Get Ready to Make the Next Move in Your Career
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Have you been in your career for at least 10 years? Are you stressed, burned out and bored? Well I get it because I was there. It's no fun being at a job you dislike especially one in which you are spending 40 hours a week or maybe even more at.
Do you find yourself watching the clock toward the end of the day? You can't wait for the day to be over so you can go home. The only problem with that is that you can't fully enjoy and feel fulfilled in your home life, because you struggle to turn off the stresses and to do list mentally for what you have waiting for you the next day at work.
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If you look forward mostly to lunch with coworkers and not to the actual work, then it might be time for a career change.
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Where To Start?
When I was in the process of shifting my career I really didn't know how to start. More importantly I didn't have the motivation to start the process alone. This is when I thought that seeking out someone to talk about a career shift might be an important next step.
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I found someone that did career counseling and offered a package to help me navigate the beginnings of a career shift. The package was appealing because I knew there would be a defined start and ending. This meant that we would get right to work and have clearly defined path in a quick amount of time.
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If you are busy at work and want something short and quick like a career counseling package, then you are in the right place my friend.
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Four Session Career Counseling Package
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The time I spent with my career counseling several years ago was some of the most valuable time I spent thinking and planning my career move. There is no way I would have had the motivation to start the process on my own. I wonder if you are in the same boat when it comes to your career.
You are probably very busy with everything you have going on at work. But the busyness doesn't stop there. When you get home, you have kids and work to do around the house or the yard. Next thing you know is it is time for bed. And then as the old commercial use to say, it's 5:00 am and time to make the doughnuts. And then you do it all over again.
Days turn into weeks, weeks to months, and months to years and sometimes in my case the years turn into a decade.
This is where a 4 session career counseling package to help navigate your next move with me, Brian Mayer LCSW comes in. Just think in a little as one month, you could be on your way to knowing and understand what your dream career is and to have the confidence that it will be a good fit for you in so many ways.
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So what do we cover in a Career Counseling package?
I will help you understand here what we will cover in the Career Counseling package by going over step by step what each session looks like.
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Before First Session
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Prior to coming in for your first session, I will send you an email that has a brief questionnaire to understand from a broad perspective what has motivated you to seek out Career Counseling. I will also ask some questions about what you are doing currently. This will help us both get a jump start on our sessions together.
One thing to note is that since this is a package of sessions, I do require the package to be paid in full prior to our start. While it may apper selfish on my part, it actually is just the opposite. I find that when my clients pay for the entire package up front, it really motivates them to get to every session and be prepared and eager to come out with some much more desire to push forward.
First Session
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In the first session, we will of course spend a little time getting to now each other. I will go over where the bathrooms are and invite to have some water if you would like.
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Then I will briefly go over how each of these session will look and the goals for each sessions and the goals for our time together.
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We will spend most of our time talking about this career move that you want to make. We will first review a bit about the answers you gave on the Intake document around your current situations and what you want to accomplish in the future.
Then I will specifically start asking questions about your interests and values. We will also discuss current job satisfaction and challenges. We will dive more specifically into the reasons you are seeking a career change. We will talk about what you think your strengths, skills, and abilities that you excel in and enjoy utilizing.
Now don't worry, this is not a job interview. You are encouraged all along the way that if the answer is "I don't know" then that is perfectly acceptable! There is no pressure as this entire experience is for your benefit. It should be a time where yes you learn but should also be fun and interesting.
This session will help us both get to know more about what makes you tick and what you desire. This is a very key part of counseling especially career counseling. It helps you stay in control because we are solely focusing on you.
We will wrap up the session but before we do that, I will ask that you complete a comprehensive online assessment for homework. You will do this on your computer, laptop, or phone. You will be answering questions to better understand your personality, your strengths, you interests, and career matches.
Second Session
When you come in for the second session, you will have completed the online assessment to better understand yourself when it comes to that next career. You and I will have both received your results. However, you do not need to bring in a copy. I will print a copy for you and have it ready to discuss.
After a brief chat about anything you want to talk about and go back over from our first session, we will then dive in to the report.
We will spend this session looking at the results of your personality. Who doesn't love to understand more about their personality. It is especially important when thinking about that next career. If you ever enter into any kind of career counseling and there isn't kind of conversation about your personality then it means a key piece is missing.
With regard to your personality, we will review what it shows as your overall approach and core motivations in work. We will also discuss your personality type which is based on a look at 16 possible personality types and understanding which one you most align with.
We will also review the career assessment in terms of your values and motivations. We will also look at how others see you, your communication style, your personality at work, your leadership style, and your teamwork style.
As we do this you and will be constantly checking in to understand if this does sound like you, resonates with you and so on. There may certainly be some moments where you might feel a statement or two does not sound like you. And that is great, because it is in those where our dialogue hits gold because it means you are truly discovering more about yourself.
I typically don't assign any homework after the second session since the third session will be all about reviewing the rest of the Career Assessment report.
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Third Session
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As I said before this session is all about continuing to review the results of your assessment. If you aren't having fun and learning a lot about yourself then we need to have a talk :). I remember going through this phase in my own career counseling package and it was indeed life changing. In fact going through the process was key and pivotal moments in helping me get motivated to change my career from working in the insurance industry to counseling others like your in my own private practice counseling practice. This career counseling package is one of my most favorite things to do.
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Okay so in our third session we will focus on reviewing the results around your career interests, career matches, and your strengths. When it comes to interests you will find the Six Interest area discussion most helpful. We will then discuss which of the Six Interests where most high for you and what that means.
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You will also see many many possible careers that the assessment suggest would be a good fit for you. We will take time to discuss all of them and you can help me get a better understanding if these careers are indeed in your wheelhouse of interest or not.
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Then finally the assessment wraps up by showing us your strengths. That is such a great place to end this portion of our time together. You will review things like becoming your best, opprtunities for excellence, potential pitfalls, and your personal strengths.
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For homework after this session, I typically will give you a worksheet around career considerations. These are things like education, salary, work environment, type of supervision and many more pieces to consider around your next career. The worksheet will ask to identify the importance for you and whether or not some kind of issues should be addressed around it.
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I will also ask to think about the careers, do a bit more research on ones that appeal to you. If you can make your decision on which career you want to pursue then great! This often happens during the Career Counseling Package Sessions. Sometimes for some clients it does not happen immediately and that is okay. This is a big decision for sure. Sometimes the decision happens after the time together is finished.
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Fourth (and Last) Session
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In this last session we will put it all together. We will talk about whether or not you make a decision on what career you would like to pursue. We will also discuss the homework around Career Considerations. We can talk and brainstorm through the areas that need some attention in order to get you to where you want to be in your next career.
I will share with you the SMART goal concept and creating objective for each goal along with due dates for yourself to keep you on track. We will work on what the potential barriers are ways to overcome them.
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The next steps often involve a bit more research, informational interviewing, taking a look at additional education or updating your resume.
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For many clients our time is done and they feel so much more in command and confident in forging ahead on their own. This was me. After my four session career counseling package was complete, I took care of everything else.
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For some clients though a few more sessions might be helpful to stay motivated. We can certainly talk about taking a session by session approach after the Career Counseling Package of 4 sessions is complete.
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What is not covered in this Career Counseling package?
We will do a lot of amazing work together to get you more prepared for your next career. However there are few things I don't do.
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I don't help with resume writing. While that is certainly an important item to handle in your next career move, we focus more on what career is the right fit for your based on your personality, skills and strengths.
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We also don't do any kind of job search or help connect you with resources. Again that would be more outside of our work that focuses on helping your decide what career might be the best fit.
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Let's Get Started!
Let's get started today. You can use the Book Session button below to schedule the first session of the four session Career Counseling Package. We can meet either in person or online. The nice thing about career counseling is that since it is not considered mental health counseling, you do not have to be a resident of Virginia.
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See the Rates page for information on package cost. I require payment in full before we begin the Career Counseling Package of sessions. This is one thing that is proven to motivate clients when they know that have significant investment in the process.
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I am really looking forward to getting started.
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