Career Life Designs: Designing Great Careers!

Part 1: How Happy Are You In Your Work and Life and What You Can Start Doing Today

Now that September is upon us, are YOU starting to think:

"Summer's over and I need to really buckle down and find a new job."

'Back to school' time sets off a trigger in many working Americans that also signal ‘Back to work’. Memories of starting a new beginning each fall has employees all over the country re-evaluating their positions and looking for something new and better. It also has other people evaluating how to return to the workforce after a break.

And employees and employers feel the pressure too; especially when the window to switch jobs feels so small since the majority of employees and companies don't like to start new jobs during the holiday months of November and December. So in September and October, the push to recruit and hire new employees goes into high gear.

So what do you do about wanting to find a new and better job before the holidays are upon us? This is your opportunity to make the most of the increased hiring activity. Don't procrastinate! Get started now and you may just land your dream job before the holidays. And, if you are having trouble determining what direction to go in next or how to land your dream job, get some help! Otherwise, you could be stuck waiting until the New Year to make your next career move.

Here are some practical steps to get you started thinking about moving forward in your career exploration.

1. Determine your happiness level in your work and life.

• Do you love your work?
• Do you love your life?
• If you answered no to either question, let me ask you another question: Do you want to?

If you are ready to explore your happiness level in your work and life, I have created a Work+Life Quiz TM for you to clarify these questions and to get started on transforming your work+life with some practical steps. Download key_1_worklife_quiz.pdf to grab your copy and see what you score. (You need Adobe Reader to view and print which you can get free on the internet).

2. Score your results for your work and life separately. If you scored either your work or life in the range of:

10s, you never enjoy your work or life and you need to make some big changes to start enjoying your life!Don't despair, you will benefit from support such as career & life coaching to help you start enjoying your life and work.

20s, you are rarely enjoying your work or life and you need to make some changes to enjoy more often. You will benefit from support and the help of a career or life coach to help you identify how to move forward.

30s, you occasionally like your work or life. You probably want to make some changes to improve your score. You will benefit from the help of a career or life coach to help you identify how to move forward.

40s, you often like your work or life. You may want to make some minor changes to move into the next level.

50s, you always love your work and life. Congratulations!

3. Now rate yourself on where you'd like to be in the next 3 months. This will become your roadmap to where you truly want to be in your work and your life.

4. Circle the statements that you scored low scores of 1, 2 or 3 and get started working to improve those scores.

Ask yourself some powerful questions:

Can I change something within my current job or do I need to change jobs or my career? Can I stay within my industry or do I need to change that also?

5. Get the support and professional help you need to explore your options, create a powerful action plan and quickly "create a living and a life"!

Part 2: Design Your Work and Life Around What Matters Most.

Create a Living and a Life: Part 2

Design Your Work and Life Around What Matters Most.

By Kimberly Bowen

 

This month is a time of celebration and reflection on the most important things in our lives. The things that we cherish and can't live without; what matters most to us as women, mothers, sisters, and daughters. Our Values. Our Valuables. What are you spending your most precious moments on? Your family, career, marriage, self? Is there anything else you value? Adventure, prosperity, health, success? You may need to take a new look at what you value and make sure they are serving you well with your new vision of what you want to create.

Your Monthly Action Step My gift to you is my Career Life Designer to help you determine your most important values in your work and life. These are your priorities that can direct how you spend your time, energy, talents and money during this holiday season and beyond. Download the Career Life Designer here and determine what's most important to you! Enjoy! Join Kimberly Bowen as she shows you how to Create a Living and a Life in the prime of your life. Discover your personal and professional dreams, strengths, passions and exciting work-life options. Move through change, notice where you get stuck, and what is possible when you gain the clarity, confidence and connections you need.

Part 3 What You Want to Do More of in Your Career for 2008

Create a Living and a Life: Part 3

 

To reenergize your Career for 2008, carefully assess your current job.  Start by listing what is going well and what is not in your current job.  For the things that are going well, take time to celebrate and acknowledge your successes. Keep your successes close at hand in your success file to update your resume and when it comes time for your annual review. For the things that aren't going very well, decide what could be improved and what you'd like to change. Write down: Three things you want *more* of in your job next year - and - Three things you want *less* of in your job next year For example: In your current job, you may want more: Flexibility in your schedule Feedback from your boss Challenging assignments On the flip side, you may want less: Conflict with a certain person Last minute deadlines Overtime and late hours Schedule a few minutes with yourself to brainstorm what you desire more and less of in your professional life.  Then, let your ideas sit for a few days and return to them with a fresh perspective in a few days and complete your list.  When you've decided on your final three in each category, rank them in order of importance and create a specific action plan to achieve each one.  Keep your "more and less" list in a prominent place where you will see it often.  Review it each week as you plan the coming week so you can schedule time to focus on these priority goals.  Use your career plan to actively manage your career and reach both your short and long-term professional goals.  Take the time now to strategically design the upcoming year!

Your Monthly Action Step Schedule time to complete your "more and less" list in the next seven days so that you can implement your new Career Plan 2008 in January!

Part 4: 9 Insider Secrets to Define Your Dream Job

Most people spend one-third of their life at work. One-third!

Everyone wants to be satisfied and empowered in their chosen profession.

The most important way to be happy in your work is to take the time to define your dream job. Defining your dream job helps you find the perfect job that aligns with your values, lifestyle, passions and enjoyable skills.

When you find fulfilling work, your skills, passions and experience are utilized to their fullest and you feel energized instead of drained. When you do what you love, you get bigger and better results (including a better income and more opportunities), achieve more in less time, and feel energized about going to work everyday!

Defining your dream job is an exciting process!  It opens the door to new job and career opportunities and gets you moving in a practical way toward what you truly want in your career.

To begin to define your dream job, you start by looking at where you are now with your job and career. Then you begin to brainstorm how and where you want to contribute your wealth of skills, interests and experience. A quick way to define your dream job is to follow "My Define Your Dream Job Process" by answering the following nine questions:

1.  Are you really ready to make a job or career change at this time?

2. Why do you want to make a change? What is prompting you to want to make a job or career change? Is it dissatisfaction, a life change, retirement, lost enthusiasm, desire for more, or health issue?

3. What do you want more of and less of in your new job? Make list of what you didn't like about your jobs (your responsibilities, environment, or culture). Then make a list of what you have liked about your jobs and want more of in your next position.

4. What would you be doing in your dream job?  What kinds of skills and abilities would you be using? If you could be doing just one thing all day long at work, what would it be?

5. What are you passionate and knowledgeable about? What interests do you have and what knowledge have you attained that you care about to use in your next job?

6. Where would you be doing it? What field, organization or company would you like to work? Describe the environment and culture of the organization where you'd thrive.

7. Who would you like to work with? What kind of people would you like to work with or for? 

8. What are your exciting job options? If you could do any job or full-time activity without pay, what would it be? Think outside of the box! Explore different options and don't limit yourself with specific job titles, they can hold you back at this point. Consider what level of responsibility you would like to have and what you want to earn.

9. Are you fully prepared to promote yourself with a powerful career plan to land your dream job and earn what you are worth? You need to create your strategic career action plan and make sure you know how to get noticed to land your dream job. You also need to know how to "toot your own horn" and negotiate to earn what you are worth.

Congratulations! Defining your dream job is a very important process in your career. It can make a huge difference in a worker's happiness level at work and at home--since everyone knows how our work sometimes creeps home with us!

Defining your dream job doesn't have to be a difficult life-long struggle! As a career coach, I have found that most people have difficulty answering many of these questions. If you are one, you can get clarity, guidance and support from a professional career coach to help you explore your assets, resources, and career options. A career coach can also help you develop and work your powerful career plan to not only define your dream job, but land it too!

5 Top Workplace Trends

Times are always changing. You can bet on that, especially in the workplace.

Keeping an eye on workplace trends is vital so that you can modify your career and job change strategies and welcome opportunities.

The June 30th 2008 edition of the Baltimore Sun published an article describing 10 Workplace Trends of the Future from John Challenger, Chief Executive of Challenger, Gray & Christmas. (The full article is here.)

I highlight five of the most important five trends here to help you stay ahead of the workplace curve:

1. A four-day work week will become the status quo. (Yes!)

2. No more corporate headquarters. No more cubicles. (More workers will be working virtually: the home or the road.)

3. No more business travel. (Think teleconferencing.)

4. Social networking will be the only way to recruit employees and customers. (Forget print ads and online job postings.)

5. Many workers will be free-agents. (Companies will hire the best workers regardless of where they live for specific projects.)

Which trends will affect your career or business and how can you strategically plan for future opportunities?

Other trends? Post your comments.