Knowing what you want from your career and thinking you know what you want, is the difference between saying you want to get married but never going on any dates. When you struggle with what you think you want from your next job because you are convinced that you just need to work, you do yourself a dis-service by not following what is truly in your heart from what’s pounding around in your head.  The pressure is on that is without question. Even though it looked like the economy was picking up the first half of the year to suddenly feeling like things have fallen off a cliff again, it’s easy to switch into panic-mode.  With unemployment benefits being extended to 99 weeks, it fuels the fires of doubt where it appears even the President is not confident in a job recovery anytime soon. Next time you find yourself ready to jump off a cliff because you just, “need to work” ask yourself, do you really know what you want?

Not sure if your career path was the one fate chose for you or you chose for yourself?  If only there was a little book that lit up every time you made a wrong turn or career choice.  Wouldn’t it be comforting to have a bunch of men in gray suits and fedoras running around trying to help you get back on track even though your heart or mind or whomever was pushing you in another direction.  Finding your way back to what you know and love is hard enough when you have distractions from life pushing and pulling you in opposite directions.  If you feel your career needs a visit from “The Adjustment Bureau” you are probably not alone.

When it comes to your career recovery is it possible for you to garner the strength it will take to to make the necessary changes?  Your career, like most things in life needs time and careful attention in order to change. It just doesn’t happen overnight.  When you are stalled in your career there is one thing you can do for yourself where no one else can help you.  In this, your career is very much an inside job.

Like a car that changes shape as it picks up speed, your job, can change shape, accelerate or derail just as quickly.  The only difference is you are in the driver’s seat and are able to defend your right to pursue the career you were meant to lead. Having faith in yourself and in your ability to know what you are good at and what talents, skills and tools you have to contribute will help you know whether you are living your dream or are in need of a transformation.

As you know if you have been reading my blogs, I don’t typically write about myself. It’s that time of year for reflection I guess and I thought to share of my own personal background and experience. As we ponder our career choices in life, we usually are faced with making decisions about our life’s path as we graduate college and enter the work force or sometimes opportunities present themselves even earlier in life.  I faced my career choice at the age of 12.  I had been taking piano lessons since age 6 and my teacher, who was the first violinist for the Metropolitan Opera orchestra, noticed that I had a talent for song.  She suggested to my mother, a former opera singer herself, that I should audition for the children’s choir at The Met. My mother, somewhat cautiously asked me whether I would be interested in that, and I said, “Sure, why not?  What do I have to do again?”

So maybe you’ve been focusing on your Plan A now for quite sometime without any real momentum. Or maybe you’ve been striking out but somehow you keep thinking it’s going to come together for you any day now.  Still, you stick with it, follow through and do everything you were told would help you get a job or move up in the job you currently have but, nothing.  So you might go to a career coach, figure you might need to tweak your resume or maybe splurge for a career makeover.  Trying to stay focused on your original plan, you continue to go out of your way to make it work even when nothing is coming together for you.  Do you dare ask yourself, “Is it time to initiate a Plan B?”

We all like to plan and plan and well, plan what our lives will be like in the future. The romantic sounds of your thoughts as they sweep past all of the scenarios your active mind chooses to paint, is a great way to dream up your career the way you’d like it to be whether the fantasy is real or not. What you don’t want to lose is your imagination no matter how far-fetched your career dreams carry you. What you need to remember when you come down to earth is applying those dreams in the here and now. You can get there from here but you can’t if you don’t apply your vision to your reality. by Lisa Kaye

Just like the dead-air you get when your cell phone reception fails, and you utter the same phrase like a mantra at least 20 times before you realize no one is listening, your job search can feel like that sometimes, when you recant the same phrase over and over again, “Can You Hear Me?”  Getting discouraged, frustrated, annoyed and downright fed-up with the lack of response, follow through and in some cases common courtesy, is unfortunately a routine part of the job search these days.  There is no accounting for poor manners when you can’t expect to even get a response back to the tune of “We’re not interested.” When your emails, voicemails and even FaceBook requests go unanswered, all you ever seem to want to ask is, “Can you hear me?”

When you think of what you have versus what you do not have, it may make you feel grateful or depressed. Holding onto a job you can’t stand for fear you’ll never find one that you will love, is like staying in a bad relationship because you are afraid to be alone. When you face the fear that holds you back, you have a fighting chance to rise above the chaos surrounding your career and find what you truly desire.

How desperate are you really?  Would you sell your soul for the right opportunity? Would you get a divorce, cheat on your significant other, steal, or lie for money, fame or a corner office?  What lengths would you go to in order to secure your future career aspirations?  It was recently reported where Yahoo! CEO, Scott Thompson falsely claimed a computer science degree on his resume to land his job.  Not that it may have helped him in his long-term career goals, but it certainly added a credential to his resume when he needed it.  What would you do in order to land your perfect job?