career change

3 Important First Steps When You Want to Change Careers

August 31, 2018 by Vicki Tillman Leave a Comment

Feeling the need for a change? Here are 3 important first steps when you want to change careers.

3 Important First Steps When You Want to Change Careers

It’s not unusual to hit a place in life where you think, “I need a do-over with my career.”

Many of the coachees I work with start out feeling overwhelmed by the thought of changing careers. They know they need a change, they want a change…but they have no idea what it is that they do want.

That’s why coaching is so helpful. As a career coach, I can walk with you through the process.

Everyone is different, but here are 3 basics that help many people when starting off the career-change process.

Re-discover, re-define and re-brand

The first thing you need to do if you’re thinking about a career change is to re-discover yourself: Who you are and why you are! Everyone changes over time…or maybe a lousy job or an obnoxious boss gets you so distracted or stressed that you forget who you really are. The first step in career change needs to be re-discovering yourself. No kidding. When’s the last time you took a personality test? Let’s start with remembering YOU.

Download these freebie links to personality tests. You’ll be glad you did.

Personal Discovery Links VickiTillmanCoaching.com Photo of a journal, cup of coffee and earbuds to set the atmosphere for personal discovery.

Download this freebie.

Don’t just take your tests! Read the results and write notes to yourself about the things that most resonate with you. (Start a self-discovery journal!)

Next, on your journey of self-discovery, redefine yourself by writing a fresh personal mission statement. Download this guide to take you step-by-step through the process.

Trail Guide to Writing Your Personal Mission Statement VickiTillmanCoaching.com Photo of a hiker which represents the journey of self-discovery and re-definition of writing personal mission statements.

Download this helpful guide.

Now, you’re ready to re-brand. Is there anything you need to update in your skill set, your networking, your lifestyle? Get to it!

It helps to know who you are, why you are and that you are creating yourself well! Now, you’re ready for the next step.

Define your network

Networking is key to job hunting in this interconnected world. Who you know matters and will help (if you’ve been a pleasant person- if you haven’t, get busy re-branding yourself). Make a list of influencers and connecters in your world. Look at:

Your email list
Your LinkedIn and other online professional/social connecters
Your organizations
Your immediate and extended family and friends

Update your LinkedIn profile

LinkedIn is always updating. Check to see if you’ve made yourself optimally available. Here’s a post on spiffing up your LinkedIn profile.

Click image to read post.

Got these 3 important steps under control? You’re ready to start the career change. It helps to work with a coach through this process. Schedule an appointment with me to help you make life-changing career changes.

3 Important First Steps When You Want to Change Careers

10 Simple, Practical Steps to a New or Revamped Career

December 31, 2017 by Vicki Tillman Leave a Comment

Here are 10 simple, practical steps to a new or revamped career.

10 Simple, Practical Steps to a New or Revamped Career

Realizing you need a new career? Or maybe you’re in the right field but wrong job or location? Time for a do-over!

Here are 10 simple, practical steps to a new or revamped career:

Step 1. Define your needs. What are your baseline needs for:

Finances
Location
Schedule
Flexibility

Step 2. Define your wants. These aren’t deal-breakers and if you’re just staring out, they might not even be considerations.

Growth potential
Benefits (this may need to go under *needs* category)
Team atmosphere
Learning community
Perks
Job security

Step 3. Rediscover yourself. This is the important part. If you’re starting fresh career-wise, you want to concentrate on a good fit. Revisit your personal mission statement. Click here for freebie links to help with personal discovery or download this Career Exploration Workbook.

Personal Discovery Links VickiTillmanCoaching.com

Download this freebie.

Step 4. Delineate your strengths. Write them down. Is there a way you can leverage them? Be creative!

Step 5. Face your weaknesses. Would any of these weaknesses hinder your employability? If so, make a plan to mitigate them.

Step 6. Make several choices and explore each. In today’s job market, you may need to hunt in more than one area.

Step 7. Rebrand yourself. Update resume, cover letter and references.

Step 8. More rebranding. Spiff up LinkedIn. Clean up social media.

Step 9. Rehearse interview skills. Literally, find someone to practice with. Have them ask the questions and you answer.

Step 10. Get yourself out there. Network. Check the job boards such as USA Jobs, Indeed, Glassdoor

It goes without mentioning that you should be praying at each step!

These 10 steps can feel overwhelming. If you would like some excellent coaching on any or all of them, contact me!

10 Simple, Practical Steps to a New or Revamped Career

How to Include Volunteer Work on Your Resume

April 15, 2017 by Vicki Tillman Leave a Comment

Done some cool service work? Here’s how to include volunteer work on your resume.

How to Include Volunteer Work on Your Resume

One of the most frequent concerns my career coaching clients express- whether they are professionals changing careers or recent college graduates- is having enough experience for a new job.

The seasoned professionals fear that they are locked into their present field.
The recent graduates have little job experience to show on their resumes.

What to do?

Show volunteer work!

I tell them: Volunteer work can be recorded on your resume in the same way that you showed your other work experience.

Here is how to include volunteer work on your resume.

1) Get started: Make a list of service work that you have done in recent years. This work can include:

Non-profits
Community organizations
Church or religious organizations

2) Give each service you have done a *job title*. This can be unofficial as in *Sound Technician at Town Holiday Events* or officially-given names *Treasurer for Snerdlyville Community Church*.

3) Write a job description for each volunteer job title. As in any job experience, you will use these tips:

Describe your jobs in terms of:
- accomplishments
- leadership
- problems solved
- challenges overcome
- results and positive impact for the organization or community. Make clear what was changed by your work
- note that it was a volunteer (unpaid) position
Include numbers, if possible, such as “Created program to feed 20 families in neighborhood weekly” or “Helped 10 troubled youth graduate each year”.
Note #hours you spent in total for a single project or weekly hours for more ongoing projects.
Include action verbs. This post includes some *power words*.
Include job-specific words. Look at the job description for the position you want. Catch the keywords that are important to the job. If the organization you are hoping for uses Applicant Tracking System, the keywords will help your resume get flagged for a viewing by human eyes (otherwise, the ATS will simply pass it by).
If you can specify the percentage of time you spent on each of the tasks you describe.
Don’t forget to include dates of service (just like you do on any job experience).

4) Add your new volunteer experiences to your career experience section of your resume. Simply integrate the volunteer positions into your job list.

5) Tweak your resume so that you have several versions. For each position you are interested in, adapt the resume by removing volunteer positions that have nothing to do with that job. BUT don’t sell yourself short. When in doubt, include the volunteer position (as long as you are still on a one-page resume required by many hiring professionals).

I remind my clients that while we often volunteer to make the world a better place, we also reap the reward of making our resumes *better places, too*.

You can get started with your own career-change exploration by downloading: Trail Guide to Career Exploration for Adults.

For more tips and help in changing careers or starting out after graduation, contact me soon!

How to Include Volunteer Work on Your Resume

7 Productive Things to do Immediately After Losing a Job

January 30, 2017 by Vicki Tillman Leave a Comment

7 Productive Things to do Immediately After Losing a Job

Losing a job sucks. You feel rotten. But the days immediately after losing a job are not the days to sit around watching old YouTube channels or playing solitaire.

The best idea for those days right after being downsized, outsourced, job eliminated, whatever… is to keep some momentum going. That way depression and discouragement doing set in and get you stuck in the job-hunt-procrastination mire.

So, here are 7 productive things to do immediately after losing a job:

*Make a resource list that you can email, phone or visit.

Professional contacts and colleagues
Family and friends
Pastor and other community leaders you know

*Update resume and create a cover letter template. You will probably need several versions of each but if you have a master copy edited and ready to adapt, you will be ready to pounce on opportunities when they arise.

*Update your LinkedIn profile. This is a must.

*Update or upgrade any certifications you hold. You know it…you’ve been putting off dealing with this. Updated and upgraded certifications help open doors. Even if you’re not behind on anything, find a course or two to take.

*Do an internet brainstorm session. Explore:

US Department of Labor’s onetonline.org
Job sites like Indeed, Monster, etc
Lots of posts on this website. Here’s one.

*Start volunteering. Volunteering is good for many reasons:

Meet new people/networking
Adding to your skill set
Keeps you from stagnating in front of a computer screen
Fends off some of your anxiety and increases happiness levels
Get started on your journey with the Trail Guide to Career Exploration for Adults.

*Get some Career Coaching. Contact me. I can help you with each of the above, as well as exploring new careers if you are ready for that adventure. Don’t lose time when you’ve lost a job. Email me today to set up an in-person, Skype or phone appointment.

You can also download this inspiring Career Exploration Guide to get started.

7 Productive Things to do Immediately After Losing a Job

7 Do’s and Don’ts When You Lose a Job

September 10, 2016 by Vicki Tillman Leave a Comment

Here are 7 Do’s and Don’ts when you lose a job.

7 Do’s and Don’ts When You Lose a Job

One of the joys of my work as Career Coach is helping my coachees recalibrate and launch the adventure of finding their NEW career. Here’s what I’ve found helpful for a quicker, more satisfying job-hunt journey.

The first couple of weeks after your last day at the old job are crucial. Remember these 7 Do’s and Don’ts when you lose a job:

Don’t berate yourself. There’s no time for that. If you made some serious errors, note what you need to learn, then set aside the negative self-talk. Self-blame or berating will shut your creative brain down and cause you to miss opportunities.

Do talk about losing your job as part of your journey, getting you closer to an awesome job. Keep your brain in the positive-thought zone.

Don’t dig out your old resume and cover letters and tell yourself they are good enough for career search. They were good enough for your LAST job. You will want an excellent resume to help land the NEW job!

Do jump into upgrading, tweaking, revamping, updating both the resume and a basic cover letter. Have them on your desktop ready to print on nice 24 lb paper.

Don’t sit at home watching reruns of The Walking Dead. It works against the successful job hunt to sit still- it shuts down momentum and makes it hard to start up the search.

Get started on your journey with the Trail Guide to Career Exploration for Adults.

Do get busy doing volunteer work. It is good for the soul and the community AND it fills in any blank places on the resume timeline that could occur if you were just home watching Netflix.

DO take time to recalibrate and renew your knowledge of yourself.

What did you gain and lose at your old job?
What would you like to see and do differently this time?
What do you really want and need to do with your life?
What is your personal mission?
What are your goals and values?

This is a good time to do some real Career Coaching. Contact me, we can work in person if you’re local OR over Skype if you are not driving distance.

Follow those 7 Do’s and Don’ts when you lose a job and you’ll find the transition to the new career goes so much better!

3 Important First Steps When You Want to Change Careers