Surviving Careertransitions: A Field Guide For Voluntary & Involuntary Career Changers

S U RV I V I N G CARE E R TRANS I TI ON S
A Field Guide for Voluntary & Involuntary Career Changers
Vasily Ingogly M.A., M.S.

Copyright © 2007 Metier Career Coaching
All Rights Reserved
http://www.metier-coaching.com
S U RV I V I N G CARE E R TRANS I TI ON S
Table of Contents
Overview
6
Letting Go
7
1. The Dilemma
7
2. Naming The Loss

8
3. Grieving The Loss

9
4. Exercise: Self Care Plan

10
Finding Career Satisfaction

11
1. Identifying Your Interests
11
2. Identifying Your Style (Strengths)

13
3. Identifying Your Needs

14
4. Identifying Your Ca&ing

15
5. Exercise: Interest Worksheet

16
6. Exercise: Strengths Worksheet

17
Defining Your Life Goals

18
1. Goals, Change, and Anxiety
18
Surviving Career Transitions

2
2. Congruency: Goals and Identity
20
3. Your Career Vision and Mission

21
4. Exercise: Setting Congruent Goals

22
5. Exercise: Values and Personal Integrity

24
6. Exercise: Your Personal Vision

26
Figuring Out What You’re Good At

28
2. What Are Abilities and Ski&s?
28
2. Identifying Your Abilities and Ski&s

30
3. Exercise: Abilities and Goals

31
4. Exercise: Ski&s and Experience

33
5. Exercise: What’s Transferable?

34
Planning Your Career Trajectory

35
1. Analyzing and Setting Goals
35
2. Motivation and Success

39
3. Developing Short and Long Range Plans

40
4. Exercise: Analyzing Your Goals

42
5. Exercise: Your Motivation and Obstacles

43
6. Exercise: Developing Your Plan

44
Marketing Yourself In Your Chosen Niche

45
1. Career Choice and Career Satisfaction
45
2. Researching Career Niches

47
A. Career Assessment Tests 47

3
B. Internet Research 48
C. Library/Bookstore Research 48
D. Interviewing for Information 49
3. Developing a Personal Marketing Plan

50
4. Exercise: Living a Fulfi&ing Life

52
5. Exercise: Researching Career Niches

55
6. Exercise: Writing Your Marketing Plan

56
Writing Resumes That Get Interviews

57
1. Selecting Resume Focus and Format
57
A. The Chronological Resume 58
B. The Functional Resume 59
C. The Combination Resume 60
D. The Curriculum Vitae 61
2. Selecting Resume Content

62
3.Writing Cover Letters

65
4. Preparing For The Interview

67
5. Exercise: Draft A Resume and Cover Letter

68
6. Exercise: Interview Practice Questions

69
Your Ca&ing And Your Life

70
1. Putting The Pieces Together
70
2. Growth As A way of Life

72
3. Tracking Your Progress

73
4. What’s The Next Step?

74

4
5. Resources
75
cover photo used with permission of BigStockPhoto.com

5
Overview
his Guide was originally developed as a workbook for a career transition

T group at a church, to provide assistance and support to members of the parish who
were unemployed or underemployed. It has been edited to address the needs of those who
have lost their jobs, or who are considering a voluntary change of job or career, either early
in their careers or mid-career. Its advice will also be of interest to those who are facing re-
tirement and wondering how they will find meaningful tasks in their new lives. Retirement
is, after all, another kind of career, and some find a sense of true calling there that they
never experienced in the workaday world.
All those who the original Workbook targeted have since found other employment, and
some of them have decided to change careers. May it be of use to all those who use it in
their journey toward joyful, meaningful lives!

Vasily Ingogly M.A., M.S.
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Late Summer, 2007

6
Letting Go
1. THE DILEMMA
C
hange is almost always accompanied by some degree of grieving. Even if the change
is leading you in a new and exciting direction that speaks deeply to who you are,
there is still an element of loss involved: perhaps loss of an earlier dream; or loss of a solid
sense of security in your life; or loss of a sure income stream. Part of you is excited about the
prospects; another part of you is fearful of failure (or even afraid of success); and still an-
other part wonders: what have I done? What have I given up for the sake of something new
and different? This applies to retirees as well as new and experienced career changers.
Standing next to us in the shadows as we look toward the future is a cloud of witnesses: all
those people we have been, and who we have left behind. Here is the child who wanted to
be Indiana Jones and go on Great Adventures; here is the serious young college student who
wanted to write the Great American Novel; here is the passionate young person new in her
career and determined to Do Great Things and Make A Name For Herself.
“We’ve been there before,” they say, shaking their heads sadly as they pull back into the
darkness. “Down that road is the Adventure you never had because it wasn’t practical and
the time wasn’t right. In this computer is the potential Novel you never wrote because you
just couldn’t find the time or inspiration to do it. That Office in the corner should have been
yours, but you decided it was best to settle for something less.” These ghosts know how to
speak to us of what we have lost, and of the doubts and fears that made us lose those things.
They know our limitations well, because it is our limitations that forced them into the
shadows and stripped them of their power to effect change. But as you struggle with the loss
and the doubt, who will speak for hope and the future? Which one of your inner selves will
be your advocate? Are you ready to be that advocate for yourself?

7
2. NAMING THE LOSS
O
ne of the things we sometimes do to help us bear a loss is to deny ourselves the
right to grieve. We might say things like this to ourselves: “I shouldn’t feel this way,”
or “I’m making a big deal over nothing,” or “I’m lucky to have this opportunity, I shouldn’t
regret the past.” Or we throw ourselves into pursuit of change, telling ourselves we’ll deal
with the loss later. It’s normal for human beings to have mixed feelings about life changes,
and it’s normal for human beings to approach loss in different ways. Some of us deal with
the loss immediately, recover, and move on. Others put off grieving until the time is right to
face it (and there is sufficient time to grieve and let go). There is no standard timetable for
grief, no “correct” template for the grieving process.
It’s important for us to recognize, however, that whenever change happens to us, there will
be something lost. The college graduate entering the job market has moved beyond her col-
lege days, and may be giving up friends and a lifestyle that has its own pleasures and terrors.
The mid-life career changer may be giving up a certain vision of himself as a career person,
and is in a sense starting over again. The retiree may have lost a sense of herself as a person
with a clear direction in life and wonders how she will regain that sense of meaning in her
life again.
The fact that great and wonderful things may happen to us as the result of change does not
eliminate the sense of sorrow and anxiety we feel because we are giving some things up. We
should rejoice in the positive side of change; but we should also realize that we have a right
to the sense of sorrow we feel for everything we have given up in choosing a different path.
What will you have to give up for the sake of change, whether voluntarily or involuntarily?

8
3. GRIEVING THE LOSS
W
hen I left a 24-year-long career as a software professional to pursue graduate studies
in psychology, I felt like I was turning my back on a solid career and success for the
unknown and the possibility of failure. Would I be able to make it on a reduced salary?
Could I still get through a graduate-level program of studies? How would I handle being an
intern, whose peers would be mostly folks fresh out of college and who would not under-
stand what I had already accomplished in my life? How could I be doing this at an age when
most of my peers were looking at retirement down the road?
Although some friends were supportive, others questioned my sanity: “What are you doing,
you have a great career; don’t throw it all away at your age!” In fact, I had been considering
a career change for nearly fifteen years when I made the move and entered graduate school.
It wasn’t the sudden, overnight move it appeared to be to others.
I liked software development; I was an expert consultant on software development proc-

esses, and respected in my field. I had acquired an MS in computer science, and had pro-
vided consulting services to major national and international companies. Overnight, I went
from expert to novice. It was a humbling experience. I felt that a chapter of my life had
closed and a new one opened; and although I looked forward to the new chapter, yes, I felt
some regret that the old one was no more. I grieved the loss and moved on, and resigned
myself to exercising my software interests as an amateur. My former career would become
my hobby.
Since then, I’ve managed (much to my initial surprise) to integrate my software interests
into my counseling and coaching career. My former career lives on, and I firmly believe
that whatever skills we have achieved in our life can be transferred to a new career if we
choose to do so. Mourn your loss, but look for opportunities to use the transferrable skills
you have developed as you move into the next phase of your life.

9
4. EXERCISE: SELF CARE PLAN
hat self-care do you need to do to help you manage stress during this time of change and
W loss? List one or more items in each category which you are ready and willing to commit
to doing over the next two weeks.
Physical (Exercise, Diet, Medical, etc.):
Mental (Managing Attitudes and Thoughts):
Emotional (Managing Feelings):
Social (Community, Family):
Spiritual (Worship, Prayer, Fasting, Meditation, Almsgiving, etc.):

10
Finding Career Satisfaction
1. IDENTIFYING YOUR INTERESTS
nterests include the types of activities that you are drawn to; these will need to be present
I in a job or career that you are considering if you are to stay motivated. It’s likely that we
are born with certain inclinations, and learn as we grow up that some activities are rewarding to us
because of who we are. Other activities may attract us for intellectual, emotional, or other reasons.
It is important to note that interests do not necessarily correlate with skills (we’ll talk about skills
in a later session). Note that it is possible to be:
• Very interested in performing certain activities, but not yet possess the skills to perform them
(this is often the case for young people starting out on a career, or sometimes for mid-life ca-
reer changers who are looking at moving into a different career)
• Highly skilled at performing certain activities, but have little real interest in them (this is some-
times the case for those who are experiencing “burnout” in a job they chose for pragmatic rea-
sons rather than for an intrinsic interest in the field)
It’s important to understand that some people are drawn to working with machinery, and some are
not; some like working with numbers and detail, some do not (and so on). We are made differ-
ently, and most of us understand this. However, in assessing how well certain careers fit us, we
need to go deeper than this and figure out which activities we have experienced positively in our
lives, and which negatively – and further, what it is about those activities that has caused us to ex-
perience them positively and negatively.
A person who always loathed mathematics in school, and who finds that working with numbers
drains his energy probably would not find working as a mathematician, mathematics teacher, or
accountant rewarding even if he was good at it. On the other hand, a person who found himself
looking forward to doing his math homework in school, and who had a difficult time tearing him-

11
self away from working with numbers, would probably find working as a mathematician, mathe-
matics teacher, or accountant rewarding and would have the motivation to acquire the skills
needed to do the job.

12
2. IDENTIFYING YOUR STYLE (STRENGTHS)
tyle is the sum of the strengths you bring to the work environment when you are at your
S best. Your strengths define the way you prefer to get results on the job. Creating or find-
ing a work environment in which your strengths are appreciated and exercised is a big part of job
satisfaction. Strengths are related to or derived from our personalities, which define who we are.
We are probably born with certain aspects of our personalities, and its structure tends to develop
very early in life. If you are forced to work in a way that stresses your limitations rather than your
strengths, you will probably be uncomfortable in your work environment. Understanding our
strengths and limitations is an important part of building careers that fit us.
It’s important to understand that different people have different strengths. One person’s ideal work
environment may be hell on earth for another person because it allows the first person to use his
strengths and does not allow the second person to use his strengths. For example, a person who is
very good at getting people to work together effectively might not do well in a career where he has
very little contact with people. A person who is very detail-oriented and good at pursuing every
angle of a concept probably will not do well in a career context where he is he is forced to deal
with the big picture only and required to develop high-level concepts and pass them on to others
for completion. He’s likely to be perpetually frustrated by his job!
Recognizing and working within the boundaries defined by your strengths is not a sign of weak-
ness; it’s part of recognizing that not every person can be as effective in every work environment.
We’re all unique, and uniquely gifted.

13
3. IDENTIFYING YOUR NEEDS
eeds include the things you need from your work environment to be at your best. This is
N the kind of support you need in a job to bring out your strengths, and to allow you to
work within your limitations. It’s likely that needs develop in response to the frustrations and re-
wards we experience as we try using our strengths in the pursuit of different activities. This process
starts in childhood and continues through adolescence and young adulthood. So we see that career
satisfaction involves finding or creating a career that allows you to follow your interests, using the
unique set of strengths you have been gifted with, in a work environment that provides you with
what you need to use your strengths.
Needs can be understood as polarities or continua of work environment characteristics; some ex-
amples include
• The need for clear direction versus the need for being a self-starter
• The need for task variety versus task dependability
• The need for harmony versus the need for controversy
• The need for order versus the need for spontaneity
• The need for high levels of stress versus the need for low levels of stress
It isn’t right or wrong to be at one end or another of these continua. Different people need differ-
ent things from their work environments to do their best, because their interests and strengths are
different. In fact, the most effective work teams often include a variety of people who bring their
unique giftings to bear on the solution of common problems.

14
4. IDENTIFYING YOUR CALLING
rederick Buechner describes a calling as the place to which God calls us where our deep
F joy and the world’s great need intersect. The word “vocation” comes from the Latin root
vocare, to call.
I believe that the types of activities we’re drawn to, the strengths we bring to our careers, the sup-
port needs we have, as well as our abilities and skills (we’ll talk about these in a later session) are all
part of a calling. We need to be able to “read” these aspects of ourselves so we can prayerfully use
them as we decide on career direction changes and on the selection of specific jobs.
Some callings are very specific and appear early in life. Consider, for example, Mozart who com-
posed his first music at the age of six or seven. Other callings may be broader in nature or vague,
and may appear later in life (often this happens as a person looks at the choices he has made and
finds them somehow unsatisfying). Sometimes a calling appears suddenly and is thrust upon us by
Providence. For example, Roman Catholic author Walker Percy worked for years as a physician,
but became ill and could no longer practice medicine so he began writing fiction. He spent the
rest of his life as a novelist and essayist. There is an element of mystery to this process, and it is
sometimes hard to see where we have been led until we look back in reflection on a period in our
lives. For one person, there is a clear and singular voice calling them to a specific place. For an-
other person, there is a gentle pull toward this area in preference to that area. One thing seems to
be certain: we will find ourselves the most happy when we are most truly the persons we have been
created to be.
Where are you being led?

15
5. EXERCISE: INTEREST WORKSHEET
ist three to five things you have done in your job or some other context that were satisfy-
L ing for you, gave you a feeling of accomplishment, and which you would like to do again
(without regard to how well you did them):
List three to five things you have done at work or in some other context that gave you little satis-
faction or sense of accomplishment, and which you hope you never have to do again (without re-
gard to how well you did them):
List three to five things related to vocation or avocation that you once wished to do and which
still appeal to you, but which you have given up on for practical or other reasons:
Reflection: What does this exercise tell you about the sort of potential activities you should seek
and avoid in a career or job as you begin your search?

16
6. EXERCISE: STRENGTHS WORKSHEET
ist your strengths as you understand them in the table that follows, either because you
L recognize them in yourself or because of the things other people have told you. Next to
each strength list what you need from your environment to use that strength.
I believe my strengths are: What I need to use my strengths:
Spiritual
Intellectual
Emotional
Relational
Practical
Reflection: What does this exercise tell you about the kind of environments you need to do and be
your best? Have you been able to use your strengths to the best of your ability in past jobs or ca-
reers, or in other areas of your life? Why or why not?

17
Defining Your Life Goals
1. GOALS, CHANGE, AND ANXIETY
hat kinds of feelings do the words “goal-setting” stir up for you? Do they make you feel
W energized and eager for action? Or do they make you feel enervated and wishing you
could avoid the task of goal-setting? Our feelings and attitudes toward goal-setting vary on a con-
tinuum based on our past experiences, our attitudes toward change, and our loci of control (which
we discussed the first time we met).
• At one extreme are people who thrive on change and prefer it to stasis. They tend to see goal-
setting as a challenging and enjoyable activity and seek it out. Life is what they make of it; they
see it as an adventure, and they are in large part in control of the outcome. These people tend
to have internal loci of control.
• At the other extreme are people who see change as dangerous and prefer the comfort and reli-
ability of stasis. They tend to see goal-setting as a laborious and fearful activity, and avoid it.
Life happens to them; they see it as a journey fraught with peril, and they have little control
over the outcome. These people tend to have external loci of control.
Most of us operate somewhere between these extremes, and our ability to embrace change fluctu-
ates with our life experiences, our life stage, and circumstances. It affects the way we react to events
in our lives, like job losses. But no matter how uncomfortable the need for change and decision
makes us, we need to understand that doing nothing means making a choice. If we choose immo-
bility in a stressful situation, things will happen to us that we may or may not be happy about, and
inactivity may result in our losing sight of the path that we are called to trod.
Should we take things as they come and make the best of them, or be active agents of change in
our lives? This is not an easy question to answer. To wait endlessly for further information before

18
we make our decisions, or to assume that the Universe or God or whoever will provide us with a
specific job opportunity and absolutely clear path to follow when the time is right, may cause us
to miss the fact that we need to do our part. There is a time to listen and wait, and a time to
speak and act. Sometimes operating from a position of integrity and faith means taking what we’ve
been given, making our decision carefully, and take the long leap into darkness.
Stress and anxiety are not evil or bad things by nature. Stress is a natural response to change in our
lives: we may experience distress from negative events like a job loss, a death, a failure of health.
But we may also experience eustress from positive events in our lives like a promotion, a marriage,
good news. Stress and a little bit of anxiety can be destructive influences in our lives, or they can
be what keeps us going, keeps us moving toward making positive changes for ourselves.
Setting goals is difficult. If we set goals that are easy for us and do not experience any stress or
anxiety at all when we consider implementing them, we may not be strongly motivated to pursue
them. Furthermore, the goals that are really worth reaching for are often those that provoke a cer-
tain amount of anxiety in us when we think about them. By finding the point at which our goals
provoke a tolerable level of anxiety in us, we can find the point of optimal stress for us that will
hopefully motivate us to seek to be everything that we are intended us to be.

19
2. CONGRUENCY: GOALS AND IDENTITY
n the context of goals and career, congruency means there is a match between who we are
I and what we are trying to become. In the last section, I spoke about interests, strengths,
and needs, and connected these things to our callings: what we have been made to be in this life.
It’s good to define goals that stretch us to be and do our best; but if the anxiety and stress we ex-
perience arise from a poor fit between our goals and who we were made to be, it may be a sign
that we are not being sufficiently attentive to our callings in setting goals for ourselves. Setting in-
congruent goals for ourselves often leads eventually either to failure or to deep dissatisfaction with
our careers. Setting congruent goals leads to a career grounded in meaning and a passionate love of
what we do to earn our paychecks.
Congruency requires having a clear personal vision of our callings, and a mission that defines for
us how we will realize that vision. Lack of vision and mission leads to aimlessness, settling for sec-
ond best in life, compromises that may be pragmatic but do not help us achieve what we need to
do in our lives to reach wholeness, purpose, and integrity. Consider, for example, a young man
who is given a certain calling, and he knows it is his heart’s desire. But through lack of clarity in
understanding who he is and a certain spiritual blindness, he ignores that calling in his career
choices. Instead of considering how he has been fashioned in making decisions, he follows the
voice of the world: he chooses training for a career that will make him look successful in the eyes
of his peers, a career that will bring him wealth and prominence. He chooses an easy way out that
will bring him a guarantee of employment and all the things that the world defines as “success.”
The years go by and he gets all that he wants. But underneath his outward success, he feels a cer-
tain emptiness, a dissatisfaction with who he has become: what if he had followed his heart instead
of listening to the voices of the world? How would his life have been different if he had chosen the
path of congruency rather than the path of outward success?

20
3. YOUR CAREER VISION AND MISSION
areer vision should direct us toward achieving our goals. It should also inspire us to take
C action. A vision that doesn’t inspire isn’t going to motivate us to reach our goals! A vi-
sion is like an energy field that surrounds us and nourishes us. Our mission defines how we will
reach our goals, and it is informed by our personal vision. Our vision therefore needs to be one
we sincerely and deeply believe in.
A vision reflects who we are called to be. It therefore must be congruent with our interests, per-
sonal strengths, needs, and goals. In addition, it must be oriented around our sense of personal
integrity: the principles and values that are most important to us. We need therefore to define a
personal vision based on our sense of integrity, then test it against our calling and goals to make
sure they are congruent. If they are not, we need to identify the source of the incongruity. Do we
understand our interests, strengths, and needs? Have we identified goals that are congruent with
them? Do we have a true sense of personal integrity that is grounded in our dearest principles and
values?
Once we have defined a personal vision, we can define a personal mission by looking at our vision
and our goals, and identifying:
• The changes we need to make in ourselves to achieve the vision and goals
• The steps we need to take to make the vision a reality
As we pursue implementation of our careers, we need to periodically revisit our vision and mission
statements, and evaluate whether we are on track. If we are not, we need to take whatever steps are
necessary to return us to the right path.

21
4. EXERCISE: SET TING CONGRUENT GOALS
efer to the Interest Worksheet and Strengths Worksheet you completed in the last section.
R In what way are your interests and your strengths related to each other? Do they fully
support each other, or is there a tension between them? If there is a tension there, what is its
source? For each area on the Strengths Worksheet, define below up to three goals for yourself that
fulfill your interests and use your strengths (in other words, that are congruent).
Goals that will improve your spiritual life:
Goals that will improve your intellectual life:
Goals that will improve your emotional life:

22
Goals that will improve your relationships:
Goals that will improve practical aspects of your life:
Reflection: how do you feel when you imagine yourself achieving these goals? If you find them
easy to contemplate achieving, try pushing the boundaries by setting each goal a little higher. At
what point do you start feeling some anxiety about the outcome and find yourself thinking “that
could never happen?” Consider setting “stretch” goals for yourself.

23
5. EXERCISE: VALUES AND PERSONAL INTEGRITY
ersonal integrity encompasses the values or principles that you stand for, that give your
P life and work meaning. Review the following list of words, and circle the top three words
that reflect your sense of personal integrity. Only circle three. If there’s another word you would
like to choose instead, write it down in one of the blank spaces provided – but choose only three
words total (this will force you to be clear about your most essential values).
health freedom honor mastering

strength spirituality trust winning
fun service creativity accomplishment
love sacredness invention peace
kindness security opennness quiet
grace home imagination serenity
understanding family planning inner strength
beauty community building intuition
adventure partnership challenge play
courage growth discovery truth
risk enlightenment learning nurturing
leadership happiness self-expression wholeness
inspiration joy feelings safety
change support nature vigor/vitality
honesty contribution action ______________
patience advocacy rules ______________
fairness respect persuasion ______________
compassion power/influence encouragement

24
Reflection: Look at the life goals you defined in an earlier section. Are your goals consistent with
the values you circled above? What would a career that supported your goals and was consistent
with your principles look like? What sort of changes would you need to make in your attitudes and
in your life to help you find or make such a career?

25
6. EXERCISE: YOUR PERSONAL VISION
t this point you should have thought about a set of goals for yourself that are congruent
A with who you are and the values behind them, and you have done some preliminary
thinking about the shape and feel of a career that would be consistent with your goals and values.
You should also have some idea of your interests and strengths, and what you need from your
work environment to support those interests and strengths.
Look for general principles or a general “thrust” in all the material you’ve worked on in the
homework assignments last week and this week. When I’ve done this sort of work, I’ve discovered
certain things about who I am and my career needs and preferences. For example:
• I need a lot of variety and day-to-day change in my career

• I like to work at the boundary between concepts and bring them together
• I need to know that what I’m doing makes a difference in people’s lives
• I am excited by opportunities to use my gifts at the “cutting edge” in a field
• I am by temperament both analytical/technical and creative/artistic
You should at this point be able to make similar statements about yourself. Try writing down a few
statements reflecting things you’ve come to realize (either in group or before you came into group)
about your career preferences and needs here:
·
·
·
·

26
As you reflect on the statements you’ve written above, think about how you might formulate a
vision statement that encapsulates in a single sentence who you are and who you are trying to be-
come. For example, a vision statement based on my own self-insights might look like this:
I make a difference in many people’s lives by helping them “connect the dots” to
find meaning and truth in their life narratives, and by helping them take steps to-
ward making positive changes in their lives by using my technical and creative skills
in a variety of settings.
This is in fact pretty close to how I currently define my career vision. It’s rather wordy and may
seem convoluted to someone else, but it makes sense to me – and that’s the important thing. I also
understand that it’s a working definition that will change over the coming months and years.
When I read this vision statement, it has a sense of rightness for me, because it arises out of the
self-insights I’ve achieved. I believe that it’s congruent with who I am, and my current understand-
ing of what I am meant to become, yet I’m ready to revise it as my self-understanding grows.
See if you can construct a preliminary vision statement for yourself:
Reflection: how do you feel when you read the vision statement you’ve constructed? Does it seem
congruent with who you are, and your current understanding of what you are meant to become?
Don’t worry about how you might achieve this vision of yourself yet; we’ll discuss this aspect of
career planning in the next section.

27
Figuring Out What You’re Good At
2 . W H AT A R E A B I L I T I E S AND SKILLS?
bilities represent your capacity for accomplishing things in your career. They’re part of
A your giftedness, but they’re not necessarily the same thing as the things you have actually
accomplished. You might have been gifted with an ability for convincing other people to follow a
certain course of action, for example, but the jobs you have held have not given you the opportu-
nity to exercise this gift. Abilities are strongly connected to who you are, and finding a vocation or
avocation that allows you to exercise your abilities usually results in a high degree of satisfaction.
Skills, on the other hand, represent the things you have learned to be good at in your career. They
are things you have accomplished, and are not necessarily the same as your abilities. For example,
you may have learned to work well with numbers and develop an excellent business plan, even
though these are not things you have been given a natural gift for. Finding a vocation or avocation
that allows you to exercise your skills may or may not result in a high degree of satisfaction, de-
pending on how congruent the skills are with who you are (your calling).
The difference between abilities and skills is therefore the distinction between what you would be
able to do and what you have actually done. Both are important to know, since together they rep-
resent those aspects of yourself that you might use in a career. But the opportunities to use abili-
ties and skills is not limited to your career: you might also find opportunities to use them in avo-
cations or volunteer work, or in your life in the family and church, for example.
Bear in mind, though, that you will spend a good portion of your life working at your career.
Forty hours is a quarter of the time available in a week. If the time we are given here is a gift,
should we spend a quarter of it working at something that doesn’t reflect who we have been cre-
ated to be? If we choose a job primarily to get food on the table, in what other ways will we fulfill

28
our callings by exercising the abilities we have been given? In other words, how can we be good
stewards of our abilities and skills?

29
2. IDENTIFYING YOUR ABILITIES AND SKILLS
ou may possess certain abilities that you have been able to use in your past career or avo-
Y cations. These can usually be identified by asking yourself: what have you done well at,
and have wanted to do more? When we are given the opportunity to use our natural abilities, we
are almost always energized by the opportunity. Do you remember engaging in an activity and hav-
ing the hours fly by? Or completing an activity and wishing that you weren’t finished so you
could continue it? Often, these are signs that you’re engaged in exercising a gift. They are skills
that are also abilities.
Abilities that are just potential may be harder to recognize, since they represent abilities you would
be good at but which you haven’t had an opportunity to use in your past career or avocations.
These can often be identified by asking yourself questions like: what have you wanted to do but
have never found the opportunity to do? What were your dreams as a child, as an adolescent, as an
adult? What have you thought you’d be good at, but have never tried for one reason or another?
What have others suggested you’d be good at, and you’ve found yourself thinking, “Yes, I just
might be good at that?” If you can identify potential abilities, what would you need to be able to
use them in a career or avocation?
Identifying skills is often easier than identifying abilities. What do you know you’ve done well in
the past, and what have others told you you’ve done well in the past? What do you have a lot of
experience doing? Good sources for skills are performance evaluations, job applications, interviews,
and your current resume.
A good way of helping you identify abilities and skills is to ask those closest to you these ques-
tions: What do you think I’ve done well in the past? What do you think I’d be good at? Don’t
forget to examine abilities and skills in contexts other than the workplace: school, hobbies, family
life, church and volunteer work.

30
3. EXERCISE: ABILITIES AND GOALS
efer to the Interest and Strengths Worksheets you completed in an earlier section. They
R may help you identify your abilities. Also, ask those who know you well for input on your
abilities.
List three to five abilities you’ve thought you might be good at using but haven’t tried (“I’m able
to...”):
List three to five abilities others have said you might be good at using but that you haven’t tried
(“Others say I’m able to...”):
List three to five abilities you have used that you know you’re good at, which energize you and/or
give you a sense of satisfaction (“I’m able to...”):

31
List three to five abilities you have used that others say you’re good at, which energize you and/or
give you a sense of satisfaction (“Others say I’m able to...”):
Reflection: How are the abilities you’ve identified related to the goals you defined last week? To
your vision statement? Do they support your achieving your goals and realizing your vision for
your career? How?

32
4. EXERCISE: SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE
or this exercise, you may find it helpful to look at past performance evaluations, job ap-
F plications, your current resume. Think about past interviews. You may also want to ask
others for input on your skills (“What do you think I’m good at?”).
List three to five skills you know you excel at:
List three to five skills others have said you excel at:
List three to five skills you are competent at and have a lot of experience doing:
Reflection: How are the skills you’ve identified related to the goals you defined in the last section?
To your vision statement? Which skills do you most prefer using? Which skills do you least prefer
using? Do these skills support your achieving your goals and realizing your vision for your career?
How?

33
5. E X E RC I S E : W H AT ’ S T R A N S F E R A B L E ?
ook at the abilities and skills you’ve identified. Are they general, or specific in nature? Try
L to reword each of them so they are as general as possible. For example, if you listed as a
skill: “I’m skilled at tracking time and expenses for my projects around the house and budgeting
my money,” you might reword it to make it more general like this: “Can develop budgets for or-
ganizations and manage expenses against them.” You may record them below, or on another sheet
of paper.
Reflection: Do you see how your abilities and skills can be reframed so they represent transferable
skills that could be used in a variety of careers? Continue working at identifying your abilities and
skills, and making them transferable.

34
Planning Your Career Trajectory
1 . A N A LY Z I N G AND SETTING GOALS
hen we define goals, we usually first think of the endpoint we’re moving toward. For ex-
W ample, there was a point a few years ago when I decided to make the commitment to be-
come a counselor and coach. It’s important when initially setting goals and deciding which ones to
implement to avoid getting lost in the details (not being able to see the forest for the trees). When
you first started group, your goal may have been something like: “Find another job so I can feed
my family.” Hopefully, you have considered whether or not you need to revise or extend your
goals based on the exercises you’ve done for homework up to this point.
Once you know where you want to go (and you should have some idea of this now), it’s time to
figure out how you’re going to get there. Think of the goal as a process rather than as an end-
point. Answer the question: “What things do I need to do and in what sequence to reach my end-
point?” The things you need to do will depend on the nature of your goal, but will also depend on
your abilities and skills (which you analyzed in the last session). For example, it became clear early
on that I might possess the potential for becoming a psychotherapist, but I didn’t have the back-
ground to do it. That is to say, I thought I possessed the abilities but I didn’t yet have the skills. I
therefore broke my goal down into these subgoals: Get a graduate degree; acquire experience; get
licensed; go into private practice. Note that each one of these subgoals can be broken down fur-
ther into subsubgoals, and so on.
As you think about the earliest subgoal, ask yourself if there are things you need to do to prepare
yourself for that subgoal (base your analysis on your abilities and skills). For example, before I
could get a graduate degree in psychology, I needed to: Take several required undergraduate
courses as prerequisites; pay off my debts and save money; apply for financial aid; get transcripts;
etc. Continue breaking down subgoals and looking for prerequisites until you feel that how you
will implement the lowest level goals and what you need to implement them is clear.

35
Look for interdependencies between your goals as you break them down into subgoals. For exam-
ple, you might have elements of a health goal you want or need to address before you start a new
career (careers with the police, fire department and military all have certain health standards, so
you might want to take care of any health subgoals before you start your career change subgoals).
A good way of showing interdependencies is to represent your goals with a graph, in which the
connecting lines show dependency. Here is a graphic representation of this process using my goal
as an example:
Undergrad
Courses
Get Acquire Become Start

Education Experience Licensed Practice
Prepare Process For Becoming A Counselor

Financially
Having broken down my goal into subgoals, I look for prerequisites; in my case, there are two. I
would then carry the process down a level, breaking each subgoal into lower level goals until I
fully understood the tasks I needed to complete to achieve my goal, and interdependencies be-
tween the tasks.
Once you’ve broken down your goals into subgoals, you need to prioritize the goals based on
weighting criteria. You can define these criteria by looking at the interests, needs, and strengths
you identified in week two; and the core values from week three. In addition you may have some
practical criteria you want to add; for example, cost to implement or time to achieve. You want to
set up a matrix with your goals and subgoals down the left, and your criteria across the top. For
each criterion, assign a weighting factor based upon its importance to you. Give a 1.0 to the most

36
important criterion, and a 0.1 to the least important criterion, and assign weighting factors to each
criterion based upon these endpoints (for example, a criterion midway in importance would get a
weighting factor of 0.55). Allow a column for averages. The matrix will look like this:
Criterion 1 Criterion 2 Criterion 3 Criterion 4

Weight 0.25 0.55 1.00 0.70 Average
Subgoal 1
Subgoal 2
Subgoal 3
Rate each subgoal based on how well it fulfills or supports each criterion and put these values into
the “cells” of the matrix. If a subgoal doesn’t support the criterion at all, give it a 0.0. If it sup-
ports the criterion fully or perfectly, give it a 1.0. Now multiply each cell value by the weighting
factor (easy to do in a spreadsheet!). Highlight items with a weighted value of 0.50 or greater so
they stand out. Calculate averages for the weighted values (in parentheses). You’ll end up with
something like this:
Criterion 1 Criterion 2 Criterion 3 Criterion 4

Weight 0.25 0.55 1.00 0.70 Average
Subgoal 1 1.00 (0.25) 0.50 (0.275) 0.75 (0.75) 0.60 (0.42) 0.424
Subgoal 2 0.30 (0.075) 1.00 (0.55) 1.00 (1.00) 0.75 (0.525) 0.538
Subgoal 3 0.80 (0.20) 0.20 (0.11) 0.90 (0.90) 0.50 (0.35) 0.390
To calculate the averages, you add up the number of values in a row and divide by the number of
columns with data in them. For example, the average for Subgoal 1 was calculated like this:
(0.25 + 0.275 + 0.75 + 0.42)/4 = 0.424

37
Look both at the subgoals with the highest average scores, and also look at the subgoals that sat-
isfy the largest number of criteria. For example, Subgoal 2 satisfies three criteria and has the high-
est weighted average score, so it would be a top candidate for implementation. Select subgoals that
will implement all the criteria that are most important to you. In the example, Criteria 2 through
4 have weights greater than 0.50, so they’ve been highlighted. Subgoal 2 addresses all three of these
criteria, so it is likely you’d select it first for implementation.
Now, look at your goals; does Subgoal 2 have any predecessors? If so, they will have to be imple-
mented before you can implement Subgoal 2. Select a small number of goals initially to implement
based on priority and dependencies so that you can achieve some early successes and avoid being
overwhelmed. When you’ve finished implementing your highest priority goals, go back to your
prioritization scheme and select another one for implementation!

38
2 . M O T I VAT I O N AND SUCCESS
hat have been your best motivators in the past? Think about times when you’ve set goals
W for yourself and succeeded at them. What’s worked for you?
For each (sub)goal, decide what motivators will work for you to keep you moving toward that goal.
You may find some are intrinsic, like your love for the activity. For some, you may need to supply
an extrinsic motivator: a special vacation, new set of clothes, new computer, etc. once you’ve
reached the goal. Also think about the consequences of not meeting each goal, and write these
down, too.
As you work toward meeting your goals, periodically check your level of motivation and adjust
your plan as needed to keep yourself motivated.
Finally, for each goal, determine what obstacles might keep you from success. Document them,
along with a plan for each to help you deal with or overcome each obstacle. Again, some obstacles
might be internal, and some might be external.
Go back and look at the vision statement you developed for yourself. A good vision statement
should work as a powerful motivator, reminding you constantly of the reason why you’re working
at accomplishing your goals.

39
3. DEVELOPING SHORT AND LONG RANGE PLANS
nce you’ve decided which goals you’re going to tackle, you need to estimate durations
O and assign dates for complete goals and subgoals. The first step should be acquiring any
resources or training you need to begin the earliest subgoals. This will involve understanding your
abilities and skills (from last week), and what’s needed to complete the goals. You will also need to
determine how you will get the training or experience needed, which may generate additional
predecessor subgoals. Figure out the effort needed to accomplish your goals, what else you need to
accomplish in the coming months and years, and assign durations based upon your best guess as
to the effort involved and the time you will have available to work on each goal.
Based on all this information, list the goals you are planning to accomplish:
• In the next six months

• In the next year
• In the next five years
Plan on updating this list of goals every six months. Keep it where you can refer to it often (I keep
mine in my daily planner).
Here’s an example from my own life:
Goal: Become a licensed counselor and life coach.

Subgoals: Get education-acquire experience-licensure-private practice
Subsubgoals: research field and schools-apply to schools-select school- (etc.)
The predecessors for the get education subgoal turned out to be things like: take required under-
grad courses; pay off bills; save money; etc. The first predecessor could be broken down into a list

40
of the courses I needed with their prerequisites, so it turns out the very first thing I needed to do
was take a Psych 100 course at a local community college. This item went into my six month plan.

41
4 . E X E RC I S E : A N A LY Z I N G Y O U R G OA L S
sing the guidelines provided:
U
1. Break your goals down into subgoals
2. Identify any prerequisites for the subgoals
3. Continue until the scope and effort for each subgoal’s clear
4. Identify any interdependencies between goals
5. Identify your criteria from material in weeks two and three
6. Assign weights to your criteria as shown
7. Prioritize all goals and subgoals using weighted criteria
8. Select subgoals to implement based on the weighted results

42
5 . E X E R C I S E : Y O U R M O T I VAT I O N AND OBSTACLES
ist motivators that have worked for you in the past:
For each subgoal you identified in the last exercise, indicate which motivators will help you keep
moving toward your goal:
What obstacles might keep you from success? How will you deal with each of them?
Reflection: Read your vision statement. Does it work as a motivator for you? Why or why not?
How can you use your vision to keep you moving toward your goals?

43
6. EXERCISE: DEVELOPING YOUR PLAN
y six month goals are:
My one year goals are:
My five year goals are:

44
Marketing Yourself In Your Chosen Niche
1. CAREER CHOICE AND C A R E E R S AT I S FAC T I O N
he material covered in this Guide so far has provided you with a number of components
T you can use to build an understanding of what you need and want in your career:
• Activities/interests you seek in a career

• Strengths/gifts in various areas of your life
• What you need to be able to use your strengths/gifts
• Goals that are congruent with your interests/strengths
• The core values that are important to you
• Your vision for who you are called to be
• Your abilities/skills and how they can be generalized
• The things that motivate you for success
• Short and long range plans for reaching your goals
One of the keys to living a balanced and fulfilling life is finding ways of living out this self-
understanding through your career. Other ways of living it out are through volunteer work, church,
hobbies, and your social life. It is rare that any one aspect of a person’s life will address all aspects
of his/her self-understanding, but as was pointed out in an earlier week, you will spend a substan-
tial part of your life working, so career choice is particularly important.
Career satisfaction results from a relatively high overlap between a person’s self understanding and
the constraints and opportunities afforded by a career choice. The lower the overlap, the lower the
degree of career satisfaction. Through the exercises done so far in group, you should have a fairly
good idea of who you are and where you want to go. Now comes the hard part: figuring out
which career “niches” would lead to a high degree of career satisfaction for you.

45
You might think of the self-understanding you’ve developed to this point as an area in a “space” in
which one direction represents interests, a second direction represents strengths and needs, and a
third abilities and skills. Within this space, your self-understanding floats like a fuzzy cloud (la-
beled “You” in the following diagram).
Interests
Career 3
YOU
Career 1
s
litie
St Abi
re
n
an gth
Ne d s Career 2
ed
s
Notice that three career or job choices are represented as “niches” in the same space. Career 2
doesn’t overlap with your self-understanding at all. Careers 1 and 3 overlap to a similar degree; they
would probably provide equivalent degrees of career satisfaction, but for different reasons. The
portion of “You” that is not overlapped by your career choice represents aspects of your self-
understanding that aren’t addressed by your career. Unless these aspects are met in some other way
in your life, you are likely to experience some degree of dissatisfaction with your life.
The next step, then, is to identify career/job “niches” that would provide you with acceptable lev-
els of job satisfaction based on the self-understanding you have been developing.

46
2. RESEARCHING CAREER NICHES
or most of us, there is no One Perfect Career. Instead, there are a number of careers and
F jobs in which we could find equivalent levels of job satisfaction. Some of us will choose
an “off the shelf” career, and find a place in the job market where we fit reasonably well. Others
will choose to “roll their own” careers, finding perhaps an unfilled or partially filled niche and cre-
ating a career to fit it. The approach we each choose to take in seeking out a career depends on
our personal level of comfort for risk, stress, and ambiguity.
There are several productive approaches to researching career niches. Four are suggested below.
A. Career Assessment Tests
If you go to a career counselor, he/she will probably administer one or more test instruments to
assist in developing self-understanding. These typically include:
· Personality tests, which help the taker understand strengths and needs. Some of the most
common ones used in career counseling are the Myers-Briggs Type Inventory (MBTI),
16PF, California Personality Inventory (CPI), and FIRO-B.
· Interest, ability, and skill inventories. Some of the most common ones used in career
counseling are the Strong Interest Inventory, the Holland interest inventory, and the
Campbell Interest and Skill Survey.
Some of these instruments must be administered by a professional counselor or psychologist (ad-

ministration requires a certain degree of certification or licensure). However, there are informal
versions of some of these instruments available in career resource books and online, and some of
them can be taken and scored online, with the results being interpreted by a counselor either on-
line or through mail/phone calls (the MBTI and the Holland Interest Inventory are available

47
through a number of sources). Also, a lot of information on career tests is available in the Google
Directory (directory.google.com) at (click on links indicated):
Business>Employment>Careers>Skill and Personality Assessment
B. Internet Research
You can find all sorts of free career advice including career descriptions on the internet. A good
starting point is the U.S. Department of Labor’s online Occupational Outlook Handbook, which
you can reference at: http://www.bls.gov/oco
The Google Directory topic on changing careers is also useful (directory.google.com). It can be
accessed by clicking the following links:
Business>Employment/Careers>Changing Careers
A variety of counseling and coaching options (some online) are available through the Google Di-
rectory at (click on links indicated):
Business>Employment>Careers>Counseling and Management
A number of excellent resources for job searches and career research are available on the Google
Directory at (click on links indicated):
Business/Employment/Careers/Directories
C. Library/Bookstore Research

48
Both Barnes and Noble and Borders bookstores have good career related sections. Ask at the in-
formation desk for their location. Borders books can be ordered through:
http://www.amazon.com
Barnes and Nobles books are available online at:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com (Use their book browser)
Many career and job search resources are available at your local library. Ask at the reference desk
for help.
D. Interviewing for Information
This involves making an appointment with someone in the field you’re interested in to discuss
what it’s like to work in the field, and what opportunities exist in the field. It is not interviewing
for a job, so you don’t bring your resume to an informational interview. The best way to find out
who you can talk to is to talk to friends and family who might have contacts in the field, and have
them recommend you to the person. Alternatively, you might find names of people in the area
through a search of professional directories or an internet search. Be sure to write down any ques-
tions you need to ask in advance, and send a thank you note after the interview.

49
3. DEVELOPING A PERSONAL MARKETING PLAN
ou know who you are, and what sort of job you would like to have. Now it’s time to
Y change viewpoints and look at yourself from the perspective of the potential employer.
It’s useful to think of the job search as selling yourself, and the overall job search strategy as a
marketing effort. To guide your efforts, you can develop a personal marketing plan which outlines
how you will approach selling yourself with individual companies you have targeted for your job
search in the process of researching career niches.
In developing a personal marketing plan, you need to consider things like:
Geographical target areas. Are you seeking a job in your current location, or considering other lo-
cations? If you’re staying in the area, how far are you willing and/or able to commute to work? Are
there certain areas you’re excluding from your search? There are a number of resources available on
the internet or your local library that compare the desirability of places to live. You can do a
search for “best places to live” at www.google.com, or ask your local research librarian for help.
Salary and benefits requirements. What salary range would you consider for a job? What is the
minimum salary you can take and maintain your standard of living? Remember to keep cost of
living in the areas you’re targeting in mind. What is the average starting salary for someone with
your skills and abilities in the careers/jobs you’re considering in the geographical areas you’re tar-
geting? Again, these things can be researched on the internet or your local library. What benefits
would you like to have? What are the minimum benefits you would consider?
Desired career and job characteristics. Go over the material you’ve worked on in group, and review
the characteristics you find desirable and undesirable in a career or job. Which careers and jobs
you’ve identified are most attractive, and which least attractive, given these characteristics? Order

50
the careers and companies by priority. Which fit your understanding of your calling, and which
seem to conflict with your understanding of calling?
Your career niches. Collect the list of companies you are interested in applying to in your target
areas, with contact information (preferably, names of individuals to call or mail). Get as much in-
formation about these companies as you can, from their web sites, brochures, magazines, etc.
Evaluate each for goodness-of-fit to your geographical, salary, benefit, and other career needs and
career goals. Try to find out what the requirements are for positions in your selected career niches.
Can you present your abilities and skills in a way that meets these requirements? If not, what
would you need in the way of experience and/or training to make yourself an attractive candidate
for these positions?
Contact priority and time frames. Set up a schedule for contacting the companies you’ve identi-
fied, and for following up on contacts based on the priority you’ve assigned to each company. Use
this schedule to drive your job search effort, modifying it as new leads are identified and as your
understanding of the career niches you’re investigating expands.
The next step will be developing one or more resumes, cover letters and interviewing strategies that
you can use in implementing your personal marketing plan. We’ll discuss these components of the
job search next time.

51
4. EXERCISE: LIVING A FULFILLING LIFE
eview your homework from past sections. Identify three to five of the most important
R elements of a career or job in each of the categories below:
The activities I’ve done in a past job or other context or that I’ve dreamed about doing that I
most strongly desire to do in the future are:
Circle or otherwise highlight those activities you will pursue in a job or career. How will you find
opportunities to do the remaining activities (volunteer work, church, life with family & friends,
hobbies, etc.)?
The personal strengths I most need to be able to use in the future are:
Circle or otherwise highlight those strengths you will seek to use in a job or career. How will you
find opportunities to use the remaining strengths (volunteer work, church, life with family friends,
hobbies, etc.)?

52
The personal goals I most need to be able to achieve in the future are:
Circle or otherwise highlight those goals you will pursue in a job or career. How will you find op-
portunities to meet the remaining goals (volunteer work, church, life with family & friends, hob-
bies, etc.)?
The personal values or principles I most need to be able to live out (or up to) in my life are:
Circle or otherwise highlight those values or principles that are most important to a future job or
career.

53
The transferable abilities and skills I most want to be able to use or develop in a career or job are:
Circle or otherwise highlight those abilities and skills you will seek to use in a job or career. How
will you find opportunities to use the remaining abilities and skills (volunteer work, church, life
with family & friends, hobbies, etc.)?

54
5. EXERCISE: RESEARCHING CAREER NICHES
ist the resources you will use to research career niches (specific tests, web sites, library re-
L search, books, interviews for information, etc.).
Use the results from the last exercise (Living a Fulfilling Life) to identify characteristics you want or
need from a career niche, and document how well each career option you investigate using the re-
sources identified above fills each of your requirements (a table, grid, or spreadsheet works well for
this). After you have done your research, list the careers and any specific jobs you’ve found that
seem to provide the best fit to your self understanding and sense of calling (use additional sheets
of paper as necessary).

55
6. EXERCISE: WRITING YOUR MARKETING PLAN
se an outline like the following one and develop a Personal Marketing Plan:
U
Personal Marketing Plan
Your name
Date of plan
I. Geographical Target Areas
II. Salary And Benefits Requirements
III. Desired Career/Job Characteristics
IV. Career Niches

A. First Career
i. First Company
Company information
Goodness of fit to your needs
Company employee needs
Priority and time frame for contact
ii. Second Company
etc.
B. Second Career
etc.
V. Resources
A. Marketing Materials
i. Resumes and cover letters
ii. Web page
iii. Portfolio
B. Networking and Job Contacts

56
Writing Resumes That Get Interviews
1. SELECTING RESUME FOCUS AND F O R M AT
our resume is a personal marketing tool. The goal is to get the reader’s attention as
Y quickly as possible, and to pique attention so the reader wants to know more about you.
This often happens in the first few seconds after the reader picks up your resume, so you want to
make sure you’ve chosen the right format to present your skills and accomplishments in the best
possible light. First impressions are often everything when it comes to resumes. Remember, the
most important information needs to begin at the top of the front page of the document!
There are two ways of approaching resume focus:
1. You may know the requirements of a specific position you’re applying for, or are applying to
a specific job at a specific company. Or you may have a short list of specific career objectives
and want a specific resume for each of them. In this case, you create a targeted resume for the
specific objective(s) you are interested in.
2. You may have a more general career objective in mind rather than a specific job or a specific
career, or you are conducting a lengthy job search and wish to address specific position needs
in a cover letter rather than in the body of the resume. In this case you would want to de-
velop an inventory resume that “inventories” your skills and accomplishments.
Once you’ve determined your focus and have one or more resumes you want to write, you need to
decide on a format for each of them. There are three main resume formats, plus the curriculum
vitae:

57
A. The Chronological Resume
Information is presented chronologically; that is, you describe your most recent job first, your last
job second, and so on. This is the most common resume format and many employers like it be-
cause it’s easy to identify the candidate’s employment history. You should use this format when:
• Your employment history is steady and consistent with no major gaps and no recent major ca-
reer track changes
• Your employment history shows progressively more responsible positions
• Your titles are significant or you have been recently employed at companies that have a major
reputation in your field
• Your greatest accomplishments have been accomplished in your most recent jobs
• You are seeking employment in a job or career where this format is expected
A typical Chronological Resume has a structure similar to this (note: there are many possible ways
to do this, see examples in books and/or the internet):
Contact information: Name, address phone information
Objective: A short description of your job objective (optional)
Experience: For each job held, starting with the most recent, give your job title, the dates you
worked for the company, the company name and location, and a set of bullets describing your job
responsibilities. List the most important responsibilities (or those you want to highlight) first. If
you’ve been in the job market a long time, you may only want to cover the past ten years or so.
Education: List your degrees, majors, where you went to school, dates schools were attended. Be-
tween Experience and Education, the potential employer should be able to put together a con-
tinuous employment and education history.
Professional Affiliations: If you belong to professional associations, list them here (optional).

58
B. The Functional Resume
Key skills, accomplishments and qualifications are highlighted first in the resume, without regard
to when they happened in your career. Career history and educational history are deemphasized.
However, many employers don’t like this format since they assume you’re trying to hide something
in your career history. It is most useful when:
• The skills and accomplishments that you need to highlight for your career search occurred ear-
lier in your career
• You are a recent high school or college graduate
• You have been out of the market for a long while and are trying to reenter
• You’re an older worker who wishes to deemphasize age
• You have held a number of unconnected positions
• You are changing career tracks or returning to a previous line of work
A typical Functional Resume has a structure similar to this (note: there are many possible ways to
do this, see examples in books and/or the internet):
Qualifications Summary: Short description and/or bullet list spelling out your qualifications for
the position(s) you’re seeking
Experience Highlights: Bullet list of accomplishments organized by functional area rather than by
position or time (think of the functional areas that are relevant for the position you’re applying
for)
Employment History: List of position titles, companies, locations
Education History: List of degrees, schools attended

59
C. The Combination Resume
This format combines the best of the chronological and functional resumes. It begins with a
summary of your skills and accomplishments (functional), then provides an employment history
that supports the skills and accomplishments (chronological). This format is well-accepted by em-
ployers. It is most useful when:
• You have a steady, progressive employment history

• You are applying for a position requiring a chronological format but want to highlight skills
from earlier in your career
• You are writing a targeted resume and need to be able to match your skills to the requirements
of a specific job
A typical Combination Resume has a structure similar to this (note: there are many possible ways
to do this, see examples in books and/or the internet):
Qualifications Summary: Short description and/or bullet list spelling out your qualifications for
the position(s) you’re seeking
Experience Highlights: Bullet list of accomplishments organized by functional area rather than by
position or time (think of functional areas that are relevant for the position you’re applying for)
Experience: For each job held, starting with the most recent, give your job title, the dates you
worked for the company, the company name and location, and a set of bullets describing your job
responsibilities. List the most important responsibilities (or those you want to highlight) first. If
you’ve been in the job market a long time, you may only want to cover the past ten years or so.
Education: List your degrees, majors, where you went to school, dates schools were attended. Be-
tween Experience and Education, the potential employer should be able to put together a con-
tinuous employment and education history.

60
D. The Curriculum Vitae
A curriculum vitae is typically expected of job applicants rather than a resume in academic, educa-
tion, scientific, and research positions. It is much longer than a resume, and contains detailed de-
scriptions of your education, work history, awards, publications, and projects. It is a way of pre-
senting extensive academic and professional credential to an employer. If you are applying for posi-
tions outside the U.S., the term curriculum vitae may mean something more like a resume so
check for expected contents in the country you’re applying in.

61
2. SELECTING RESUME CONTENT
nce you’ve decided which resume format or formats would work best for your situation,
O how do you identify content in the work you’ve done so far and incorporate it in your
resume(s)? You can extract most of the information from the material you’ve developed in the
course of doing the exercises in this Guide, as indicated below:
Job Objectives – Reflect on your career goals and personal vision statement. Think also about the
abilities and skills you want or need to exercise in your career. In light of your short and long
range career plans, and the requirements and expectations of employers in the career niches you’re
interested in, develop a concise statement of objectives that is congruent with your self understand-
ing and at the same time addresses the needs and expectations of the potential employer.
Experience – Look at the skills and experience exercises you filled out earlier. Considering the ex-
pectations of the career niches you’re interested in, which skills and experiences can be transferred
to your new career niches? Develop a summary of your skills and experience that will be compel-
ling for potential employers in your career niches.
Qualifications – Know your career niches! Are certain types of experience expected for the types
of jobs you’re interested in? Do your potential employers expect a certain number of years of expe-
rience? Do you need special licensure or certification? Be sure to provide license or certification
numbers so a potential employer can check on your qualifications. How about specialized skills
that may be needed to qualify for a certain position?
Accomplishments – What have you done that will make your resume stand out from the crowd?
Make sure your accomplishments are relevant for the positions you’re planning to apply for. Let’s
face it, if you’re applying for a job as a loan officer, most employers are not going to care whether
you’re an excellent first grade teacher (or nuclear physicist). Accomplishments that are impressive

62
in one career niche may be totally irrelevant in another. And I’m afraid no one cares to hear about
your hobbies or personal life - unless that information about you is directly relevant for the posi-
tion at hand. The best approach is: stick to business.
Functional Areas – If you have chosen to prepare a functional or combination resume, you want
to put some thought into the functional areas you will use to present your accomplishments and
skills. What functional areas are important in the career niches you’re applying to? What functional
areas are not as significant in those niches? For example, technical skills may be less important if
you’re applying for a creative job than if you’re applying for a high-tech job.
Employment and Education Histories – Include all employment and education over the past ten
years. Try to make sure there aren’t any gaps in the record (if there are significant gaps, you’d be
better off using the functional resume format). Provide time ranges for each period; usually,
month/year when you started and month/year when you finished that job or educational venture.
Provide the company/school name, and location (city and state). Provide your job title or position;
if you had several titles or filled several functional niches in a job, I’d recommend listing the one
that would be most meaningful for the career niche you’re trying to get into provided you had
significant experience in that area.
Professional Affiliations – List any professional organizations you are currently a member of, that
would be of interest to a potential employer in the job niche you’re applying for. An affiliation
that is meaningless to a potential employer in your target job niche is probably best left off your
resume.
Hobbies, Clubs, and Volunteer Work – Generally, I suggest leaving these things off your resume
unless they’re directly relevant to the work you’re applying for (for example, I have volunteer crisis
line work I’ve done in the past on my resume, which is directly relevant for my work as a coun-
selor). Your potential employer is probably looking for a reliable and productive employee, not an

63
interesting person. An exception might be non-profit work; volunteer work would be of interest to
many non-profits, since it indicates a certain level of dedication to and involvement in your com-
munity.

64
3.WRITING COVER LETTERS
aving been in the position of reading many resumes and cover letters from job applicants,
H I can tell you that my personal preference for resumes and cover letters is: Short and
Sweet. My other advice is: grab the reader right away, and make sure your grammar and spelling
are absolutely impeccable, or you’ll lose him/her. If you have a hard time with writing, grammar,
and spelling, I’d advise asking someone to edit your resume and cover letters to make sure they’re
first rate. A good bet would be a friend who has written job-getting resumes; you can also find
freelance writers who can help you with this for a small fee (you might try a freelancer site like
www.elance.com, where there are many experienced writers available).
Most books I’ve seen on writing resumes and cover letters recommend tailoring each cover letter
for a specific position. This is generally good advice. However, I tend to have a few basic templates
that I use for cover letters (the danger of revising an existing cover letter is that you may overlook
position specific information you’ve written for another employer, which is a sure way to get your
resume thrown in the circular file unread).
A good way to get a feeling for what a good cover letter looks like is to check out the many books
of sample cover letters that are out there (books of sample resumes also often provide sample
cover letters). You can browse through these at your local bookstore, and also find sample cover
letters online.
The goal of your cover letter is to introduce you to a potential employer, to demonstrate your in-
terest to the employer, and to stimulate his/her interest in your resume. This means the cover letter
should be written from a marketing perspective – even more so than your resume! Keep it short
and sweet, one or two short paragraphs. Indicate where you heard about the employer (and the
specific job you’re applying for, if that’s the case); provide some indication that you know some-
thing about the company that resonates with your interests and experience; be upbeat and positive;

65
and indicate that you will be following up with a call, and would like to meet with the employer to
discuss opportunities.
Who should a resume and cover letter go to? Whenever possible, to the person directly hiring for
the position. This is where networking and ingenuity can pay off. You want to make sure your re-
sume is read – and by the right person!

66
4 . P R E PA R I N G F O R T H E I N T E RV I E W
ou’ve made a number of contacts, and you’ve been asked by one of them to come in
Y for an interview. Congratulations! That means the company is interested in you. You
probably feel excited and pleased, and more than a little anxious about the process.
The best strategy for dealing with your anxiety is: be prepared. This means:
• Making sure you have an impressive and well-written resume and cover letter.
• Knowing your strengths and accomplishments, and being prepared to give examples of
each. If you’ve done the work in this Guide, you should be in good shape here.
• Knowing something about the company you’re interviewing with, and how your strengths
and accomplishment fit the company’s needs. Why are you someone they should consider
hiring?
• Dressing appropriately for the interview and being on time. Appropriate dress almost al-
ways means business (conservative) attire. This usually means conservative suits, shirts/
blouses, shoes, socks, and ties. Save the trendy outfits for the clubs.
• Being prepared to discuss gaps on your resume, career changes, many job changes, and any
other “uncomfortable” data in your background.
• Bringing (if appropriate) samples of your work. Be prepared to leave these with the inter-
viewer, and don’t expect to get them back. If you’re sharing something from a previous po-
sition, make sure you’ve obtained permission to use it in your portfolio.
Our anxieties are rooted in the unknown, and are fed by the insecurities that surface in our
self talk (the things we tell ourselves about a situation; most of the time we’re unaware of
this internal dialogue we’re conducting with ourselves). The Stoic philosopher Epictetus said
that we are disturbed not by the things that happen to us, but by how we react to them.
If you are nervous about the interview process, ask yourself what it is that you’re nervous
about: what’s the worst that could happen? Presumably, not getting the job. But is that the
end of the world? There will be other interviews on other days. Try telling yourself: This is
practice … if I get the job great, but if not, I’ll do much better on my next interview. Figure
out what positive messages you need to hear to help you put the interview in proper per-
spective; write those messages out, and read them to yourself before the interview. And re-
member: blowing an interview can be a positive learning experience, too.

67
5. EXERCISE: DRAFT A RESUME AND COVER LETTER
y now, you should have all the material you need to write your resume and cover let-
B ter: You’ve decided on your resume format or formats, and you’ve collected the ma-
terial that will go into it. You’ve identified companies you want to contact, and
know something about them. Using the sections about, draft a resume in your chosen for-
mat. If you’d like to see sample resumes for inspiration, you can find some here:
http://www.bestsampleresume.com/
There are plenty of books and web sites with sample resumes, so search on Google for
“sample resumes” if you’d like to see more than are provided at the above web site.
If you are going to submit your resume via a web site or email, check with the employer for
preferred format. Usually, it’s plain text or Microsoft Word. Make sure your computer is
virus-free before sending anything to a potential employer: infecting someone else’s network
is not a great way to say “hello”!
I have a plain text version of my resume as well as Word and PDF versions. The plain text
version has been formatted to make it easily read by software, and includes keywords that
will make it more likely that automated resume bots will find my resume. This is especially
important if you’re going to post your resume on sites like Monster.com or Dice.com.
Use fonts appropriate for business communication in your resume, and avoid fancy decora-
tion and graphics unless you’re applying for a job in a “creative” industry like the graphics
arts. If you’re sending out a paper resume and cover letter, print it on good quality paper:
white, ivory, or off-white. If you know your resume’s going to be scanned, send plain white
laser or inkjet paper. Always use a medium-weight paper; never use onionskin paper for re-
sumes. Make sure the copy is clean and smear-free.

68
6 . E X E RC I S E : I N T E RV I E W P R AC T I C E Q U E S T I O N S
sk a friend to help you with the interview process; review the following questions in
A advance and decide how you’re going to respond to each of them. Make the “fake”
interview process a realistic one by dressing for the interview, and meet somewhere
other than your house. Many libraries have community or study rooms you can use for this
purpose. Come with the materials you would take to a real interview: briefcase, copies of
your resume, portfolio, etc. Ask your friend to ask you the interview questions, mixing up
their order. Ask him/her to throw in any additional questions that might seem useful to keep
it real. Here are a few examples of questions I’ve been asked (and have asked) in past inter-
views:
• What is your greatest strength? What do you need to work on?
• If we don’t hire you, what will we be missing out on?
• Why are you leaving/did you leave your last position?
• What sort of salary and benefits are you looking for?
• Where do you see your career five years from now?
• What accomplishments are you most proud of?
A great resource for interview questions is the Job Interview Questions website, which pro-
vides general advice on interviewing as well as examples of the sort of questions you might
encounter during an interview. You can find the website here:
http://www.jobinterviewquestions.org/

69
Your Calling And Your Life
1. PUTTING THE PIECES TOGETHER
f you’ve followed along through this process, the path you’ve taken probably looks
I something like this:
Identify Your Ca&ing
You began your journey by exploring who you are: your interests, needs and wants, styles and
strengths, your values. These things define how you prefer to operate in the world, and im-
plied in them is your life’s mission, your life’s work, your vision: in other words, your Calling,
whether understood in a sacred or profane sense. From this sense of self understanding, you
defined a set of goals that were congruent with that understanding.
Develop and Fo&ow Your Vision
Next, you continued your journey by exploring what you can do and what you have done.
How do these things relate to the goals you have set for yourself ? At this intersection is the
core of a career plan: how you will use your abilities and skills in the service of your Calling.

70
Explore Niches and Promote Yourself
Your career plan includes your short and long term goals, and the marketing plan you devel-
oped earlier in the process. Once you had a plan developed, you created or acquired the
tools you needed to carry out your career plan: resumes, cover letters, contacts, networking.
Using these tools, you made the plan happen. But in a very real sense you’re never done with
this journey: you need to revisit, rethink, and revise your plan as you carry it out. That which
is not growing is quiescent or dying.

71
2. GROWTH AS A WAY O F LIFE
y father was a professional musician. He led a trio in the Washington, D.C. area in
M the years after World War II that specialized in progressive Latin-American-

influenced jazz. A few years after I was born, he moved his young family to the
Midwest and over time gradually abandoned his dream of a career as a Great Jazz Musician
as the demands of family and work consumed him. “Don’t become a musician,” he used to
advise me, “It’ll break your heart.” He played in smaller and smaller clubs as the years went
by, to audiences that neither understood nor appreciated his art. Years after his death, I
heard Billy Joel’s song “Piano Man” and thought: that’s the story of my father’s life.
When he would play arrangements he was working on on our piano at home, he would close
his eyes and be transported … somewhere else. It was clear watching him that he had been
given a great gift, and that gift spoke to his heart as well as the hearts of others. And yet, he
saw himself as a failure, having traded his career for the bourgeois pleasures of hearth and
family.
One summer when I was in high school, he played for eight weeks at the Hotel Fremont in
Las Vegas – the only time since leaving Washington, D.C. that he went on the road. He had
had offers over the years to go on the road, but turned them all down for the sake of his
family. On his return, he spoke to me excitedly of playing to standing ovations in Las Vegas.
It seemed like a kind of validation for him, proof that the gift he had been given was a real
thing, and still burned in his heart.
The last few years of his life, my father came to the belief that he needed to do more for
people, so he volunteered at a state mental health hospital where he used his musical gifts to
reach out to the most broken of the broken. No one was too twisted or dangerous to be
reached, and all were human beings made in the image of God, he told me. At the time of
his death, he was working three jobs: playing jazz at a night club, musical director at our
church, and musical therapist at the state hospital. He was working on new liturgical music
when he died, music that would look to the future while honoring the traditions of the past..
My father chose growth at the end, to listen to his calling and be true to it. I have admired
him for that choice ever since. My own path has been influenced by his choice for change,
and his ability at the end to dream big compassionate dreams and take action to carry them
out. I don’t know that I would have found the courage to make the big changes I’ve made in
my life without his example, without his love. Thanks, Dad.

72
3. TRACKING YOUR PROGRESS
plan that you write and then throw away isn’t much of a plan. You need to check it
A regularly, measure your progress against your goals, and make sure your goals are
still appropriate. I prefer to do this at least twice a year: once around New Year’s
Day, and on our Fourth of July holiday here in the USA. At these times, I try to remember
to check the following:
• Have I made progress toward my six month goals? Are they still appropriate? Are there
any I need to carry over or scratch off the list? Are there any new ones? If I haven’t gotten
certain goals done, what’s kept me from doing so?
• Which of my one year goals can be turned into six month goals for the next period? Are
they all still appropriate? Are there any I need to carry over to the next year or scratch off
the list? As I examine my five year goals, are there any of them that I want to move into
my one year goals?
• Which of my five year goals (if any) are completed? Do I need to make any adjustments to
them? Am I still convinced that my life is on the right trajectory for the next five years?
At the daily level, I used to use a DayTimer to track specific tasks and projects to comple-
tion. In recent months, I’ve been transitioning to David Allen’s ‘Getting Things Done’
methodology as a bottom-up complement to my top-down setting of life goals. If you have
as hard a time as I do staying on task and need help organizing your in-basket, I highly rec-
ommend his practical approach to selecting and prioritizing daily/weekly tasks.

73
4 . W H AT ’ S T H E N E X T S T E P ?
t this point in your journey, you may be ready to move forward on your own. Others
A may want some additional help on the journey, either in determining the next step
to take or in finding and using career resources. I’ve provided some starting points
in the final section of this Guide.
You may want to employ a career counselor to help you work through the process or a ca-
reer coach to walk with you on the journey and help you integrate your career into the
larger-scale fabric of your life. In either case, drop me a note on the Métier web site and I’ll
help you get started with your search.
Whatever your choice, I wish you well on your journey. May you find the career that speaks
most strongly to the authentic human you were meant to be!

74
5. RESOURCES
Web Sites:
You can find a current list of web sites I’ve collected and found helpful on my coaching web site at
the following URL:
http://www.metier-coaching.com/links.html
Books:
Do What You Are, Paul D. Tieger, Barbara Barron-Tieger. Finding a career that matches your
Myers-Briggs personality type.
Do What You Love, The Money Will Follow, Marsha Sinetar. More of a helpful cheerleading type
of book rather than a nuts-and-bolts career change book.
The Princeton Review Guide To Your Career, Alan Bernstein, Nicholas Schaffzin. Finding a career
using the Birkman Method which is based on career style. A popular approach to career planning.
The Resume Handbook, Arthur D. Rosenberg, David V. Hizer. Resumes and cover letters. There
are a lot of books on resumes and cover letters; check your library or local book store.
Zen And The Art Of Making A Living, Laurence G. Boldt. The quest for a career as a spiritual
journey. A good book that helped me focus on the important questions of meaning and direction.
I also have some book recommendations and links to them on Amazon on my Squidoo lens, at
the following URL:
www.squidoo.com/career-change

75

Surviving Careertransitions: A Field Guide For Voluntary & Involuntary Career Changers

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S U RV I V I N G CARE E R TRANS I TI ON S

A Field Guide for Voluntary & Involuntary Career Changers

Vasily Ingogly M.A., M.S.

2. Naming The Loss

3. Grieving The Loss

4. Exercise: Self Care Plan

Finding Career Satisfaction

2. Identifying Your Style (Strengths)

3. Identifying Your Needs

4. Identifying Your Ca&ing

5. Exercise: Interest Worksheet

6. Exercise: Strengths Worksheet

Deﬁning Your Life Goals

Surviving Career Transitions

3. Your Career Vision and Mission

4. Exercise: Setting Congruent Goals

5. Exercise: Values and Personal Integrity

6. Exercise: Your Personal Vision

Figuring Out What You’re Good At

2. Identifying Your Abilities and Ski&s

3. Exercise: Abilities and Goals

4. Exercise: Ski&s and Experience

5. Exercise: What’s Transferable?

Planning Your Career Trajectory

2. Motivation and Success

3. Developing Short and Long Range Plans

4. Exercise: Analyzing Your Goals

5. Exercise: Your Motivation and Obstacles

6. Exercise: Developing Your Plan

Marketing Yourself In Your Chosen Niche

2. Researching Career Niches

Surviving Career Transitions

D. Interviewing for Information 49

3. Developing a Personal Marketing Plan

4. Exercise: Living a Fulﬁ&ing Life

5. Exercise: Researching Career Niches

6. Exercise: Writing Your Marketing Plan

Writing Resumes That Get Interviews

B. The Functional Resume 59

C. The Combination Resume 60

D. The Curriculum Vitae 61

2. Selecting Resume Content

3.Writing Cover Letters

4. Preparing For The Interview

5. Exercise: Draft A Resume and Cover Letter

6. Exercise: Interview Practice Questions

Your Ca&ing And Your Life

2. Growth As A way of Life

3. Tracking Your Progress

4. What’s The Next Step?

Surviving Career Transitions

cover photo used with permission of BigStockPhoto.com

Surviving Career Transitions

his Guide was originally developed as a workbook for a career transition

! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Late Summer, 2007

Surviving Career Transitions

Surviving Career Transitions

Surviving Career Transitions

I liked software development; I was an expert consultant on software development proc-

Surviving Career Transitions

Physical (Exercise, Diet, Medical, etc.):

Mental (Managing Attitudes and Thoughts):

Emotional (Managing Feelings):