About Your Guide - Personal Journey & Credentials
My Personal Journey
Some people are fortunate in that they have always had a very clear sense of direction in terms of the career or life they want to lead. Despite this being the minority of people the cultural expectation persists that we should have clarity in terms of the career we feel best suited to. In meeting and researching people who are doing unique and fulfilling things, I’ve learned that they have typically gone through a long process to find their passion, develop their gifts and then work out how to express them in a way they can also earn a living.
This has also been my own experience in striving to find an authentic career match.
The first spurious idea I had to work through was a belief my parents instilled that one’s career choice should be determined by what offers the most income and security. This simply didn’t resonate with me. What did ring true was the ideas I found among more poetic and inspired thinkers such as Wordsworth when he wrote, “Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting: The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star.” The notion that life might hold a far greater purpose beyond mere survival always stuck with me.
The second faulty idea I had to navigate came through my education, which taught me that my career choice should be swayed most by what I was good at. After following this advice I wasted a decade or more doing work that came easily but offered little in the way of satisfaction or meaning.
Professional Experience and Credentials
Career Advising
I come to the field of Career Advising with a professional background working in Employment Services, Recruitment and Adult Education.
This involved developing and facilitating Vocational Direction and Career Transition programs for both school leavers and adults. In addition to group training, I have worked one-on-one with hundreds of individuals to help them determine their ideal careers and assist them with a more tailored and effective approach to job searching as well as succeeding through the application and interview stages. To balance my understanding between what employees want and employers need, I spent a number of years recruiting staff for a large, international organisation. Learning what employers look for has helped me assist others to gain an edge in their job application process.
In terms of relevant education, I hold a Certificate IV in Training and Assessment, a Certificate IV in Employment Services and I am currently completing a Bachelor of Secondary Education in order to be able to offer career guidance to High School students in the education system.
Life Purpose Integration
My overriding desire to help people incorporate the deeper need to feel our lives and work are purposeful, arose from reaching career stasis in my late twenties. Upon noticing the contrast between people like myself who were simply working to pay the bills and that rare minority whose work and bliss aligned, I became intent on joining the latter group.
In researching and speaking to that vitalised minority I came to realise the value of gaining self-awareness and recognising how my unique interests, values, capabilities, potential, concerns and the gifts to be found within my wounding’s all blended together to reveal a dynamic sense of purpose.
Professionally, I’ve gained experience in this area through working with individuals during training programs I led as well as working as a case manager with individuals who had grown weary with the job hopping cycle and sought greater alignment between who they were and what they did. Currently, I am close to completing the first in a series of books relating to the importance of as well as the process of tapping into one's purpose and calling.
My educational grounding in this area has been twofold. On the one hand, I have read extensively on the subject of life purpose for well over a decade. As valuable as my intellectual understanding has been, I found it equally beneficial taking part in a range of experiential educations. This has involved back to basics wilderness expeditions, Men’s leadership training around rites of passage, participating and also mentoring outdoor adventures and running a range of workshops around the theme of locating and living out one’s life purpose.
Coaching and Support
In a professional capacity, my experience has been refined through working with hundreds of individuals both in case management and group settings. Working with both the long-term unemployed and people with significant barriers to employment has taught me the importance of challenging limiting beliefs and helping individuals gain a more hopeful and positive perspective surrounding their potential. Having gone through the process of doubting my own abilities to finding a greater sense of self, I am particularly determined to assist others to navigate this obstacle to individuating.
While working in recruitment I spent significant time working with people who were yearning to find work they were both passionate about and also found to be meaningful. The diversity of my work experiences has allowed me to work with all age groups as well as the full spectrum between open receptivity and full-blown cynicism.
My education in this area ranges from formal university Psychology subjects through to an extensive process of self-education. As an active participant in a regular men’s group, my development is ongoing.
Practical Help
In my positions working with groups and individual job seekers, I have spent a great deal of time teaching the practical elements of job seeking, such as effectively canvassing employers, crafting resumes, application letters and selection criteria. I have also focused on interview preparation and offered help in terms of people starting their own businesses and marketing their services. My years in recruitment further refined my knowledge as to what employers look for and how to help people stand out from the herd. I believe that practical support is of inestimable value in terms of tying together the three previous elements.
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