“We’re looking at this economic downturn exactly backwards,” Sue Frederick, a Denver career intuitive explained to her client.
“Right now we’re being called to do our great work – every one of us. We need to focus on the new and enlightened ideas that inspire us. When we grab hold of those ideas and launch a business or create a technology or think in a new way to solve an old problem – money flows effortlessly,” she said.
Frederick is among the new league of coaches helping job-seekers today. Many in the job hunt have sought advice from career counselors and taken the Myers-Briggs’ personality tests to uncover their passionate paths. Yet, they still find themselves in a rut. So, more people are willing to try options outside the box, such as a career intuitive like Frederick.
*Birth date a clue to career*
Based in Boulder, the former career counselor offers them some ideas in her new book, _I See Your Dream Job – A Career Intuitive Shows You How to Discover What You Were Put on Earth to Do_. Her strategy is unconventional: She details her use of numerology-astrology, plus meditation and intuition, among other techniques. All are aimed at helping individuals discover their ideal and unique next career move.
“Your pattern of looking at career as simply a paycheck and benefits is an old paradigm that’s crumbling right now. It’s up for reinvention, thank goodness,” Frederick explains on her Web site, www.CareerIntuitive.org. “When we think in those old patterns about work and money, we buy into the scarcity mind set that’s paralyzing so many people. There’s still plenty of abundance on this planet. It’s required now that we work in more conscious, inspired ways to attract it.”
Happily for job/career-seekers, there are as many flavors of career counselors – and more recently coaches, including psychics and intuitives – as there are careers.
According to the International Coach Federation, a 15,000-member organization that educates and certifies coaches with credentials in more than 90 countries, career counselors are more apt to have degrees in counseling and psychology, while career coaches have a strong link to the business world.
According to Wikipedia, the approximate annual worldwide revenue produced by coaching is $1.5 billion. Full-time coaches in the U.S. earn an average of $82,671 per year. The ICF published a 2008 coaching-client research study showing that 96 percent of clients surveyed were satisfied with their coaching experience. Additionally, when the study looked at monetary gains as an expected outcome of the relationship, it showed coaching generated a good return on investment for the clients.
It’s not only a top executive who seeks guidance navigating an employment crossroad. “Career counselors and coaches are seeing more college students and recent graduates,” The New York Times reported in 2008. “At the other end of the career lifeline, a growing number of baby boomers are summoning career counselors and coaches.”
To move a job hunt forward in a new direction, with new enthusiasm, insight and encouragement, it may be time to seek out a new resource. As well as area counselors/coaches who offer their services for a fee, check online, the library and book stores for free and less-expensive information. There also is an updated version of Richard Bolles’ classic career-searchers’ guide, _What Color Is Your Parachute? 2010: A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers_.
If you’re tired of where you are, maybe you’re ready to take “one small step in a brave new direction,” encourages Frederick.
More information is available from area private and nonprofit career advisers, firms, nonprofit agencies and schools, as well as through the International Coach Federation at CoachFederation.org and the Colorado Career Development Association at ColoradoCareerDevelop-ment.org, among other sources.
_Marywyn Germaine is a writer and page designer in The Denver Post’s Creative Services Department._