The Passion Myth – ‘Find your passion and follow it’ Truth: Career direction must satisfy many factors not just one This modern myth advises us to, “Find your passion and follow it”, however, this helps very few people and there is evidence that this is downright bad advice. This career myth is commonly heard amongst [...]
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Have you opened a LinkedIn account? Having a presence on social media is a must in today’s world and LinkedIn is one of the most useful websites for career purposes. Completing your profile, adding connections and displaying your areas of expertise can all increase your chances of landing your next job or being sought out [...]
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A recent phenomena in recruitment interviews, apparently first started up by Steve Jobs who would who sometimes start prancing around like a chicken to test an interviewees reaction, is to ask random nonsensical questions like, “If you were a dinosaur, what sort would you be?”. Despite the unusual nature of these questions they do generate [...]
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• Intuitively we know, and now recent psychological studies confirm, that people who work in a job that matches their meaning in life tend to flourish and have greater well-being in their overall life. • Meaning in Life is a broad concept that orientates our needs. It is the unconscious or conscious reason for wanting [...]
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The career aptitude test (also termed ‘career-building assessment’) is a good tool for you to take advantage of when you are trying to figure out which direction you want your life to go in . Trying to decide what career you want for yourself can be a very daunting task. With so many possible roads [...]
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Have you ever wondered why some people at work seem to be able to remain happy when their work-conditions suddenly worsen? How can they keep smiling when the boss just dropped a presentation on them to do tomorrow? Are they just putting on a brave face or could they genuinely be unaffected by the extra [...]
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In the movie, “The Mask of Zorro”, Zorro in his younger days tried to take on every criminal he came across but was quickly out of his depth and ended up badly beaten and results in him turning to drink and losing his direction. A sword-master later discovers Zorro’s potential and agrees to train him. [...]
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There are many myths about careers that float around. Anyone you talk to will have some piece of career advice that they heard from somewhere or have read about in popular press. Unfortunately, career advice has different amounts of relevance to different people – what maybe useful advice to one person maybe the completely wrong [...]
Continue reading → “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.” – Michael Jordan
Continue reading → Generation X (Xers) refers to the cohort of the population born between 1960 to1980, in 2011 they are aged 31 to 51 years old. Xers are the main generation who have had to deal with the ‘demise of lifetime employment’. This group developed their first career schemas during the 70’s and 80’s when the expectation [...]
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Knowing your options is a critical element in making your decision about whether to change careers. Doctors often sell themselves short when they are looking at non-medical careers, because the medical career they first chose is one that requires a high level of specific education (ie a medical degree); however, not that many other jobs [...]
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People make decisions in different ways. We each use various rules to make decisions, and these rules change depending on the importance of the decision at hand and the current circumstances. As doctors, we like to think that we take a rational scientific approach to all of our decisions – but we don’t always. So [...]
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There is a growing amount of research and publicity about the power of personal resilience when managing pressure and avoiding stress. Despite this, many organisations still want to focus on stress management or wellbeing programmes. Although these are better than nothing maybe they, and their personnel, would benefit more from putting the attention onto developing [...]
Continue reading → Job seekers find creating your resume the most challenging task of the job searching process. Here, we have talked to numerous career experts and hiring professionals to find out four tips that will help you write a better resume and get hired. 1. Research about the company and tailor your resume accordingly: In today’s job [...]
Continue reading → Parents, and in particular mothers, returning to work undergo a difficult transition. Having just adjusted (or in the process of still adjusting) to having an addition to the family, social and personal influences often generate pressure for parents to return to work quickly. This may include financial need, anxiety about faltering in one’s career ‘ladder’, [...]
Continue reading → Do you want to be more excited about your work? Instead, are you dissatisfied with your job and feel stuck and/or frustrated? Often, people are unable to move forward because they don’t know what they want to change. That’s where the ADESA model comes in. The ADESA Model can help you build skills and experiences [...]
Continue reading → Reading recently about definitions of ‘career’. Here is one I prefer: Career includes many dimensions including: direction – current/future occupation e.g. accounting, labouring, medicine, home-making variability – how often over time the person changes career direction e.g. low-variability careers may stay in the same occupation throughout their entire life focus – how intensely focused a [...]
Continue reading → This careerology guide is a booklet of job search tips I use with some of my clients having difficulty finding a job. It is mainly for job searchers but may be helpful to career changers and people seeking direction as well. Sections: 1. What is a career? 2. Survival skills 3. Maintaining motivation 4. 10 [...]
Continue reading → Career transitions create discomfort. Often times it is not clear where you are headed. At other times you aren’t sure if you really want to make a change. Like a snake shedding his old skin you had adjusted to the “old skin”, your current career, but it just doesn’t fit any more. As you get [...]
Continue reading → Flip Flops, Twitter, Instant messaging? Gen Y is here to stay folks and in fact, they currently account for approximately 20%-30% of the workforce. Seventy-four million strong (compared to the 78 million boomers), that percentage is growing and growing and certainly making waves in the workplace. Those in charge have voiced concern at the situations [...]
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“Resilience” in psychology is the positive capacity of people to cope with stress and adversity. This coping may result in the individual “bouncing back” to a previous state of normal functioning, or using the experience of exposure to adversity to produce a “steeling effect” and function better than expected (much like an innoculation gives one [...]
Continue reading → Here are five mid-life career change tips and career planning ideas. These tips are central to a successful career transition or job hunt with the integration of work, financial and life goals. It is important to consider the impact that a career change will have on your lifestyle, finances and your relationships. Successful career planning [...]
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Probably even more complex than the motivations to leave medicine are the motivations and pressures for doctors to stay in the profession. Doctor’s are regarded as having a special role in society as defender’s of health – changing careers is seen by some as turning your back on and abandoning the health needs of the [...]
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The American Psychological Association has published a 10-point guide to developing individual resilience. A resilient person is not only able to handle such experiences in the moment, but also bounce back afterward: 1. Develop supportive and caring relationships at home, among friends and colleagues. Accept help and support, and help others when they need it. [...]
Continue reading → [one_half]“It is better to try, and perhaps fail, than never to have tried at all” – M Dennison Attempting to overcome difficult tasks or problems may lead to failure but what we learn along the way can help us grow and be stronger. On the other hand, if we always avoid trying to overcome difficulties [...]
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This is the first article of a series directed at medical doctors considering a career change. Topics provide some insight into (i) factors that influence your career path (lifestyle, commitment, responsibilities, pride, finances, age), (ii) what keeps doctors from making career changes, (iii) attitudes of family, friends and the public to the career-changing doctor, and [...]
Continue reading → A recent Australasian business survey found 16% of workers ‘hate’ their jobs and up to 62% are ambivalent and unhappy in their current job. How as employers and managers can we help to improve job satisfaction? A few quick tips from Positive Psychology research: 1. Losada Ratio – workplace performance improves significantly when positive interactions [...]
Continue reading → 1. What is a Career coach? A Career coach is an expert in working with people who wish to improve their work satisfaction, change jobs, or make a career change. They are skilled in interviewing and counseling, and have specialist knowledge of the complex cognitive processes involved with making decisions about work choices and how [...]
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Quote of the day Helen Keller was blind but she did not allow her visual impairment prevent her from success as an author and political activist. Artwork by Adel Zekri, Randwick, NSW, Australia
Continue reading → Did you finish secondary school last year and are quite confused about what you are going to do for the rest of your working life? Many recent school-leavers answer “yes” to this question because they are indeed perplexed about their future. If you too have come to this situation, it means it is time to [...]
Continue reading → The boundaryless career is described as being “one of independence from, rather than dependence on, traditional organisational career arrangements involving opportunities that go beyond any single employer”. It highlights the modern concept of people drifting away from traditional roles and jobs to find satisfaction in such things as writing, crafts, arts even some types of [...]
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