Guest Post From Hillary Widlitz, Founder of The Precedent

Two colleagues talking at a desk with a laptop, one smiling in a gray blazer.

There is a lot of advice about how to get a job, but there is far less advice about how to actually navigate a career. When to stay, when to leave, how to position yourself for the next opportunity, how to advocate for yourself even when it feels uncomfortable and what people on the other side of the table are really thinking.

This is exactly why I started The Precedent, a career strategy platform focused on the things no one teaches you about work, but really should.

Before launching The Precedent, I spent nearly two decades in finance and real estate private equity. Most recently as a Managing Director where I led investments and teams, hiring and developing talent. Then, because of a deep desire to share what I had learned with others, I made a career pivot of my own.

Now I share practical advice for navigating tough decisions and the unwritten rules that shape a career, especially for people trying to figure out what is next.

Here are seven things I’d start with. The seven things I would tell anyone who feels they might be ready for a change.

01. You may be talking too much in interviews.

I have been thinking about something Dale Carnegie wrote almost a century ago: “Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.”

This is incredibly good advice for networking, but even better advice for interviews.

Most people walk into an interview and think, “I have 30 minutes to tell this person everything impressive I’ve ever done.” Instead of prepping with how succinct and efficient they can be with their responses, they give five minute answers that require only 60 seconds.

They are terrified by 1.3 seconds of silence, so they continue talking and are somehow explaining what they did on Wednesday at 9:00AM during their internship sophomore year of college.

You of course need to sell yourself in an interview, but remember that an interview is a conversation. It’s a way for the interviewer to understand your strengths, but also how you operate in a corporate setting and most simply, “do they want to spend time with you day in and day out.”

Simply put, answer their questions with enough context to make the answer meaningful.

Make the point you want them to remember and then STOP.

Let the interviewer ask the next question or make another point.

Ironically, saying less often can make you sound more confident because you are not desperately trying to prove every qualification at once. Make sure there is time for you to ask them questions at the end. Make these questions thoughtful, so the interview ends on a positive note, where the interviewer is encouraged to talk about themselves.

And last, but definitely not least, remember: The interviewer should not have to figure out why you’re impressive.

To reiterate, this does not mean you need to talk for a consecutive ten minutes. It means be intentional about the two or three things you want them to remember when you leave the room. The things they can easily say in a post-interview debrief with the rest of the team that supports your application.

Do not make other people connect the dots for you.

Also, if you have not read Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People, it’s a CLASSIC. Originally written in 1936, there are many simple yet poignant ideas that still work today.

I highly recommend it for any recent grad, someone starting a new job or gifting it to the person who doesn’t realize how badly they need it.

02. AI is creating a vicious cycle in job applications.

Indeed CEO Hisayuki Idekoba recently described hiring as a “vicious cycle.”

Job seekers hear nothing back when they apply to jobs, so they use AI to apply to more jobs. Employers then get flooded with applications, so they in turn use more automation to screen all of the applications. Candidates feel like robots are rejecting them, so they then use more AI to apply. Around and around we go.

Applications per job more than doubled from 2022 to 2025, while the average number of recruiters per company fell by 56%.

The takeaway isn’t don’t use AI. You should definitely use it to research companies, tighten your resume and help you prep for interviews.

However, do not confuse more applications with a better job search.

When everyone else is using technology to create volume, use it to create quality.

03. AI should make your work better. It should not do your thinking for you.

There is not a medal coming for refusing to use AI. You will either have to adapt to it becoming part of the future, or fall behind in the dust. It also can increasingly help your chances of scoring a job during an interview process.

More employers are asking candidates some version of: How are you using AI in your work?

Business Insider recently spoke with job seekers who said the question is becoming increasingly common in interviews, even for roles that are not explicitly AI-focused.

If someone asks you this question, saying “I use ChatGPT” is not very compelling. What an interviewer is likely trying to understand is how you adapt to a changing environment, whether you can think critically and use these tools thoughtfully and, most importantly, whether you still know how to think for yourself.

A strong answer sounds like this: “I use AI to help me pressure test my thinking, synthesize large amounts of information, enhance a process for efficiency or improve a first draft. I ultimately am still responsible for deciding what is important, if the output is correct and what my recommendation should be.”

To supersize this answer, follow that up with a real example you have used either personally or professionally.

Did you use it to challenge assumptions in an investment memo? Did you use it to optimize your day? Did you use it to organize interview notes before identifying the themes on your own?

Make sure you show where AI stopped and your judgment began.

This distinction becomes even more important as you become more senior, or want to be perceived as more senior. You need a point of view (“POV”).

Ultimately, AI should help you sound more prepared, but it should not make you sound less like yourself.

04. Your first 90 days are not about proving you know everything.

When you start a new job, particularly if you are ambitious and used to being great at most things you do, there can be an overwhelming urge to demonstrate from day one, or minute one, that hiring you was a brilliant decision.

Because of this, you arrive with opinions, ideas, changes, perhaps a PowerPoint (“deck”).

Put. The. Deck. Down.

Your first 90 days are fundamentally about learning how the place actually works and establishing what it feels like to work with you.

At a junior level: Do you take notes? Do you follow through? Do you ask good questions? Can someone give you something once without explaining it four more times? Do you understand which details matter? Do you respond well to feedback? Do you make your manager’s life easier?

At a senior level: Do people trust your judgment? Do you know what matters and what is just noise? Can you bring a point of view without bulldozing everyone in the room? Can you make decisions with imperfect information? Do clients respond well to you? Can you simplify something complicated? Can you make the people around you better? Can you see what’s coming around the corner?

Your colleagues are evaluating how you think, how you operate and whether your presence makes the organization better.

There will be plenty of time to demonstrate that you are brilliant. Your first objective is simpler: Have them think, “I’m really glad we hired this person.”

It’s your initial reputation that gives you room to do much bigger things later.

05. Doing good work is not the same as making sure people know you are ready for a promotion

This is particularly for the people who were raised to believe: Put your head down, work hard and someone will notice.

Someone might notice, but I would prefer not to structure my career around “might.”

This definitely does not mean walking into your boss’s office every six weeks demanding a promotion. It means making your ambitions known. Ask what the next level requires and ask where your gaps are. Then periodically reconnect on the conversation to how you’re tracking on progress and about the work you’re doing.

Also, keep a wins document.

This can be as simple as a running note on your phone or a list you have ChatGPT add to each time you accomplish something.

This document should include deals you worked on, revenue you generated, great feedback from a client, a process you improved, a problem you solved, someone you trained.

This is important, because six months from now when someone asks you what you accomplished this year, you will remember approximately 40% of it.

There is a tasteful version of being the “squeaky wheel”. Do great work and make it easy for the people making the decisions about you to understand the value of that work.

Again: Do not make people connect the dots for you.

06. Executive presence is not about looking like an executive

I have been thinking about the term executive presence lately because it is one of those phrases that gets used often, but can be nebulous in its meaning. So…what does it actually mean?

An employee might get feedback that they “need more executive presence” and then they are supposed to go home, reflect and develop some more of it. That is not so helpful.

A recent Forbes piece defined executive presence as the ability to inspire confidence in other people, particularly in difficult moments. Another piece argues it has less to do with title or charisma and much more to do with how you listen, exercise judgment and respond under pressure. The latter rings true to me after spending years watching people at every level of an organization.

The junior people who started to be perceived as more senior usually were not the loudest people in the room.

On a fundamental level they carried themselves professionally. They dressed in an appropriate way, they took notes in meetings, they kept their emotions at home and they got along with their team members. BUT they also followed through, knew their numbers, told you something had gone wrong before you discovered it yourself, could give you an answer first with the supporting details second and began to have a point of view.

Early on in your career it can feel like the safer and easier thing to do is to collect information and hand it upwards. And usually this is a great place to start, to absorb what’s going on and how to operate in a corporate setting. However, as you rise, you become less of a data monkey and your role shifts into the interpretation of information and how to use it.

One tip people at every level can take with them is to apply the WWYD ™ method. What would you do? Before sharing information or presenting a problem, take a step back and think through what you would recommend doing with the information. This allows you to think like your boss or your client before giving the details.

Executive presence isn’t something that switches on when you reach a certain level. It is a muscle you can start building now, whether you are 22 or 42. The more you practice, the better you become.

07. Apparently boomerang employees are having a moment. I was one before it was in vogue.

Business Insider reported in September that companies are increasingly rehiring former employees. These “boomerang employees” made up ~3.4% of new US hires in 2025 and a handful of companies have continued to increase the number of people they bring back.

From an employer’s perspective they already know what they are getting. The returning employee understands the culture and the people, there is less ramp up time to invest and less uncertainty around their ability to do the job.

I know this phenomenon particularly well because I boomeranged myself. I like to think of myself as a trendsetter, but it did not feel that way at the time. I left Greystar two years in and went to another company, only to return six months later. I then stayed with Greystar for another seven years.

When I eventually left the second time (more on that and why I started The Precedent here: Why I started The Precedent), people joked that maybe I would become the first employee to leave and come back twice.

Sorry Greystar, but that is highly unlikely.

Jokes aside, there is a real lesson here.

When you leave a company, leave it well.

Spend the extra time completing a good transition, send your notes and foster the relationships you’ve built. This is your network and there is nothing more important.

Sometimes leaving is exactly what makes returning valuable. You see how another organization operates and you learn another way of doing things. From there you understand what was unique about the place you left and what was not.

Returning to an old company is not inherently moving backwards or sideways. It is sometimes a way of taking on a new perspective from the other side. I just would not make a habit of it.

I’ve spent a big part of my career sitting on the other side of the table, moving up the ladder, hiring and developing people and making some pretty significant career transitions of my own. Now, a big part of what I do is help people grow where they are and think strategically about what might come next.

These decisions can often feel scary, especially when the answer is not obvious. I’ve been there and over time I’ve built a toolkit that can make the process feel a little less overwhelming and a lot more intentional.

If that sounds useful and you want to dip your toe in, follow me on Instagram for practical career advice or subscribe to The Precedent for what I’m reading in the market and how I think it applies to work and careers.

If you think you’re ready to jump into what’s next, schedule a 20-minute intro with me so we can get to know each other and see if there are ways I can support you on your journey.

I hope to meet you soon!

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