Helping Career Changers Around The World

July 2011

Hello!

Welcome to the July 2011 edition of The 5 Minute Career Coach.

What's in this Issue

• Article of the Month - You Matter Most
• Something To Think About
• Cherry Recommends – The Art of Inspired Living, Sarah Corrie
• About Cherry

Someone unsubscribed from the 5 Minute Career Coach community the other day – and I am delighted!

Now that might sound a bit crazy, but Mary, who unsubscribed, wrote and said:

'Actually, your emails have helped me achieve my goals. The 5MCC unsubscribe is from my old work address :-) I will be moving on from here.'

Success! Perhaps now you understand why I was delighted.

This is what the How To Change Careers website and the 5 Minute Career Coach are all about. Hearing that the articles and quotes and ideas in the website and newsletter have helped someone move on is just brilliant.

So if you are making progress with your career change and feel that the 5 Minute Career Coach has helped you along the way, do share your story. Not only is it great for me to get feedback, but if you post your story on the How To Change Careers website, it will inspire others too.

Take a look at the Career Change Success Stories page and add your own. And if the journey to your new career is not quite complete or if you have met challenges along the way, share it just the same. It is the stories that have involved a struggle that are especially inspiring.

And hopefully when you move on to your new career and decide to unsubscribe from the 5 Minute Career Coach, you'll recommend it to someone else who is still stuck and who will benefit from a bit of inspiration.

With best wishes

Cherry

Cherry Douglas
Your Career Change Guide

How To Change Careers

I know I won't have time to change the prices on my Know Your Personality, Know Your Career ebook till the weekend, so now is your last chance to grab a copy before the price goes up. Just click here to get your copy.

Are you desperate to escape the corporate rat race? Are you thinking that working from home could be the perfect solution? It could well be, but before you take the plunge, take a look at this great website. Work From Home Wisdom It tells you both the good as well as the bad and the ugly about home working so that if you do make this move, you will do so with your eyes open and will not fall into any of the bear traps along the way.

I answered a question from David recently (you can read my response here) who was feeling despondent that his recently acquired MBA was not magically opening doors into the new career he was dreaming of.

His story made me think of a common trap that career changers fall into – well two traps really.

The first is to imagine that there is a magic wand that will make it all just happen, and the magic wand often comes in the shape of a prestigious qualification. Now I think that the Colleges and Universities are partly to blame here, because there is no doubt that they promote their (often very expensive) courses in such a way that encourages you to believe that once you have the magic certificate, the job offers will all fall in your lap.

No they won't.

If you were recruiting someone, would you make your selection on the basis of a pile of qualifications? Of course not. You'd want to know a lot more about the person too. Yes, the qualification may help swing your opinion in the right direction, but if the person clutching them fails to impress, then all the qualifications in the world won't swing it.

People recruit people, so your job is to promote yourself as multi-faceted, offering a range of skills, experience, talent and personal qualities. You are the answer to the recruiter's problems, not your qualifications.

So this is the second trap – thinking that the answer is 'out there'.

I see many job seekers and career changers looking outside themselves for the solution to their career change problems.

Are you guilty of this one?

Do you think that you just need another bit of paper, a better resume, a friend who will give you an introduction, a lucky break...?

In reality, the answer lies within you, you matter most. The external stuff can help, but in most cases, the difference between success and failure lies in how you combine what is special and unique about you with the external trappings you accumulate. If you focus too much on the trappings, you lose the essence.

So whether you are looking for a new job or a complete change of career, remember to focus on who you are and what special skills, strengths and experience you have got to offer.

Believe in yourself because you are unique and no one else can match you.

Sarah’s book is about your whole life, not just about your career, but much of what she says has direct relevance to the issue of choosing and changing career direction.

It is a practical book, based on the principles of positive psychology and it will help you to coach yourself by working through the various exercises in each chapter.

Sarah talks about issues I have covered in the 5MCC and on the HTCC website – taking the time to discover who you really are and what that means about your mission in life, developing the right mindset for change and then giving you a set of specific tools to help you make the vision a reality.

In the final section, Sarah looks at how you can bring this sense of ‘inspiration’ into your relationships, your health and into your career, so there is a section of direct relevance to you as a career changer.

It is certainly a book I have read and then returned to on many occasions. Wherever you are in your career or your life, you will find something in here that is right for you right now.

Click here to pick up a copy from Amazon

More recommendations
If you would like to see more recommendations for books and similar resources, follow the link to the Career Change Books page of the How To Change Careers website. Do keep popping back to it as I am adding to it all the time.

And if there are books, websites and other resources that have inspired you and that you would like to recommend, there is a place for you to do so on that page.

Cherry Douglas is Your Career Change Guide. She is a UK based professional career coach and career change consultant.

Cherry has been supporting people like you, with career choice, career change and job search issues for nearly 25 years. As a highly successful career change consultant, and having made career changes herself over the years, Cherry really understands the challenges and difficulties that you may face in dealing with our own career – and can help you too, to overcome your own problems and obstacles.

Over the years, Cherry has been privileged to work with hundreds of clients, helping them to find their way forward with their careers…with anything from a quick CV review to a complete career change.

To learn more about Cherry, visit the How To Change Careers website.

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