by sean@higheredcareercoach.com | Oct 15, 2010 | Podcast
Today’s episode of the Higher Ed Life and Careers Show will center on the ever-elusive idea of maintaining work/life balance. It’s a rough topic for many in higher ed, especially in Student Affairs, where work doesn’t just follow you home. Work is home. And home is work.
So where do you fit in a “life” when the lines are blurred?
I’ll be discussing this with my friend and periodic co-host Bryan Koval, who has been juggling a new job at Carnegie Mellon University, a doctoral program with a distance education component, and for now, living away from his partner, Jessica, who still works at Penn State. We’ll talk about our personal experiences, share tips and ideas, and take calls.
Please tune in today at 11 am. EDT and call in with your questions, thoughts and ideas!
Click on the logo below to go to the episode page.
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by sean@higheredcareercoach.com | Oct 14, 2010 | Career Skills, Higher Education, Student Affairs
There are some important periods of the academic year to pay attention to when you work in higher ed. Everyone acknowledges that the busiest times…welcome week, exam week, and closing for the summer… can eat up your time and energy. But it’s equally important to pay attention to the times which are slower-moving, because they sometimes represent “the calm before the storm”
When I worked in Residence Life, I always had a mid-semester slog starting around October. People were settling into routines, events were happening here and there, and my calendar would feel pretty set, with regular committee meetings, 1-on-1 meetings with supervisees, and loads and loads of busy work. It was always around this time, too, when we’d start to see roommate and neighbor conflicts pick up, alcohol poisonings increase, and psychological issues rear their ugly head.
This period between early October and Thanksgiving always felt to me like wading through molasses. When this feeling hits you (and it will, sometime between now and Thanksgiving, I guarantee it!), you may do one of two things…bury yourself in work so that you feel busy and productive, or avoid work like the plague, put off unpleasant tasks as long as you can, and just hope to ride it out until break. Neither of these methods should be mistaken for work/life balance.
Times like these call on you to stop ad pay attention to how you are balancing your priorities. If you don’t, it can be like a slow, smoldering burn, ready to flash into a fireball at any moment, and leave you ashen, grey, or even burnt to a cinder.
So do yourself a favor: Pay attention to how you are spending your time, and find some time for yourself. If you don’t insist on work/life balance, you won’t have any!
What do you do to make it through your mid-semester slog? Share your ideas, questions and thoughts in the comments below.
Sean Cook, Certified Life Purpose & Career Coach
Sean Cook is a certified Life Purpose and Career Coach based in Athens, GA. Before completing his certification from the Life Purpose Institute, he earned his M.Ed. in Counseling and Guidance Services from Clemson University, and spent over 15 years various student affairs roles in higher education. He specializes in working with college students, recent graduates, and higher ed professionals, and acts as publisher for HigherEdCareerCoach.Com and HigherEdLifeCoach.Com. You can listen to his periodic podcast, the Higher Ed Life and Careers Show, at 11 a.m. Eastern on Fridays on BlogTalkRadio.com. Look for his upcoming contribution to SelfGrowth.Com’s new book “101 Great Ways to Enhance Your Career” later this Fall.
by sean@higheredcareercoach.com | Oct 8, 2010 | Higher Education, Job Search, Podcast, Who-Dos
Things have been really busy lately and so today we did not have a podcast. I will try to return next week and start getting on a more regular schedule again. I am looking for guests, but have a few tentative topics lined up. Here are a few quick updates on some things worth checking out in the meantime. Thanks for visiting!
- I found a great new web service called paper.li that lets you enter your Twitter username or a hashtag or a Twitter list and it automagically makes an online “newspaper” out of the links shared on those streams. I set one up for my @hiedcareercoach account, and for the hashtags #sachat and #saplacement. Check them out.
- I never announced that I did choose LeaderShape for recognition for the August Who-DO award. I am going to finally get my act together in the next week to post a “who-do” award page and to actually send out the awards to the recipients so far. I plan to announce the September Who-Do next week. There won’t be a poll this time, because I have already chosen who to recognize. Polls will continue in the near future.
- I am planning another hybrid coaching program to begin soon, and go through the placement season. I’m collecting information on people who might be interested through a new list. If you are interested in learning more, sign up here.
- Look for more information about webinars on resumes, networking and job interviewing soon.
by sean@higheredcareercoach.com | Sep 28, 2010 | Coaching
Are you planning to job search this year? Placement may seem a long way off, but the truth is that the most prepared candidates start early, get a lot of feedback, expand their networks continually, and devote themselves to the search as a job, in and of itself.
Since last spring, I have offered a few small group experiences, including a job seekers group, and a self-paced “hybrid” program that featured both online activities and 1-on-1 coaching, including personalized resume and cover letter assistance, mock interviews, and personal coaching throughout the process.
Both my free and paid offerings seemed to help job seekers, but the “hybrid” program seems to have been the most helpful to the clients who participated. Four persons enrolled in my “8 Weeks to August” coaching program, which was aimed toward seekers who found themselves “stuck” after the conference season ended, and summer began.
Of the participants in the last program:
- One dropped out without doing any of the activities.
- One got a job, and
- The other two have been consistently getting interviews, and will hopefully be employed soon. I believe wholeheartedly that they will, because they have made great strides and interviews keep coming in.
Since my goal was to have both of these people employed by the end of this week, I e-mailed them Monday to see if they wanted their money back, because I believe in guarantees. I couldn’t guarantee these clients a job. But I did guarantee them satisfaction with their progress, and I am only as good as my word.
Since I’ve had an opportunity to evaluate the different programs, I am going to revise some of the content and format, and offer a new program that will last from now until May. I’m calling it the “Placement Partner” Coaching Program. At the end of May or beginning of June, I will again offer a program more geared toward the needs of job seekers who find themselves “stuck” without a job after the Spring 2011 recruitment period ends.
Right now, I am gathering information on persons who might be interested in this type of program, so I can tailor a couple of levels of participation, and create programs at different price points. My goal is to have programs that will meet the needs of job seekers at different levels, and to offer a value that far exceeds the cost of entry.
Sign up using the form below to be notified when more details become available. It’s free and you will also receive our regular e-mail newsletter. There is no obligation, and you can opt-out at any time.
I look forward to helping student affairs job seekers this year. Sign up below and forward to others who might be interested.Thanks!
by sean@higheredcareercoach.com | Sep 23, 2010 | Podcast
Hey everyone, it’s late September, and Friday morning, I am back for a new season of my BlogTalkRadio podcast after a hiatus since early August. I didn’t really plan on being away that long, but August and September have been full of busy. Since most readers of this blog work in higher ed, or aspire to, you know what the first month or so of the academic year can do to you, and how quickly your best laid plans, and best intentions, can get swept away along with your usually productive routine.
I’ll let you know what I’ve been up to lately, and I would love to hear from you about how Fall is starting off in your neck of the woods. Do you have some great stories to tell? Some gripes to vent about? Some advice you critically need? Call in, and maybe I can help you with your Fall kick-start. I bet some listeners can also offer you some great advice. So call in to 1 (347) 989-0055 or via the Skype click-to-talk logo once the show is on the air.
We’ll talk about how August and September can consume you, getting back in the saddle, and the transition issues that higher ed professionals, college students, and their families go through during fall. This show will be a stream-of-conscience free-for-all, hopefully with callers. It’s just been too long. I had to get back on the horse. So tune in for insights, rants, weak attempts at comedy and maybe a few special offers. I’ll be winging it!
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