards. Those questions aren't about your disagreement skills or your ability to solve one random problem. They're about whether you can transform the company—their team, their performance, their results. The secret to winning behavioral interviews isn't about rehearsing lines. It's about building stories that sell what they actually buy: your ability to help them achieve their goals. That's what this week's lesson is all about. We're crushing how to prepare for and answer behavioral questions using the most powerful approach I've ever taught! If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings: 1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums. 2. I have hundreds of educational and

Most candidates talk about what they can do. The best ones show it. When an employer asks for a presentation, it's not a test of PowerPoint skills. It's a test of whether you understand what they actually buy: transformation, not tasks. Your goal isn't to list skills or repeat your resume. It's to prove you can help them hit their goals and do it through a well-structured story. This week's lesson shows you how to prepare a presentation that persuades and sells your value. You'll learn how to: Identify what the employer truly wants to achieve. Uncover the real problems standing in their way. Choose powerful examples that prove you can solve those problems. Structure your presentation so it flows naturally and ends with impact. Highlight your skills as evidence, not filler. Inside, I'll even show you how to use a single summary slide that ties everything together and seals the deal. Listen to How to Give a Job Interview Presentation (That Gets You Hired) now! If you'd like to build a great career and lead a

Interviewers don't wait until you finish your story to decide if they like you. They decide while you're still taking your first breath. In those first 15 seconds, they're asking, "Do I trust this person? Do they get what matters here?" Most candidates waste that window listing tasks or backstory. The best ones win it by showing they understand the real business problem and hinting at the result they delivered. That's what I'm teaching in this week's lesson. You'll learn how to open with context that earns respect, why the STAR method fails, and the exact 15-second framework that makes your answers sound confident, strategic, and memorable. Listen now! If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings: 1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums. 2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel. 3. Grab any of my four books related to career developmen

Most people think success comes from constant hustle. It doesn't. It comes from patience mixed with smart action. Most people chase quick wins. I learned the real secret is patience mixed with purpose. When you think long-term, you make better short-term decisions. You stop chasing every shiny idea and start stacking small wins that lead to something big. Back in 2015, I made a decision that tested every ounce of my patience. Even though I was most qualified to teach leadership, I didn't start there. My long-term vision was to become a one-stop shop for your career. But to earn that, I needed to start by solving your most acute pain first…getting the job. That meant helping people fix their search, knowing they'd leave me once they succeeded. It was a sacrifice, but a necessary one if I wanted to serve for the long haul. This week's lesson shares (in under 4 minutes) how I created a long-term vision for my career success. And how you can build yours using the same approach. If you'd like to build a great care

Perfectionism is the great career stall. Most people don’t slow down because they’re lazy. They slow down because they want everything just right before they move. Job seekers spend months polishing résumés, cover letters, and LinkedIn profiles before they ever start actually searching. Professionals over-edit reports and presentations until the opportunity passes. They all have the same problem…waiting until it’s perfect before they ship. But progress doesn’t come from polishing. It comes from acting. This week’s lesson is all about breaking free from perfectionism so you can finally make real progress. I share how I overcame a decade of “consultant conditioning” that taught me perfection was everything and how learning to act fast and iterate changed my entire career. If you’ve ever felt stuck trying to make something flawless, this one’s for you. If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings: 1. Check out the milewalk Academ