life@work

What It Takes To Change Careers In Midlife

I get a number of calls every month from people in their late 30’s, 40's or 50's who want to know what kind of process I go through with clients to help them change careers. They’re all revved up about possibility and change. Some of them sign up for the adventure while others, sighing as they hang up the phone, do not. 

Changing careers after 10 or more years is an incredibly daunting task. It’s a complex process that takes a whole lot of energy, creativity, persistence and work. And chances are you are already engaged in a life that requires a whole lot of energy, creativity, persistence and work.

I was interested to read this useful piece that sums up the process of changing careers in mid-life. If you’re thinking about it, I recommend you check it out.

Here is an overview of the steps, with my editorial comments:

• Assess yourself (There are 468 ways to do this, including written exercises and various tests.)
• Know what’s important to you. (Pay, hours, tasks, challenge, industry, people contact, etc.)
• Find out what’s out there (Research online and/or use a career counselor or coach.)
• Narrow down career options. (Between two and four options is manageable and not overly limiting.)
• Talk to people in the field (informational interviews, attend professional association meetings).
• Volunteer, work as a temp, or moonlight to try something out first while minimizing risk.
• Engage your existing network of people to assist you. (This is one of your biggest advantages over younger career-changers, so use it!)

You've heard about all of these steps before - none are difficult to comprehend. A big challenge for most people is deciding exactly how and exactly when and exactly with whom they are going to accomplish the steps.

But perhaps the most daunting challenge is keeping up the interest, momentum and sheer stamina it takes to change careers, while at the same time navigating the ever-changing currents of the river called My Life Right Now.

Just because you're in the midst of engineering a career change doesn't mean you can't go through a re-org at work, or the dog won't die, or your teenager won't test your limits, or your spouse's mother won't need to move into assisted living, and so on and so forth.

It can be tempting in the face of such distractions to give up on your career change plan altogether. But with a little patience, and a caring person in your life to nudge you, you can do it.

I'd love to hear: What made it possible for you to change careers?

How to Choose the Right Career Coach

I'm a life and career coach, and if you're looking for someone to coach you about something in your life or career, I may be a good match for you.

Then again, maybe not.

Coaching, as you can imagine, is not a one-size-fits-all service. That's why it's important to know before you start shopping for a coach what specifically you want. For example:

• Are you having trouble in your job search?
• Are you thinking about changing careers and have no idea where to start?
• Are you looking to advance to the next tier in your company?
• Do you know what you "should" be doing but just aren't getting it done?
• Are you wanting to take your business to the next level?

These are very different challenges. Most coaches will have great interest and experience with some of them and not as much interest or experience with others.

Good coaches will only accept clients who are looking for results the coach is adept at producing. No one benefits from a client-coach mismatch.

This article from Career Journal offers great advice about how to find the right career coach for you.

I'm best at helping people make important career decisions and create and follow through on a plan of action. Want to leave your organization? Propel your career forward? Decide on a career after college? Change some habits so that you'll be a better manager or a better parent away from work? Start a business? Call me and let's talk.

If you've tried everything in your job search and it's still not working, I've got someone in mind for you to talk with. If you need your resume re-written, I know just the person. If you need inside contacts in a particular industry or city, I suggest you find mentors.

When you're highly motivated to move forward toward your goals and are paired with the right coach, you'll be amazed at what you can accomplish in very short order.

Heather Mundell
Dream Big Coaching Services
www.dreambigcoaching.com
heather@dreambigcoaching.com

Money Mindfulness and Your Career

I coach people who are making big decisions about their career, so therefore I coach people about money.

Financial rewards and security are for most of us inextricably linked to our career choices. Planning our careers means we're thinking about how we are funding our lifestyles.

And all of that thinking about money brings up big emotions. You know, the fun ones, like fear, dread, and confusion.

A trusted colleague of mine, Debbie Lacy, of The Inspired Life, has put together a two-part workshop on money mindfulness that is happening this spring in Seattle and is all about how to create a more positive relationship with money.

Career decisions are so much easier to make when we have a relationship with money that is grounded in a clear vision of what we want!

Debbie is a superb coach and facilitator - if you're in Seattle and are ready for a money makeover - if you're ready to believe and behave differently with money - check out her Money Mindfulness workshop.

Heather Mundell
Dream Big Coaching Services
www.dreambigcoaching.com
heather@dreambigcoaching.com

How to Choose the Best Career Assistance for You

If you feel stuck in a career rut or unsure of how to take the next step in your career path, there are a number of resources you can use to help you move forward.

There are friends, books, study programs, mentors, tele-courses, group coaching, career counseling and career coaching. Choosing from among the options can be a dizzying process in itself.

I am a career coach, and part of my job is connecting people with the resources that are right for them. Career coaching can be a wonderful catalyst, yet is not the best solution for everyone in a career slump.

This article from Lower Hudson Online does a good job describing what to look for and expect from a career coach.

If it's time for you to turn to some kind of outside assistance regarding your career (usually when your spouse and/or friends are just sick and tired of hearing about your career woes!) take a few minutes to think about what exactly you're needing.

• Tactical job search advice?
• Assistance figuring out how your skills could translate to a different industry or career?
• A long term career plan?
• A new resume?
• Contacts in the field of your choice?
• Time in your day to do thinking and planning on your own?
• Someone to be a sounding board and support you?

Also think about how much time you have to dedicate to this exploration, whether talking to another person or group is important to you, and what kind of financial investment you're willing to make.

For instance career books are a great low-cost investment, if you know you have the self discipline to complete the exercises and process on your own.

Career coaching is a significant investment that can yield powerful results in a short period of time, if you enjoy partnerships and can commit the time and energy it requires.

Thankfully, we don't have to figure out everything about careers by ourselves. Knowing what you need will make it easy to find the career assistance that's best for you.

Heather Mundell
Dream Big Coaching Services
www.dreambigcoaching.com
heather@dreambigcoaching.com

Dream Big Coaching Services in the Press

Seattle Metropolitan magazine publishes a "Best of the City" issue each year, and I'm excited to announce that I'm featured in this year's list as Seattle's "top career coach"!

Seattleites will be interested to read about all of the stores, restaurants, activities and services featured in this July 2007 issue. You'll need to purchase the magazine to get all the details, however. I'm featured in the "Renew and Improve" section, along with an organizer, party planner, a budget-conscious stylist and many other services.

I started Dream Big Coaching Services four years ago this month with a mission to help people transform vision into action.

I had my mission, my coach certification, passion for what I was about to begin, skills and experience gained from a career in human resources, a variety of other talents and skills, time, support from my family, ideas and hope.

What I didn't have: entrepreneurial experience, marketing experience, or supreme confidence and certainty about how exactly my business would develop.

Over time I learned that I could gain the first two elements but would have to be comfortable with a certain degree of not knowing.

When I accepted that I wouldn't be able to predict how exactly my business would evolve, I relaxed into doing the work. I learned through trial and error, I hired my own coach, I talked with peers, I read, and I followed my natural talents and interests. Out went attending huge networking groups. In came blogging.

In the last four years I've had ups and downs, joys and disappointments, successes and failures. What I keep coming back to is the mission of my business.

My mission happens to be something I care about deeply: to help people dream big and then help them get out there and actually make it happen.

It's a thrill for me to love my job, and it's exciting to help others figure out how they can find career happiness, too. Today is a perfect day to reflect on the first four years of my coaching business.

What's your mission for your career?

Heather Mundell
Dream Big Coaching Services
www.dreambigcoaching.com
heather@dreambigcoaching.com

 

Smile and Dial, or How to Make That Call You're Avoiding

Will you do just about anything to avoid picking up the phone and calling someone?

Calling for a haircut is one thing, but what happens to you when you need to call someone to ask for something, or call your boss's boss, or call someone with news they're not going to like?

Many of us dread making these kinds of calls. Of course email can help us along with telephone anxiety, but it can only take us so far in relationship building.

At least that's my old-fashioned-I'm-sure perspective, which is shared by the bloggers at Hiring Revolution. Their post on this topic mentions this good article on how to put an end to phone phobia.

Key tips:

• Know your purpose for calling
• Imagine a successful outcome to the call
• Ask if you're calling at a good time
• Actively listen
• Smile to add warmth to your voice
• Practice a lot

I had a telemarketing job right after high school, which I absolutely hated. My office cleaning job that same summer was a pleasure compared to selling a long distance plan over the phone. I also held a job after college which required making telephone sales calls. Again, it was awful.

While I never felt it important enough to get over my call reluctance while working for others, selling things I didn't really care about, I knew that being able to make calls in support of myself and my goals would be a key skill to learn.

The more I made calls, the less nervous I became. This is because I found out that while not every call went my way, many did, and many led to opportunities and relationships that were even better than I imagined.

I learned that calling prospective employers, or long-lost people from my professional network, or a contact whom I didn't know who was recommended by a friend, often resulted in something positive. And when it didn't, I survived intact.

It does take courage to push out of your comfort zone, especially when you know you'll get sweaty palms in the process.

When you know you need courage to make that call, try one of these ideas:

• Put on music that pumps you up
• Stand up when you make the call
• Call a friend to fire you up with a pep talk
• Sketch out a script of what you want to say
• Exercise and then make the call
• Just go make the call without thinking too much
• Decide to do something enjoyable right after the call, no matter how it goes

Heather Mundell
Dream Big Coaching Services
www.dreambigcoaching.com
heather@dreambigcoaching.com

Scott Adams on Affirmations and How They've Worked for Him

I love the sense of humor in Scott Adams' Dilbert strip. When I was in HR, I especially adored Catbert, the evil HR director. Such a cynical and smart take on just how evil HR can be.

So it's fascinating to me to read Scott Adams' post about how he's used affirmations to achieve important goals. He's of course funny in this post, but is also self-deprecating and honest about how he can't explain exactly why they've worked.

Writing down or repeating affirmations out loud can be quite a woo-woo process. I found it surprising and charming to learn that someone like Scott (whom of course I've never met but who I imagine to be solidly connected to earth as he looks for and hilariously describes the absurd aspects of our everyday lives at the office) not only uses affirmations but is willing to admit it and write about it.

I've dabbled in the practice myself but so far it hasn't caught hold. I just feel really silly writing phrases over and over again that aren't true (yet!)

However, I'm comfortable with guided visualizations and all kinds of different journaling techniques, and can be relatively woo-woo when called upon.

What about you? Have you ever written down what you want repeatedly over time? If so, what results did you get?

Heather Mundell
Dream Big Coaching Services
www.dreambigcoaching.com
heather@dreambigcoaching.com

Technorati Tags: scott adams, affirmations, goal setting

How to Recognize the Great Coaches and Avoid the Mediocre Ones

Coaching has been in the media quite a bit in the last couple of years, but many people who are interested in it still don't know what it means or how it can help them.

I understand. Many different definitions of coaching are circulating. The lines between coaching, consulting, counseling and mentoring are not always clear and distinct. There is executive coaching, personal coaching, business coaching, career coaching, life coaching, success coaching, health and fitness coaching, leadership coaching, athletic coaching, and underwater coaching.

OK, I made that last one up. But you get my point. People can call themselves whatever kind of coach they want. How are you supposed to know what any of it means? How are you supposed to tell the difference between the great coaches and the mediocre ones?

First a couple of basics. The International Coach Federation is the largest non-profit association of coaches worldwide. It has taken great care to define and describe competencies that every professional coach should possess. The ICF website is a good place to go to understand what the coaching competencies are and what ethical standards its members agree to follow.

The ICF accredits coach training schools, so selecting a coach who completed training as a professional coach from one of those schools is greater insurance (although no guarantee) that she will be well-versed in the coaching competencies.

Beyond the basics, here's my incomplete and completely biased list of who a great coach is and what a great coach does (inspired by Robert Hargrove, author of Masterful Coaching):

A great coach is:

• Inspiring
• Positive
• Direct
• Truthful
• Your thinking partner
• Your sounding board
• An inquirer
• Totally committed to your success
• Totally committed to your transformation (sounds dramatic, but it's true)

A great coach:

• Puts exciting new possibilities on the table
• Stands in the future you want to create
• Challenges all of the assumptions you take for granted
• Listens for the paradigms behind your stories
• Acknowledges your successes
• Inspires you to stay in action
• Chooses clients selectively

Get recommendations of coaches from your friends or colleagues. Or find coaches on the Internet, read their websites, read their blogs, and call them. Talk to several. Tell them what you want, what's missing, what's in your way, and why coaching intrigues you.

Ask yourself who they are "being" with you. Notice what they are "doing" with you. Compare that to the bullet points above. Check in with your gut.

Make your selection, or decide that you need a different kind of service, such as counseling, a mentor or a class. A great coach will coach you to find the person and service that is right for you.

Heather Mundell
Dream Big Coaching Services
www.dreambigcoaching.com
heather@dreambigcoaching.com

I Think I Can I Think I Can...

The other night my kids asked me to read The Little Engine That Could for their bedtime story.

I was a little surprised, because in our house this is a "baby" book that we haven't read in at least a year. I sighed, remembering how dull and repetitive it is to read. Then we began.

You remember how it goes: Happy little train with toys and candy for the good little boys and girls on the other side of the mountain breaks down. The clown spokesperson for the train flags down three engines for help, all of whom refuse for various reasons. Finally a little blue engine comes along and decides to give it a try. Success!

My kids loved it. And even though this 1930 story is old-fashioned and out-dated in some ways (one of the toys for the good little boys and girls is a jack-knife, which you don't read about so much anymore in books for young children!), it's actually a timeless story about compassion, courage, tenacity and optimism.

Compassion: The little blue engine stops quickly and listens to the clown with concern. The thought of helping the little boys and girls and seeing how sad the dolls are urges her to act courageously.

Courage: Even though the little blue engine isn't big, has only been used for switching trains in the yard, and has never been over the mountain, she decides to try to pull the train of toys. There's no reason for her or anyone else to believe she'll be successful.

Tenacity: She tugs, she pulls, she pulls, she tugs. It's slow, hard work.

Optimism: What does she say to herself as she begins this task? Not, "Oh my God this will never work", or "What if I fail?" Hint: See title of this post.

At the end of the story as she flies down the hill to the other side of the mountain to give the toys to the good little girls and boys, the little blue engine thinks to herself, "I thought I could", not "Well, that was a lucky break that will never happen to me again."

It's a simple story, chock-full of pearls of wisdom relevant to our lives today, so many of which we forget about or ignore to our detriment.

What if you as a career planner, career changer or job searcher went about your business as if you were the little blue engine? What would feel different? What different results would you be getting?

What's powerful enough to urge you to chug your way up the mountain?

Heather Mundell
Dream Big Coaching Services
www.dreambigcoaching.com
heather@dreambigcoaching.com

Career Mom Radio: A Weekly Podcast for All Kinds of Moms

There's a new podcast show for moms that might interest you - it's called Career Mom Radio, and it's dedicated to moms:

Moms who've had a child and stayed home for a few years and are now thinking of coming back. It's about moms who faced that decision and decided to stay home. And it's for moms who have been back to work for a while, and who are looking for work that might better balance their work-life balance.

Erica Douglas, who writes the Littlemummy blog and has an incredibly charming Scottish accent, is the Executive Producer. There's a team of regular contributors (including me!) who talk about all kinds of different issues about careers and motherhood.

The show is informative, personal, honest, funny at times, and easy to listen to during your commute or while you do the dishes.

"Launching a Business" is the theme of this week's show. Give a listen and let me know your thoughts!

You can find Career Mom Radio on iTunes too. Every Friday you'll get a new show.

And if you know of a career-related podcast I should be listening to, let me know!

Heather Mundell
Dream Big Coaching Services
www.dreambigcoaching.com
heather@dreambigcoaching.com