Meaning and Purpose: The Main Reason for Career Happiness
“So, what’s the goal, to be Senator or something?” About twenty five years ago, I was a young public service attorney. I was visiting my high school friend who was with his wealth manager friend. The friend – Steve – was gregarious and direct. But he was also as shallow as the caricature of the […]
Want better mental health? Get a better job.
We are facing an epidemic well beyond Covid. Mental health issues have been rising dramatically well before the pandemic. The last year and a half has accelerated mental health decline but “we” – young people in particular – were becoming less mentally healthy for the last couple of decades. There are many factors underlying this […]
If you are not yourself at work, then time to change careers
I recently was working with a career counseling client who said something that I’ve heard before but he put it well: “There is work guy Max and there is the real Max. Only about 50% overlap. That’s probably why I’m unhappy 50% of the time.” My own work history mirrors this sentiment. When I was […]
Is it the “right time” to switch careers?
The pandemic has been the proximate cause of “The Great Resignation.” Time to reflect has been a gift. A client recently noted that she was desperate for a career change but that “this is not a good time”. There was nothing out of the ordinary about her current situation. In other words, there was no […]
Does your career primarily consist of “your people”?
As I sat in my first year dormitory of law students, I had my one of my first realizations that the law had some but not a lot of my people. And I would discover as time progressed that those who were my people would end up taking unusual paths in the law as opposed […]
The time for career change: Now
Leo Tolstoy, the great Russian author, wrote a brilliant short story: The Three Questions centering upon: What was the right time for every action? Who were the most necessary people? What was the most important thing to do? In relation to your career, when is the right time for career changing action? For Tolstoy and most any […]
Follow your passion…. but also follow the marketplace
“I am passionate about…” I hear this a great deal from my career counseling clients as they walk into Career Counseling Connecticut’s offices. I am passionate about my work. I made the radical switch from big city attorney in Washington, DC to education-entrepreneur in small town Connecticut. My idealistic nature is in sync with […]
September is coming…time for career control
While January 1 is the official start of a new year, most of us have the K-12 ingrained programming that September is really the start of the year. The problem with such programming is that massive change just happened to us each year from kindergarten through high school and through college. Quite literally, our “work” […]
Boys To Men: The Career Edition
I wrote Motivate Your Son in 2012. I described the challenges that I observed as a practicing educational consultant in Shoreline CT. I predicted three general career paths for the majority of young men. I led with optimism. Those that had what I termed “work character” – which has much overlap with what is commonly […]
Empty Nest Careers
While true that there are more twentysomething career seekers that Career Counseling Connecticut helps, there are a surprisingly high number of fifty somethings that need career help. Beyond the obvious – those who have been downsized and need to get a job – the most common type are those who are seeking work/career happiness. While […]