Amanda Rico, Ph.D.

With over 14 million new roles posted, 1.9 million talent professionals hunting down candidates, and job seekers hired every 15 seconds, LinkedIn is more than just a social media site – it’s a critical platform for optimizing short and long-term career moves.

When it comes to determining a new career direction during periods of severe job instability, it can feel like going any direction will only end in failure. Whether you are facing a significant career redirection or trying to move up the career ladder, reverse engineering your job search is the best way to gain a foothold.

Key Takeaways:

Create a checklist for success: The last thing you want is to “walk” into a virtual interview unprepared. Issues include a poorly lit candidate, underdressed, out of earshot, or simply struggling to use the technology. To ensure success, brainstorm a list of topics you could run into from start to finish. These issues will typically lead to critical questions you will need to answer.

Prepare for one-way video interviews: An asynchronous interview can feel, well… Show more

Key Takeaways:

Create a checklist for success: The last thing you want is to “walk” into a virtual interview unprepared. Issues include a poorly lit candidate, underdressed, out of earshot, or simply struggling to use the technology. To ensure success, brainstorm a list of topics you could run into from start to finish. These issues will typically lead to critical questions you will need to answer.

Prepare for one-way video interviews: An asynchronous interview can feel, well, weird. Make sure to prep heavily, ask plenty of questions, and look directly at the camera as you record – not at your image – to give the impression of maintaining eye contact with your interviewers.

Show and tell: Drafting responses to the top 10 most common interview questions helps candidates ace interviews and land jobs. Questions like, “Where do you see yourself in five years?” Or “What is your biggest weakness?” are best considered before an interview to ensure a candidate moves to the next stage in the hiring process. Show interviewers what you bring to the table using real-life examples to ground your answers to each question. Show less

As we steadily move toward closing out Spring 2021, those still currently employed in the oil and gas industry are looking toward a promising but uncertain future. With remote work on the rise and new challenges concerning opportunities for advancement in the industry, at the top of many employees’ minds is how to secure a promotion in an environment riddled with blanket layoffs and the continued threat of COVID-19.

Although career materials like resumes and cover letters are vital to an effective job search strategy, they are only part of a larger puzzle — most successful job seekers credit networking as the catalyst for landing a new position. The truth is, simply applying to one online job application after another is rarely effective.

So, what does work? The combination of targeted materials with networking. This will boost a job seeker’s chances of being selected as the candidate of choice for… Show more

Although career materials like resumes and cover letters are vital to an effective job search strategy, they are only part of a larger puzzle — most successful job seekers credit networking as the catalyst for landing a new position. The truth is, simply applying to one online job application after another is rarely effective.

So, what does work? The combination of targeted materials with networking. This will boost a job seeker’s chances of being selected as the candidate of choice for an available position. Although in-person networking events are few and far between, remote networking can be just as effective. Read my article for three proven networking strategies to try! Show less

Completed and published dissertation under the English Department at Texas A&M University

Published Abstract: Contemporary scholarship within African and Diasporic women’s literature has frequently focused on works of cultural production that use various literary, artistic and filmic genres to (re)envision the past and present. However, little emphasis has been placed on how 21st century transnational works position women as agents of change and producers of knowledge by gesturing toward the future. This paper addresses how three female authors and artists who hail from various… Show more

Published Abstract: Contemporary scholarship within African and Diasporic women’s literature has frequently focused on works of cultural production that use various literary, artistic and filmic genres to (re)envision the past and present. However, little emphasis has been placed on how 21st century transnational works position women as agents of change and producers of knowledge by gesturing toward the future. This paper addresses how three female authors and artists who hail from various parts of Africa and the Diaspora — Wangechi Mutu, Wanuri Kahiu, and Ibi Zoboi — imagine a black feminist future through a careful use of ecological imagery. My argument is twofold: first, I take my cue from Mutu’s assertion that imaginative forms of world-building must connect systemic corruption to consumptive practices. Secondly, I claim that Afrofuturist works like Kahiu’s Pumzi, Zoboi’s “The Farming of the Gods,” and Mutu’s The End of Eating Everything use geographical spaces marked by ecological abuse (poisonous spores, pustules, desert landscapes), displacement (discarded objects) and violence (human limbs) to negotiate the symbolic and material “marking” of black female bodies. Ultimately, I demonstrate how these works speculate about new forms of transnational communities that not only survive but thrive in the 21st century and beyond.
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Published Abstract: In this essay, I examine how one particular African autobiographical work —Malidoma Patrice Some's Of Water and the Spirit: Ritual, Magic and Initiation in the Life of an African Shaman —embodies the concept of autobiography as philosophy and challenges Western metaphysical frameworks concerning the construction of the ethical self, temporality, and history. I argue that Some's autobiographical affirmation of African philosophy serves as a thoroughgoing critique of Western… Show more

Published Abstract: In this essay, I examine how one particular African autobiographical work —Malidoma Patrice Some's Of Water and the Spirit: Ritual, Magic and Initiation in the Life of an African Shaman —embodies the concept of autobiography as philosophy and challenges Western metaphysical frameworks concerning the construction of the ethical self, temporality, and history. I argue that Some's autobiographical affirmation of African philosophy serves as a thoroughgoing critique of Western hegemonic thought. Moreover, I claim that this text goes beyond a remedial rebuffing of Eurocentric metaphysics and instead proposes a synthesis between both African and Western ways ofknowing and understanding the world. Ultimately, Some's Of Water and the Spirit demonstrates that the act of philosophizing is a ubiquitous cultural phenomenon that helps shape the various "commonsensical" realities of modern life around the globe and should therefore be considered a non-exclusionary practice. Show less