Archive for Atlanta career coach
Have you narrowed down your career ideas too much?
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I recently spoke with my career coaching client, Damon. He said something to me that I often hear as a career coach and I wanted to share it with you. He said,
“Don’t just focus on 1-2 aspects of your life or what you want in a job because that was where I went off track before. I hadn’t looked at other areas of my life to help me determine the big picture of what I wanted in a career.”
You want to narrow down your career ideas to just a few in order to help you make a decision, but be careful of narrowing down too soon. If you focus too much on 1-2 things in identifying your ideal career direction, you could be narrowing your options TOO quickly and end up with something that’s not a fit.
Try to look at the big picture as well. Consider what would be fulfilling to you, in addition to what you’re good at and the salary you want to make. You also need to consider the right work environment and your personality type. When I work with clients there are actually 8 different things I have them consider on my Ideal Career Model to define their dream job. So think outside the box and look at the big picture. Once you have done that, you can narrow down your ideas from there.
If you feel like you would benefit from career coaching, please contact us today to set up a complimentary consultation!
Hallie Crawford
Atlanta Career Coach
P.S. If you are interested in furthering your career direction, be sure to check out these free tools, specially designed to help you on you career journey.
Check out Ted Talks to help you in the work place
Posted by: | CommentsI highly recommend Ted Talks if you have never seen it before. I loved this video in particular, and wanted to share it with you. It’s about why we have too few women leaders, but it definitely applies to men as well. “Sit at the table” is my favorite piece of advice. You have to step up, speak up and engage in the conversation at work – stay involved. This is definitely worth watching, and I hope you enjoy:
http://www.ted.com/talks/sheryl_sandberg_why_we_have_too_few_women_leaders.html
Please share your input with us in the comment box below.
Hallie Crawford
Atlanta Career Coach
P.S. Be sure to check out our Free Report: 4 Keys to Career Fulfillment and Effectiveness to learn the 4 critical keys to career fulfillment and effective work performance.
Chocolaty inspiration to help find your dream job
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Last night I had the opportunity to speak for Georgia Tech Alumni Association’s Waffle House Career Series. The topic was “Live and Work with Passion and Purpose“.
It was an exciting and well attended event. There was great interaction and participation. We discussed how to bring passion into both your personal life and your career. Thank you to all those who came out!
Inspiring example: A participant from last night, Michelle, said her dream job was to make chocolate. I talked to her more today, and I really believe she will make it happen. She is currently getting her MBA at GA Tech to learn how to run a business. She plans to open a retail or online store. She did an internship with a chocolate maker in Australia. I know she’ll make her dream a reality because she has a plan, has multiple options to make it happen in a practical way AND she has passion for it. This is something she really enjoys doing.
What’s your passion? How will you make it happen?
Your resolution will fail – Here’s why
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It’s interesting to me how so many people set their New Year’s resolutions but fail within a few weeks (if not a few days). Why is that? I think that the problem is that most resolutions are unrealistic or general (I will lose weight, I will eat healthy, I will spend more time doing ____).
What’s your resolution? Do you see this pattern? Here’s some help…
Anytime you set goals you need to remember two things:
- Your level of commitment is crucialIf you are not ready to commit to change, whether it is a career change, losing weight, learning how to ride a horse, etc it won’t happen. You have to be committed to make it happen. Before you set your goal think about how committed you are to it. I have my career coaching clients measure their commitment to career change on a scale of 1-10. If it’s not at a 10, I ask them to think about what would make it a 10. How can they move it up the scale? You can read more about the importance of commitment here.
- Your goals must be SMART goals
Yes most of you have heard about SMART goals by now (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Results-oriented {realistic/relevant}, Timely). The problem is that most people know what SMART goals are, but not that many are successful at creating SMART goals for themselves. You need to be able to set specific steps for you to be able to reach your big goal.I find that my clients are able to reach their goals when they create weekly and monthly checklists with small action steps. This helps keep their goal top of mind with tiny baby steps to reach it.
Here’s an example – Many people say they want to lose weight in the New Year. That’s great – but how can it be a SMART Goal. My suggestion would be not to focus on the full year. Start smaller. So for example you might want to say that by April 1st you will have lost 10 pounds (specific – not just lose weight). It is a measureable, attainable, realistic, timely goal. Your baby steps in your checklist for week 1 might be to have a salad every day. Week 2 might be to add 30 minutes of exercise 3 times a week.
Let us know what your New Year’s Resolution is and how you have set SMART goals for yourself in the comment box below.
Happy New Year!
The secret to finding fulfillment in your career
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So how do you know what’s fulfilling for you to help you define your ideal career? The secret is – Values. Values are one of the first things I help my career coaching clients identify in order to understand what would be fulfilling to them. Values are your guideposts to fulfillment and the foundation of figuring this out. Begin figuring out what your values are right away.
To figure out what your values are, you can ask yourself questions like:
- When in the past, professionally, have you felt lit up inside or energized?
- What in your personal life gives you a sense of satisfaction or joy?
- What deep seated personal priorities or values do you hold that are so important to you that if they were taken away, you’d feel frustrated or deprived in some way?
You’ll notice these are hard to answer questions. They’re meant to be that way for a reason. By answering these questions you’re trying to uncover what’s deeply important to you in your life, and then begin to translate that into your career.
I hope this advice was helpful to you. If you still feel lost in your career path, please contact us today to set up a complimentary consultation with one of our Certified Career Coaches.
Get on your career path to success!
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In a recent career coaching group this week, my client Allison was talking about the Ideal Day visualization. I have career coaching clients do this exercise to help them identify their ideal career. I have also included this exercise in our Identify Your Ideal Career Path Home Study Program. Alison said that she really loved the exercise, and I was thrilled to hear that she got a brand new career idea from doing this.
Here’s the deal: This visualization helps you become completely relaxed and enables you to think creatively about your career ideas.
Here’s a suggestion for you: Take a moment to visualize your ideal day at work.
If you could create it from scratch, what would you be doing? What would it look like? If it helps, go ahead and try writing your ideas down instead of just visualizing, sometimes that works better for some people. You can also look for tangible clues in your current life instead of making things up from scratch. Another one of my career coaching clients, Tricia, did this and it was much easier for her to gather tangible examples from her current job and what she observed in other people’s jobs.
Think outside the box, and dream big. You can always compromise later. Go to town on this exercise – good luck!
P.S. Are you frustrated in your career? Find out if you are on the right track with our free Ideal Career Quiz!
Unemployment rates: You might be surprised…
Posted by: | CommentsWatch this video as I address the unemployment rates. Atlanta is one of the toughest markets currently, but at a recent career event I met a recruiter with a very positive outlook. The unemployment rates are not good in this current economy, but it really depends on the industry you are looking at. Some industries are really in need of employees during times like this. Google the unemployment rates to figure out which industries are growing. You can also check out the U.S. Department of Labor at www.bls.gov.
Get your online resume ready and get connected!
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I really enjoyed speaking to the Kennesaw State EMBA students, alumni and fraternity members last night at Lenox. Thank you everyone for attending. It was a great group of motivated, committed people.
One of the topics that came up during Q&A was creating an online resume and online PowerPoint for yourself to showcase your skills and experience. It’s a great way to use technology to make it easier for employers to connect with you and understand what you bring to the table. *Be sure to link to your LinkedIn profile.
Here’s a great article about creating an online resume: http://jobsearch.about.com/od/onlineresumes/a/onlineresumes.htm
