While visiting friends in Colorado over the holidays I had the great good fortune to meet and spend time with a woman who told me she didn’t know what she wanted to be when she grew up. She is 86 and an artist who brought a train car onto her property and transformed it into her home. Bright and warm, her sense of color and design fill the space. She has brought striking color and imagination to the lives of so many, and continues to develop ideas and create art. She is curious about the internet, i phones, and cameras. She asks pertinent questions, and keeps important quotes nearby throughout her cozy home. And she’s on alert for learning more about what she wants to do when she grows up. This artist embodies the curiosity and playfulness that empowers her to keep trying new things in her work, and… Read More
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Key to securing jobs in growing fields
Landing a Job of the Future Takes a Two-Track Mind Career Experts Say Positions in Growing Fields Will Require an In-Demand Degree Coupled With Skills in Emerging Trends By DIANA MIDDLETON If you’re gearing up for a job search now as an undergraduate or returning student, there are several bright spots where new jobs and promising career paths are expected to emerge in the next few years. Technology, health care and education will continue to be hot job sectors, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ outlook for job growth between 2008 and 2018. But those and other fields will yield new opportunities, and even some tried-and-true fields will bring some new jobs that will combine a variety of skill sets. The degrees employers say they’ll most look for include finance, engineering and computer science, says Andrea Koncz, employment-information manager at the National Association of Colleges and Employers. But to… Read More
An idea and glimmer of passion lead to bliss
All change starts with an idea and a glimmer of a passion… Finding a Future in Doggie Day Care A Telecommunications Executive Follows Her Bliss to Become a Successful Franchiser By Elizabeth Garone When Amy Nichols says that her career has gone to the dogs, it’s a good thing. Ms. Nichols, a former telecommunications sales executive, is the founder of Dogtopia, a national chain of upscale day-care centers for dogs. Ms. Nichols approached seven banks before she secured a loan for Dogtopia Ms. Nichols always knew that she wanted to work with animals. “I didn’t want to sell animals. I wanted to be caring for them,” she says. But, after college, she thought she should get a “real job.” Following in her father’s footsteps, she chose telecommunications. In the late 1990s, she built a career working for a number of the big players: Bell Atlantic (which later became Verizon),… Read More
Falling in Love
As you know – I think – I love to be inspired. Reading works by genuine people often fulfills that need of mine. David Whyte, poet, writer, and academic has written a book which I’ve found to be so satisfying. I wanted to share this particular passage with you, but encourage you to find and read this book. I found The Three Marriages, Reimagining Work, Self and Relationship while on vacation and was mulling over that conversation I have so often with my peers and clients — how we ‘do’, ‘find’ or ‘create’ balance. Sometimes I think we just need to throw that idea out completely if we’re living fully in all areas of our lives — and at other times I see that there is just an ebb and flow of energy that helps us to be better at holding everything at one time than at another. Read More
December 2009 Newsletter
Daisy Swan & Associates – December 2009 Newsletter change [cheynj]: a transformation or modification; alteration; the passing from one place, state, form, or phase to another. In the past three years, I have had the good fortune of reconnecting with some very old friends – classmates and colleagues. They aren’t really very old people, but our friendship is. How many old friends and acquaintances have you connected with through Facebook and LinkedIn, in the past three years? While these technologies feel somewhat overwhelming to me at times, I must say I’m really grateful to have some of my old pals closer than they were a mere three years ago, when I didn’t use these sites as much as I do now. In fact, it’s bringing me great satisfaction to reflect on how these friendships have been re-kindled over the past several years. Who would’ve… Read More
Where's Your Bar?
Where have you set your bar when it comes to expectations? If you haven’t thought about this for a while then the end of the year is a good time to do it. 2009 has been a tough year of reflection, it seems to me, for a lot of people who had to check their expectations, and then check them again. Life has decidedly not been cooperating with the way many of us thought it was supposed to go. I regularly reflect on my values and goals, set new intentions and develop new ‘visions’ of what I’m aiming for. This is what I do for myself and with my clients. Expectations are tricky though. If they’re too high we can get frustrated and angry when reaching what we expect to reach continues to be out of reach. Set them too low and our body can slump while we lean downwards… Read More
An Email Exchange about Leadership
Last night I received this email. You’ll see my response below. I’d welcome comments. I suppose that what I’m about to ask you for is not your main area of expertise, but I’m going to ask anyway (as a starting point, if nothing else). Lately, I have been through much searching for answers regarding my life and work. Ultimately, I have come to the conclusion that the best first step for me to take would be finding the right company to work for. Toward that goal, I wonder if you can direct me to resources, ways, places or people who know more about companies’ cultures than just what they tell prospective investors? As a pointer, let me say that I currently work for a company whose ownership and management is arrogant, greedy, selfish, malicious, culturally limited, closed-minded, and would rather employ and promote their cronies who do barely-passable work than… Read More
Job Search Success: How They Did It
I’ve been collecting stories from clients and others to share how people are landing jobs even during these difficult days. We’ll keep updating this as they come in. “I feel really alive” Just wanted to check in and let you know how I am doing. School is fantastic! I am only about 7 weeks into the program and I love it. We are learning a lot of medical assisting techniques and information, and then on to the radiology portion of the program. I can give all kinds of injections and even draw blood already. I am going to try to pass the phlebotomy test for my license, and then I can start working in the medical field right away. I have never even said this before, but I love my life. Everything is very chaotic with school every day and then working in the afternoons, and then studying at night,… Read More
Are You a Leader?
Do you consider yourself a leader in your field? Are you a leader disguised a follower? Is your boss getting in your way of leading and undermining your abilities to lead? Doesn’t just thinking about this make you mad? The upheaval our world is experiencing is making leadership opportunities more available to more people who might not have thought they could take the reigns and make an impact. Could that be you? I’ve worked with young clients who went from frustrated retail clerks to being in strong, thought leader positions because of the things they just knew how to do — and of course their willingness to get out there and try some new things, meet new people and ultimately package themselves and their skills in a compelling way. Don’t just get mad. Get going! Now’s the time for new people and to create opportunity for themselves; for those… Read More
Managing Your Career as a Business
Entrepreneurial Edge: Managing Your Career as a Business By James Flanigan Amid job uncertainty, more people are finding online employment sites and social media a way to take control of their own careers. EMPLOYMENT experts have some advice for the many Americans either looking for work or fearing they soon will be: Consider yourself an entrepreneur — of your own working life. The term entrepreneur is usually applied to people seeking to start their own small businesses. But those in the recruitment and employment industry say the uncertainty in the current economy means that workers need to think of their careers as their own small businesses. “The lesson of today is that you’re working for yourself,” said Janice Bryant Howroyd, the founder and chief executive of Act 1 Personnel Services, a staffing and employment company. “Most people say they’re giving their lives to the company, but it’s more of… Read More
