Career Professionals of Canada News Feed
Dear colleagues, The holiday season is upon us once again. 2020 certainly was challenging and it caught many of us by surprise. We now find ourselves looking forward to a new year filled with promises of happiness and health. As I take a look back, I am reminded of our welcoming community of members. Throughout this demanding year, we have been blessed by the generous efforts of our very responsive volunteers. Career development is a helping profession and the work you do plays a great part in our mutual quest…
Wikipedia describes the career as an individual’s metaphorical “journey” through learning, work, and other aspects of life. What jumps out at me here is the word “journey.” It reminds me of a famous quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson; “Life is a journey, not a destination.” I used to feel so much pressure to try to decide what I wanted to be when I grow up until I realized that the goal is not about striving to reach a final destination. It’s about being happy, being balanced, being authentically ourselves along the way — being…
CERIC, the Canadian charitable organization dedicated to advancing education and research in career counselling and development, helps us to make sense of career development through the lens of a canoe metaphor. In their Guiding Principles of Career Development, CERIC explains how the canoe represents our career, stating: “We use it on our journey, we stock it with the tools we need, and we proactively steer it to our destination; sometimes we face rapids, and as conditions change, so might our course.” Personally, I’ve discovered that powerful revelations — “aha moments”…
The last seven months have presented an unprecedented period of uncertainty and disruption for all of us. As I work to support undergraduate students and recent alumni in their career development and job search, I have been amazed by the resilience demonstrated by many of these young people. Not everyone has found success during these times. Some have experienced rescinded job offers, while others have questioned their career direction. However, I have found that by employing some proven tactics while coaching students on navigating the job market in these unsettling…
Work-life is about more than striving for balance; it is about healthy integration of everything we do. As career professionals, we help clients take a whole person approach, creating synergies between all areas that define “life” — work, home, community, learning, personal well-being, and health. More and more, we are finding that the perfect work-life balance rarely exists. We find ourselves juggling multiple responsibilities and often our work lives blend in with our personal lives. The term “work-life balance” implies that “work” and “life” are two separate things. We are…
It’s been over 10 years since I became a mom and a business owner, back-to-back. I tried my best to prepare, but each role involved a lot of “learn as you go.” One of my biggest personal challenges was finding a way to simultaneously meet the needs of both of these high-demand roles. When things got tough — and trust me, they often did — I told myself I needed to find a better way to achieve balance. I wanted to be a loving, caring mother while also performing as…