Parents seeking to help their children’s career path
Parents of college age or recent college graduates know the new parental truth: the practical part of your parenting did not end when you sent them to college. Here’s what I mean: parents have always been parents for life so I am not referencing emotional support and other parental interactions post high school departure. But […]
Career Counseling: The power of practical training
The Power of Positive Thinking is my father’s all time favorite book. Norman Vincent Peale’s classic is old school middle of the twentieth century literature that provides an adjacent strand of thought to the law of attraction. I’m all for positive thinking and, if properly understood, the law of attraction. Here’s the problem: some of […]
Helping Our Career Counseling Clients Through Uncertainty
Like many of our career counseling clients, Sarah suffered about leaving her job to start a new venture. One of the truths I’ve discovered about human nature through my 15 years of providing career counseling services is that most people will choose the security of low level misery to uncertainty. In Sarah’s case, she had […]
“Is Career Counseling Worth It?”
Many career counselors are terrible. Why? Because they fall into two categories (1) psychologists who are often well meaning but have no real business providing career advice and (2) those who have not had successful careers themselves, and then through their own career search immersion think they can help others. Those psychologists who enter career […]
Career Play: What if your work was just an expression of who you are?
Creators of any sort understand exactly what I’m suggesting: if you are a musician, a craftsman, a writer and whole host of other professions where the dominant activity involves expressing yourself then your work is part of you. Those involved in meaningful work often feel the same way. The most obvious are clerics. Pastors, priests, […]
Be thankful if you can help your adult-children with their careers
From The Atlantic, May 2nd article on the average millennial career: “The typical millennial career is not in a fixed state. It is more aspirational than descriptive. Jobs are still quite temporary things for twenty-somethings. The average American has more than seven jobs before he or she turns 29 and about a third of those can […]
Thanksgiving Career Change: Your Future Self Will Thank You
“You were right. I’m thankful to my younger self for doing the work to change my career.” Kim said as she reflected on her career change from stay at home mom in Essex, Connecticut to a grant writer for a non-profit near Hartford. When Kim met me four years ago in our Old Saybrook offices, […]
Career Counseling: Breaking The Pattern
“I guess you just changed my life.” Martha said as we wrapped up the meeting. She had contacted Career Counseling Connecticut because she felt stuck. Hopelessly stuck. As she went through her thoughts, it seemed clear that Martha had locked herself into a distinct pattern of thought: “I have to do this job and stay […]
You made my options clear
The mission of Career Counseling Connecticut is to empower our career counseling clients to find careers they love. But our differentiating proposition – at least compared to psychologists who masquerade as psychologists – is that we provide concrete, realistic options to our clients. Paul was one such client. He had ideas, not even ideas, but […]
Be the writer of your own movie
That phrase is what Ben said was the click moment that made him change his career. Ben had graduated from Emerson in Boston with a degree in film. After spending a few years in New York mostly working as a waiter at night and as a low paid production assistant on some projects, he decided […]