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10 Simple, Practical Steps to a New or Revamped Career

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

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

3 Steps for Getting Life Right All the Time

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Been wondering how to always be right? Here are 3 steps for getting life right all the time.

3 Steps for Getting Life Right All the Time VickiTillmanCoaching.com

3 Steps for Getting Life Right All the Time

“I just want to get it right!”

“If I can’t do it with excellence, I will wait until I can.”

“If I can’t figure out the RIGHT thing to do, I must be all wrong.”

I often hear statements like this from my clients. Like many people, they are sincere and just want to get life (career, relationships, stuff) right.

I love to share my 3 steps for getting life right!

Step 1

Beware of “Perfection Paralysis” (as one of my perfectionistic friends calls it)

While you shouldn’t make a life goal of doing a lousy job at everything, you become excellent at whatever you do by much practice. If you wait until you’re perfect, you won’t ever get started, much less arrive. Getting life right happens as you intentionally gain experience on journey.

Guiding principle: Anything worth doing is worth doing badly. GK Chesterton

Step 2

Beware of “The Arrival Myth”

You don’t arrive. I can remember being a young mother who was deluded by the thought that when I reached the ripe old age of 30, I will have arrived. I would have my stuff together, my family will be perfect, and I would be living a comfortable, steady-as-she-goes lifestyle.

In the 21st century, most people don’t get one career, one house, one set of interests and the settle down into comfortable mediocrity. Instead, the staples of life like career, living location, even church often shift many times.

Guiding Principle: Today, life isn’t a destination. As long as you are this side of heaven, you never arrive. If you surrender the Arrival Myth and make up your mind to enjoy the adventure that you are on, you won’t miss what God is doing in and through you.

Step 3

Live life “good enough”

So, really, you can’t get it right, right now and expect it to stick. You can’t do life perfectly but you can keep at it. You must simply do life “good enough”and learn to enjoy the process.

That doesn’t mean living lazily or sloppily, it just means that you can live life (career, relationships, stuff) remembering you are on the journey: there isn’t ONE place that you will land and then be “okay”, you must be “okay” where you are.

Guiding Principle: How do you do life “good enough”?

  • Be thankful for what you have.
  • Daily find moments of awe.
  • Take care of what you have gratefully (your body, your soul, your relationships, your stuff).
  • Handle your career faithfully and wisely, understanding that things will change. (Keep your LinkedIn updated and your resume sharp.)
  • Always keep learning.
  • Remember that service to others is foundational for success.

Okay, so there aren’t 3 steps for getting life right all the time. There are simply steps for living your journey well.

When you’re ready for coaching with a wise guide, contact me. We can talk in person, by phone or Skype and help you understand yourself/others and enjoy the fulfilling next steps in your life!

3 Steps for Getting Life Right All the Time

What is Career Coaching and Who Needs It?

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What is Career Coaching and who needs it?

What is Career Coaching and Who Needs It? VickiTillmanCoaching.com

What is Career Coaching and Who Needs It?

Career Coaching is the process of working with a coach to tweak career paths, identify new career paths, and develop the skills to succeed in both. Career Coaches like me work with people like you, who:

  • are ready to fulfill their dreams and potentials by launching into a new career field
  • are determined to achieve more in their current field
  • are anxious to get back to work after having been downsized, outsourced, job-eliminated
  • are feeling a bit nervous as they look for a second career after raising their kids
  • are pressured to choose a college major before graduating high school and want so help
  • are fed up with their organization and want to move to a meaningful career
  • are delighted to give back to their communities in their retirement years

The Career Coaching process looks different for each person. That’s because everyone has different needs and desires. We will discuss what you are looking for, then set goals for success in one or more of these areas:

  • Discovering talents, gifts, callings, inspirations

    Trail Guide to Career Exploration for Adults VickiTillmanCoaching.com

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

  • Identifying dreams and desires for career and life
  • Create a personal mission statement and personal visioneering tools
  • Clarifying needs, assets and limitations- then ways to work within or overcome them
  • Choose great-fit career fields and/or college majors
  • Develop skills for the job hunt (resume, interview, recruiter, Linkedin and more)
  • Develop soft skills and communication skills for career growth
  • Maximize resources available for career search and development
  • Enhance personal growth skills that help manage work-place stress (mindfulness, self-care)

You can get started on the adventure by contacting me. We will work in person if you are local or via Skype or Google Hangout if you are not. Don’t delay your adventure. Contact Vicki today!

What is Career Coaching and Who Needs It?

How to be Content with Your Life and Still Reach for Your Dreams

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Dreams out of reach? Here’s how to be content with your life and still reach for your dreams.

How to be Content with Your Life and Still Reach for Your Dreams VickiTillmanCoaching.com

How to be Content with Your Life and Still Reach for Your Dreams

Disappointment is part of life. (If I could give God advice about this, I’d tell Him that we should skip this part- but He seems to think otherwise.) We can have dreams, we can feel like we’re on the right track and then everything stops…falls apart…whatever. Then it seems like our dreams are ripped away from us.

Disappointment. It’s real. But life goes on. How do we allow life to be good even when it has been “wrong”?

Practice contentment. (Notice I said, “practice”? It takes a LOT of practice. It is a life-long, ongoing PROCESS.) BUT don’t give up on your dreams. Here’s how to be content with your life and still reach for your dreams.

How to be content with the life you have now.

*Keep daily gratitude lists. This isn’t cheesy, really. We know that Scripture tells us to give thanks and to have a grateful spirit (Psalms 100, 138, 139 and more). Now there’s research about the power of gratitude. University of California has done great work on gratefulness. They’ve found that written gratitude lists help

  • promote healthy immune systems and blood pressure
  • decrease depression levels
  • and more!Progressive Relaxation VickiTillmanCoaching.com

*Practice mindfulness. Mindfulness is the practice of “calm, non-judgmental awareness”. The American Psychological Association shares some benefits of mindfulness:

  • stress reduction
  • improved working memory
  • better focus
  • more stable moods
  • enhanced relationships

There are many mindfulness practices. Download the freebie instructions for two of my favorites mindfulness practices: Progressive Relaxation and Ignatian Examen.

*Notice the good stuff that is here now. No matter how much “stuff” we have, we need something else- but that kind of thinking makes us sick. When you notice what you DO have (and are grateful for it), the pressure to accumulate things reduces.Ignatian Examen How-to VickiTillmanCoaching.com

*Notice the good people that are here now. Your friends and family are what they are- none are perfect but hopefully most are good. Concentrate on the good people and the good things they do. If you need to download some toxic people, go for it.

*Notice the good events that are here now. Every day, something good happens. What is it?

*Self-care. You can’t be content and then respect your body and soul. It works the other way around. Treat your body and soul well and you will more easily find contentment.

*Find 5 good friends. I always tell my clients, “You become like the 5 people you hang around with, so get 5 good friends.”

How to be content with your life and still reach for your dreams:

Don’t forget your dreams. They are gifts from God.

*Remember that there is always something ahead and that you already have a dream about it inside you. It’s there, trust me.

Trail Guide to Career Exploration for Adults VickiTillmanCoaching.com

*If you’ve forgotten about your dreams, start over.

*Rediscover yourself. Who are you? If you’ve forgotten, some Career Exploration (which is simply self-knowledge development) helps. Have some fun:

*Create a vision board

*Set aside a few minutes each week to develop a skill that will help you in your dreamTrail Guide to Writing Your Personal Mission Statement VickiTillmanCoaching.com

You can have both: contentment with the present and dreams about the future. Hold onto both! Contact me when you are ready to recalibrate your life through coaching.

How to be Content with Your Life and Still Reach for Your Dreams

32 Easy Do’s and Don’ts to Power-up Your Resume

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Time to re-do that old resume? Here are 32 easy do’s and don’ts to power-up your resume.

32 Easy Do's and Don'ts to Power-up Your Resume VickiTillmanCoaching.com

32 Easy Do’s and Don’ts to Power-up Your Resume

My clients who are in job transitions often feel nervous about their resumes. Usually it’s not because they have nothing meaningful to put on the resume. Nope! They are stressed about the format, wording and details.

Here are 32 easy do’s and don’ts that I share with them:

Do:

  • Read the job description and adapt the resume to it, if possible. Use keywords that help the Applicant Tracking System (ATS) identify your resume as relevant for the job (job titles, skills related to the job, leadership qualities and other “soft skills”)
  • Proofread and then have someone else proofread
  • Glance over your finished resume and ask yourself, “Will it catch the hiring personnel’s attention within 6 seconds?”
  • Keep it to 1 page (adjust font size and spacing- but don’t make the font too small)
  • Use a simple, clean font (no fancy or goofy stuff)
  • Use single spacing
  • 1-inch margins
  • Send as PDF if emailing the resume
  • Include
    • Name
    • Contact Information- email, phone, snail mail address, website
    • Profile (This is your one-sentence elevator speech or branding statement.)
    • Skills/Areas of Expertise- include professional, technical and networking/soft skills
    • Experience- jobs and internships (If you don’t have much job history, include significant experiences such as missions trips, significant travel, or significant charitable work.)
          • Describe your jobs in terms of accomplishments, leadership, problems solved, challenges overcome, results and positive impact for the organization
          • Include numbers, if possible, such as “Increased sales by 50%” or “Reduced error rate by 20%”
          • Explain if there is significant time between jobs
          • Watch your grammar- keep verb tenses same
    • Awards
    • Education (and Professional Development, if applicable)

Don’t:

  • Create a fancier format of resume than the position warrants- an artist or graphic designer should present a wildly creative resume look, a lawyer should not
  • Use photos or icons if the job is not a creative position
  • Give an email address that is silly or difficult to copy or remember
  • Include Objectives (they went out of style)
  • Include Date of Birth (unless you want to)
  • Include high school name if you already have a college degree (unless you REALLY want to)
  • If you use bullet points, try not to include more than 5 bullets in a section
  • Use slang, contractions or abbreviations
  • Use the word “I”
  • Exaggerate

Try:

  • 2-column format (You can buy templates on Etsy if you need help.)

Power Vocabulary for Resume

Accomplished  

Trail Guide to Career Exploration for Adults VickiTillmanCoaching.com

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

Achieved

Analyzed

Arranged

Assisted

Collaborated

Communicated

Completed

Composed

Conducted

Contributed

Coordinated

Created

Directed

Demonstrated

Determined

Developed

Enhanced

Evaluated

Executed

Explored

Facilitated

Founded

Generated

Guided

Identified

Implemented

Improved

Increased

Influenced

Initiated

Leadership

Led

Maintained

Managed

Mentored

Networked

Obtained

Organized

Overhauled

Performance enhancement

Pioneered

Planned

Problem solving

Processed

Productivity enhancement

Programmed

Promoted

Reduced

Reformed

Repaired

Represented

Resolved

Spearheaded

Stimulated

Strengthened

Team building

Trained

Won

Now it is your turn! Get busy with your career change and your resume. Contact me for wise guidance on your adventure!

32 Easy Do’s and Don’ts to Power-up Your Resume

6 Steps of Career Change: More Than Dreams

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There are 6 steps to career change: more than just your dreams.

6 Steps to Career Change: More Than Just Your Dreams VickiTillmanCoaching.com

6 Steps to Career Change: More Than Just Your Dreams

Much of the career coaching that I do is with people who realize they need out of their current situation:

  • Their current corporation is being sold and they can see that the new organization will outsource their position
  • There are only lateral moves available within their current corporation
  • They get up every morning and HATE what they are doing
  • They know there is more inside them than the work they are doing now
  • They are worth more than they are being paid
  • They remembered they once had dreams…

When my coachees are ready to launch into the adventure of recreating their careers, we talk a LOT about dreams.

  • What did you use to love?Trail Guide to Writing Your Personal Mission Statement VickiTillmanCoaching.com
  • What do you love now?
  • Forgot?
  • Don’t know?

How about you? What are YOUR dreams?

If you can’t remember, get started on a fresh life journey. Remember, re-evaluate. Re-write your personal mission statement. That will help you remember who you are and why you’re here on earth. If you’ve never had one, take a day to yourself and do this workbook:

Now, you’re ready to adventure!

But career change is NOT just about your dreams. Here are other things to think about:

  1. What are your strengths?
  2. What are your masteries or most powerful experiences? (Either in work or out)
  3. What has God revealed to you through those experiences?
  4. What are your values (what is most important to you- money, relaxation, travel, family, etc)?
  5. Who is depending on you?
  6. What is your cause (what are you involved in that has transcendent – or goodness- value)?Vicki Tillman Coaching

Sound overwhelming?

You’re right. Career changes can be tough. It’s best not to do that journey alone. Take along an experienced guide- in other words, a Career Coach.

Contact me today to get started! We can journey through your career change in person, by email or via Skype.

6 Steps to Career Change: More Than Just Your Dreams

7 Do’s and Don’ts When You Lose a Job

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

7 Do's and Don'ts When You Lose a Job VickiTillmanCoaching.com

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.

Trail Guide to Career Exploration for Adults VickiTillmanCoaching.com

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!

7 Do’s and Don’ts When You Lose a Job

Omega Moms: Life After Last Kid Graduates

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This is what happens to Omega Moms!

Omega Moms: Life After Last Kid Graduates VickiTillmanCoaching.com

Omega Moms

I homeschooled my 5 kids in a community of LOTS of homeschooling families. My youngest graduated high school in a crop of about 30 peers. Many of his graduating friends were also the youngest in their families. There were so many of us moms experiencing the youngest getting ready to journey off into life that we were a phenomena! A phenomena needs a name, so one of the dads christened us: Omega Moms.

ANY MOM WHOSE YOUNGEST GRADUATES HIGH SCHOOL IS AN OMEGA MOM!

In the old days, we would have been called *Empty Nesters*.  Omega Moms don’t really fit the Empty Nest moniker anymore.

An Empty Nest Mom is one who has been a stay-at-home mom who faces a crisis when the youngest graduates. What’s her purpose? What’s the meaning of life if she’s not raising kids?

We Omega Moms don’t fit that description. Many of us had already been working for pay AND raising our kids, or volunteering LOTS of ours with our kids. While we loved raising our kids, the feeling of crisis wasn’t the same as the loss felt by Empty Nest Moms of the last generation.

The crisis Omega Moms tend to feel revolves around questions like:

  • Did I do enough?
  • Are my kids prepared for life?
  • What will my journey be like now that I have more freedom from my time obligations?
  • I have lots of opportunities for adventure. Which ones should I choose?

No matter how awesome those child-rearing years were, we moms never escape mother guilt. I have the immovable opinion that motherhood is all about guilt. That’s why we have a loving God who can be perfect for our kids- we can trust Him with the journey of their lives.

But what about us Omega Moms? What happens to us?

God keeps working in our lives, guiding us into new adventures and new trails. When we arrive at the Omega Mom part of life, our new (or maybe simply adjusted) journeys begin!

The Omega Moms that I know have tweaked career paths, launched into new careers, increased their community involvement, or have become full-time sandwich generation caregivers for parents and grandkids. We’ve been burned often enough in life that we are more determined to ditch dysfunctional organizations and look for those with healthier environments and attitudes to be involved with. We are experienced with life and with faith but wise enough to know we have a long way to go. We are willing to grow! We are confident in our ability to survive and make good things happen in adventure that comes.

Here are some tips for Omega Moms:Ignatian Examen How-to VickiTillmanCoaching.com

  • Re-discover yourself. When’s the last time you truly KNEW yourself?
  • Develop some new skills. Any new skill will do. God will use some of them as He guides you into your new adventures, the others will just be fun!

Trail Guide to Career Exploration for Adults VickiTillmanCoaching.com

Hooray for Omega Moms! Praise God we made it this far. The journey ahead will have lots of good!

Omega Moms

Don’t Get Stuck in a Quarterlife Crisis: 5 Ways Out

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Don’t get stuck! Here are 5 ways out of quarter-life crisis.

5 Ways Out of a Quarter-life Crisis VickiTillmanCoaching.com

5 Ways Out of Quarter-life Crisis

This is NOT the life you signed up for! Not the relationships you thought you’d be enjoying by now. Not the faith you thought you were going to be solid in. And definitely not the lifestyle you were planning on when you earned your degree to the tune of big student loans.

The 20-somethings I work with are often at a forced turning point in life. They cannot live happily the way things are. They are not alone: quarter-life crisis is huge in the western world. Britain’s Daily Mail reported up to 73% of young Brits are experiencing the same thing.

1) Get out of your own way. Go volunteer. You can’t figure out the way out of crisis by simply mulling on it. Get your mind on others. It is good for your soul and makes space for new ideas. (Not that you need to become a professional volunteer, it is simply good for the journey- and for the folks you help.)

2) Do new things. Sometimes a quarter-lifer’s world purely implodes. Same old routines, same old people, same old stuff, same old expectations aren’t doing the same thing for you anymore. Start doing one new thing each week. Find meetup groups that are prepping for cause-oriented 5ks, churches that are doing meaningful growth groups. Find organizations that are making life happen.

3) Acceptance. Life sucks. Well, not all the time. But parts of it do. Paying bills, especially student loans, sucks. Finding out that you’re not the top of the lineup in life is awful. Accept it, then find the things that are good and concentrate on them. You will find them when you look.Trail-Guide-to-Carerr-Exploration-for-Adults

4) Re-evaluate. You might be able to switch or upgrade careers. But don’t do anything rash. Take a moment are re-evaluate who you are and what you’re about. If you aren’t sure or if you haven’t thought about it for a while, download the Trail Guide to Writing a Personal Mission Statement and the Trail Guide to Career Exploration for Adults. They are great first steps on a new portion of your life journey.

5) Get a mentor. That’s what Life Transitions Coaching is all about. It helps to have a wise guide through this part of your life journey. Contact me: I’ll help guide you through the quarter-life crisis and into the adventure of a fulfilling and meaningful life.

5 Ways out of Quarter-life Crisis