My career coaching client Denise was saying to me recently that she was trying so hard to remain positive in her career search, that she got frustrated with herself when she wasn’t able to always be optimistic. I think trying to stay positive all the time is counter-productive. Yes you want to lean towards optimism as much as possible when you’re looking for your dream job, but there are going to be days when you’re frustra...

I was had a career coaching call with my client Margaret a few weeks ago. When she got on the call she was on top of the moon! She had just conducted an informational interview with someone who owned his own law firm, which was one of the career paths she had been considering. The information she got from him, and what she learned validated her decision to move forward. He also gave her a lot of good things to consider in o...

We all know the saying, “If you start small, you’ll get small.” I always encourage my career coaching clients to think outside the box with their career ideas and really dream big up front. My career coaching client Farah did just that when she shared on a group coaching call a great way to think creatively about alternative career ideas.She suggested to use Thesaurus.com as a way to input keywords related to jobs that inte...

I was thrilled to receive this email from Callie, a career coaching client I worked with a few months ago. She has a new job! Even in this bad economy, I still hear about people and clients who are finding jobs, and getting hired. There are many success stories out there!I had such a great experience with you, and now recommend everyone see a career coach. In fact, I’ve been meaning to tell you that I am starting a new job...

On a recent career group coaching call my client, Tracey, said something brilliant. In the previous week she had been working on becoming more aware of her behavior by observing herself more to understand if she was walking her talk. She has been talking about staying committed to her job search and remaining open to new ideas. Well she realized that some of this was just lip service and she wasn’t actually walking her talk...

I can't tell you how many times I've spoken with career coaching clients who said, "I tried one career path and it wasn't a fit, so I tried something else that was different." This happened to me again this week. This particular career coaching client said they figured they should try the opposite of what they were already doing.I can relate to this idea well because I felt the same way in my 20's. I had 5 different jobs, i...

I was recently talking with one of my career group coaching clients, Allison. She made me laugh because all along, we’ve been working on narrowing down her career ideas. She wants to do something in the travel industry, and she told me that she was worried she was pigeonholing herself into this one career path. I laughed out loud and explained to her that I totally understood how she felt, but reminded her that our goal all...

Remember a year ago when the JetBlue flight attendant jumped out of the plane on the inflatable escape slide…and by doing so how he made such a public spectacle of his unhappiness at work and reasons for leaving his job.I was reading about the departure of Richard “Chip” Lutton Jr. who’s been Apple’s chief patent officer who up to this moment, hasn’t cited reasons for his departure.What’s more appropriate? How do you know w...

As a certified career coach, I have worked with hundreds of clients on identifying and realizing their dream jobs. Throughout this work, I have noticed that one consistent theme separates clients who are successful in their goals, versus those that continuously struggle.The defining factor is commitment.I have seen this play out time and time again. A client who comes to career coaching completely confused and miserable in...

The WSJ's reporting on the unemployment rate for June and lower amount of jobs added last month: "Bad news for the U.S. economic recovery. New private-sector jobs barely outweighed government job losses, causing the unemployment rate to climb to 9.2 percent from 9.1 percent. It's the third straight month the jobless rate has risen, and unemployment is now at its highest level since December 2010. In total, the economy...