by sean@higheredcareercoach.com | Apr 4, 2010 | Coaching, life purpose
This weekend, I’m in Florida, for a visit with Sarah’s parents at the Villages. We go down a couple of times per year, take in the sun, and give Nana and Pop-Pop some quality time with our kids, Brendan and Susannah (Susie). We hang out, cook out, go out to eat, swim and generally enjoy the good weather and all that “America’s Favorite Hometown” has to offer.
But this time, it’s going to be a little different. Not just because it’s Easter. Not because we live closer since we moved to Georgia. This trip figures to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
No, we are not going to Disneyworld, Universal Studios or SeaWorld. (Been there done that. Going to do it again, but since I’ve been to all of those several times (9 or 10 times so far to Disneyworld), those don’t qualify as “once in a lifetime.”
We’re going to see the Space Shuttle take off. And they are only slated to have 4 more missions after this one, because they are slated to retire the whole fleet.
Sarah and I share a love for space exploration. At different times, we both dreamed of being astronauts. Not enough to actually go into the military and train for NASA, but it’s definitely a dream worth having. I actually think that Sarah would have been a great astronaut.
What greater metaphor exists for reaching your human potential than leaving the planet to see what else is out there in the universe? Space exploration represents the drive of humankind to conquer the unknown, to search for new knowledge and experiences, and to connect with the mysteries and wonders of all creation.
I’ve always had an affinity for the space program. Part of this actually comes from a family connection to NASA. One of my cousins, (1st cousin once removed) Edward Galen Givens, was an accomplished test pilot and instructor, and was tapped for NASA’s original group of 19 astronauts in 1966. He was a member of the Apollo 7 support crew before his untimely death in a car accident in 1967. He was 37 years old.
I never did meet Galen, since I was born two years later. But when I was young, I did hear stories about him from my Dad, and we did have visits from his parents: my great Uncle Bill, and great Aunt Helen. They were gentle, funny, good-natured people, and clearly enjoyed life, despite having lost both their sons (their other son, Don, was also a military pilot and was killed on a routine training mission when his plane crashed.)
Galen’s story is just one from the many people related to NASA, and to some, his life and career will seem one footnote on one page of one chapter of one book about mankind’s quest to explore the stars and the mysteries of the universe.
But to me and to members of my family, and to those who knew him, Galen’s life and career represent something far greater: the archetypal quest to discover your life purpose, reach your potential and perhaps to push beyond into uncharted territory, where the greatest learning can begin.
It’s a quest I hope to assist others with in my coaching practice.
Where are you going in your life?
- Do you know your life purpose?
- Are you striving to reach your maximum potential?
- If not, would you like a partner to assist you on your personal journey?
Like Fox Mulder used to say on The X Files, “The Truth is Out There.”
Are you ready for the search?
For a great article on the life, career and Death of Galen Givens visit the following excerpt of the book Fallen Astronauts: Heroes Who Died Reaching for the Moon. or visit the Amazon Reading List in the sidebar. (Affiliate Links)
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by sean@higheredcareercoach.com | Mar 29, 2010 | Career Skills, Coaching, Job Search, The Placement Experience
This guy doesn't need a career coach. But he may need an attitude adjustment. Who are you pointing at, fool?
If you work in higher education, you are probably already a pretty successful person, and have some pretty good ideas about where you want to go in life. Teaching positions require graduate education, and many administrative posts also require at least a master’s degree.
You’re also surrounded by many great resources, including experienced colleagues, supervisors, and even students who help inspire and motivate you. Teaching and advising are activities that stir your soul, as well as your mind. You are periodically, if not frequently, reminded of your purpose, and you probably have more opportunities than some to pursue your academic and professional interests.
So why would you need a career coach? Aren’t you already smart enough to help yourself? Can’t you connect with plenty of people who can help you, who won’t charge you a fee?
Honestly, on some levels, the answers lean toward an argument against spending your time and money for a professional coach. But these answers are also mostly likely arrived at upon a surface-level examination of your life and career, and a certain level of buy-in to some stereotypes and expectations that society applies to being a member of the faculty.
Look a little deeper, and you may discover some very compelling reasons to consider coaching.
First and foremost, getting a coach doesn’t say anything about your intellectual ability. Plenty of really smart people work with coaches to keep them accountable, help them achieve work/life balance, and set and meet personal and professional goals. Prominent CEOs hire coaches. Corporations do, too. In fact, many corporations are hiring in-house coaches to help their employees be more satisfied with their careers and more balanced in their lives.
Second, it’s true that you have friends, colleagues, your supervisor, and your students to help and support you. But can these people dedicate the time and personal attention to you that you need? Will they commit to your personal success over their own needs or the needs of the department or institution? Will they support your personal and professional development, even if it means taking you away from your job, your staff and students, or the institution? Will they keep your concerns, aspirations and goals confidential? Will they hold you accountable for meeting your goals, or do they have their own things to worry about?
Getting a coach is a great way to put your dreams, goals, and even your barriers out there, and to explore them. It’s an investment in your success. It’s also a great way to hold yourself accountable in meeting your goals, so that you can achieve them.
So maybe the question isn’t “Why do I need a career coach?,” but instead “Don’t I deserve one?”
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by sean@higheredcareercoach.com | 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?
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
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by sean@higheredcareercoach.com | 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.
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by sean@higheredcareercoach.com | Oct 29, 2009 | Coaching
Thanks for visiting! I hope you will find Higher Ed Life Coach to be a useful source of information and inspiration as you plan a successful transition to college life for yourself or your student. If you are new here, you might want to subscribe to the RSS feed for updates on this topic.
Thanks to all who expressed interest in the free career coaching. I have now exceeded the number of clients I need to meet with for certification, and do not have any further openings for free coaching.
If you are interested in one-on-one coaching around life, transition, and career issues, and you are a college student, or higher ed professional, please contact me for a basic consultation and/or to get on my waiting list. I expect to be able to take on an initial client load of 10 to 15 clients starting in January. If interested, contact me and we can go over what to expect, rates, etc.
The big news from Happy Valley this week (or at least MY news from Happy Valley this week) is that I will be leaving Penn State early next month, after 14 and a half years (mostly good ones), and relocating to Athens, GA, so me and my wife and kids can be closer to our extended families. We found a great house and it even looks like we might be able to sell our current one soon enough. I’m looking forward to warmer weather and giving this whole business thing a good honest try.
I’ll miss my friends and colleagues, but I won’t miss winters up here, and I am so looking forward to the changes that will come with not being part of a big beaureaucracy or being “on call” for campus emergencies. Wish me luck!
In other news, I am lining up some possible guest bloggers for this site and for HigherEdLifeCoach.com during my packing and moving period. If you work in higher education or have some great perspectives to share, send me a message at sean@higheredcareercoach.com and we can talk.
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by sean@higheredcareercoach.com | 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.
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