PARADE Update: Getting Started: Sherri Thomas and Meghan Olesen

With nearly one in 10 Americans looking for work, the job search is tougher than ever. PARADE chose five unemployed people looking for work and paired each with a career counselor. Below is the first update from Sherri Thomas, Career Coaching 360 for the PARADE series “The Job Hunt“.

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“Getting Started: Sherri Thomas and Meghan Olesen ”

Meghan Oleson and I had our initial consultation this week so that I could better understand her career history, goals and vision, as well as share my strengths as a career coach and areas of expertise. I’m impressed with Megan’s young age (she’s 30 years old) and her ability to successfully transition into a variety of job roles and industries including being an executive pastry chef, marketing specialist and entrepreneur.

She has many wonderful strengths and passions, plus a wide range of transferable skills that we can tap to help her reinvent her career!

The first question I asked Meghan (and all my clients) is how best I could help her.
Option A) Help her find a job RIGHT NOW.
Option B) Help her create a career vision, action plan and transition into a meaningful and inspiring career (this approach takes more time, thought and focus – but the result is having a thriving career with more options, more stability and more passion!)

Meghan chose Option B.

This means that over the next several weeks, I’ll be giving her my exclusive steps to create her personal Career Success Blueprint™, as well as helping her create a simple but powerful career action plan that includes a job search strategy, networking techniques and a polished and professional resume to build a powerful personal brand, increase her marketability, and stand out from her competition.

After Meghan determined that this is the direction she wanted to go, then it was time for her first assignment – creating her personal Career Success Blueprint™. The first step is for Meghan to define her career vision. This includes three (3) key skills or responsibilities that Meghan wants to be known, recognized and paid for.

Envision yourself one year from now in a career that motivates and inspires you. What are you doing? What kind of responsibilities do you want to have? What kinds of projects and initiatives do you enjoy doing? What kinds of teams do you have a passion to lead? For her first assignment, Meghan is drawing a Venn diagram (three circles that connect to each other) and inside each circle she is writing one key skill or responsibility that she desires in her next career move.

With so many talents and strengths, I’m excited to see what she’ll choose … 🙂