Career Goals

Job Search Tip: What is Holding You Back from Living Your Dream?

February 4, 2021 By Katherine Burik

Are you tired of your job? Does your current career make you happy? Is this the dream that you imagined? Or are you ready for a change?

Today’s video lesson shares some tips to help you find the career of your dreams.

Click the image below to view the video.

Katherine Burik is a Job Search / Career Coach and, in this video, she shares tips to help you find the career that you’ve always been looking for.

Learn what you are missing in your job search marketing plan and start making progress in your job search with this FREE quiz.

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Six (6) Videos are included with the workbook and shares tips on effective networking, turning vague concepts into a reality that anyone can successfully implement to find their next job.

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Job Search Tip: Set Job Search Goals

May 4, 2020 By Katherine Burik

Learn why it’s important to set goals in your job search marketing plan and get the job you want.

Katherine Burik is a Job Search / Career Coach and, in this video, she shares her tips on how and why you need to set goals in your job search marketing plan. Once you achieve your goals, you have reason to celebrate your accomplishments in your job search.

Get more Job Search Tips from the Interview Doctor and Interview with confidence. Get your free copy of the “Career Advancement Tips Sheet” for more ideas on how to create a job search approach that will lead you towards your goal.

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Looking Ahead to Create your Future Career Vision

December 4, 2018 By Marta Goertzen

“Objects in the rear view mirror may appear closer than they are…”

I swim in memories as I listen to this Meatloaf song. It seems like just yesterday I was directing HR traffic in corporate America. I was large and in charge. I had a great team. We led positive change. The senior staff respected me. Ah, those were the days.

Ever feel like that? I know plenty of job seekers and folks suffering in stuck careers who speak nostalgically about the way it used to be.

Looking backwards allows us to only see what we want to see. Those clear memories mask the pain, confusion and frustration right under the surface. Those bad feelings are not so close anymore. We forget.

It is so much easier to see the best parts of the past than to imagine the future. We have to create the future ourselves. It is right there, just out of reach.

Tomorrow can be kind of fuzzy. I had to create my own new reality when I started The Interview Doctor. Every day for the last fourteen years begins as a blank slate, a fresh start, an opportunity to reinforce my vision of the future. I have to find new clients. I imagine new marketing efforts. I build an impression of what success looks like in the new reality, what success feels like for me today.

My vision extends beyond business to include HOW I want to work. I set up my business life to support my personal vision of adventure, writing and travel. I did not have a roadmap. I had to create my own plan through trial and plenty of error.

Here are five tips to taking that first step to creating your own future vision:

Put fear behind you, pretend if you have to. You can find plenty of TED talks around this concept. Start with Ann Cuddy’s wonderful talk, “Fake it till you make it.”
Create a vision for the future built around situations that make you feel happy, confident and successful or problems you love to solve. Marinate yourself in that vision. Look at it from every possible angle. You have to be completely committed to find the courage to reach for the future.
Talk to a lot of people, especially experts in what you want to do. Let information be your protection against making bad decisions or focusing too much on the mirror
Take calculated risks. Put yourself in situations that make you a little uncomfortable. I find it secretly a little exciting when I am not exactly sure what is behind that new door. Take a different way home. Go to a meeting you would not normally attend. Volunteer for a committee if that is outside your comfort zone. Imagine you are standing on the desks like in that great movie, Dead Poets’ Society. The view is completely different up there!
Take action. A vision without action, even slow, calculated action is just a dream. Turn your dreams into reality by taking action to make it real. Start with baby step if you want but don’t be afraid to step out into the ether with me!

What does your future look like? Do you have a vision for where you want to be? Are you ready to take that big step into the unknown, putting the objects in the mirror further into the past? I would love to hear how you define your future or how you have taken a step away from that rear view mirror!

Check out The Interview Doctor’s 10 Be’s to Grow Your Career to see how you can take that first step to know yourself.

Start with the End in Mind

September 18, 2018 By Marta Goertzen

What do You Want to BE when you Grow Up?

Kids get asked that all the time. I remember getting asked that question in 8^th grade (a million years ago!). My parents and most of my family members were teachers. I knew I didn’t want to do that. But what else was there beyond the familiar family business? I had no clue.

It took me years to figure out how to apply my problem solving, communication and arguing skills in a way that made sense. Even then I backed into my career. I turned my love of history and my writing / arguing skills into a career in labor relations then human resources. If I knew then what I know now I would pick something else. I would love to be in Supply Chain, Process Improvement or Industrial Engineering because those fields really fit my skill set.

These days I meet plenty of adults who still cannot answer that question to their own satisfaction. Folks who stumbled into a career early on then discover it is not what they really wanted. My son and daughter couldn’t figure it out either.

My son Dan bounced around from random service jobs until he decided he wanted to be a blood technologist. Ever heard of such a job? I never did either, but he is happy as can be in his new career identifying buggers in blood and bodily fluids.

My daughter Marissa started out with leadership roles in campaign politics. Campaign politics requires lots of geographic movement as the operative moves from campaign to campaign. She really enjoyed it until she wanted to settle down. Then she went back to school for her MBA and settled into a new career in healthcare supply chain consulting. Still roaming but more focused this time around with a longer future ramp.

At the core to both career choices is to understand what you are good at. Simple as that.

Both Dan and Marissa did a lot of introspection to understand their strengths, what they are good at, and what they are most interested in. No sense finding a career in a field that does not leverage one’s strengths. Dan loves detail and really doesn’t like interacting with lots of people. A career in a hospital lab away from people really hits his strengths and interests. Marissa loves to solve problems. People naturally follow her so a career convincing people to see the problem her way really appeals to her. Put either of them in a different environment and they would not be as comfortable or happy.

When you build your career around your skills and interests, everything else falls into place. It is much easier to create the job search materials, easier to explain your career choice and more fun to go to work every day.

Start with the end in mind by understanding what you are good at, what you like, and what kind of environment in which you want to work. Take the long view then go after what you want!

Interested in finding a career you can live with for the long term? Check out “5 Tips to Kick Off a Successful Job Search or Career Transition” to explore what you want to be when you grow up.

I knew I hit a Career Wall When…

July 17, 2018 By Marta Goertzen

What is your answer?

Is it out of frustration like Janell who can’t listen to another complaint? Or boredom like Chris who knows his field is dying and can’t wait to get into a workshop to invent the next thing? Or plain dislike like Paul who knows his boss will never let him move further?

I know when I realized I hit a career wall. Looking back at my holiday letters I realized that for several years I wondered what “the next thing” would be. When the phone rang at work I wondered which of the five possible categories of problem or complaint the call would fit in. That little contest was not enough to keep me interested.

I hit the trifecta in 2004. My new boss really hated me. I was bored out of my mind and frustrated with the limitations imposed on me by the work in general. I identified that vague feeling in the pit of my stomach as a strong need to make a change. Then the new boss made it easy by giving me a large severance package to go away. That is how The Interview Doctor, Inc. came to be!

I hit a career wall. Ever feel that way?

Just for the fun of it I Goggled “hitting a career wall”. I found plenty of articles from before 2008 and after 2015. Very few articles on this topic during the financial crisis of 2008 until things started getting better around 2014 or 2015. I think exploring career options can be a luxury associated with good times. In tough times it is usually better to hang on to what we have as long as we can.

Rosemary hit a career wall a few years ago. She was a highly regarded VP Information Technology then head of Six Sigma under one boss who loved her. Then he left the company. The new guy didn’t feel the same way. Suddenly she was frustrated. Then she was demoted to a silly lower level position. She was bored out of her mind. But she had kids in college during the financial crisis. She felt she couldn’t leave. Or rather, she wanted to hang on to get that big severance package that never came.

Instead, the humiliations continued. She took up knitting. She read electronic books covertly at her desk because she finished her job in two hours a day. She got a second Master’s Degree. She volunteered for every project she could find. She did other people’s work. I wondered how long she could stick it out. She lasted EIGHT YEARS. I think that takes the cake.

After observing myself and others in this same boat, I have a few tips if you feel like you are hitting a career wall.

Can you find something new at work to keep you entertained? Some challenge no one else sees? A different way to practice your craft? Perhaps a hot new trend you can clasp on to that will re-energize your point of view? Latch on to it before another bored person gets there first.
Run away. Go find another job. Perhaps the grass can be greener somewhere else. Maybe a change of scenery will keep you stimulated. Do it quietly so folks at your current job do not realize what you are doing.
Take up hobbies in your spare time to keep your mind stimulated. Chris had a workshop in his basement for years where he tinkered with new inventions. He couldn’t wait to get home at night to try the next iteration. Rita took up painting in a sunny corner of her home. Undoubtedly that accounted for the faraway look in her eyes. Mike began running and doing cross fit. He looked and felt great which brought new energy to a boring old job.
Explore the feeling and start something new. Maybe it is time. It worked for me. I know being an entrepreneur is not for everyone. It is a hard life. It takes years for most people to make much money. But I would never trade the long hours and low pay for Corporate America EVER AGAIN! Whether you buy a franchise, set out a shingle in your own business or become a weaver, sometimes hitting a wall requires stepping out into the unknown to see what is out there for you.

Have you hit a wall? Is it time to reframe your current life into a new reality? You know we are here for you if you want to talk it through. Not a sales pitch. Just a hand stretched out in support!

In the meantime, check out The Interview Doctor’s 10 BE’s to Grow Your Career. It might be a great place to start the exploration!!