Happy Career: Even the bad days are pretty good

Dave, an account manager at a large retail organization in Hartford, was scheduled to meet me in Old Saybrook a few weeks ago for a career counseling session.  He called to say he was under the weather but could meet by Skype.  Dave noted that he didn’t like going to work on days he was […]

Career Counseling As A Way To Enhance Your Life

“I know you don’t call yourself a life coach but that’s what you have become to my sister. I think I need your help.” so began a phone call from Evelyn, a thirtysomething New Haven based freelance graphic artist. She was right on all counts: I don’t call myself a life coach as my work […]

The exploratory work needed to move from a job to a career to a calling.

I share to provide hope. I believe that my career path has the same start as many of Career Counseling Connecticut’s clients. The end should be your focus.I have had many jobs. Starting at 16: fry guy at Roy Rogers; doorman/bellhop for a high end hotel, waiter at a country club, assembly line worker, dishwasher, […]

Career Creation v. Career Reaction

If I had to think of the number one thing that my career counseling clients can do to change their careers, it would be embracing the notion of career creation.“What will you do if General Electric leaves Connecticut?” I asked a former tutor of The Learning Consultants who wrote me last year about taking a junior […]

Career: One of the Big Rocks

Stephen Covey of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People fame showed a wonderful video of illustrating the need to put first things first.  In simple summary, when given a collection of rocks and a jar, you need to put the big rocks in first and then let the little rocks slip in around the rocks in order […]

Purpose: The Career Cure For Depression

Alex relayed his past psychological history: reasonably happy through high school at Xavier in Middletown, CT. Happy during his freshmen year at Boston College as a pre-med. Gradual onset of depression between his freshman and sophomore year stemming from his realization that he did not want to be pre-med but no other alternative. Upward mood […]

Gratitude that you can change careers

Allison’s voice was quivering as she relayed the feeling of being stuck in a career she hated. She also had a commute from Milford to Stamford that due to Connecticut’s I-95 quagmire was both grueling and unpredictable. I have sympathy for all my career counseling clients. I also know that gratitude can shift mental states.“Do […]

Career Counseling: The Ignition Key Needed For Career Change

Andy, a mid-level manager at a New Haven bio-medical company, called a month after our meeting. “I had been thinking of career change for 7 years. After our meeting, I finally am committed and changing seems like it will be surprisingly easy. Thank you.” Andy discovered what many of my career counseling clients do: starting […]

Career Change: YOU Have To Create The Process

I knew Kyle since he was freshman at The Williams School in New London. My first company, The Learning Consultants, has a program called Student Mastery that trains students to master their job as students. He worked with either me or my teammates through high school as he went through SATs/AP classes and the college […]

Taking a Career Risk: “You can’t connect the dots looking forward.”

Steve Jobs made the sage remark. I think of ” connecting the dots going forward” whenever a career counseling client faces uncertainty. I know that, at my best, I embrace this philosophy and view life as an adventure.  At my worst, I am in control mode and feel anxious when I don’t know how things […]