Below is the presentation Ed mentioned that you can follow along with his lecture. Just use the scroll bar to the right of the image to move to the next slide.
This is the post on Ed’s blog about transitions that he mentions in the recording.
You may read the book review I did of Dr. Colozzi’s book previously on this blog.
Dr. Colozzi’s website is CreatingCareersWithConfidence.com and you can find him on Twitter as @EdwardColozzi.
Career research is a process of getting in-depth knowledge of yourself and the different opportunities that are out there for the purpose of developing a career strategy. In preparing for a seminar I recently presented, I got to thinking about career research again. I’ve written about career research and important factors in career choice in the past and I want to expand on these ideas now.
So often people get it backwards. They arrive at a time in their lives where they need a job so they immediately start looking for what opportunities are available around them and where they might fit in. I know it seems logical but that is not the most beneficial way to go about it because many of those jobs are just distractions. I want you to flip that process around and begin with yourself!
So the process looks like this instead:
There are strong advantages to working career research from this angle. First is that you are developing your personal brand along the way. You will be able to strategically network with others knowing what you want them to remember about you. You also gain a deep understanding what makes your heart sing and will be able to zoom in on opportunities that are more likely to work optimally for you. Lastly, you will come from a position of passion in job interviews and will be more convincing and so more likely to win the offer.
Marcus Buckingham, the co-author of Now Discover Your Strengths (Amazon affiliate link), has a new strengths assessment available on the the internet. It’s called StandOut. You can take the assessment for free to receive a report of your top two roles or pay a fee to get the full report. I took the free assessment myself and found it quite informative.
This book is on my list of all-time favorite career books. It is an important and inspirational self-help career discovery workbook. “Creating Careers with Confidence” by Edward Anthony Colozzi will help you answer the question “What career is right for me?”
Dr. Colozzi walks you through a process that is grounded in career development theory. It is very insightful and lots of fun! His caring, creative, and intuitive style oozes through the page when he encourages you to trust yourself in self-assessment as he simplifies decades of complex career research to make it inspiring and practical.
The most exciting part about doing the exercises in Dr. Colozzi’s book is that you end up with a list of occupations that are a good fit with a thorough understanding of why. Also, you will have a step-by-step guide to occupational research. Even more impressive is that you will have a decision making process at your finger tips as he spends a whole chapter on “key concepts for making successful career-life decisions.”
There is a strong emphasis in this book on career-life roles. This is so important in combination with personal values. Without considering this aspect, all your career plans are more likely to get blown out the window as you enter different life stages. Dr. Colozzi also does a phenomenal job presenting stress tips and exercises which can help enable a higher quality of life.
His personal mission is worth noting as it influences every enthusiastic word he writes in the book, “I have devoted my life to dealing with people’s innate need to discover their callings and to be paid adequately for contributing their gifts in ways that provide meaning and purpose, to achieve more balance across life roles, and to learn how to believe in themselves again.”
The book is available at Amazon.com. You can learn more from Dr. Colozzi’s website CreatingCareersWithConfidence.com and find him on Twitter.
Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of “Creating Careers with Confidence” by Edward Anthony Colozzi. I received no other compensation for this review.
This is a nice collection of articles to stimulate thinking about traditional educational investment in higher education and potential career development payoff. While it is possible to get too analytical in coming to a decision about whether to invest in further education and when, it is a good exercise to check these kind of statistics in the process.
Even more important, have fun with the decision! Talk to people who are already in the field you are considering further study in, and talk to a coach for feedback and insight through your research and decision making process. It can’t be emphasized enough that whatever steps you take to further your career should be in line with what you truly enjoy and not just to impress others or fulfill someone else’s expectation for you. Your career is about you and what you desire to have and create.
Career assessments can open doors to important insights regarding your career development. Assessments can enable you to better verbalize your career desires and can assist you in describing yourself in a concise yet thorough manner.
The power of the MBTI®, specifically, is in its ability to assist in focusing you on language and key ideas to help you target your job search, prepare your resumes, and ace the interview.
As an added perk of the MBTI®, many people begin a fun journey of self-discovery as a result of using the assessment. In fact, many people describe the opportunity as life changing!
Here is a link for more information about the theory and background of the MBTI®. Please contact me if you are interested in taking the assessment.
MBTI is a trademark or registered trademark of the MBTI Trust, Inc., in the United States and other countries.
O*Net is an excellent site for exploring occupations. They also have a skills search which I linked below. Only put checks on the skills you enjoy using…any skill you are good at but do not enjoy using is a recipe for burnout.
Go to the homepage to begin researching careers when you have a career choice you are curious about or just browse careers by clicking the pull-down menu in the “Find Occupations” area on the homepage.
The process of values clarification is important to career choice and success. Identifying your values is a way to filter down all of the irrelevant junk and get to what really matters to you.
Chances are your values will shift through your lifetime. There are times when a whole new perspective may come into view during major life changes. It is then that you will work to accommodate a new sense of meaning in your life. Those times are when it is especially important to reevaluate your values to help you keep your priorities straight.
If there is one thing that will cause you to quit a job on the spot, it’s when your job or your employer is in conflict with your values. Also, there are few things in life that bring such joy as knowing that you are contributing to the world in a way that meets your unique set of values.
A little exploration and reflection will help you list and prioritize your most important values. A work life with many rewarding experiences is the payoff.
Here is a quick, free values assessment online. Be sure to print the summary sheet to add to your career development file or binder for future review.
Review your summary sheet in times of stress and controversy to help you recognize why a particular situation is getting to you. You will likely find that one of your high priority values has been compromised. Often identifying the value underlying the issue is half the battle! From there you may be able to communicate better from a standpoint of the root cause.
An exercise to build up energy about what you want to achieve in life is to reflect on your value summary sheet then define what you want and record it in great detail. Remember this, it is important to have fun with this exercise! Don’t worry about how you are going to do it or begin to feel bad because you haven’t done it yet. Just enjoy the process of defining what you want.
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®) is a personality assessment. It can help you communicate what is special about you and it can give you insight as to how you communicate and learn best. Also research has shown how certain personality types tend to congregate happily in certain career fields. Many people who take the MBTI® begin a wonderful journey of self-discovery. In fact, some describe it as life changing. Please contact me if you are interested in taking the assessment.
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and MBTI are a trademarks or registered trademarks of the MBTI Trust, Inc., in the United States and other countries.
Sometimes people are surprised to realize what an inside game career management is. In fact if you are feeling stuck about what major to choose or what career to choose or what job to look for next, a great first step is to start envisioning what your ideal career or job looks like. This can only come from the inside! Only you know what you prefer and how you would like to live.
People really underestimate the importance of thinking about the the lifestyle they prefer when choosing too. It reminds me of a story I once heard about a fisherman who goes out to fish for a few hours everyday to earn his living. Then comes home, enjoys lunch, plays with his kids, then goes to town to play guitar each evening with his wife. Some vacationers come to town and one guy can not resist telling the fisherman how he can get more wealth by building up his fishing operation. Long story short, the fisherman is already living how he wants to live! The point is that that often lifestyle choice is a good way to weed out distractors. You might like to hear the short story for yourself though.
Another thing to consider early on in your decision making process is your natural strengths. This is very important because a fulfilling career is built upon natural strengths which enable one to work with ease and to gain expertise faster. Sometimes defining your strengths can be tough because we often tend devalue what we do well — everyone can do that, it’s not special…that kind of inaccurate thinking.
So one action to take is to record what you believe your strengths are. Then take some time to go to 3-6 people who know you well and ask them what they have observed that you do easily and well. Take notes and compare responses, including your own, to come up with a list of your natural strengths. Another good tool to try which I have mentioned before to get more data about your natural strengths is Marcus Buckingham’s “Now, Discover Your Strengths
Next, you can take what you have learned about yourself and start comparing that data to what is required in careers you are considering. You do that not only with internet research but with invaluable field research a.k.a. informational interviewing. Can I just tell you, it is amazing how much the view of a potential choice can change after talking to a few folks already in the career field. I cannot overemphasize how learning about careers in this way brings career choice to life (in addition to the other perks of actually talking to people and building networking relationships)!
Mostly though, I encourage you to follow what appeals to you now as that is a big indication of your intuition at work. Follow your nose with an understanding that you may not end up where you thought but career choice a process not a destination. I encourage you to dive into the process one optimistic step at a time.
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