Career Counseling and Coaching

Most of us spend 1/3rd of our week – approximately 2,000 hours each year or more, working. Research indicates that about 60% of us are dissatisfied in some way with our jobs. Where are you in your career?

I specialize in working with people who:
• Are dissatisfied yet lack clarity about what they might like to do
• Lack information – about themselves and/or types of careers and jobs
• Are dissatisfied yet feel stuck due to life/family demands
• Know their skills and interests, yet don't believe they can create/have their dream job
• Lack belief and confidence in themselves
• Haven't created or implemented a comprehensive and consistent strategy

Three noted authors, William Bridges, Cliff Hakim, and Charles Handy initially made the distinction between employability and employment. You've heard it before – we are responsible for our own careers.

Career counseling and coaching provides the opportunity for in-depth self-assessment to identify career options aligned with your interests, skills you're motivated to use, values, and priorities; to identify career and educational resources; to expand your awareness of your mindset and beliefs and how they help or hinder you; to increase your confidence; and, to create focused and evolving action plans to achieve your goals. Finding your own footing, refocusing on what's essential and important to you, and bringing your own career needs and desires to the forefront are more easily accomplished with the help of a coach as a guide and sounding board.

What can you do now to move your career or job search to the next step?
If you are facing these or similar challenges, call me to schedule a complimentary coaching session by phone. Let's talk about how we can work together – in person or via telephone – to successfully meet your goals.

Are you a Scanner?

Scanners are those who would be considered a Renaissance person in a different era. Scanners often have lots of – and changing – interests. Some last a lifetime, others are fleeting. The term "Scanner" was coined by Barbara Sher in her book, I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was. In her new groundbreaking book, Refuse to Choose, Sher identifies different types of Scanners and what makes us tick – as well as tips to creatively organize yourself to gain a sense of progress and satisfaction.

Throughout our lives, we're asked, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" "What's your major?" "What do you do?" Often these questions contain an unexamined assumption that we will choose one thing to focus on for our careers, our livelihood. Although I've found this to be rare, Scanners tend to look longingly and wistfully at those who have been clear about their career path and vision, and who pursued a singular, focused course.

Perhaps you were designed differently. Do you:
• have too many interests to ever choose just one?
• become bored with every new career you've chosen or considered?
• remain indecisive because you are overwhelmed by the potential choices or just don't trust your own instincts?
• start new things with gusto, then run out of steam leaving behind unfinished projects?
• keep changing your mind about what you want to do – and feel like you are doing "nothing?"
• remain uncommitted to a career path because it might be the "wrong" one

I found Refuse to Choose personally validating. It allowed me to embrace my diverse and evolving interests and fascinations, while no longer feeling that I was lazy or lacked drive and determination. In October 2006, I completed a 6-day intensive with Barbara Sher, focused on tools and techniques for working with Scanners.