Brooke Tichenor is the founder of Interview Ally and the writer of Career Catalyst. She shares practical guidance for job seekers, including how to plan a career change, present transferable skills, and build a network.
Brooke Tichenor is most useful for editorial content on job-search and career-pivot strategies.
Best for
A B2B career coaching company seeking editorial content on job-search and career-pivot strategies.
Not for
Recruiter or employer-brand campaigns needing measured hiring outcomes, audience composition, or placement performance.
Key takeaways
Career change is possible, and transferable skills can outweigh a perfectly matched résumé.
Define your why before changing careers.
Make your network the main strategic priority, after preparing résumé and LinkedIn profile.
Check first: Confirm Substack subscriber counts, audience demographics, per-post reach, engagement data, media kit, rates, and inquiry route.
Main ideas
Career change is possible, and transferable skills can outweigh a perfectly matched résumé · Define your “why” before changing careers · Prepare your résumé and LinkedIn profile, but make your network the main strategic priority
Brooke Tichenor is the founder of Interview Ally and the writer of Career Catalyst.
The work offers practical guidance for people navigating job searches and career changes, grounded in their non-linear career story.
Readers will find advice on clarifying why they want a change, showing how their skills transfer, preparing their network to help, and weighing how an employer treats them during recruiting.
Tichenor connects career-change encouragement to concrete decisions and actions.
They share how they moved across human resources, events, nonprofit leadership, contracting, and business ownership, then offer questions to distinguish wanting a new field from needing a different role or workplace.
Their job-search advice includes usable outreach templates, while the recruiting posts make candidate agency and mutual respect visible—including the expectation that interviewers, not only candidates, should be on time.
This mix of personal experience, structured reflection, and practical steps gives readers both a reasoned plan and examples of how to act.
Their recurring ideas are practical: career change is possible and often depends on transferable skills and a willingness to learn; a pivot should start with a clearly defined “why”; a job search depends largely on a prepared, reciprocal network; candidates should remain active decision-makers during hiring; and a serious search can be paced without becoming an anxious rush.
Career change is possible, and transferable skills can outweigh a perfectly matched résumé
Their career story is the core evidence for the argument.
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They moved from HR clerk and HRIS specialist roles into event coordination, guest services management, nonprofit leadership and independent contracting, then founded Interview Ally.
They say employers hired them for transferable skills, ambition and a drive to learn—not because each new role matched their previous industry.
Their pivots worked because they could show relevant experience and make the case for their ability to learn.
After studying sociology and psychology, they were hired as an HRIS specialist despite having no HR experience.
They later became executive director of a local nonprofit without having led an organization before, after demonstrating relevant experience and a drive to learn to the board.
Their layoff from Lucas Oil Stadium is attributed to an economic downturn and company restructuring, not performance.
The path runs from employee roles to independent contracting, then to founding and owning Interview Ally—a business built around the argument.
They argue that the first question in a career change is “Why?” and that a careful answer can guide the search.
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They prompt readers to examine their career values, what fulfills them and what does not align, what goals the change would achieve, and how it would affect their well-being. The key distinction is whether someone is moving toward greater opportunity or away from a bad situation: an unhappy job might call for a new role or company, not a new field.
The post lists sample reasons to change careers: a bleak industry outlook, a desire for meaningful work, a chance to use transferable skills in a growth industry, or a need for better work-life balance. It also notes that long hours, a toxic culture or a micromanaging boss do not, on their own, prove the field is wrong.
Prepare your résumé and LinkedIn profile, but make your network the main strategic priority
In a job-search preparation post, they argue that the most valuable work happens before the search begins.
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Updating a résumé and LinkedIn profile is necessary, but the advice centers on recruiting advocates to watch for openings and make introductions. People are more likely to help when the request is specific and easy to act on, and the exchange is reciprocal rather than one-sided.
The post offers a template message asking a contact to watch for roles, along with a short professional bio or career snapshot to copy into an email or LinkedIn message. It also includes a template for a personalized LinkedIn connection request and recommends following up with a thank-you and staying in touch.
Candidates should trust discomfort and act as equal participants in hiring
They advise job seekers to assess the recruiting process from application to offer and not dismiss persistent unease.
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Candidates are equal, active participants in the decision—not simply people hoping to be chosen—and declining an offer can be empowering. The same standard of respect applies in both directions.
In one post, they compare a nagging gut feeling to a toddler tugging on your pant leg and say that if something does not feel right, it most likely is not. A LinkedIn post makes a related point: interviewers and candidates should respect each other’s time and show up on time.
A serious job search can still be paced to avoid anxious urgency
In a new-year reflection, they describe choosing a gentler, more intentional pace instead of trying to have every ambition, plan and schedule figured out at once.
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Staying present and working within their energy, they say, has brought a sense of calm and purpose. This sits alongside their advice to prepare for a job search before January 1st: deliberate preparation and permission to slow down can coexist.
They write about checking things off slowly but intentionally, taking it one day at a time and not pressuring themselves to get everything done now. They extend that permission to readers, wishing them a year of joy, growth, fulfillment and harmony.
The two new-year posts complement each other: one makes the case for proactive job-search preparation, while the other cautions against treating urgency as the default.
Start here for a firsthand account behind the career-change advice.
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It makes the case for looking beyond a linear résumé when considering a new direction.
Brooke Tichenor’s career spans human resources, events, nonprofit leadership, independent contracting, and founding Interview Ally. Their story shows how transferable skills and a willingness to learn helped make several pivots possible, including moves into roles without direct experience.
For brands planning a campaign
A career-pivot campaign could open with Tichenor’s own story, then connect each transition to the skills that carried over. That gives a coaching or job-search platform a concrete example rather than a generic promise.
Open this for a practical reflection framework before making a major career move.
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Its questions help separate a need for a new role or workplace from a desire to change fields.
Tichenor starts with “Why?” and turns it into prompts about values, priorities, fulfillment, and goals. A useful distinction is whether someone is moving toward an opportunity or away from a bad situation: dissatisfaction with a job does not necessarily mean the whole field is wrong.
For brands planning a campaign
The prompts could anchor a career-planning workshop or a campaign about making intentional job changes. The “toward or away” distinction offers a focused starting point for discussion.
Read this for practical steps that turn job-search preparation into specific actions and messages.
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Its strongest examples show how to make it easier for a network to help.
Tichenor recommends preparing before a job search begins: tailor a résumé to target roles, update LinkedIn, and enlist advocates with a concise career snapshot they can share. They also offer templates for asking advocates for support and sending personalized connection requests.
For brands planning a campaign
A job-search platform or résumé tool could build a campaign around preparing materials before the search starts, using the career snapshot and outreach templates as concrete examples.
This short piece shows Tichenor’s focus on candidate agency, not just landing an offer.
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They treat unease as a reason to ask further questions, rather than something to automatically dismiss.
Tichenor urges job seekers to notice how they are treated during recruiting and to examine persistent misgivings before accepting an offer. They emphasize that candidates are active participants who can decline a role.
For brands planning a campaign
A candidate-experience campaign could use this perspective to prompt job seekers to assess how an employer communicates throughout the process.
Brooke Tichenor's posts describe a non-linear career path across human resources, events, nonprofit leadership, and self-employment.
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They argue that career change is possible and that transferable skills, ambition, and a drive to learn can outweigh direct industry experience. The personal narrative includes specific roles and transitions.
First-person narrative and direct encouragement, with a structured reflection exercise.
The account describes one person's experience; it does not establish outcomes for other job seekers.
For brands planning a campaign
A B2B career coaching partnership can use this perspective to create content about non-linear career paths, transferable skills, and practical encouragement for people considering a pivot.
Brooke Tichenor outlines a strategic preparation process: update a resume and LinkedIn profile, then focus on networking.
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They provide templates for asking advocates to share a job search, sending LinkedIn connection requests, and requesting recommendations. The advice emphasizes reciprocal, supportive exchanges.
Step-by-step list, copy-paste outreach templates, and a professional bio template.
Templates are sample scripts; there is no evidence about how they perform in live searches.
For brands planning a campaign
Brands can co-create practical job-search resources, including outreach templates and checklists that help candidates build and activate a network before a search begins.
The post asks job seekers to define their 'why' before a career change.
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It supplies prompts about career values, fulfillment, misalignment, goals, and well-being, and distinguishes moving toward an opportunity from running away from a problem. It notes that an unhappy work situation may call for a role or company change rather than a field change.
Reflective question prompts and a structured framework.
The prompts are self-guided; they do not include diagnostic tools or professional assessment.
For brands planning a campaign
A coaching partner can use this question set to create content on career-change decision-making, values alignment, and self-assessment before a pivot.
Brooke Tichenor advises job seekers to pay attention to how they are treated throughout recruiting and to trust a nagging gut feeling before accepting an offer.
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They frame the candidate as an equal participant who can decline. A LinkedIn post reinforces punctuality and respect as two-way expectations for interviews.
Direct advice, an empathetic address to job seekers, and a short-form social post.
The advice relies on personal observation; no hiring-process data or employer-side perspective is included.
For brands planning a campaign
A brand can support content on candidate experience, interview etiquette, red flags, and self-advocacy during hiring.
Tichenor’s documented business ties include Interview Ally, the job-search coaching business they founded and own, and Career Catalyst, the publication they write.
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Their career history also names two past employers: Pacers Sports & Entertainment and Lucas Oil Stadium.
Canva appears as a recommended free tool.
Ask Tichenor about any current sponsorship, affiliate, client, or investment relationships; none are disclosed in the posts reviewed.
Interview Ally
Owned business · 2022-02
Tichenor says they founded Interview Ally in February 2022, a job-search and interview coaching business built on their career-pivot experience.
Tichenor says they worked as a group events coordinator at Pacers Sports & Entertainment, moving from human resources into program and event coordination.
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They describe the role as part of their past career history, not a current position.
Brooke Tichenor writes Career Catalyst on Substack for people weighing a career change or running a job search.
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Start with the essay on their non-linear path—HR clerk and HRIS specialist, event and guest-services management, nonprofit leadership, independent contracting, and finally founding Interview Ally.
It makes the case that transferable skills and a drive to learn can carry someone into a new field.
Next, read the piece on deciding whether a change is needed at all, with reflective questions to help identify whether the problem is the field, role, or company.
The job-search preparation post is the most practical entry point, with copy-and-paste templates for asking contacts to watch for openings, personalizing a LinkedIn connection request, and requesting recommendations.
Two shorter pieces round out the set: one on how a recruiter treats you and the offer decision as a two-way choice, and a new-year reflection on pacing a serious search without anxious urgency.
Together, the posts pair concrete scripts with encouragement rather than a rigid system.
Career changeTransferable skillsJob-search preparationProfessional networkingCandidate experienceCareer coachingRésumé and LinkedIn positioningIntentional pacing and burnoutNewsletter essaysShort LinkedIn postsJob seekersCareer changers
Dennis Smith
Both write about the job search from inside recruiting and connect that experience to a personal move into new work.
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Dennis describes how applications once went out on paper and now run through AI-assisted tools. He also recounts his shift into an HR manager role after decades of recruiting, paralleling Brooke Tichenor's posts about repeated career pivots and founding a career business.
Dennis writes mainly from the recruiter and employer side, covering how AI affects applicant volume and what hiring teams need. Brooke Tichenor addresses job seekers directly with preparation steps, outreach templates, and encouragement.
Both teach interview and profile preparation from a former recruiter's vantage point.
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Michaela Daly explains why strong candidates can interview poorly and how to prepare the thinking behind their answers.
Brooke Tichenor covers how candidates should read the recruiting process and where to focus research before the search.
Both treat LinkedIn as a working tool candidates should shape deliberately.
Michaela Daly's examples focus on finance and executive hiring, with LinkedIn search optimisation, keywords, and a newsletter for candidates in those functions. Brooke Tichenor ranges across career-change decisions, networking behaviour, and mindset, using industry-agnostic templates.
Both write for professionals who want their online presence to produce opportunities.
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Ibtehaj Ahmed argues that a generic LinkedIn banner wastes prime profile space and shows client results from fixing it.
Brooke Tichenor treats the LinkedIn profile and résumé as the first layer of a job search, before networking begins.
Both use their own results and observations as proof.
Ibtehaj Ahmed concentrates on visual branding and LinkedIn growth—banners, design systems, conversion metrics, and community size. Brooke Tichenor focuses on career decisions, networking scripts, and candidate self-advocacy, treating branding as one step in a wider process.
Treat this as a LinkedIn-first test rather than a Substack-reach buy.
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Brooke Tichenor's posts list one measured audience figure: 7,524 LinkedIn followers, observed 8 October 2026.
The Career Catalyst Substack feed publishes no subscriber figure, and the posts provide no per-post reach or engagement data.
Before committing, ask for recent results from two or three comparable placements—same topics, similar depth, comparable formats—and any audience survey or published source covering employer, occupation, or job seniority.
If no survey exists, say so plainly and decide on topic fit alone.
The posts show a consistent focus on people preparing for a job search, weighing a career pivot, reworking a resume or LinkedIn profile, and navigating recruiting or hiring conversations.
Titles and full posts from October 2023 through October 2026 return to the same themes: defining the reason for a change, framing transferable skills, asking advocates to watch for openings, and judging how a hiring process treats the candidate.
The topic fit for job-search and career-pivot strategies is direct, but a follower count cannot show whether the audience consists of job seekers, working recruiters, or career coaches—or whether a similar audience will respond to a sponsored placement.
The posts contain no published sponsorship policy, media kit, rate card, or partnership inquiry route for Brooke Tichenor.
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Across six posts from Career Catalyst and one LinkedIn post, they focus on job-search and career-change guidance for individual job seekers; none describes paid placements, sponsored formats, affiliate arrangements, or brand collaboration terms. A B2B career coaching company considering a content partnership should ask directly about available formats, pricing, and approval terms.
A B2B career coaching company seeking an editorial content partnership on job-search and career-pivot strategies is a good fit, with commercial terms to confirm.
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The posts offer directly relevant material: a first-person account of pivots across human resources, events, nonprofit leadership, contracting, and founding Interview Ally; a framework for defining the reason for a change before acting; a preparation guide with resume, LinkedIn, advocate-outreach, and connection-request templates; and posts on trusting unease during recruiting and on respect going both ways in interviews.
A partner could build explainers, reflection exercises, outreach templates, and candidate-agency content around those themes.
Audience topic fit is direct, but the only measured audience figure is 7,524 LinkedIn followers as of 8 October 2026.
Before committing, ask for Substack subscriber counts, audience demographics, per-post reach and engagement data, a media kit, available sponsorship formats, rates, and an inquiry route.
Agree on scope, pricing, disclosure, and approval directly.
When to choose a specialist
A recruiter or employer-brand campaign aimed at demonstrating measured hiring outcomes, audience composition, or sponsored-placement performance is a poor fit without more documentation.
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Brooke Tichenor's posts offer personal observation and individual job-seeker guidance, not hiring-process data, employer-side recruiting results, or candidate-funnel benchmarks. Ask for an audience survey, per-post reach and engagement figures, placement results, and a published sponsorship policy and rate card before considering a campaign built around targeting precision, guaranteed reach, or measured hiring impact.
A worked campaign example
Worked campaign angle: “Pivot Proof,” a three-part editorial partnership between a B2B career coaching company and Brooke Tichenor.
Part 1 uses the career-path post to examine each move, the transferable skills carried into the next role, and the employer decision to hire for drive and learning rather than direct industry experience.
Part 2 turns the “Why?” post into a downloadable worksheet covering values, fulfillment, misalignment, goals, well-being, and the toward-versus-away distinction, with a short prompt to test whether the problem is the field or the role and company.
Part 3 adapts the preparation guide into a practical pre-search kit: a tailored resume check, LinkedIn update checklist, fill-in career snapshot, advocate outreach message, and connection request template.
Distribution could run through LinkedIn and the Career Catalyst newsletter; the 7,524 LinkedIn followers are a starting audience signal, not proof of reach.
Before work begins, agree on format, price, disclosure, approval, and campaign-specific measurement; do not promise audience size or hiring outcomes.
Choose Dennis Smith when a campaign aimed at hiring teams needs the employer-side and recruiter-side view of hiring, not only the job-seeker view.
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Their posts describe 29 years in recruiting, work across global teams, RPOs, vendors, dashboards, and time zones, and a move into HR leadership at a community behavioral-health provider.
The AI post offers a usable angle for a coaching audience: use AI as a practice partner for interview questions, salary discussions, follow-ups, and company research, while keeping the candidate's own voice and specific examples.
The career-reflection post could anchor a series on how job search has changed and why basic preparation and human judgment still matter.
The posts offer little on structured career-pivot materials.
They include no framework for defining a career "why", resume or LinkedIn checklist, fill-in outreach template, or long-form essay pipeline comparable to the Career Catalyst posts.
Recent content focuses on a personal job announcement and a historical reflection, so a partner seeking repeatable job-seeker resources would need to commission them.
Audience size, engagement, and sponsorship terms are not stated in the posts.
Choose Michaela Daly FCCA when a campaign aimed at finance and executive candidates needs recruiter-search mechanics plus interview performance.
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The interview post explains why strong experience does not always come through in an interview and lists what strong candidates do: understand the role beyond the job description, know examples well enough for follow-up questions, make their own contribution clear, and ask questions that reveal the reality of the role.
The LinkedIn post gives a step-by-step view of recruiter search, covering headline value, about-section keywords, quantified experience, skill stacking, and Open to Work settings.
For a coaching company building a practical, searchable-content or interview-prep module, this is closer to the buyer task than a broad career-pivot story.
The scope is narrower.
The posts offer no evidence of long-form career-change essays, values exercises, or the advocate and connection-request templates needed to support a full pivot program.
They are tactical and platform-specific, so a partner would need to supply the broader coaching frame.
Audience size, engagement, and sponsorship formats are not documented.
Choose Ibtehaj Ahmed when a partnership needs a visual-identity and LinkedIn-profile design angle rather than career strategy content.
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The banner post presents the profile banner as a 24/7 sales asset and compares generic templates with targeted positioning; it includes before-and-after claims about profile views, connection requests, inbound messages, and booked clients.
The growth post offers an audience-building narrative: starting from zero, building a LinkedIn community, and staying consistent long enough to create opportunity.
For a coaching company teaching candidates how to present themselves visually and convert profile visits, this is a more direct skill match than a written pivot framework.
The content does not offer a job-search or career-pivot coaching methodology.
It focuses on LinkedIn design, personal branding, and audience growth, with no resume tailoring, interview technique, values exercise, or outreach templates.
Claims about results are self-reported and lack independent verification; audience and commercial terms are not stated.
A coaching partner would be buying design and branding expertise, not career-change editorial substance.
Six posts appear here: five Career Catalyst Substack essays and one LinkedIn post, alongside the publication and LinkedIn profile.
The posts include a first-person career-path account, a career-change 'why' framework, a job-search preparation guide with templates for advocate outreach and LinkedIn connection requests, a recruiting-process reflection, and a New Year pacing note.
The preparation article ends mid-sentence during its recommendations.
Post dates span October 2023 to October 2026.
The only measured audience figure is 7,524 LinkedIn followers observed 8 October 2026; Brooke Tichenor's posts do not say the Substack subscriber count, per-post reach, or engagement data, and no sponsorship formats or rate card are published in the posts here.
This profile does not cover a full archive or third-party profile.