Dream job

Unemployment is holding steady at 9.2% but that doesn't mean you can't land your dream job.  

To demonstrate, I've asked one of my amazing clients to share her success story and lessons learned so you too can find work you love...  

--Tell us about your new job - what will you be doing and what do you love about it?

I am a career counselor at a law school in NYC and my focus is on public service careers.  I work with law students who are interested in working at non-profit organizations or in the government.  I help them with finding internships, jobs after graduation, and counsel them in discovering what excites them about their careers.  I also organize career symposiums, workshops, and panels, facilitate student participation in pro bono work, and help them get involved in their communities. 

What I love about this work is the daily interaction with students and being able to guide their careers and encourage community engagement.  I also really enjoy networking and love being able to build relationships with employers and acting as a matchmaker for students looking for employment.

--As a recent job seeker, how are you finding today's job market differs from the past?

In the past, I found the job search to be a much shorter process.  In this market it took me about a year to secure the job I really wanted.  It required much more patience and diligence on my part to secure a position.  I had to do a lot more networking, informational interviews, and volunteering in order to get myself out in the field that interested me. 

--What approach did you take to land your dream job?

First, I became very clear with what I wanted.  This involved working with Maggie in determining my mission and vision for my career, what type of office environment I wanted to work in, and what values were essential in the work that I wanted to do.  Once I was clear, I started to do a lot of informational interviews with people in the same field, go to networking events, and apply to jobs online.  My contacts would also send me postings and recommend me informally for jobs.  I found myself being first runner up for a few jobs and I was getting frustrated.  So I decided to get myself out there even more and volunteered at a career services office at a law school that I had done an informational interview with and knew might be hiring in the near future.  After two months of interning, they hired me for this position!

--Did it help that you had spent time Soul Searching and Researching BEFORE Job Searching?

Yes!  I have realized from this process how important it is to be clear with what you want and have an understanding of how to get there before jumping in.  I put it out in the universe the type of job I wanted and let everyone in my network know so they could help me in my search.  Then I determined how I could get there through informational interviews, networking events, volunteering and doing research online. 

--What advice do you have for others who are job seeking and feel the pressure to take something less than ideal?

I think it’s extremely important to feel passionate about the work that you do, considering how much of your daily life is spent working.  I think once job seekers are clear with what they want to do, (while being realistic on their finances and experience necessary for the jobs they want) they should not compromise on their vision.  I turned down a job that I knew was not the right fit in terms of my goals or the type of office I wanted to work in, and I’ m very happy I waited for the right job to come along!

How are you finding the job market?  Did you recently land a new job?  Would you like to and have questions about how you can Soul Search into your ideal career?  Share your comments and questions below.  

"Don't just have a job, have a mission." - Civil Rights Leader Dorothy Height

Do you crave more meaning in your career?  Is it time you had more control over your schedule?  Want to work in a growing industry? 

You are not alone.

According to a recent article in More magazine's November Issue, 98% of women over 40 surveyed wanted to feel as if they were contributing positively through their careers.  73% wanted a flexible schedule and 89% wanted to work in an industry with a bright future.

If you're not happy, perhaps its time you considered a career change.  Start by thinking about what you would do if you could easily make a change.  Are you interested in green careers, technology, philanthropy or another field?  Are you open to building new skills or leveraging the ones you have?  If money weren't an issue, what would motivate you to get out of bed in the morning - helping others, completing projects, improving the environment?

This kind of Soul Search is the first step in contemplating a career change.  Once you're clear on what you'd love to do with your skills and talents, you can research careers that fit.  The More article highlights 10 of the best jobs for women over forty including salary information, skill/education requirements and specific organizations looking to hire.

Here are some of my favorites:

• Community Service Coordinator/Program Director.  Make a living making a difference with this field expected to grow 48% by 2016.  The top 10% make over $96K/year.
• Environmental Scientist.  For those with a passion for protecting the planet's ecosystems, this career requires a master's degree and the chance to work both in the office and out in the field, literally.
• Small-Scale Niche Farmer.  If you prefer on-the-job training and working outside, being part of the healthy, local food movement may be for you.  Small farms are growing at a rate of 10,000 per year and most earn from $26K to $76K/year. 

"Career changers tend to shoot up the ladder, their passion turns quickly into promotions - and an increase in pay" according to Amelia Warren Tyagi, who places senior talent and was quoted for the article.  

I couldn't agree more (no pun intended).  I experienced just that when I changed careers from business consulting to career development and training.  Think you have to start over?  Think again.  Experienced workers have skills and experience that transfer and their passion shows in their performance.

Check out the November issue of More magazine and let me know which of the 10 Best Jobs For Women Over 40 appeals to you.  I'd love to hear where you're going next!  If you have career questions, call into my radio show, Making a Living with Maggie, this Wednesday at 4pm EST SIRIUS 112/XM 157. Listen in for FREE to financial expert Jean Chatzky (who also has a column in More) live on my show this week, sharing tips from her best-selling book, Pay It Down: From Debt to Wealth on $10 a Day!

Change always comes bearing gifts.  ~Price Pritchett

Today's job market is anything but stable. In order to manage your career effectively you need to allow for change and be ready to take advantage of the opportunities in a dynamic economy. To do that takes a new approach to figuring out your dream job - one that , according to author Dr. Katherine Brooks, involves Chaos theory and "Wise Wanderings". Here are the highlights from my interview with Dr. Brooks last week on Making a Living regarding her new book, "You Majored in What?":

--Change is constant. We have seen the pace of change quicken in our careers. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, on average people are changing jobs an upwards of 8 times. Rather than react to change, it's important to adapt and plan for changes to come. For Dr. Brooks, Director of Liberal Arts Career Services at the University of Texas at Austin, Chaos theory is a better way of managing your career because it assumes change is a constant. It also helps you see the underlying order in chaos, even if it's not immediately apparent. Chaos theory is used to predict the weather and it can be use to predict your best career path. To do that, you have to be willing to do some wandering.

--Wandering to a wiser career path. According to Dr. Brooks, your past experiences can point to important threads or themes in your career. By writing down all of the different, interesting or significant things you've done and experienced, you can identify basic categories of your ideal career. Without organizing them, the goal is to capture proud moments, valuable life lessons, unique jobs, awards and unusual experiences that you've had both in and outside of work throughout your life. Then group these significant things that you've done or have had happen to you. For me, I wandered back through my past and identified that Career, Media, Coaching and Change were recurring themes. I had been wandering along a path of sorts all along even before formalizing my experience into the career coaching and radio hosting career I have today.

--Make the connection to your dream job. Dr. Brooks recommends that once you've identified your themes and skills, it's important to brainstorm how your skills might be of interest to an employer (or a customer if you have your own business). This is especially important for college students whose majors might not translate directly into a corporate job. For example, if you have a degree in history, you can study the history of the company you are interviewing for and point out key trends, goals and opportunities based on the lessons learned in your history courses. 

Overall, we cannot expect that we will work in one industry for one employer in one line of work. That doesn't mean your career has to be chaotic. Rather your career can present a chance for you to learn and grow in new ways as evidenced by one of my favorite quotes - "Change always comes bearing gifts" (Price Prichett). What gifts can change bring for you?

Just turn on the TV or the computer and you will see countless stories, articles and comments on the passings this week of Farrah Fawcett, Ed McMahon and Michael Jackson. 

I've heard several people ask, "Why do we get so impacted by people we didn't really know?" To me, it's because we take it personally. Seeing their passing makes us once again realize that someday we too will pass. This is tough to swallow especially for people who aren't living life the way they want. 

I often see this as a career coach. People seek out my services at key moments in their lives - like a milestone birthday. They are frustrated because their life and career is not as far along or as fulfilling as they thought it would be. The good news is that these people reach out to me because they are ready to take action with their careers - choosing to no longer be passive recipients of what happens but defining and going after what they truly want.

If there's a shared legacy that Farrah Fawcett, Ed McMahon and Michael Jackson leave - it's that they were tireless in creating the careers they wanted. No one sought them out to offer them lives of fame and riches. In fact, if you read the biographies of these individuals you will see that it was their hard work and dedication that made them the icons we miss today. 

If you're feeling impact from the passing of these talented people, perhaps it's because it's time for you to fully express your own talents. Think about it and I'll leave you with a sentiment. It's from one of my favorite dream the impossible dream stories, Man of La Mancha so that you too can take action to further define your own legacy, "It's not why did he [or she] die, but why did he [or she] live." 

What is your impossible dream? Are you living it? Share your comments here - studies have show that by writing down what you want and putting it out there, you increase your chances of success by 10 times. Now let's hear it!

This weekend I sang my heart out off-Broadway in NYC. The show, entitled "Follow Your Dreams" included me singing jazz classics - each with an inspirational message, as well as a mini-workshop where the emcee took the audience through a fun, interactive dream building session. All of this backed up by a fabulous trio of musicians on bass, piano and trumpet. To check out the bass and trumpet player, visit The Jazz Conceptions Orchestra.

As part of my "walk the talk" philosophy, it's been important to not only tell others to go after their dreams but to be an example myself. I am happy to report that many said it was my best performance yet! I've also made it a point to have others in the show who are walking examples of living the dream. This includes the band as well as the emcee for the show, Craig.