The New Directions Studio

Career Counseling Services

Are you questioning the career path you are currently on?  Don't know what you want to be when you "grow up"?  Wondering about what career options will make your heart sing and pay the bills?  According to the Department of Labor, approximately 80% of the working American adult population are not satisfied in their work.  There are many reasons why so many people feel they are in a less than perfect job situation:  They feel stuck, they don't know what else they can do, they don't know what else is out there, they're concerned they might have to go back to school, and the list goes on.

The Four C's

The issue is definitely resolvable.  In my work with people wishing to identify new vocational directions, I have found that there are four essential elements to job satisfaction that must be identified and clarified.  These four elements I refer to as The Four C's: Content, Conditions/Culture, Compensation, and Congruence.  The Content of a job addresses the question of what you want to do on a day-to-day basis and involving what area(s) of expertise.  Any work you do should consist, for the most part, of  enjoyable tasks and responsibilities. The Conditions/culture describe the nature of where you'd want to work.  These include size and nature of the organization you work for or perhaps self-employment, schedule, environment, commute, types of people you work with and for, dress code, company culture, travel.  When the conditions are right for you, you are freed up to focus your energy on the work itself, the job content.   Compensation, a "ruthless rule of reality" for most of us, concerns what you need to earn - not only for bill paying purposes, but also for the health of your self-esteem.  Benefits, vacation/personal days, educational stipends, and childcare provisions are examples of other compensation considerations.  When you are not adequately compensated for your work, you may become resentful of your job.  Congruence, the last of The Four C's, concerns how the work you do and where you do it fits who you are  your personality and values and your life.  If the work is not congruent with you, you will experience personal discord and internal conflict.

I have developed a process in which we identify together what your specific needs and desires are in each of The Four C's and develop a detailed, written profile of what the ideal work would look like for you organized around Content, Conditions/culture, Compensation and Congruence.  I  have you complete exercises like The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, various skills assessments, interest surveys, compensation goals, etc.  While we are building your ideal job profile, we identify career options that make sense given your needs and current life circumstances.  I also teach you how to research these options and make an informed decision about what you are going to do next professionally.  I tailor make the process to you which means that the total number of hours to do the process varies from individual to individual.  On average, the process requires 8-10 hours with me and can be scheduled for 1-2 hours / week with no more than 14 days between appointments.  This we will discuss in our first meeting.