10 Tips to Consider in Moving Your Career Forward,
By Daisy Wright

Fall is here, and it’s time for a new beginning. You could be starting a job search after a layoff; starting a course to enhance your chances for a promotion, or even starting a business. You are at a crossroad, and it’s decision time. You are asking yourself, “Where do I go from here and what route should I take?” Before you make a decision, reflect on the following tips. They could help you move your career forward…one step at a time:

1. Revisit your core values. What is important to you in a job or career other than the pay cheque? What do you enjoy doing? What work or vocation you could easily do for free?
   
   
2. Establish your preferences. Do you like working within a group or alone? Does the idea of sitting behind a desk appeal to you, or would you prefer a job working outdoors?
   
   
3. Research companies that share your values. Is the company eco-friendly or family-friendly, and are those values important to you?

Making Fearlessness Your Career Transition Companion,
By Linda Schnabel, PCC, MCRS, MCIS, MCCS, JCTC
Senior Consultant & Strategist, Graham Management Group

Here we are just past the halfway mark of 2009 – a year that has been anything but secure and promising. We’ve been battered by the storm of a deep recession and continue to be recipients of daily reports about recovery that are, at best, conflicting and confusing. Unemployment rates in Canada edged up to 8.6% in June and our U.S. neighbor to the south reported that its jobless rate hit a 26-year high after the economy cast off 467,000 jobs during the same month.

When the normal tendency is to derive solace from a sensible world that spins predictably according to our expectations, no wonder we have all experienced waves of fear during this rather uncertain and unpredictable year. In his book, “Transitions,” William Bridges states that “…change causes losses, and it is the losses, not the changes that we react to.” He also says that transition invites us into an uncomfortable “neutral zone,” a no-man’s land that suspends us, sometimes rather fearfully, between the old reality and the new.

Career Change in an Economic Downturn,
By Cecile Peterkin

When a lot of the news about the economy is anything but positive, many people focus on making sure that there is stability in their lives. In an economic downturn, after all, there is ample stress about keeping the job that a person has – particularly in industries in which there are a number of cutbacks; it hardly seems like a great time to make a career change.

One of the things that you will find, however, is that an economic downturn creates opportunities for those who are looking for a career change. Those who have been working in investments and banking, many auto workers and others, for example, will find that looking into a career change doesn’t just give them a chance to come closer to reaching their goals; instead, making a more dramatic change actually helps to ensure that they have a number of great options available to them – options that might otherwise not be there.