Career Control

Career change requires an enormous amount of energy. Having worked with successful career changers over the last decade, I can say with certainty that those who were inspired had the greatest likelihood of changing. Abraham Maslow, the great psychologist of self-actualization fame, claimed that the story of the human race is the story of people […]

I recently met with three career counseling clients in their late forties-early fifties.  In each case, the client had come in to shift careers.  Each had spent 20-25 years in a career.  While each had variations regarding their career unhappiness, each had suffered for the last several years in some combination of boredom-anxiety-low grade depression […]

“I have no idea what I want to do. But everyone else does.” So I hear from college students and twenty somethings who are worried that they are behind on the career track. They  express feelings of failing compared to their friends and peers who have successful careers.  Some want to latch onto the first […]

So I am asked quite often.  Usually, the question is asked in relation to whether quitting, without any other job, makes sense. I respond with a series of questions: 1.         Is your job literally (that’s literally, not figuratively) damaging your mental health?   This is a big hurdle.  I don’t mean that you feel anxious.  I […]

Are you at a career crossroads? Many of our career counseling clients are stuck at a job and/or in a career path far too long.  They feel the need to make a change  but fear giving up their “security” or their “investment” in their current career.  I never tell clients to give up security without […]

“Lucy” is one of the hostesses at a well known restaurant on the coast of Connecticut where I live.  A few years ago, she entered my office for a career counseling consultation.  She has a distinctive look so I remembered her and asked: “don’t you work at X restaurant?”. Lucy forced a smile but it […]

Last summer while on family vacation our West, I visited an old friend who is in the entertainment industry. Trish Sie is a friend of mine from Penn. I was in law school at the time. I was her Graduate Fellow, essentially a resident advisor who also put on educational programs. Trish has had a […]

“Lucy” is a hostess at a well known restaurant near where I live. Three years ago, she set up a meeting for career counseling. When she came in, I recognized her and said “don’t you work at X restaurant?”. She smiled but it was one with regret. “I’ve been working there for 5 years. It […]