In 2023, finding a job has become even more challenging.
According to The Department of Labor, 826,000 unemployed workers were out of work for 3½ to 6 months in December, up 36% from April 2022 (The Wall Street Journal).
With more than 58,000 workers in U.S.-based tech companies laid off from their roles in January 2023 alone and many more from March – December 2022, we’re seeing a massive increase in talent searching for their next opportunity (Crunchbase).
Because of this, more and more people are considering getting help from career coaches to ensure their resume, cover letter, LinkedIn presence, and general job search are as impactful as possible.
And while hiring a coach is the most effective way to see results, you can still get a ton of value from following these professionals on LinkedIn.
Below, we wanted to showcase some of the career coach profiles we were most impressed with. This list only showcases career coaches that individuals can hire to help them with their search. If you'd like to see a wider variety of professionals, check out Teal’s Top Job Search Experts of 2023 List.
How We Selected The Top Career Coaches to Follow on LinkedIn
To create this list, we evaluated only LinkedIn profiles. We looked into how often these coaches share insights, the quality of those insights, the variety of their content, and their overall engagement on the platform. Follower totals were also considered but were viewed as the lowest priority. We also included suggestions from other well-known industry experts.
The Top Career Coach Categories
Below, you’ll see four categories that we grouped the career coaches into.
- Resume Writing
- Guided Experience
- Self-Guided Experience
- LinkedIn & Branding
Each category showcases the expertise and offerings of each expert. In each ranking, we’ll break down the person, and how they help job seekers in their specific specialty. It’s important to note that the people below are listed alphabetically instead of by ranking. We felt all the coaches in each category were excellent in their own ways.
The Top Career Coaches for Resume Writing
Creating an updated, condensed, eye-catching, and targeted resume is one of your job search's first and most important aspects. It can be challenging to highlight your expertise and overwhelming to identify what to include and where to start. Luckily, career experts like the people mentioned below can help you with this process and provide actionable tips on LinkedIn while you’re using the platform.
Virginia Franco – LinkedIn
Virginia is a multi-certified Executive Resume and LinkedIn Writer, Coach, and host of the award-winning Resume Storyteller Podcast. She offers tons of services on her website like resume and LikedIn writing, but also, resume distribution and career brand videos. On Virginia’s LinkedIn, she’s covered topics like the parallels of sales and the job search, career transitions, and the do’s and don’ts of resumes.
Jessica Hernandez – LinkedIn
Jessica is the founder of Great Resumes Fast, where she leads a team of writers that help working professionals create “personal-brand-focused resumes.” Jessica uses professional, brand-consistent imagery on her LinkedIn to enhance her excellent content. The topics she’s covered this year include connecting with hiring managers, the best action verbs to use in your resume, and modern resume formats.
Sarah Johnston – LinkedIn
Sarah Johnston is a LinkedIn expert with 1 million followers keeping up with her content. She is an executive resume writer, a LinkedIn branding specialist, and an interview coach. On her LinkedIn, she shares invaluable tips, like how to best use a job description during an interview, free and low-cost tools to help with your job search, and using keywords in your LinkedIn headlines.
Erin Lewber – LinkedIn
Erin, a sales lead at Amazon, doubles as a resume, job search, and interview coach for career transitioners and moms. On her website, she offers a done-in-a-weekend resume building method (The Resume Blueprint) that's helped 1,000+ job seekers land interviews in as little as 24 hours and job offers in as little as 30 days. On LinkedIn, Erin talks about what words you should omit from your resume, whether or not you should send a cover letter and her thoughts on the skills section of a resume.
Joshua Patterson – LinkedIn
Joshua is a human resources leader by day and a resume writer and career coach by night. Joshua has consistently had a solid following but has been committing to his LinkedIn profile recently. Some topics he has covered include what to do after you’re ghosted, common reasons why your resume was rejected, and how to communicate with hiring managers.
Colleen Paulson – LinkedIn
Colleen is a career consultant specializing in LinkedIn, resume building, and executive bios. Before consulting, Colleen worked for major companies such as FedEx and P&G. On her LinkedIn, she covers incredibly important topics like ageism in the workplace, how to explain a career gap in your resume, and if cover letters are essential.
Lisa Rangel – LinkedIn
Lisa is the CEO and founder of Chameleon Resumes, the consultancy firm that LinkedIn relied on for eight years to help Premium members win interviews faster and negotiate the maximum compensation. On her channel, Lisa has covered topics such as why you should avoid the jobs report, how to use resume templates, and what to do if your coworkers discover your job search.
Donna Svei – LinkedIn
Donna is a resume expert and LinkedIn strategist who helps executives and board members write job-winning resumes and profiles. She also shares her perspective and advice on career and job search topics as a contributor for Fast Company. On LinkedIn, Donna often covers topics like networking with recruiters, resume trends for 2023, and using the latest LinkedIn features.
Kamara Toffolo – LinkedIn
Kamara is a well-known LinkedIn influencer who is appreciated for her excellent content. You can work with her on your resume, job search, or LinkedIn profile on her website. With her content, she mixes videos, slideshows, memes, and live events to create an engaging experience. Recently, Kamara has talked about major career mistakes, career-changing, and resume formatting.
Adrienne Tom – LinkedIn
Adrienne is an award-winning executive resume writer. She helps executives and senior professionals articulate their experience with clarity and land jobs even faster. We love Adrienne’s LinkedIn content! Her topics include creating a career management plan, writing strong resume headlines, and avoiding common job search mistakes.
The Top Career Coaches for a Guided Experience
If you value comprehensive support during your job search, then these career coaches are the ideal solution for you. They offer a variety of services and packages to cater to individuals with diverse job backgrounds and experience levels.
Jasmine Escalera – LinkedIn
Jasmine is no stranger to being listed as a LinkedIn influencer! She’s among the most well-known career coaches for her work and inspiring content. She’s always encouraging her followers to push themselves to get the promotions, salaries, and job opportunities they deserve. Here’s one of our favorite posts from Jasmine on “4 Career Moves Every Woman of Color Should Make.”
Loren Greiff – LinkedIn
Loren is a career strategist who specializes in helping the C-suite and executives. Through her program, she helps professionals find roles in the “hidden job market,” meaning positions that are yet to be posted. Her LinkedIn content is so much fun, value-packed, and uplifting. This year she’s talked about staying positive after a layoff, thought leadership, and using ChatGPT in your job search.
Emily Liou – LinkedIn
Emily is another well-known career coach and LinkedIn influencer who is a must-follow! This year, she has been a wealth of knowledge with her posts on layoff best practices. We also love her takes on work/life balance, job search encouragement, and how to leverage your LinkedIn best.
Madeline Mann – LinkedIn
Madeline Mann is an HR & Recruiting expert who has built an active following and is known for her award-winning job search YouTube Channel, Self Made Millennial. But Madeline is just as incredible on LinkedIn as she is on YouTube. This year she’s talked about topics like how to get clarity on a job description for a hiring manager, why you shouldn’t spend too much time editing your LinkedIn, and the red flags you need to avoid when applying for jobs.
Madelyn Machado – LinkedIn
Maddie is a reverse recruiter who has previously worked with massive tech companies like Microsoft, Meta, and LinkedIn. She currently coaches individual job seekers and provides excellent resources like pre-filled resumes and an online Discord community. If you’re looking for hot takes on trends like quiet hiring, job scams, and severance, Maddie is an excellent person to follow.
Nadéjiah Zakiyyah – LinkedIn
Nadéjiah is a career alignment coach who specializes in helping women pivot their careers. She has two custom coaching options, depending on where you are in your career pivot journey. Her LinkedIn content is uplifting and empowering, covering topics like career alignment, career affirmations, and confidence.
The Top Career Coaches for a Self-Guided Experience
These career coaches are perfect for you if you’re busy, still working full-time, and are great at holding yourself accountable. Each offers courses, guides, templates, articles, and more to help you through your search with little to no obligation.
Teegan Bartos – LinkedIn
Teegan is a career coach that offers both guided and self-guided experiences. With her self-guided option, you can access an entire course library, resume templates, cover letter templates, and more! On her LinkedIn, Teegan gives career tips for women, tips on how to get more recruiter messages on LinkedIn, and her thoughts on voluntary resignation. She also participates in live events with fellow career experts and provides incredible insights!
Sho Dewan – LinkedIn
Sho offers both self-guided and guided approaches to job searching. We love his Salary Negotiation Course on LinkedIn Learning, which is why he was an excellent fit for this category. On his personal profile, he often discusses hard job search truths, resume hacks, and hiring managers.
Chelsea Jay – LinkedIn
Chelsea is a career and leadership coach and a LinkedIn Learning Instructor. On her website, she offers both guided and self-guided options. Her self-guided options include courses on networking, job hopping, rediscovering your purpose, and more. On her LinkedIn, Chelsea talks about the questions to ask current and former employees at a workplace you’re considering, how to successfully start a new role, and how to know when to quit your job.
Hannah Morgan – LinkedIn
Hannah Morgan is a nationally recognized author and speaker, and job search strategist. She is the founder of The Career Sherpa, a website dedicated to educating professionals on conducting a proactive and strategic job search. On her LinkedIn, Hannah covers topic like how to find a job you love, how to prepare for a job interview, and what to post on LinkedIn.
J.T. O'Donnell – LinkedIn
J.T. is the founder of Work it Daily, a phenomenal website that offers on-demand training, live classes, and 24-7 support. She is also highly active on LinkedIn and has 2.6 million followers. J.T. often holds live educational events on LinkedIn and covers exciting topics like TikTok for job searching, job searching after a layoff, and how to recession-proof your career.
Rosie McCarthy – LinkedIn
Rosie, a career coach based in New Zealand, previously held positions as a recruiter & HR professional for brands like L’Oreal and LVMH. She now helps her clients reposition themselves to land their dream jobs. On Rosie’s site, you can sign up for many courses, templates, checklists, and more! And on her LinkedIn, she covers topics like salary negotiation, interview answers, and the uncomfortable truth about career changes.
The Top Career Coaches For LinkedIn and Branding Tips
LinkedIn is an excellent tool for networking and searching for your next role. The keys to success on LinkedIn are an optimized, professional profile and consistent, valuable posts (Learn more how to optimize your LinkedIn profile.) But what to say and how to say it regularly overwhelms even the savviest job seekers. All of the career coaches below are LinkedIn optimization and content experts, and their profiles are excellent examples of what they teach.
Austin Belcak – LinkedIn
Austin is a LinkedIn expert with almost 1.4 million followers. You can find coaching services, individual courses, and free resources on his website, Cultivated Culture. On LinkedIn, Austin often covers topics like job search hacks, ways to attract more recruiters, and how to turn your profile into a job-generating machine.
Rhona Barnett-Pierce – LinkedIn
Rhona is another LinkedIn expert who has already been highlighted as a top voice to follow. A former software engineer and project manager turned tech recruiter, Rhona understands the challenges of job seekers and career pivoters, which makes her content so relatable! She often discusses using video to stand out in your job search, salary negotiation tips to avoid, and interview frameworks on her LinkedIn.
Virginie Cantin – LinkedIn
Virginie is a career coach offering 1:1 LinkedIn coaching and has a library of exceptional courses on her website that job seekers can purchase individually. She has classes on career change best practices, job interview tips, and how to work with recruiters. On LinkedIn, she gives tips on writing a solid about section, a catchy headline, and more!
Brittany Ramsey – LinkedIn
Brittany is an excellent person to follow if you’re new to your career. By day she works as a director at L’Oreal, but outside of her full-time gig, she is also a Gen Z career coach who helps young professionals position themselves and find their first gigs. On her LinkedIn, she shares tips on topics like customizing your resume, networking in your job search, and how to stand out in a challenging market.
Katelyn Richards – LinkedIn
Katelyn is a LinkedIn pro who gets incredible engagement on her thought-provoking and honest posts. She is a career coach and personal branding strategist with excellent guided coaching experience offerings. On her personal LinkedIn, Katelyn talks about social selling as a job seeker, the flaws within current hiring processes, and how to build a community on LinkedIn.
Stephanie Yu – LinkedIn
Stephanie is a full-time senior recruiter by day and a career coach by night! She uses her expertise in tech recruiting to help her clients with guided and self-guided approaches to land the role they’ve dreamed about. Stephanie talks about imposter syndrome, owning your career, and more on her LinkedIn. She also gives insider tips to recruiters and candidates.
Want to Nominate Yourself to Be Part of This List?
We tried to create a comprehensive, helpful list, but we know we inevitably missed some exceptional career coaches. If you think you meet the criteria for this list and weren’t mentioned, we’d love to hear from you! Please email your website, LinkedIn profile, and three of your favorite posts to [email protected].
Additional Resources for Job Seekers
We hope you enjoyed our list of top career coaches on LinkedIn! If you'd like to see a similar list with a variety of recruiters, and HR professionals, check out Teal's Top Job Search Experts to Follow on LinkedIn in 2023.
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