career coaching - could a one off session help?
Lucy came to see me as she was disillusioned with her job and determined to do something else, but what? She had gone to recruitment agencies but found that she needed to tell them what she was looking for and whilst she said anything, that didn’t help them – it was too broad, she needed to define the sort of work she wanted to do.Â
We only had a couple of hours so we needed to move ahead swiftly. We discussed her likes and dislikes, interests and future plans. Lucy explained why she had chosen her studies and where her strengths were, with examples. This resulted in a list of 7 key elements of Lucy – strengths and talents, her personality, what clearly made Lucy, Lucy!Â
It was then time to step back and look for the theme.  With her strengths in working with people and organisation a number of jobs sprung to mind including wedding planner, planner within a distribution centre, events management, office manager or recruitment consultant.  With limited relevant work experience she needed to be realistic that she wouldn’t walk into her ideal job right away, but she could easily get a job that would take her part way to where she wanted to go. For example to undertake office administration with an events company or to apply for work as a trainee recruitment consultant in a catering agency (she has a background in the catering industry).Â
Lucy left, 90 minutes later with a clear strategy and a recognition that her situation was positive not hopeless!  She was not going to start applying for jobs right away, but to find out more about her short list of jobs using initially the Internet and then meeting with people to see if the reality of working as e.g. an events organiser matched up to what she had found out. When she then applied for jobs she would be very clear why she was applying and this would really help in persuading a company to choose her.Â
Could a session like this help you? If so please get in touch. Â
Denise Taylor
Chartered Occupational Psychologist
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