Want to be happier? Change to an authentic career
Gretchen Rubin wrote The Happiness Project. I’m surprised by how much I like it but she writes honestly and with great insight. One of her comments about happiness relates to “feeling right”. In unpacking the idea, it essentially means feeling like you are leading the life that is right for you. In other words, you could […]
Career Counseling Advice: Failure to Plan is Planning to Fail
“I drifted into my career…” Sean said about his work in a Fairfield County bank. Sean’s tale was sadly familiar. Graduating from Sacred Heart about 5 years ago, he had no idea what he wanted to do for his career. It dawned on him that he never had a class on “career.” He was a […]
Living Your Career As An Adventure
“I don’t know when I became so boring.” Ellen told me. “I used to be fun. I used to be more daring. Now, I’m too afraid to take a chance.” Ellen worked in an office park in North Haven, Connecticut and found the setting dull. She worked in a company and in an industry that […]
Career Advice from Better Call Saul: The Sunk Cost Fallacy
“Have you paid off your law school loans?” asked a lawyer friend when I told him I was leaving the practice of law. My “no” response didn’t need a follow up as it was clear that he thought I was making a mistake. Here’s what interesting: My friend knew me well enough to believe that leaving […]
If you can’t be you at work, time to leave your job.
I entered my shared office in Madison, Connecticut prepared to give a presentation. The audience would be arriving in 20 minutes and to my not pleasant surprise, two electricians were drilling in my suite mate’s office. I had been told by my office share friend that the work was being done the previous day. Not […]
Career Happiness Will Make You A Better Parent and Spouse
“I want to be able to provide for my kids.” Sean said. “That’s the only reason why I stay in my career.” Sean went on to explain that both his wife and his oldest child had urged him to meet with a career counselor because they saw his misery. If your spouse and kids […]
Helping and creating: Two factors that lead to career happiness
A few months ago, Nancy and Tom (disguised names and story details) came in for separate career counseling appointments on the same day. It struck me as interesting because they worked in the same building in Hartford and both complained about their jobs for similar reasons. Each felt they were not making a difference in […]
Is Your Career Blocking Your Creative Potential?
“I don’t mean I want to be artist but I don’t just want to do tasks all day. I want to create something, anything.” David said. “I love writing music so much because my creative juices flow. But at work, I just follow procedures.” David commented further, in a refrain I’ve heard before, “and now I […]
What are you building? Twentysomethings, career drift, and brand building
“My older brother’s friend helped me get into this company…” Brittany said. “I never heard of them and didn’t even know what they did”, she continued in her vague descriptions of a company in North Haven, Connecticut. Brittany graduated Fairfield University in 2012. While the recession had lost its vigorous grip on the nation at […]
Twentysomethings: Creating the dream career
In my career counseling work, I don’t help create starving artists. But I do help idealists create realistic dream careers. It is far easier to do so with my twentysomething clients than with my fortysomething clients who live in big houses with a couple of children in the Connecticut suburbs. That whole pay the […]