This brief video (just under 4 minutes) is about commitment, resolution and change. Inspired by words of wisdom from Chris Brogan on the Third Tribe Marketing membership site (affiliate link), Higher Ed Career Coach Sean Cook talks about “levelling up” and resonating with the market.
What advice or input could you offer about ways to improve the site and offer programs and services that would better meet your needs as a higher ed job seeker?
And what are you doing this year to “level up” and step up your game?
The other day, I did a free webinar on “Creating a Killer Resume” to give job seekers some ideas about how to put together a résumé that flows well, is visually appealing and has great content. The webinar was over an hour long and featured an overview of the résumé coaching process, some tips on design, flow, logic and content, and a sample coaching session with a mid-level/second-step job seeker.
In order to take advantage of my YouTube channel, I’m forced to break the presentation into chunks of 15 minutes or less, so I will be posting the webinar replay as a YouTube playlist with multiple shorter segments and posting them to this site over the next week or so. The entire video will also be available soon through my e-Junkie store as a digital download with some worksheets.
Video 1: Creating a Killer Resume: The Resume Coaching Process
Video 2: Visualization Activity-Using Wordle.Net
Sean Cook is a Certified Life Purpose and Career Coach from Athens, GA. Before earning his certification from the Life Purpose Institute, he earned his M.Ed. in Counseling and Guidance Services from Clemson University and spent 15 1/2 years working in higher education.
Is your résumé ready for job search season? Every spring, job searches across the country kick into high gear, as the cruel time called “Placement Season” begins in higher ed.
If you’re ready to start looking for the next step, but your résumé isn’t, attend a free webinar on “Creating a Killer Résumé” this Thursday at 12 noon EST.
We’ll cover some key elements that go into putting together a good résumé or CV: design, content and flow. The webinar will include a sample live coaching session by Higher Ed Career Coach Sean Cook for a current job-seeker. So if you’re thinking about brushing up your résumé or CV, register below for the webinar!
Sean Cook is a Certified Life Purpose and Career Coach, based in Athens, GA.
This has been a very interesting year.Student Affairs professionals have embraced social media in many new and different ways, and it’s been exciting to be a part of the changing higher ed webscape. Along the way, Higher Ed Career Coach has grown and developed as a resource for higher ed job seekers. On this last day of the year, let’s take a look back at some of the highlights of 2010.
In January, my post “personal branding in your job search” gave five quick links to articles on the topic. In January we began a series of articles related to the “placement” season in higher education. This began with a couple of articles on preparing for and conquering the placement conference.
In February, Shannon Healy became a regular guest blogger during the placement season. Her #jobhunt posts eventually became an 11–part series, chronicling her job search, her experiences at placement conferences, and the interviews (and rejection) that followed. She joined me on my blog talk radio show to discuss handling rejection and starting over, and was joined by her friend and mentor, Stacy Oliver, who introduced us to the concept of “parking lot pep talks.” But we eventually shared her joy at becoming a new staff member at, and joining Mickey Fitch and Beck Fick on the show to discuss getting started in the new position.
Also in February,Brian Koval beginners series of guest posts on the doctoral experience. Koval, who is also a periodic co-host for the podcast, and and a former staff member of mine at Penn State, shared his thoughts on applying to, being accepted by, and beginning a doctoral program with a distance education component. He has since begun a new position at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
In March, Mickey Fitch became a regular contributor to the blog, sharing tips on ways to make the job search entertaining, prepping your references, and how to deal with the pressures that come with negotiating and accepting a job offer.
We’ve also been lucky to have guest posters write about their perspectives on higher education through my periodic guest blogger series, entitled “Monday Morning Quarterback,” including a four article series entitled “What higher education needs to learn.”
In the spring, I joined the membership site Third Tribe and began learning about effective ways to run and market my business and to grow the readership of my blogs. Since that time, I’ve been fortunate to connect with other members of this community, who have appeared on my radio show and written guest posts for Higher Ed Career Coach.
In May, I offered my first hybrid short course, “8 Weeks to August,” which was geared toward helping job seekers who were “stuck” in their job search processes, and help them get back on track.
The Mortarboard "C" logo for Cook Coaching and Consulting.
In July, I introduced new logos and word marks as part of a branding campaign, geared toward creating a unified brand image across all sites owned and operated by my company, Cook Coaching and Consulting. July also brought several guest posts and the highest traffic the site had experienced to date.
August and September, however, brought some disappointment as readership dropped during the traditional staff training and new student orientation period, and my podcasting efforts became less regular, as I began a part-time position at Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia. I began to concentrate more of my efforts on creating programs including webinars and my upcoming placement partner coaching program, and a multi-part e-course on planning your career in higher education, which is free to subscribers of my mailing list.
October, November, and December sped by in a blur. As we come to the end of the year, I am looking forward to ramping up the production of useful and relevant content that will assist job seekers during the busy spring semester and the 2011 placement season. Readers will also likely begin to see some changes in the format of this site, as I seek to re-position it to include more career resources site, with less emphasis on the blog. This change should happen gradually, as I seek to find the right balance between offering practical resources and tools, and sharing perspectives on what it means to work in higher education.
I will continue to network with others that can provide useful and informative content to our readers. Some of this may include reaching out to former guest contributors for additional content, as well as creating opportunities for new voices to share their perspectives.
As I look back upon the year, I am grateful for the many opportunities the year has brought me to connect with others, and to help job seekers move forward in their careers. My thanks go out to my loyal readers, my guest bloggers, my guests and cohosts for the podcasts, and to everyone else out there who is trying to create a supportive and caring environment or higher ed job seekers.
Every year, I start the holiday season with good intentions…making lists, coming up with the perfect ideas for each person on my list, and taking some time to get a good head-start on things.
And like many, I fall short.
I began writing this post the night of the 19th. At that point, I hadn’t begun my Christmas shopping. Yesterday morning I was going to go out, but all the sudden it was nearly 2 p.m. before I was finally heading out the door to do some shopping. I still have a few more things on my list, but they will have to wait. Today is my daughter Susie’s 2nd birthday and we are eating cake, opening presents, and (undoubtedly, because we do this every day) watching Team UmiZoomi about 20 times.
My wife, Sarah, is one of those people who buys ahead and finds all the great deals. So she and I periodically talk about ideas and she buys many of our children’s gifts early. And my siblings, parents and the other adults in our family have moved on to doing a “country gift exchange,” so I don’t really have all that many people to shop for, but the ones I do are pretty important to me.
If you are a last-minute gifter, and you have a higher ed job seeker on your list (or you are one, and hope to give yourself the gift of a new job in the coming year), here are a few ideas for last-minute gifts:
Buy the person a website to set up a job-seeker blog. If possible, register a .com address and use the person’s name, so they can stake out a “home base” for their personal brand. You can find plenty of good web hosts out there, and it’s really easy on most to set up a blog using WordPress. I use FatCow, which has a lot of nice features and add-ons, and a really affordable annual rate, with unlimited storage and bandwidth, as well as e-mail addresses for your domain. They are running a $4.67/month hosting special right now, which you can get by clicking on the link above or on the ad in the right-hand column. The deal includes hosting for one year, one domain, and a lot of easy-to-use tools. For example, easy set-up of a WordPress.Org blog like this one, photo galleries, forums, Moodle and Joomla sites, even an online store. Users also get ad credits on Google AdWords, Facebook, and Yahoo, which your job-seeker could use to place personal “Job Wanted” Ads.
If you self-host a WordPress blog, you can install a standard template or get a little fancy. My blogs run the Thesis theme framework, which has some built-in features that help with Search Engine Optimization. You need to have some confidence with technology to get it installed and set up, but once you do, the dashboard is pretty easy to master, and you will enjoy better search results without having to get a certificate in internet marketing.
Buy your job-seeker some assistance with writing and editing their job search materials (or if your job-seeker is going back to school, with admissions essays). I offer these services as part of my 1-on-1 coaching packages, and would be glad to speak to you or your job-seeker about what I can offer, but I also recently became an affiliate for ResumeEdge and EssayEdge, the leading resume and essay editing and assistance services on the internet, so please check them out as well.
Screen grab of Module 3 of the Placement Partner Program Moodle Course
Give the gift of coaching. I am opening a job seeker group for spring. I am offering first spots to people on my mailing lists, so sign up here to get information. There will be a limited number of spots for this program, because I want to offer members a quality experience and to give them personal attention, so list members get first crack. If there are available spaces in January, they will be opened up to the general public.There will be three levels of participation:
Value Edition: Online group with self-paced activities and forum discussions ($180 for 6 months access. You must register for this option to be offered the opportunity to upgrade to either of the other levels. The first five modules of this 26-module program are now live and available for those who are ready to get started with their exploration and planning over the holiday break. The rest will go live in sometime in early January.)
Standard Edition: Online group, plus free access to webinars and 2 1-on-1 meetings for resume assistance and mock interview practice, and e-mail coaching through the duration of your enrollment($300-with the option of paying for the upgrade all at once or in 6 monthly installments.)
Personalized Edition: All of the above, plus 6 additional coaching sessions. ($500-with the option to pay for the upgrade all at once or in 6 monthly installments.)
If you are looking just for 1-on-1 coaching, my rates for one-on-one coaching are reasonable, and depend on the length of the session. If you’re interested in 1-on-1 coaching, visit my public calendar to schedule a free initial consultation. There is no obligation to purchase anything. We’ll talk about what you are looking for in a coach. I will tell you a bit about my coaching methods and business practices, and we’ll discuss the going rates for the services that interest you. If you like, I will even give you a couple of other resources to check out. Every job seeker has different needs and the “fit” between coach and client is just as important as “fit” is to landing the right job. So the consultation will be an opportunity for both of us to assess whether we might be able to work together on your job search.
Or you can buy a gift certificate (that can be used at my webstore toward any of the programs above, or 1-on-1 coaching, or other products and services to be offered soon, including e-books, webinars, and job-seeker tools and resources.
Whatever you end up getting your friends, your loved ones, or yourself, I wish you the best this holiday season, and good luck in your job search!
Work with Sean. I help higher ed professionals take control of their careers with tailored services including resume and CV development, LinkedIn profile optimization and networking strategy, interview coaching, and one-on-one career guidance.
