Careers in Transition, LLC

Most people will have a Defining Moment with their faith, health, finances, career, family or relationships that drives them to re-evaluate their situation and options.  Depending on the client’s needs, I help a them move forward in my role as a Career Counselor, Career Coach, Career Consultant or often a Career Therapist.  It’s the right time to hire a Career Counselor when you need…

1. To Get Focused - If you could do this on your own, you would have already done it.  You have given it your best, and you’re stuck.  You are ready for a change, but don’t know what to do.  You recognize you have a problem, and you need to call in a pro for help.  We spend one two thirds of each weekday either sleeping or working.  Your life is short, and you deserve a successful and satisfying career.  A good Career Counselor will facilitate a process of assessing, exploring options, goal setting and action planning.  They be your Task Master by assigning career development homework and then add the motivation for you to incrementally execute.  

2. To Explore All Your Options with Career Testing - A trained Career Counselor will be certified to administer and interpret tests and inventories to assess your values, interests, personality traits and skills for the purpose of identifying your best career options.  These may validate what you already know or may uncover hidden areas of interests.  They may give you extra push to make a career decision.  The career tests coupled with career counseling may confirm that you need to stay or reiterate that you need an exit strategy.  A good Career Coach will encourage exploratory activities and help you better understand the world of work.  They will help you understand who you are, what career options are the best match for you and empower you to make wise choices.

3. To Have Your Resume or Cover Letter Professionally Reviewed, Revised or Rewritten – Poorly written key marketing documents will be a serious roadblocks to landing an interview.  Getting these professionally revised may then reveals other career issues that need to be addressed.  A good Career Consultant will not offer a cookie cutter template, but will tailor them to your unique needs.

4. To Enhance Your Social Media Brand Especially with LinkedIn - The Internet is the first place employers look to learn more about you, so you need to leverage the power of social media to increase your search engine rankings.  A Career Consultant can advise you about how to use LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and About.me to communicate your unique assets to an employer.

5. To Make a Job Transition or Career Change - You deserve to go to the next level.  A good Career Counselor supports clients experiencing job stress, job loss or career/life transition.  They help you understand how work is integrated with your other life roles.

6. To Learn How to Job Search, Apply for Further Education or Start a Business – After several meetings you will have direction.

They will then help you map out a sequential plan of attack using concrete tips and proven techniques to achieve your goals.  They will help you learn the neglected art of job searching using multiple methods.  They can help to improve your marketing strategy.

7. To Learn How to Network - When your search is stalled, it may mean you’re online too much.  They can teach you the number one job search strategy, networking.  They will also have a pulse on the hidden job market and can provide valuable connections.

8. To Improve Your Interview and Salary Negotiation Skills – Interviewing is a lost art, and it is the most neglected part of the job search.  Today, interviewers are often highly skilled, and if you are not prepared or if you tend to ramble, your search will be prolonged.  A practice Mock Interview will help you to develop persuasive and polished answers to the most difficult interview questions.  A Career Coach can identify your strengths and weaknesses as well as what employers are looking for.

9. To Be Motivated - When you are feeling lost without direction or goals, you can talk to a Career Therapist about your situation and they will be your sounding board.  You need a positive influence and confidant to inspire and advocate for effective change.  They can help begin the process of building back your self-confidence as a result of a toxic boss, dysfunctional co-workers, being let go or a poor performance evaluation.  The Career Therapist can help remove any self-imposed blocks or bad habits and offer real solutions.  

Sometimes your family and friends are your cheerleaders and sometimes they’re not.  Unfortunately, they may offer advice that, is confusing, biased, vague or self-serving.  They may even get burnt out from listening to you.  They simply do not know how to guide you through a rigorous and systematic process to help you identify and reach your personal and professional goals.  They’re not trained and credentialed career specialists with years of counseling experience.  Your Career Counselor is not your friend, nor do they have an emotional or financial stake in the outcome.  They are completely objective and will tell you what you honestly need to hear.   A good Career Therapist understands your situation.  They are optimistic and can help you feel good about your future.  

10. To Be Prepared - Even if you love your job, things can change fast and sometimes overnight. The best time to see a Career Counselor is well before work becomes intolerable or your future becomes uncertain and you are let go.  Get annual check up around the time you have your annual physical.  It’s preventive medicine.  By investing in career counseling, you are making a statement that you believe in both yourself and your coach to work as a team to move forward and get to the next level.  You have decided you want better for yourself and you need help to get there.  It may be one of the best decisions that will improve your career this year.