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My Greatest Hits, Part 1

by | Jan 1, 2010 | Career Skills

I love to write, especially about life and career issues that people face in college, or when they work in Student Affairs.

Besides my two blogs, HigherEdCareerCoach and HigherEdLifeCoach, I am an occasional contributor to the Student Affairs Collaborative Blog, I have a Vimeo Channel, an upcoming YouTube Channel and I can share presentations on Prezi.

I feel great about the progress I have made over the last year or so in leveraging social media, and with learning to network and to market myself while still being authentic. I’m convinced I have a lot to offer today’s student affairs practitioners and candidates, and that if I just keep putting out who I am, what I believe in, and what I know, that I can help people discover their specific calling or purpose in life, rather than just doing what conventional wisdom says.

I thought that one way to give you a good overview of my passions, interests and areas of expertise might be to share some articles, presentations and videos I wrote, delivered or produced over the last year or so for other venues.

For part one, here are favorite posts I’ve written for the Student Affairs Collaborative Blog, the forum that reinvigorated my interest in writing and gave me the opportunity to join a network of professionals who are shaping conversations about the directions of the Student Affairs profession.

The Student Affairs Collaborative Blog logo

Visit theSABloggers.org for great posts on Student Affairs

I hope you will find these posts interesting, informative and entertaining, and that you will continue visiting HigherEdCareerCoach.com in the new year, as I work to build a site that is valued by readers for good content, delivered authentically, that provides insight and provokes conversation about pursuing careers in higher education. Thanks for visiting!

Get Ready for Placement Season with Coaching!

by | Nov 28, 2009 | Career Skills, Coaching

As we get closer to spring each year, thoughts start to turn toward finishing grad programs, coming to the end of fixed-term appointments, or dreaming of better days ahead, new challenges and new opportunities. For some of us, less idealistic notions (like getting away from departmental politics, nasty co-workers, inefficient policies, etc.) drive us in a similar direction.

Whatever your reason, Spring is a season of renewal, or reinvention, of taking stock of our careers, and seeing what else is out there. For many of us, this means brushing up on the resumé, networking like crazy, and possibly registering for placement at the Placement Exchange, Career Central at the ACPA Convention, or a regional placement conference. Then, later in the spring, as campus interviews start happening, we drive ourselves crazy preparing for long interview days, juggling schedules, keeping our motivation, and making the best arguments for that next step in our careers.

I know, because I’ve been there, that this can be a hugely stressful time, and that it is hard to prepare and be ready for all that might be thrown at you in a long interview process (or two, or three, or more.)

I’ve also been on the screening and interviewing side of the table many times, and I can tell you that is hard work, too. For many positions, you may get 100 or more applications for one vacancy. It’s extremely important to weed out the chaff and keep the wheat, and the competition for top candidates is often stiff.

Are You Ready for Placement Season?

Are You Ready for Placement Season?

If you are searching, are you ready?

If you aren’t, there are many things you can do to be better prepared. One of these options is to hire a career coach. There are others, and I will likely return to them in later articles. But for now, I’d like to introduce myself, and tell you what sorts of coaching I can offer candidates.

My name is Sean Cook, and for 15 1/2 years, I worked in higher education. During most of this time, I worked for Residence Life at Penn State University. I began there in 1995 as a live-in residence life coordinator and eventually moved up the ranks, ending as Assistant Director for North and West Halls. I was fortunate to work for a great department at a top university, and I was given a wide variety of interesting tasks, including Welcome Week/Orientation, block-booking of programs, multicultural programming, oversight of resident assistant training classes, marketing, etc.

I was also lucky to take part in  many selection processes, from student positions all the way to director, to lead placement interview teams at regional conferences, and to participate as a member of the selection team at ACPA. I estimate that over my professional career, I’ve seen several thousand resumes and done hundreds of interviews. I’ve always enjoyed the interview process, and I’ve helped many students and higher ed professionals with their resumés, cover letters and job search strategies. I get a lot of satisfaction from helping people find jobs they love, especially when those jobs are in higher education, where their impact can be deep, powerful and long-lasting.

After a lot of research and some testing out, I decided to pursue certification as a Life and Career Coach. I am currently finishing up the certification process through the Life Purpose Institute, and expect to be certified by early 2010 (hopefully the end of January).

As a career coach, I am specializing in work with candidates in higher education, because I believe in the impact they can have on college students and our society. Working in higher ed requires a different mindset than the corporate world. As someone with a lot of experience with higher ed selection processes, I understand that they are different beasts altogether, with daylong (or longer) interviews, involving all sorts of constituencies, including students, faculty, and at times people outside the department or from the executive suites of “Old Main” buildings. I’ve been on both sides of these processes, and I can offer you the perspectives of someone who has been there, as well as the lessons I learned from my personal successes and failures.

If you are a higher ed professional, and plan to go through placement this season, I would like to offer you my assistance with your search. Here are some services I can offer:

  • Resumé/Cover Letter Assistance and Editing:
    • Resumé /Cover Letter critique (general comments and editorial advice, but you do your own editing.) $50
    • Resumé/Cover Letter revision (extended comments, reformatting, editing, and consultation over e-mail) $125
    • Extensive Resumé/Cover Letter revision/re-writing (all of the services of resume revision, plus up to one hour of individual consultation over the phone/Skype or another chat client.) $250
  • Placement Preparation Teleseminar:
    • This will feature an overview of a typical placement center, and advice on placement center procedures and etiquette
    • Overview of placement center interview strategies
    • Advice from experienced candidates and interviewers
    • Question and Answer Session
    • Multiple sessions will be scheduled. If you are interested, e-mail sean@higheredcareercoach.com to be notified about upcoming times.
    • Teleseminars will be 90 minutes long, and held over a telephone bridgeline. Space will be limited to 15 persons per seminar.
    • Seminar registration will be $50/person. If you are interested in participating as a group, contact Sean to discuss a group rate.
  • 1-on-1 Coaching
    • Pay-as-you-go Rate: $100/session (can be scheduled weekly or biweekly; sessions are 45 minutes each.)
    • Placement Prep Packages: For higher ed job seekers taking part in placement, I am offering some 1-on-1 Coaching Packages at a substantial discount from my regular rates.
      • Student/Recent Grad Rates & Packages:
        • 1-on-1 coaching only: $50/hour. (Must commit to at least 3 sessions between January and April 2010 to get this rate.)
        • Package 1: 6 sessions of 1-on-1 coaching, plus resume revision. $350
        • Package 2: 10 sessions of 1-on-1 coaching, plus resume revision and Placement Prep Teleseminar: $600
        • Other custom packages available by individual consultation.
      • Experienced Professional Rates & Packages:
        • 1-on-1 coaching only: $75/hour. (Must commit to at least 3 sessions between January and April 2010 to get this rate.)
        • Package 1: 6 sessions of 1-on-1 coaching, plus resume revision. $500
        • Package 2: 10 sessions of 1-on-1 coaching, plus resume revision and Placement Prep Teleseminar: $750
        • Other custom packages available by individual consultation.

Whether you decide to work with me or not, I wish you the best during placement season.

Good luck with your interviews!

© 2009 Sean Cook/HigherEdCareerCoach.Com

Permission is hereby granted to others to repost this article, link to it or syndicate it, as long as they leave in the copyright statement and link back to higheredcareercoach.com

Back Online and Ready to Coach You Toward Success!

by | Nov 19, 2009 | Career Skills, Coaching

My relocation is now complete, and I am in my new home in Athens, GA, though not completely unpacked. Glad to be back online! I am ready to dive in full-time to this new adventure.

Besides all the moving-related stuff (buying a house, selling the old one, packing, unpacking, frequent trips to Goodwill, etc.), I have been meeting with my first round of clients. So far, I really enjoy the interactions I’ve been having, and it’s really neat to see people start to set goals for their lives and careers, and to see them make some progress.

Though I do miss State College and Penn State, I haven’t really missed my old job yet. I guess I really haven’t had the time, but if I have, then I’ve filled it with excitement about my new path as a life and career coach. I will be back to blogging about working in higher education, managing your career search, preparing for placement, and related issues, and developing this blog as an informational resource for higher education professionals seeking to take their career to the next level.

By January, I will have hopefully completed my certification requirements, and my goal is to have 10-15 paying clients by the end of March, and to be ready to offer workshops, in-person and online, to help higher education job seekers prepare for placement and succeed in their jobs.

Stay tuned as well for new editions of “Take 5″ and a series on getting ready for placement. If you have topics you would like to see me cover, please drop me a line at sean@higheredcareercoach.com.

Thanks for reading! If you enjoy this article, please subscribe to my RSS feed, or share this post to Facebook or another social website, using the “Share This!” buttons found on this page.

Getting Ready for Placement? Free Career Coaching for Higher Ed Job Seekers!

by | Oct 15, 2009 | Career Skills, Coaching

During my 15-plus years as a Student Affairs professional, I have had many opportunities to coach students and young professionals  through their efforts to explore graduate schools, navigate the graduate school application process, and to prepare for placement conferences and job interviews.

I have a master’s degree in Counseling and Guidance Services and a generation of work behind me, at one of America’s best universities. I’ve served on many screening committees, and conducted interviews by phone, at placement exchanges, and in-person (individually and as part of day-long processes). I’ve always felt good about my skills in this area, and my track record for helping students and young professionals with their resume preparation and interview strategies has been pretty good. Many people who I have coached have been able to find jobs and get into graduate school. I think that having read through a few thousand resumes and conducting several hundred interviews has given me a pretty good idea what people on the hiring side of the table are looking for. Let me put this experience to work for you.

These experiences led me to my own career exploration, and eventually to the path I am currently on, toward certification as a life and career coach, and starting my own independent coaching and consulting practice.

Over the past few years, a confluence of events caused me to take a harder look at my life, and weigh the security of my current position against a few other things: the satisfaction the position was giving me, and the opportunity costs associated with staying on this secure path. I realized that my current position wasn’t rewarding  to me in the ways it had been before, and that changes in my personal life  (becoming a father, seeing my parents get older and have health challenges, and discovering I have a neurological disorder) had pushed me to reevaluate how I spend my time and energy. In the final analysis, I realized that I’d moved beyond my job, and that it just isn’t a good match for who I want to be, and how I want to spend my time and energy, at this point in my life.

So I decided to take a major leap of faith and try to work for myself, and create a position that would allow me to do the things I enjoy and feel that I do well, every day. I decided to leave my job, in order to move forward in my career. I’m not leaving my profession (Student Affairs in Higher Education)…I’m just going solo.

I recently began a coaching certification program, which started with a five-day intensive class, and is followed by independent work, a critique of my business plan, review of work with practice clients, and a final exam. From here, the program is self-paced, but I intend to finish by the New Year, if at all possible.

In pursuit of this goal, I need to begin coaching and I need practice clients. I’m seeking 2 to 3 clients, and would like to find higher education graduate students and young professionals and help them explore their career possibilities and manage their job search.

Practice coaching clients will receive 4 free coaching sessions (a $300 value). During these 45-minute sessions, we’ll explore current career interests and directions and any roadblocks in the way of your successful search, so that I can help you plot your course, refine your job search strategy and hopefully, land a fulfilling new position. I’ll be using techniques that are part of the Life Purpose Process ©, a proven coaching method that has assisted thousands of people in finding their purpose and setting new goals for leading successful and balanced lives.

If you are interested, please e-mail me at sean@higheredcareercoach.com and we can set up a time to speak on the phone or chat online, to discuss the parameters of the coaching process. If it sounds like something you would be interested in doing, we’ll set up a regular time to speak on the phone or over video chat weekly, to discuss any issues you are dealing with, and to work toward setting and meeting your unique life and transition goals.

A couple of other notes if you are interested:

  • These 4 to 6 sessions are offered for free, and no further obligation will exist on either side of the coaching relationship.
  • I will not be asking you for money, credit card information, or enrolling you in anything.
  • All sessions will be confidential (between you and me) unless you specify otherwise.
  • If you are interested, I need you to commit to a minimum of 4 sessions between now and December 31, because I will need to submit evidence of having practice clients as part of my certification process.
  • This is not psychotherapy, and I am not a licensed therapist. If issues arise that are better suited for work with a therapist, I will advise you to meet with one.
  • If you are interested in continuing with coaching past the 6th session, we will need to discuss a separate agreement, and those sessions will be billed at a regular rate of $75 an hour.
  • While we will discuss ways to improve your resume and cover letters, to target them toward your search, extensive resume and cover letter writing and editing are not included as part of this coaching. Resume and cover letter consulting or editing can be arranged separate from the coaching, and we’ll negotiate a rate that reflects the amount of editing/rewriting/redesigning needed. The minimum rate for resume revision/editing is $125, with additional work billed at $75 an hour.

If you know of anyone else who might be interested, please pass this information along. If you have any questions, e-mail me.

Stripping (my career) to its core.

by | Sep 22, 2009 | Career Skills

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to strip your job down to the core things you like to do, and jettison the parts that suck out your soul, take up more time and energy than they return in satisfaction, and leave it all behind you?

If you are like me, you’ve had these moments more than a few times, and stopped yourself cold, castigated yourself for daydreaming instead of figuring out how to make your current situation more workable, and put your nose back to the same grindstone. No sense in dwelling on things that aren’t going to happen. There’s work to do. Maybe someday. . . .

It’s easy enough to keeping grinding away at your nose when you get small wins here and there along the way. . . a promotion, an award, even a nice letter of thanks or drop-in visit from a student or alum can carry you a long way in this field.

But what should you do when those small wins stop coming as often, or the rewards start to outweigh your efforts?

For me, there has been a lot of trial and error, some big bumps along the road, setbacks and steps forward, and a lot of nose-grinding. Through a lot of introspection and exploration, and a few stark failures, I’ve learned a lot about myself, and what matters the most to me in my life and career.

First, the failures don’t define me. They don’t take away the achievements I’ve made, personally and professionally. They have provided valuable lessons and thinking points for new exploration. I’ve learned something from each of my failures, and I am a better person and a better professional for having had them.

Second, if you spend more time doing things you don’t enjoy than things you do, it’s time to start thinking about doing something different. Really, what’s the point in working for a living when it’s sucking the life out of you? Change is scary, but so is the prospect of beating your head against the same wall for the rest of your career. If y0ur job is keeping you from living the best life you can live, what are you working for? This is the only life you’ve got. Don’t waste your time and energy on wasting your time and energy.

Third, if you can’t see the next step from where you are, it’s time to look for another vantage point. I’ve come to realize that I’ve accomplished everything that was really important to me in my job at Penn State, and that there are no other opportunities here that interest me. Organizationally, I’ve topped out, but I’m not able to do what I am best at in my current job. Opportunities have come up, and I’ve been considered for some of them, but in the end, I didn’t get them. This can be a hard pill to swallow, but it is what it is. I’m not going to hold up all the might-have beens and sigh in desperation. There are other things to do. In my case, I decided to start looking around.

Fourth, if you ask yourself the right questions, you’ll come up with interesting answers. For me, the answers came pretty easily. I’ve always loved to write, so I started writing for the Student Affairs Collaborative Blog and submitting pieces about careers in Student Affairs. It was good to write again, especially about a topic I really enjoy. My interest comes from a couple of places. First, from difficulties I’ve had in job searches in the past. Second, from a hobby of sorts that grew out of this interest. I like helping people with their resumes, grad school applications and interview preparation. Many times, after I’ve helped someone, I’ve received comments like “this is great. I would have totally paid for this,” and gotten referrals from these people to others also in pursuit of career assistance. I guess I heard it enough in the last few years that I finally said to myself “Would people actually pay me to do this?” and “Would I enjoy doing this for a living, rather than what I am doing? I may be nuts to think this, but in both cases, the answer I arrived at was “yes,” so I decided to imagine ways to make it happen, and started researching career coaching certification programs. I’ll be starting one later this month, and I am really looking forward to it. I’ll share what I learn along the way.

Thanks for reading. I’ll be back in touch soon.

Getting Back in the Game

by | Sep 8, 2009 | Career Skills

Getting a new job can be a really soul-sucking experience, especially in today’s economy. Candidates are a-plenty, jobs are scarce, and even the simplest low-level opening can draw several hundred applicants.

If we’ve come to realize one thing in today’s topsy-turvy world, it’s that colleges and universities are not immune from economic downturns. Budget cuts and a special sensitivity toward raising tuition and fees (because institutions know some people just can’t pay) drive decision-making and hiring, and at some schools, hiring is even frozen.

How can you put your best foot forward and kick-start your job search?

Maybe it’s time for a “tune-up.” For some great advice and perspectives, visit http://www.quintcareers.com/career_tune-up.html

What are some ways to keep your skills current? Visit http://blogs.wsj.com/laidoff/2009/08/25/advice-keeping-skills-updated-during-the-search/?mod=rss_WSJBlog

Why  your job search isn’t getting results.  http://sweetcareers.blogspot.com/2009/03/five-reasons-your-job-search-isnt.html

These sites should help you examine your strategy and figure out some directions for your search. Do you have any advice to share? If so, e-mail me at sean@higheredcareercoach.com and I will post some of the best advice in a future post.