A Career Coach's Mini-Confession

A Career Coach's Mini-Confession

I've worked with someone I know
in my community who is looking for
her next job.

These are the things I have discovered
about myself, my values and my own
ethics in advising someone in the job
search.

1. This person has had no job history
that has not been menial or beneath
her capabilities. She is now close to
being 50 years old.

2. I counseled her for three visits as we
discussed her past and future. She
did not appear to "buy into" the
advice and information I was providing.

3. She is deeply religious and her decisions
are based on being of service to others
and to God.

4. She had been sexually abused as a child
by a male family member.

5. She is probably going to be laid off from
her current job and is negotiating with a
new group in town to be a houseparent
with two day and night shifts, working
with women who have recently been
released from incarceration.

6. My confession is this: I have had a
similar type of job in my own job
past and found that the stress involved
in guiding individuals who are still troubled
and often use an authority figure to test
their own emootional limits, quite a
measure of my own hardiness. I did
not have that job for very long.

7. I did not tell my "counselee" about the
pitfalls in taking and enduring in the job
she is contemplating. My own best
self told me that she will probably not
listen to my tale of experience from my
past. And, it would be presumptious of
me to equate my experience with her
possible reactions to this new job.

8. The best thing I did do with her was to
listen and validate her as a person. I
believe that she is capable of evaluating
her own experience in light of her up-
bringing and life

9. My FEAR is that I did not do enough
for her to orient her toward new
beginnings for future work. Another
FEAR of mine is that she will continue
to look for ways to de-value yourself.
I think she is a candidate for intensive
therapy, which is not my role in working
with her.

10. The final part of my confession is that
I did my best as I felt it and as it played
itself out with both of us.

5.

About the Author

c, 2004-05
Marilyn J. Tellez, M.A.
Certified Job & Career Transition Coach
Email: doitnow@nwinfo.net
Web: www.doitnowcareers.info