Career Counseling: Rational probability analysis leads to long term career happiness
Jerry wanted to leave his career path. He worked in a relatively large company in the Hartford, Connecticut area in a business analyst role. He had an all too typical career path: hired out of college in the early 2000s – pre Great Recession – he thought he would work for his current company for […]
How effective career counseling counters negativity bias
Alan has credentials and abilities that make him nearly invincible in the work place. This is not an overstatement. If Alan wins a Nobel Prize in the next 10 years, it would not be a surprise. So why would Alan need career counseling? While successful in every conventional sense, Alan hates his work life. […]
Career Advice: Recognize that we are living in a revolution
We are in the midst of a work revolution. Revolution may seem to be a dramatic word for a 20 year gradual process. But most revolutions take that long. The Industrial Revolution was 75 years plus. The Information Age Revolution began… when… with the personal computer? With the Internet? With e-mail? In 1987, I […]
Career Changing Advice: How Not To Interview
I’m not a great interviewer for one basic reason: I root too hard for the interviewee. I want to figure out how to make it work – “how can I help make your work life better?” – that’s a good mission for someone providing career guidance but perhaps not the best approach for someone running […]
Career Satisfaction: Be present
“You shouldn’t think so much.” So said Joe a seasoned hand on the assembly line. I was 18. It was the summer before I headed to college. I was fortunate to get a high paying union job. But the actual day was dreary. I would either load boxes onto a pallet, until the pallet was […]
Career Satisfaction: Purpose, Autonomy, and Mastery
Peter Diamandis has written two books worth reading: Abundance and Bold. Diamandis is a true visionary immersed in a dizzying area of big projects related to human longevity, space, and entrepreneurship. In relation to career counseling, Diamandis believes that there are three components necessary for happiness and success: purpose, autonomy, and mastery. I was delighted to […]
Start of Another Career Year
The start of the school year is so ingrained in most of us that September really feels like the new year. Connecticut school age students are forced to change. They must advance a grade and start anew. Connecticut workers who are stuck in a career are not forced to change (except due to layoffs). They […]
Purpose: A key element of career satisfaction
Dave earns enough money to support his wife and three children in an upper middle class lifestyle. He has a good boss, works for a stable company in Connecticut’s strong insurance industry, has reasonable hours, and is good at his job. Sounds pretty great to most people. Indeed, I had to remind him of this […]
Autonomy: One key element needed to move from career despair to career joy
I checked my voice mail. 17 messages. I was an associate at a large Washington, DC law firm. Message 1 was from the partner I was working with regarding the outline of a deposition (questions to a witness in a civil law suit). Some background will be helpful. I was a former criminal prosecutor in […]