by sean@higheredcareercoach.com | Jul 5, 2010 | Coaching, Monday Morning Quarterback
The new identity mark, a mortarboard "C" will be used across all Cook Coaching & Consulting websites.
Today you will notice a fresh new design for Higher Ed Career Coach. The streamlined design incorporates my new brand logo, a stylized “C,” wearing a mortarboard, with a stylized ball court on the inside part of the letter. This is just one step in a larger redesign of all my sites, including Higher Ed Life Coach, SeanCook.Net and two others that I will be debuting later this year (Higher Ed Coach, which will be a directory and resource site for coaches and consultants who work with higher ed institutions, students, faculty, and professional staff.; and PuttingYourPurposeToWork.com, which will feature articles on how to live a more purposeful life and resources to help you do so, including some coaching programs and services for those ready to pursue more purpose-driven paths in their careers.)
The mortarboard “C” came about as the result of a 99designs contest I ran. This is a great site for anyone wanting logos, graphic design services, and corporate image packages, at a low price. To set up a contest, you write out a design brief describing what you want, decide on a prize, and then you run the contest, and designers submit ideas for your consideration. I received over 40 different designs (I think it was 56, but some designers withdrew their designs when it was clear they weren’t going to win.) The winning design was by Nelly Tonchev, a branding consultant from the Boston area. YOu can see more of her designs here.
The re-design and streamlining of my theme was done by my friend Michelle Panulla who works sometimes with her former roommate Beth Hayden of Blogging with Beth. They sang a duet at my wedding. (“Power of Two” by the Indigo Girls). They are working on similar integrations of my new brand elements on the other sites, as well as doing some back-end SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for me. I will likely be working with them soon to move over my mailing list from Constant Contact to another service.
I’ve also integrated a neat little toolbar from Wibiya that floats over the bottom of the page. This toolbar is customizable, but for now, I have it set up so you can search this site or the web via Google, see how many people are online here, join chats using tinychat, see my Twitter feed or go to yours, like items on Facebook, share them on Twitter, Facebook or other networks, and read site specific announcements and news.
This custom cartoon by DJ Coffman will be used for our new feature "Monday Morning Quarterback."
I’m also integrating some custom elements into the site, as well as regular features. Pittsburgh comic artist DJ Coffman recently drew a couple of great items for me. The first one is a sketch of a vaguely familiar-looking guy at a chalkboard, explaining plays the team could run. I’ll be running this art with a new regular feature each Monday, which I am calling “Monday Morning Quarterback.” Each Monday, we’ll start the week with some opinion and analysis about recent events, news or trends in higher education. Sometimes, I’ll be the one offering my thoughts, but I hope to give guest writers an opportunity to share their perspectives as well. If you are interested in writing a guest post and being a “Monday Morning Quarterback,” send me an e-mail at sean@higheredcareercoach.com.
by sean@higheredcareercoach.com | Feb 2, 2010 | Uncategorized
My goal for HigherEdCareerCoach.com is to create a useful resource for today’s higher education professionals, as they design their careers and pursue the balanced and fulfilling lives they deserve. I envision a site that becomes more interactive and community-based, and I need feedback from you to identify some of the needs this site can fill, and to prioritize what changes should come first.
Content Survey
Toward this end, I have created a brief (5 question) survey about possible additions to the site’s content and features. The survey should take you 5 to 10 minutes, unless you write out long comments (which you certainly may, as each question has a comment field.) The survey is being hosted at http://survey.constantcontact.com/survey/a07e2pej262g565i9vl/start Please take a few minutes to give me feedback and send along the URL to any colleagues who might have ideas and be interested.
Group Coaching for Student Affairs Placement Season
I recently put out a tweet on Twitter asking if candidates taking part in placement this season would be interested in taking part in a coaching group, and the initial response has been good. Depending on the number of participants, I may offer different groups for new and experienced professionals. If you are interested, please tweet me @hiedcareercoach or e-mail me at sean@higheredcareercoach.com
#saplacement Hashtag on Twitter!
If you use Twitter and want to keep up with questions or comments about Placement, hashtag your tweet with #saplacement and people can follow it in the public timeline. I created this hashtag and blogged about it on this site and on the Student Affairs Collaborative Blog last week and conversations are already starting to happen between candidates and experienced professionals. NASPA re-tweeted the suggestion, so hopefully it will catch on even more as we get closer to the conferences.
Speaking of Placement…
I thought that it might be interesting and useful to have a student graduating from a Master’s program blog about the Placement Experience and job searching in Student Affairs. Shannon Healy, an Assistant Living Center Director at Grand Valley State University, will be blogging periodically about her job search, impressions of the placement experience, and all the ups and downs that go along with it. Shannon has tentatively agreed to do a couple of posts a week as time allows. You can follow her on Twitter @slhealy as well. I am looking forward to her posts and hope you will follow along as she looks for an opportunity that is a good fit for her talents and interests.
Other Columns and Features in the Works
I am currently reading a few interesting books on career and college topics and will be publishing reviews and possibly some interviews on the blog, and interviewing some authors on my BlogTalkRadio Show. I am also talking with colleagues in the field about guest blogging opportunities and regular columns. Hopefully, we’ll soon have articles and perspectives on the graduate application process in student affairs, getting an assistantship, choosing a master’s program or doctoral program, and overviews of career opportunities in different specialties (Student Activities, Advising, Judicial Affairs, etc.) If you are interested in being a guest columnist or regular contributor, please contact me directly for details.
Thanks for reading!
All my best,
Sean
by sean@higheredcareercoach.com | Sep 10, 2009 | Take 5
This week, I’ll wander away a bit from higher ed-specific sites and concentrate on careers. Here are five links to sites and articles with great career advice and perspectives. Enjoy!
My Nine Careers: Lessons Learned Career coach Marty Nemko shares his meandering career path and some simple lessons he took away from them.
Going Above and Beyond: Distinguishing Yourself as a Job Seeker What can you learn about going the extra mile from buying a laptop at Staples.
Screw Your Career Path, Live Your Story by Jason Seiden is a thought-provoking piece that may help shift your thinking about careers.
The Ladders has a great article about how Volunteering can pay off in your job search.
and for some basic interview advice, slanted toward working in student affairs. . . here’s a post I wrote for the Student Affairs Collaborative Blog last April… “They Wouldn’t Listen to the Fact that I was a Genius: 20 Ways to Blow Your On-Campus Interview.”
If you have good articles or resources worth sharing, e-mail me at sean@higheredcareercoach.com and I may share in a future edition of Take 5.
Thanks for dropping by.
by sean@higheredcareercoach.com | Aug 31, 2009 | Take 5
Five more sites worth exploring if you work in higher education. Some you will know; others you will not:
- The Student Affairs Collaborative Blog: this blog accepts submissions from higher education/student affairs professionals on a variety of topics. I am a semi-regular contributor, so this is borderline self-promotion.
- HigherEdLifeCoach. Okay, so this one is shameless self-promotion. This is my other site where I write about college student and parent issues, and serves as a front-end to my life and career-coaching practice. (Life and career coaching for students, transition coaching for their parents.)
- University Parent. A great web site and resource for parents of college students.
- Women in Higher Education provides tips and advice for Women in Higher Education.
- 18 and Life by Debra Sanborn (Iowa State) bills itself as Reflections on the first-year college experience and building a career on “the wisdom of 18-year olds.”
