Tag Archives: career coaching

Is It Time to Add a Trained Professional to Your Job Search Toolkit?

This whole process of looking for a job is just one more thing that’s changed drastically over the last few years. It’s hard to keep up, isn’t it? It used to be easy to find and land a new job, but today’s digital job search is so much more complicated. The job market is crowded and super-competitive because digital platforms like LinkedIn have expanded the candidate pool. To gain an employer’s attention in our highly connected world, you need to rise above the online noise to stand out among your competitors. To do so takes strategic action and a willingness to let go of outdated ideas that may no longer serve your interests. Is there a job search 2.0 tool that can help? You bet.

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Take a minute to see what Certified Career Transition Coaches do. As trained professionals, they help you apply industry best practices so you can avoid the hassle of learning by trial and error. Offering an impartial view of your career goals and personal branding, a career coach can help you gain the competitive edge so you can get in front of decision makers at your target companies. Continue reading →

What Does a Career Coach Actually Do?

Do I need a career coach? Where do they fit into my job search?

If you’re wondering about the difference between a career coach and a recruiter, it’s actually pretty clear-cut. A recruiter works for the employer – a career coach works for YOU. When it comes to helping you reach your career goals, that’s a big difference. As your career coach, I have your best interest at heart. I will make sure you are prepared for success and will guide you along your journey.

Now you’re thinking, “Okay, so you work for me. But what exactly do you do?” I’m so glad you asked. My role is to help you gain a competitive edge in a crowded job market. I do this by helping you establish realistic career goals, articulate the incredible value you offer an organization and actually get in front of decision makers.

As a Certified Career Transition Coach, I can help you identify your career drivers and preferred communication style as well as the work environment in which you thrive. When you are in a role that aligns with who you are as a person and how you operate, you are generally happier and more successful.

As a leader, you drive success by filling your team with experts. Why should your approach to managing your career be any different?

Career coaching is a truly collaborative process through which I help you determine what you’d like to see in your next role and where you would like to work. We develop a branding strategy and then a step-by-step action plan to get you into that new role.

Want more? As a professional resume and LinkedIn profile writer, I also help you position yourself as an expert in your field. Through our conversations and coaching exercises, I will pull all the important content from you, and weave it into a compelling career narrative written in your voice. Describing your own career accomplishments is difficult for many people, but the objective viewpoint of a trained coach facilitates this process. Another bonus? A professionally written resume does so much to boost a job seeker’s confidence, which in turn, promotes success!

Can a career coach really help?

How many times have you thought: “Why should I hire a career coach? I have always written my own resume.” It’s a common question. Let’s look for answers. Continue reading →

Finding the Career That Fits Your Personality

Since we spend the majority of our waking hours at work, career satisfaction is key to our overall happiness. Yet, until we are mid-career, many of us do not pause to consider our level of personal satisfaction. We push forward to earn the accolades, annual raises and the next promotion. Day after day; year after year. Then one day, we wake up and realize we really do not enjoy our jobs. You know you deserve to be happy and feel the urge for a more rewarding career. But where do you start? The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator^®personality inventory is a very useful tool to help you identify your ideal role – one that aligns with your strengths and how you operate best.

Who Should Take the MBTI^®

As a Certified Career Transition Coach and MBTI^® practitioner, I work with many mid- to late career professionals looking for more career satisfaction. The good news about us baby boomers working longer is that there is time to build a successful second act career. In fact, I reinvented myself at age 48 and have never been happier. I want everyone to have the same career satisfaction and work tirelessly to help my clients achieve it!

The MBTI^® offers:

Increased self-awareness
More job satisfaction
Healthier interpersonal relationships

Continue reading →

What Transforms a Resume from Average to Stellar?

As a Career Coach, I guide people through professional transitions to help them build more satisfying lives. Most of my conversations with prospective clients start with a request for a new resume. They call me because they are frustrated, their job search is stalled and they can’t win interviews. We discuss their goals, what they have tried so far and I explain how a few key changes can improve their results. Many times the problem is not simply a weak resume – they may also lack a focused goal or are using outdated job search strategies (for example, not active on LinkedIn).

The resume development process itself is the foundation for a successful job search.

Continue reading →

I’ve Applied to Hundreds of Jobs Online, but Never Hear Back

The most common frustrations I hear from jobseekers are related to applying for jobs online. The application process itself is time-consuming, can be confusing and most of the time you don’t hear back after you’ve submitted your application materials. First of all, if you have applied to hundreds of jobs – STOP! Either you are applying for the wrong type of jobs or your resume is not selling you as well as it could. It might not even be making it through the Applicant Tracking Systems. Read on to see how you can turn things around.

Why Is My Online Job Search Failing?

Here’s the problem with applying to jobs online: your application is only one of hundreds, if not thousands, submitted for each opening. With employers’ increased reliance on Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) to screen for the most qualified candidates, your application may not even be reviewed by a person if it does not include the right keywords or proper formatting. For more information about getting through these online filters, see my previous blog “Are Applicant Tracking Systems Rigged Against Jobseekers?”.

Making it through the ATS is step #1. Continue reading →

Does Your 2018 New Year’s Resolution Include a Career Change? Planning Will Make Your Dream a Reality.

A new year brings new possibilities. As we turn over the calendar, we tend to look forward to the New Year as a chance to reset ourselves and we resolve to make improvements, both personally and professionally. If your New Year’s resolution is to be a happier person in 2018, a new job could be just the answer. Considering how much time we spend at work, enjoying your job can significantly impact your overall happiness. You deserve job satisfaction ― and it is achievable.

So you’ve made your New Year’s resolution to change jobs or maybe even reinvent yourself in a new career, but how do you make this happen? What do you do first? Where do you begin? How do you get from hopes and wishes to reality? It’s common to feel overwhelmed by the prospect of a job search. I have learned that the key to a successful job transition is in the planning.
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Three Steps to a Successful Mid-Career Transition

Let’s talk about your career. I don’t mean your current job that’s so unrewarding that it feels like a prison sentence, or the one that you’ve been told is being eliminated in a few months. No, I mean the career you dream about, the one that you really want, that you know you were meant to have. Let’s talk about THAT career. Mid-Career Transition is Possible

Changing careers can be a daunting prospect, especially if you’ve already devoted a long time to your present career path. I know how it feels – I left a high burn-out job and successfully reinvented myself several years ago. I had heard (and told myself) all of the reasons why career change is impossible and bound to fail. “Competition for good jobs is fierce,” and “I’m too old to change careers now.”

Sound familiar? It doesn’t have to be so scary. Continue reading →

Defeated, Disillusioned and Desperate to Escape

Jared called me on a Monday morning as he sat in his car in the parking lot, not wanting to go into the office. Over the last few years, his workload had tripled, new ineffective procedures had been instituted and he was getting no support from his boss. He was miserable and the stress was effecting his health.

Although he knew the unemployment rate was pretty high and the job market was tight, he could not take it any longer. He needed to escape and reached out to me for help with his resume. I knew his story well. I had been there and had felt the same spirit-crushing pressure to perform in corporate America. I assured Jared that I could help him, but explained that there was a lot of work we needed to do together before we got to the resume writing stage. I promised him that he was not in this alone. I would be there to guide him through the process to make it less overwhelming and more successful. I was confident that I could help him find a job that was fulfilling, where he was respected and compensated properly. Continue reading →

360 Degree Professional Branding Key to Career Success!

I just returned from the Career Directors International annual conference in Orlando, FL, energized and full of new ideas on how to better position my clients for success! CDI is a fantastic organization whose members are among the elite career coaches and resume writers in the world. Attendees came from Australia, Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, Brazil and every corner of the US! It was great to meet so many of my online connections face-to-face and make some great new friends. I learned the latest and greatest resume and LinkedIn profile techniques and strategies to accelerate a job search.
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