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Rejuvenating Your Career Without Quitting Your Job

12/31/2015

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As the holidays end and a new year begins, are you bummed about going back to work! After the joy and excitement that the holidays bring, does it seem like kind of a drag to go back to your weekly routine? I think many have the impression that you would only want to seek career consultation when you have just lost your job or are fed up with your current one. While my clients are usually ready for a change from their current career situation, the consultation helps them see their work lives in new ways that enhances their current job role.

What often surprises them is how unique their talents are from those of others. My clients tell me all the time that they are annoyed with particular job tasks or co-workers usually because they assume that everyone sees those work situations in the same way as themselves. The key is to remember that your approach is truly, entirely distinct from that of others. "Why does everyone always expect me to do that?" I often hear. "Why can't they just do it?" my clients will say. While it may be true that others are not responsibly fulfilling work tasks, very often my clients learn that their approach to those same tasks makes them the preferred person to complete certain job tasks in the best possible way over others, which helps them view these situations differently.

At EPIC Career, we help you single out those talents. Those are the bits that must be brought out in job interviews, Summary sections of resumes and the like. Employers want to know this about applicants, but job applicants often do not understand or know how to articulate these qualities. As we launch into a new year and back into familiar and perhaps draining work routines, remember that your talents are unique. Career assessment and consultation can help you understand how you are different from others and how you can optimally express your unique potential contributions to supervisors and potential employers to win coveted opportunities. Whether you are ready to make a major career change or simply expand your understanding of your talents, EPIC Career is hear to help!
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career assessments myth #1: i know what i am doing so i have no need for career assessment

7/29/2014

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Myth 1: I know what I am doing, so I have no need for career assessment.

False!

Are you sure about jumping into that career field? From my experience working with clients about career and college major choice issues, I can often fairly quickly see how a career choice might or might not be a long-term career fit. Actually, sometimes it is a great fit and I breathe a huge sigh of relief. But far too often, I know that the choice is a terrible mistake. 

Why does it bother me to learn that someone is about to embark upon a career from which they are not likely to find long-term satisfaction? First, I think about their future disenchantment with the choice and what a blow to their future self-confidence it will be. Secondly, I think of all of the resources (time, energy, tuition and certification expenses) the individual will personally invest. Finally, I hate to think that the American taxpayers are about to potentially loan that student tens of thousands of dollars to pursue a program that might only lead to disappointment.

So when I hear "This program has great job prospects" or "I have a friend who did that program and everything turned out great for them," my response is "Are you sure that you are completely confident about spending or borrowing all those many thousands of dollars on this program that you are not quite entirely sure will work for you?" Are you sure you don't want to know what more than 60 years of solid research suggests would be highly likely to be an ideal fit for you?" 

Before spending all those thousands, wouldn't it be wise to explore a wider set of options that will offer you understanding of clear pathways for your future career success? Whatever your college major or career decisions, wouldn't this knowledge help you breathe easier as you make them? At EPIC Career, we are here to help.
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Career Assessments Myth #2: Happy In My Career So Don't Need It

7/21/2014

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Myth 2: Because I am happy in my career, career assessments could in no way help me advance in my career.

False!

Making the Case

Career success is wonderful! It is great when you enjoy your career and earn a salary that meets your needs. It's even better to feel you have earned appropriate credentials for your profession and strong references that will support many years of career advancement. My question is: do you know how to articulate your strengths? Yes, past achievements, educational attainment, and references speak for themselves, but is that your whole story? 

If you have ever been a hiring manager you know the conundrum. You have gone through all the appropriate interviews, checked all the references (which were all satisfactory), and involved all the appropriate people with whom the new hire might regularly work. But ultimately, the final decision still lies solely with you. How do you make the decision? What is the ultimate rationale that will help you decide that one applicant will truly be a better fit than any other candidate. The answer is "fit." You know that one candidate just fits in better with yourself or others and you think (often with no rational explanation) that that one is better than every other candidate. As candidates, how can we be the fit?

Being the "Fit"

How do we stack the odds in our favor for the greatest chance of showing that we are the best fit? Personality! We must understand how our natural personality strengths make us the optimal fit for the job. When I have hired, I have always known that all applicants that I have invited to interview have a strong shot at the job. What I ultimately want to hear, however, is what makes the candidates tick. What excites them at work? What successes have they enjoyed enacting that they describe as satisfying? I also want to hear about what is not so fun or not so interesting and how that applicant manages those tasks. These details are what make the applicant a human. After all, if I am hiring them, I want to know that I want to hang out with them in the workplace for a significant amount of time over many years. Personally, I do not want to hear about how they like to go fishing, skiing, shopping or anything else personal about their lives. I want to know about what they enjoy about work. Unfortunately, too often candidates do not convey this side of themselves, leaving the interviewer to only speculate about job fit as the candidate made no compelling case.

The Power of Self-Description

How does a successful professional understand these kinds of intangible, difficult to measure qualities about themselves and most importantly, how does one articulate these qualities to an employer? Career assessment is the key. At EPIC Career, we help you understand how you have always been and will always be. Yes, we all change and improve in many ways throughout our lives, but there are many aspects of ourselves that are quite stable. You need to be able to describe in what ways you are uniquely gifted at particular work-related tasks - how you have been in the past and will always be. You can then use examples from your work experience to verify that success. This information is so much more than saying am a "I good team player". It's better than using generic terms like "focused", "punctual", or "dependable".  (Shouldn't all workers be those things?!) 

Are you ready to stand out from the crowd by describing yourself to employers in ways that most applicants cannot even conceptualize about themselves? At EPIC Career, we are here to help.


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Career Assessments Myth #3: Only About Careers?

3/24/2014

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Myth 3: The information revealed about yourself from a career assessment relates only to your career.

False!

Career Picture, Life Picture

It is often surprising to clients that our meetings reveal more to them about themselves than just career-related data. In the first hour or two of the consultation, we explain a couple of frameworks that help to explain basically how you are different from others. From this, you begin to learn not only about your unique ways of experiencing the world, but you also begin seeing aspects of yourself that you may have neglected because of any number of life circumstances. The goal is to help you see your natural talents and how they can be optimally applied to careers.

As we progress through this discussion, however, you may begin to understand how past experiences have shaped your everyday behaviors, both at work as well as your everyday life. Then, we begin the process of helping you fully comprehend what you truly enjoy in life and how your life may need to change in fundamental ways to achieve that happiness. While no one has an entirely ideal support system in place in their lives to help them move toward their ideals, from this discussion you may discover that you have more opportunities to make changes than you might have originally thought!

Yes, career choice is a personal, individual decision and we at EPIC Career are committed to helping you sort through the many aspects of your life to discover just how you can move toward your ideal career goals. Are your current career prospects weighing you down in ways that stifle potential happiness in the rest of your life? Are you ready to move forward in your career in ways that will move your entire life forward toward your ideals? At EPIC Career, we are here to help.    

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Career Assessments Myth #4: Individual Choice?

3/21/2014

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Myth 4: You must choose one of the professions listed on a career assessment to achieve career success.

False!

Your Career Fit

Consultation with career assessments includes discussion of a wide range of facets of the client’s personality including their preferred ways of understanding new information, decision making and organizing their environments. Once we reach the point in the discussion of considering a career focus, clients have unearthed a new, expanded perspective about their innate talents and skills that they most enjoy using. By this point, clients have often developed an understanding of what professions would likely prove to be a strong fit for them and, of those, which specifically they might want to pursue. If they have not, the professional titles are available from the assessments. We then review commonalities across the professions to gain a picture of the main elements of a career that would be optimal for the client.

Career choice is a personal decision and the fit is as unique as each individual. Whether they move forward with a profession listed on the assessments or not, from this discussion, an individual career plan emerges.

Do you feel like you go to work each day without excitement or passion? Do you seek a job that you will enjoy and a career that you can foresee enjoying throughout the long term? At EPIC Career, we are here to help.    


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Career Change or Career Reframe?

3/12/2014

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Client Question: I've felt dissatisfied for a while now in my career, but I'm not sure that I want to resign and go back to school, either. I feel stuck. Any advice?

EPIC Career Answer: This may surprise you - you could be in the right place already without knowing it. Yes, many of my adult clients embark upon major life changes as a result of my consultations with them. Typically, they begin college courses or start networking toward new career fields. However, I am amazed at how many of my clients do not change jobs. These non-job changers usually have one thing in common: they did not know that they had made many wise career-related decisions already. 

Career Rut

Often, the aspects of their jobs that they dislike have been glaring at them for so long that they have forgotten about the positive aspects. These individuals are often highly successful in their careers. What they hadn’t considered much lately are the many decisions throughout their lives that led them to where they are today. These decisions are not mistakes; rather, they have led to many real, positive results.

Once we examine their career assessment results together, they often begin to see their background in a more realistic light. While their results often describe job titles that they had never before considered, they also include valuable information like the client's preferred work environments, learning style, leadership style and other information. These data help them organize their past career decision-making into a sequence of events that have allowed them to develop many of their innate talents and successfully adapt their weaknesses. 

Same Career, Different Perspective

The conversation then shifts from "How can I get out of this job?" to "How can I adapt my behavior at work such that I continue to be successful, but also feel fulfilled in other aspects of my life?" We will then likely examine the ways in which changing a few basic habits in the course of a normal workday can go a long way toward building a new perspective about their current jobs. It can also help them see how they might pursue new non-work related interests that may help develop the whole person, beyond just their identity at work. 

Are you feeling unsure about your career choices of the past? Do you feel stuck in a career that you dread potentially spending the rest of your life pursuing? Do you think you have potential for success in your current job field, but need some help figuring out how to make it more satisfying? If so, at EPIC Career we are here to help.

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