There are many reasons you may want to book a session with a career coach.

These can include topics such as

• Thinking about who you are and what you want, in your work and personal life.
• Having some time to discuss how you feel about your current situation.
• Objective assistance in finalising a decision.
• Discussing what your next career move should be.
• Exploring ways of making yourself more marketable.
• Review of a recent appraisal, or disappointment at interview or assessment centre.
• Taking stock of your life and career and decide whether to focus on regaining the passion for your job or to make the transition to move elsewhere.
• Time to focus on you, especially if you feel you are heading for burn out.
• Preparing a strategy for a new job or to enhance your career prospects.
• Reviewing a recent appraisal, performance review or assessment centre.
• A chance to reflect on the last 12 months and make plans for the year ahead.

Interested? please get in touch with Denise

Each year I chose a new charity to support.

I’ve now decided to undertake fundraising for Barnardo’s. So instead of Christmans Cards I’ll be making a donation to Barnado’ and shortly I’ll set up a facility where people can book a 30 minute career coaching session for a donation to charity.

I was chatting to a potential client earlier and we touched on whether I was available to see clients at weekends.

As  most of my clients are in work I need to see them outside of working hours, so my husband is used to me working 3 or 4 evenings a week.  Then I sometimes see clients on a Saturday, but certainly not every weekend.

This is why I need a good page a week diary, so I get a good sense of my week and month and can ensure I get time for me.

If you read my newsletter you know I love music and have been to many festivals this year

1. Off the tracks, Derbyshire
2. Wychwood, Cheltenham 
3. Wireless
4. Nozstock, Herefordshire
5. Big Chill
6. Bloom
7. Beautiful Days
8. Creamfields
9. Bestival
10. Bearded Theory - stil to come on 4/5 October

Now the festival season is over I still have plenty of gigs planned for the Autumn

1. The Levellers at The Royal Albert Hall
2. Mugenkyo Taiko Drummers in Cheltenham
3. The Rifles at Gloucester Guildhall
4. Underworld at Brixton Academy
5. 3 Daft Monkeys at the Guildhall
6. Route 66 in Tewkesbury
7. Circus of Horrors in Cheltenham
8. Oysterband at the Guildhall
9. Human League, ABC and Heaven 17 in Wolverhamption
10. Pendulum in LLandudno

Gosh, hadn’t realised we have 10 events in about as many weeks! So yes I see clients at weekends, and I don’t think anyone could say all I do is work as I certainly take plenty of time for the things I enjoy!

Just hoping you also take time for yourself alongside your job.

Tomorrow the A level results will be out and young people will again be considering University.

For some there will be confirmation that they can go to their first choice university and to take the subject they want to study.

For others they may have missed out on their first choice and decide to rush through clearing to get something else. These aren’t the only people who may need to stop and make sure they are making the right choice.

Far too many people drop out - they have either chosen the wrong course, the wrong university or hadn’t thought through what going to university means - in terms of the need to undertake independent study, or the financial costs.  In the news today the average debt students rack up is 4.5k a year.

So do seek out advice and make sure that you are making a well thought through choice, that way you will be less likely to make the wrong choice and most likely to get the most out of your time at university.

Today was the funeral of a special person - Alan Jones. I knew him through my hobby of historical reenactment with The Sealed Knot Society. Alan played a fundamental role in developing the Living History side of historical reenactment. He was also wonderful at building relationships with people and smoothing over difficulties between people with different views.

His funeral was special, there was a piper accompanying the hearse, many people came in 17th century clothes and the coffin was a box, rather than the typical coffin shape, as would have happened in the 17th Centry, the period I and Alan reenacted.

We never spoke much about his job, but I don’t think it was especially meaningful for him, like so many people he did the job to pay the bills.

What he lived for was his hobby. He was good at it, had a lot of friends through this and he gained immense satisfaction from this activity.

Some people hope to find the perfect job, but we need  to think about our life in the round. If your job is not bringing you a lot of satisfaction it could be a lot more bearable of you have wonderful weekends or mid week activities.

I’ve been encouraging some clients to start a blog as a means of developing a reputation in their chosen career path, and I’ll be writing more about this later.

Just recently I’ve been fascinated by the way that Alex James, ex bassist of Blur and now Cotswold Cheese maker presented himself on Question Time.   It reminds me of people who go onto reality TV shows and then are surprised when people they know sell their stories which cover things they would prefer to be hidden.

People who apply or are invited to go onto these programmes will have seen the show and should know want to expect.

For Question Time panellists know they will be asked about current affairs and need to have a view. They also can see how other people present themselves.

So what did we see from Alex – someone who appeared inarticulate and although there were some useful points he was unable to make them well.  There are plenty of sites commenting on this

He also slouched in his chair, gazed around the room and spoke with his hand over his mouth.

I hope Alex learns from this, and wonder if he is disappointed that his public relations people didn’t brief him properly.

When my clients are going for interview and perhaps have to make a presentation we always practice and I’m able to give feedback on how they present themselves. I also make sure I ask the difficult questions so they can see how well they cope under pressure and can thus prepare.

I’m doing a short survey on how we make our career decisions.

The survey comprises 10 questions and a request for demographic data. This should only take 5 minutes of your time.

One person will be chosen at random to receive a £20 gift voucher (For Amazon, or HMV or Marks and Spencer - your choice) and 3 other people will receive a free eBook from Amazing People.

I’d be delighted if you could complete this survey and also forward the link to this survey to friends and colleagues so I get a large response which will enhance my analysis.

You can access the survey here

 The Wellcome Collection have an interesting exhibition on at the moment on sleeping and dreaming.

Many of us work too hard and don’t get enough sleep. We know that we need to have enough sleep and it can be dangerous for us and others if we try to do things when we are tired - our reaction are slow.

Their website includes a link for a short psychometric test to enable you to test your reaction times, you can access it here:

I’ve just completed the test at the end of a work day - 7.15pm and my average reaction time was 282 milliseconds. I’m going to try it again when I wake up to see if there is a difference. It’s not great as 220 is a good result, and if I was very tired I would take 300 milliseconds.   Just done it again and I’m now at 272 milliseconds, but I wonder if this is partly to do with my eyesight I do find it hard to stare at a screen.

Let me know how you get on.

Umm, this counts as work, and I should be spending more time with my family. A recent survey (commissioned by Warner breaks) has found that British couples spend only the equivalent of 2 1/2 years together during their working life, whereas we spend 12 years with our work colleagues.

Many couples now need to get their diaries out regularly to arrange days when they can do things together. Yes we do spend a lot of time at work, but I think setting a diary date is akin to going on a date. Personally, I know that when we get out or arrange to spend an evening together, we’ll chat and enjoy each others company rather than just potter around and watch TV.  So the moral is, make sure you spend time with your loved ones each day.

how much time did you spend with your family this weekend? I’ve done well to go for most of the day without being drawn to the computer!