Time to give your career some help. Whether you are a victim of job dissatisfaction, unemployed, or discouraged that your career is not as fulfilling as you’d like, you can still improve your career choice “off the clock” or “off duty.” Why not enjoy yourself and improve your career prospects at the same time?

Here are my top 4 ideas for making your “off the clock” time enjoyable and helpful to your career:

1. Learn more about yourself to find the activities you enjoy doing and skills you enjoy using.
2. Learn how Holland’s Theory of Career Choice applies to you, both at work and at leisure. If needed, make some new career goals to bring positive, forward looking direction to your life.
3. Identify new skills you’d like to have and your future career goal requires.
4. Find activities that teach and use these skills. You may have little extra time, but even the right volunteer position can be limited in time-commitment – once a month, once every few months…
5. Play with the Internet – but focus on your career interests, not your Facebook page. What is going on with your account on “LinkedIn”? Are you signed up for Google News Alerts related to your career interests? What’s new with any professional organizations you belong to? Use the Internet to find ideas for local activities and projects to get involved in.

For example:
You’re a Social personality type, working as a social worker but feeling overwhelmed, underpaid, and unsure whether you’re making a difference. You use the phrase “burned out” a lot. Your second and third highest Holland personality types are Investigative and Enterprising. You’ve thought of trying to get into management so there is less face to face contact with clients, but more control over strategic direction. A higher salary would be great!

You enjoy helping people and have great communications skills, are good at earning people’s trust and developing rapport, and have a lot of experience in navigating bureaucracy.

You might be interested in a second job or volunteer project that involves:

- helping write a grant proposal;
- a project where you supervise other volunteers or staff;
- mentoring or serving as a Big Brother or Big Sister;
- providing support to a local university social science department doing a study on a social issue of interest to you; or
- other activities with a clear, positive outcome that involve helping people, managing others or investigating a social problem.

If you have enough money or a tuition reimbursement program at work (lucky you), are there classes in business management, grantwriting, or social sciences that help advance your career, teach new skills, and/or keep you updated in your field of interest? You can learn more about choosing a training and educational program at The Career Key website.

This blog post was graciously submitted to BizzyWomen by The Career Key Blog, run by Juliet Wehr Jones, J.D.  The Career Key™ gives you expert help with your career search and career choices  career change, career planning, job skills, and choosing a college major. Our career assessment helps you find a career by matching your personality with careers and providing you complete and accurate information about each career you choose to explore.

Keeping your priorities straight, even in a recession, is an important part of being a Career Free Agent. Your long term happiness and job satisfaction are at stake. Tips for being loyal to yourself and your family are part 5 of my 6 part series on The Free Agent Outlook on Work.

Loyalty is such an unused and forgotten words these days. It seems counter intuitive and impractical to think about putting yourself and your family before your job in a recession. But if you truly consider your daily routine and your long-term sanity, you’ll see how this makes sense. Whether your “family” is just you and close friends or two kids, a spouse and a dog – the loyalty principle holds true.

• Know what is important to you and what you value – and protect and nurture them. If you need to write your own eulogy to figure this out – do it. Hint: relationships are probably first. Not sure if your current career conflicts with your values or your personality? Learn more about yourself and how that impacts career choice.
• Don’t wait until there is a crisis – a job loss, a divorce, a health problem; maintain your relationships (professional, personal) in good times.
• Follow the ACIP model of decision-making when you need to make a tough call that you won’t regret. Do you need to find another job to avoid an unethical boss – but you’re worried about the financial consequences? Do you need to quit your job ASAP because it’s so stressful that you have physical symptoms – yet your job options elsewhere are slim?
• Have a life outside of work. Develop personal relationships and satisfy your interests in activities unrelated to your job. Heard of “diversification”? It’s not just for investments. That way, if one part of your life suffers a blow you have another part to rely on.

Still to come, the 6th and final Free Agent Principle: Think “Right” Thoughts. And no, it will not involve stimulants (except a fancy caffeinated beverage, maybe).

For the previous posts for this 6 part series see:
The 6 Principles of the Free Agent Worker
Principle #1: Know and Strengthen Your Marketable Skills
Principle #2: Stay Mobile
Principle #3: Watch Your Company and Industry
Principle #4: Do Your Job Well

This blog post was graciously submitted to BizzyWomen by The Career Key Blog, run by Juliet Wehr Jones, J.D.  The Career Key™ gives you expert help with your career search and career choices — career change, career planning, job skills, and choosing a college major. Our career assessment helps you find a career by matching your personality with careers and providing you complete and accurate information about each career you choose to explore.

With such gloomy job loss numbers, what should be the next move for someone choosing or changing a career? Is any career path safe or secure? Are the “job outlook” numbers published by the government even accurate anymore? See my previous post on tips for evaluating job outlook.

Mulling these questions over for weeks, I’ve come to the conclusion that in the current crisis, you cannot rely much on the advice of economists and labor statisticians to help you make a good career decision.

One thing we know for sure: matching your career with your personality is still the scientifically proven road to job satisfaction. The economic crisis is completely unrelated to the need to identify your values, interests and strengths.

But when you need to narrow down your matching career options, job outlook matters a great deal. Planning exactly where you want to go is more critical than ever. You don’t want spend time and money preparing for a career only to find there are few jobs in it.

To avoid a dead end career choice, here are 5 questions to ask about the top 2 or 3 careers you are considering:

1. Are job opportunities in this industry disappearing for good? According to the New York Times, some jobs are not returning – at least in the near future. Examples: jobs in Financial Services, Housing (Realtors, mortgage brokers, construction and architectural services, etc.), Hospitality (hotel managers, travel agents, etc.), Manufacturing, and Retail. If technology advances, government regulation, drops in consumer spending, and outsourcing are hammering the industry that interests you – find out why. Only then can you predict how permanent the losses might be.
2. If the answer to #1 is yes and you want to still pursue it, what will be your strategy for getting one of the jobs that remain? Is there an industry sector surviving this downturn? How can you organize your education, training, and networking to be successful in that sector?
3. If this industry is not in turmoil, to what extent is this recession impacting it? Where are the opportunities? What is your plan for making yourself stand out from other applicants? List out new skills, volunteer or work experience you can get, connections you can make – and how to achieve them.
4. If government funds this industry (teachers, police officers, social work, etc.), are you prepared for the ups and downs for job security? Politicians are notoriously short-term planners; just because “stimulus” is a hot concept now doesn’t mean money will rain from government trees for long (if ever). Do you have a private-sector and self-employment fallback position? If inflation eats away at your government paycheck, will you need to supplement it and how?
5. Double-check your sources of information. Are you only considering information that supports your desired conclusions? Have you talked to people actually working in the career you want to choose? Make sure you consider all the negatives of your career options – all options have them.

Answering these questions is a great way to narrow down your matching career options. And the information you gather will do more good than any you get from “experts” making job forecasts. Planning and a smart process for making a decision will help you make a good career choice, one you won’t regret.

This blog post was graciously submitted to BizzyWomen by The Career Key Blog, run by Juliet Wehr Jones, J.D.  The Career Key™ gives you expert help with your career search and career choices — career change, career planning, job skills, and choosing a college major. Our career assessment helps you find a career by matching your personality with careers and providing you complete and accurate information about each career you choose to explore.

It’s tough to get motivated to evaluate your career path, whether you’re a directionless college student or a well-established professional with family obligations. A big stumbling block to career change is the fact that something about your current situation works for you. Otherwise you likely wouldn’t be there. (Except if you’ve been hit by a bus…)

Some examples:

• You’re underemployed (working in a boring job that doesn’t challenge you) but you receive a steady paycheck needed for your family.
• You’re a college student who has chosen a major but has no idea what career path you want to take after college. Maybe you don’t want to face life’s reality that you can’t live off student loans/parents forever. Or you think “real” work, by definition, can never be fun.
• You’ve been laid off, out of work and directionless for several months. You suffered blows to your self-confidence; and you have a limited monetary and family support system.

I’m not trying to be the “Dr. Phil” of career choice and say, “that dog don’t hunt” to people in the above examples. I just want to give you a push to say, stop talking about how much you don’t like your job or you don’t know what to do next – and do SOMETHING.

Start by writing down:

1. Positive aspects or comforts of your current career situation. Even unemployment can be a “pro” – think of all the time you have to work out! Talk to friends on the phone, surf the Internet (even if it’s for free at the library). Yes, I’ve been unemployed before so I know what I am talking about.
2. Negatives of your current career situation. Go beyond “not making enough money” and look at yourself – “I don’t feel challenged” or “I find little to no joy or fun in my work.”
3. Do the positives outweigh the negatives? If so, you’re not ready for change.
4. Take small steps to evaluate your career path. Even if it’s for a half hour after work each day. Getting started with the suggested activities in these 3 steps will lead to a career choice you won’t regret:

1. Know Yourself.
2. Know Your Options.
3. Make a Good Decision.

Get a cup of coffee and pick up your pen. Good luck!

This blog post was graciously submitted to BizzyWomen by The Career Key Blog, run by Juliet Wehr Jones, J.D.  The Career Key™ gives you expert help with your career search and career choices — career change, career planning, job skills, and choosing a college major. Our career assessment helps you find a career by matching your personality with careers and providing you complete and accurate information about each career you choose to explore.

Working with like-minded people, people with the same personality type or compatible types, leads to job satisfaction. I’m sure you’ve seen, either in yourself or in others, how this statement, part of Holland’s Theory of Career Choice, rings true. Even celebrities can serve as examples.

I recently saw Elvis Costello interview Sir Elton John on his great new talk show “Spectacle” on the Sundance Channel. Sir John said that early on he knew he wanted to be involved with music. If he couldn’t make it as a musician, he said, he would work in music publishing, songwriting, or some aspect of the business. And true to his goals, he got his start as a “tea boy” in a famous London music publisher’s office, carrying around tea and gathering up stray sheet music. He said that although the work was drudgery, it was exciting to be around and work around musicians and songwriters. We all know how success has followed him.

To find your best place to work,

1. Read these 6 statements about Holland’s Theory of Career Choice.
2. Learn what your highest two personality scores are and think about the types of people you’d enjoy working with. Past job experience and relationships may help guide you.
3. Brainstorm how your life, both through a career and leisure activities, could incorporate your dominant personality types. In your day job, you might work in one environment (social work) and have fun “off the clock” in a different environment (fixing classic cars).
4. Consider careers that combine your top two personality types. Ideally you would find an occupation that was the best of both worlds. For example, an art gallery owner combines the Enterprising and Artistic personality types. You may be able to create one through self-employment. Like a therapist who counsels businesspeople, lawyers, and other Enterprising people.

Using these suggestions to identify working environments that are compatible with your personality will help you choose a career likely to lead to job satisfaction. Why not work with people you like?

This blog post was graciously submitted to BizzyWomen by The Career Key Blog, run by Juliet Wehr Jones, J.D.  The Career Key™ gives you expert help with your career search and career choices — career change, career planning, job skills, and choosing a college major. Our career assessment helps you find a career by matching your personality with careers and providing you complete and accurate information about each career you choose to explore.

When choosing a career, it’s easy to have a narrow mind about your choices. We’re most comfortable with careers we’ve heard of and know something about, even if our only information comes from TV: think forensic scientist, real estate agent, fashion designer, crabfisher, those crazy Mythbusters guys making hovercrafts in their garage (job title anyone?) and the “usual suspects” doctors and lawyers.

But wouldn’t you hate missing out on a great career just because you didn’t dig deep enough? Don’t be intimidated by massive databases of jobs or giant encyclopedias of career options. The internet makes exploration a little easier. Here are 5 steps to be smart and efficient in your career exploration – without leaving stones unturned.

1. Learn about Holland’s Theory of Career Choice and how identifying your personality type(s) helps you choose a more satisfying career. This theory will help guide your thinking about what careers might be right for you.

2. Narrow your choices to careers that match your top two Holland personality types measured by a valid interest inventory. Don’t cross off a career because of concerns about your finances or abilities. You’ll address those issues later when you have more information to make an informed choice. Ask yourself:

• Are there any careers I think match my personality but are not listed? Write them down and do searches for their key words using our recommended resources below.
• Am I interested in starting a business? If so, what kinds of business opportunities are related to the matching careers I see listed?
• How do I combine personality types in a career? To see an example, read about how Dr. Lawrence K. Jones, the Career Key’s author, combined his top two Holland personality types or “differing gifts” in one job.

3. Start with, then go beyond the Occupational Outlook Handbook job titles for matching careers we provide on our website: doctor, lawyer, engineer, social worker, accountant (not that there is any wrong with them). Remember that any job title you see anywhere (not just on The Career Key website) has many versions. Think about “social worker” and how many different types of jobs do “social work” that would fit a Social personality type. Recommended online resources:

• Department of Labor’s (DOL) Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH) “Related Occupations” link at the bottom of a career description. If you find a related career you like, click on it and it will have it’s own “related occupations” link – follow these links as far as you want.
• DOL’s Career Guide to Industries. Explore the industries that most closely relate to your personality. Don’t hesitate to look at an area about which you know little.
• Use your favorite search engine. You might get more ideas from blogs, association websites, Wikipedia and Knol entries. Remember that just because it’s on the internet doesn’t mean it’s true – so go to diverse sources, including real people (see next step).

4. Conduct informational interviews with people working in an industry that interests you, but ask them about jobs related to theirs within it because there might be one that’s a better fit for you. For example, a software developer career may be of interest to you, but software developers know a lot about other related occupations they work with like Program Managers and Quality Assurance/testing engineers, and can refer you to other people in those jobs to talk to. Don’t know any software developers? Read my previous post on career specific networking – it’s easy to meet some and interview them.

5. About each alternative, keep asking yourself, how does this job fit with my personality? Are there a lot of supervisory duties that make it more Social than I would like? Is there a way to combine my top two personality types in one career?

For more ideas, you’ll find over 12,000 careers organized by Holland personality types in your local library; go to the Reference section and ask for the Dictionary of Holland Occupational Titles by Dr. Gary Gottfredson and Dr. John Holland. Unfortunately you can only find it in book form, not online. But although it’s a large book, you’ll only be looking at a few sections and just skimming through it will spark some ideas.

Don’t be overwhelmed by the options you have; celebrate them by narrowing your search in a thoughtful way. By doing your online and book research and talking with people working in interesting industries, you will broaden your options. Only then can you say you’ve left no stone unturned – and you can make a decision you won’t regret.

This blog post was graciously submitted to BizzyWomen by The Career Key Blog, run by Juliet Wehr Jones, J.D.  The Career Key™ gives you expert help with your career search and career choices — career change, career planning, job skills, and choosing a college major. Our career assessment helps you find a career by matching your personality with careers and providing you complete and accurate information about each career you choose to explore.

I find the whole argument about whether a ‘mom can be a VP’ to be quite obnoxious and sexist, and I am a man! There is no question that opening up a national dialogue about the role of a mother in society is very important, but so far most of arguments have been made with a political agenda at the forefront. Let’s forget about what I think, let’s take a look at a few blogs and see what other are saying.

Matt Lewis at Townhall.com says, “I’m honestly surprised that the media is questioning whether or not being a mom should disqualify someone from being vice president.  I wonder what Hillary Clinton thinks of how this story has turned.  She obviously felt the media were sexist — particularly MSNBC.  It also reminds me of Shirley Chisholm, who famously believed that her presidential chances were harmed more by being a woman than by being African-American.”

Over at Huffington Post, Hanna Ingber Win has an interesting take. She believes that women should be able pursue any career that they want to but she questions what kind of mother can work around the clock and still be a mother. She says, ” But running on a national ticket months after your child was born? Let alone a son who has Downs Syndrome and therefore under the best of circumstances is going to need every last bit of attention. How can one possibly be an involved and nurturing parent while campaigning in such a heated race? You can be a great mother and work. But you can’t be a great mother and work 80 hours a week. There is no way you are a great mother if you are not there.”

BTW- She also goes after Obama, who rightly preaches on the importance of father involvement with raising kids, on how he can be an involved father running for and hoping to be president.

OpMom keeps it simple. She says, “She is 44, the mother of five, her youngest is 4 months old and has down syndrome.  I am thinking this woman has better things to do with her time than campaign 24/7!”

Clearly the choice to have Gov. Palin as the republican VP candidate, has opened up a dialogue about a mother’s career choice. Let’s hope that sexism plays a lesser role and the dialogue can focus on the real issues.