At the root of failed career changes, bad job choices or an inability to make that next professional step is some level of what I call fuzziness around who we are professionally. Getting a clear and appreciative view of your professional assets is vital, foundational career development work. My friends at VisualCV, a leading online resume-building software provider, invited me to write a guest post. In response, I wrote an in-depth, step-by-step guest article for their blog on what to do if you'…

Targeted Planning

The prospect of making some form of career change is both exhilarating -- and daunting. If you’ve decided to change careers -- and you know exactly the new career you want to pursue -- it’s important not to be stymied by the enormity of the challenges associated with the career-change process. So, how do you get the ball rolling? Drawing from my experience as an executive recruiter, director of an MBA career centre and as career coach, here are some powerful strategies you can e…

Let Your Company Work For You

Does your company do something exceptionally well as a result of industry dynamics? Quality processes. Mission critical systems. Marketing discipline. Customer support. Distribution precision. Don’t take that level of excellence for granted. There may be organizations who look to your employer as a leader in this area and covet that expertise. The expertise you’ve gained from your employer’s unique circumstances may be just the career move strategy you need to empowe…

One of the first roadblocks to making a career change, and this causes a lot of people to rot in their existing job, is that assumption or feeling that there is one right answer. One magic profession, that if it could be identified, would be the solution to everything. So, in the absence of finding the “right answer,” people stay put. But, while they stay put, life goes on.

In my experience, some, and only some people, have a specific thing that they “find” and in which they can be happy for the …