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Table
of Contents:
Life
Focus
Bigger Life Possibilities
Dream Job
Creating and realizing a vision
Taking charge of my life
Internal motivations
Doing something meaningful
Passion overcomes fear
Confirming and expanding an idea
Life
Focus
A 56 year
old single divorced female, the financial manager of a consulting
firm, was recently downsized and needed new direction and help
with her mother's living arrangements.
In the Career Change Program she identified her highest priority
decisions and gained some decision-making and planning tools.
She created some new goals (with deadlines), action plans and
support resources.
These gave her more control over her life and increased her self
esteem. She became better able to manage her responsibilities
for her mother.
Bigger
Life Possibilities
A 47 year old married female, research scientist in a giant manufacturing
firm, was overwhelmed with too many duties and interests. She
felt pulled in too many directions and over-committed.
In the Career Change Program she identified important value conflicts,
decided to be more self-directed and learned some new decision
making tools and set some priorities for her work and life.
Her new career possibilities enabled her to express her spiritual
and financial values. She set some deadlines and action plans
for her career and family.
Dream
Job
Teresa has
made a number of difficult choices (decisions) in pursuit of her
top career priorities --- have her 'Dream Job' and live in the
RTP area with her partner. After she lost her existing 'Dream
Job' in a SE state, she made the difficult choice of moving to
the RTP area and continuing her job search while living where
she wanted to live. Once here, she chose to focus her search on
the same kind of position ('Dream Job') instead of a generic 'best
job I can get'.
To make herself
more marketable by acquiring PMP certification, staying focused
on her 'Dream Job', her 'Work Related Values' and using some decisions
tools she learned in the Career Change Program, she was able to
get and accept an offer of her 'Dream Job'.
Unfortunately,
for her, she had to move to another state and temporarily move
away from her desired RTP area residence.
Although employed
in her 'Dream Job' in another state, she is now using what she
learned about job seeking and her expanded multi-state network
of friends to continue her search for her 'Dream Job' in the RTP
area.
Creating
And Realizing A Vision
John was a
successful manager in a global corporation, but was approaching
his late 50's and had been dreaming for several years of pursuing
a second career in counseling and social work.
He used the
Personal Future Timelines from the Career Change Program to manage
the transition and make the dream real. In using this tool, he
became aware of how his change would affect other family members
and he included them in the plan, ensuring success for everyone
involved.
He also realized
the full scope of what is involved in changing every aspect of
one's life after almost 60 years, and was able to plan far enough
ahead to cope with all the aspects.
Once Johns
additional education was completed, all aspects of the Life Career
Planning Workshop proved helpful in staying focused on the specific
second career he wanted. John actually turned down some social
work jobs that did not offer the opportunity to counsel. He wound
up with a mental health agency as an outpatient therapist. This
is consistent with the realization of his original vision.
Taking
charge of my life
Before the
workshop, Fran's work as a Financial Sales Representative for
a large inter-state bank was boring and she was oppressed by sales
goals. She did not receive the mentoring and leadership she needed
from her immediate supervisor. Because she lacked clear direction,
she knew her self-esteem would continue to decline if she did
not think seriously about making a real life/career change.
During the
Career Change Program, with thoughtful reflection on possible
applications of the feedback from the Career Change Program's
self-assessment instruments, the opportunity to set some motivating
life/career goals, and the encouragement of Mike and Steve, she
moved out of her comfort zone, decided to take some risks and
to take charge of her life/career.
After the
Career Change Program, and months later, she accepted the opportunity
to work on several short term training-related projects, one of
which received an award from the Bank's Executive Board. Later
she was offered and accepted the opportunity to move into the
Training Department. Now she has both her 'Dream Job' and increased
self-esteem.
Internal motivations
Attending
the Career Change Program saved Angie weeks in her job search.
The instrumented feedback she received helped her focus her job
search on areas where she had strong interests and skills. She
learned that she is highly motivated for her parents to be proud
of the kind of work she does. She is also motivated by her needs
for personal growth and professional development.
Steve and
Mike helped her realize that in job selection, these internal
motivators are equally important to her as the external motivators
--- salary and benefits.
The Career
Change Program helped her set some job search goals and outline
an action plan that kept her momentum going after the Career Change
Program. She effectively marketed herself and she got a position
and salary level beyond what she thought possible.
Doing
Something Meaningful
Beth is a
skilled programmer. She is good at it and she loves doing it,
but had moved from job to job trying to find a place that was
meaningful for her to apply her skills. Her career in the software
industry was moving from job to job and being miserable. She had
not thought much about what she wanted to do with her life/career.
She wanted to help people but she did not know how to find employment
programming without going back to school in education or medicine.
In the Career
Change Program she came to a new awareness. After viewing her
results in the Campbell Interest and Skill Survey, she discovered
that her interests, skills, personality and work were not in alignment
but could be. She learned how to do a job search and her self-confidence
increased. After the workshop she found a job that she loved writing
software for pharmaceutical companies that she loved.
Later, she
and her husband created and implemented an unconventional "baby's
first year" plan by which she could work part time doing
what she enjoyed, be at home with her baby and after the first
year do some extensive traveling
Passion
overcomes fear
Elise attended
the Career Change Program to increase her confidence that she
could leave her present job and start her own business. She had
been in the retail industry for 20 years and was currently Supervisor
of many store managers. Her manager wanted her to move to Colorado
from North Carolina. Participation in the Career Change Program
confirmed her passion and abilities to run her own business. Her
obstacle was her fear of getting out on her own and failing. Her
twin passion was keeping herself organized and training her store
managers to become better organized. She believed that if she
stayed focused on her passion rather than focused on making a
certain amount of money, that she'd be successful. The focus of
her growing business is to assist people in organizing their home,
their time and their small business office.
Fear is something
she faces everyday but remembers what she learned in the Career
Change Program
--- goal setting, planning and following up. She keeps her focus
on her passion for sharing and teaching others how to be better
organized.
Confirming
and expanding an idea
The Career
Change Program confirm Martha's idea that she would like being
a salesperson. This was confirmed by her scores on the Five Factor
Personality Inventory and the Work Values Inventory. She also
learned the importance of patient networking to get the job that
she wanted. Before the end of the Career Change Program, she had
set some goals and created an action plan for the following week.
By the end
of the Monday following the Career Change Program she had six
'informational interviews' with sales companies scheduled for
that week. These led to several job interviews that helped her
narrow her focus and enabled her to turn down some employment
offers until she accepted the one she wanted and is happily employed.
She has learned
to compensate for her major weaknesses --- difficulty in setting
goals, not planning her work and getting distracted easily and
frequently.
For more information,
contact me at:
Office Hours:
Call for appointment (919) 469-5775
Unemployed 2 - 5 PM
Employed 7 PM
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