What’s love got to do with work?

The venerable Tina Turner used to belt out those powerful lyrics, What’s love got to do with it? You’ve probably heard the adage Do what you love and the money will follow…Or that famous one, If you love what you do you’ll never work a day in your life. I know both of these to be absolutely true so indeed it turns out that love has a lot to do with WORK! What does loving what we do look like? Think about what love means to you. When I love something or someone I give my full attention. I’m all in. I listen, I look deeply to understand what’s happening. I want to know more. I do what I say I’m going to do and I do it with a willingness and a feeling of generosity and care. I want to know how to be able to love even better… Read More

Should You be in a Certificate Program to Retool?

Career Development and Educational Options Abound Certificate programs, and other short terms classes, are now easy to find to help everyone update their technical, data, social media and e-commerce skills no matter where they are in their career trajectory. For example, General Assembly (GA), with local locations in Santa Monica and DTLA (and all across the USA) offers intensives that many of my clients have enrolled in to increase their skills and open new career doors as data scientists, data analysts, coders and product managers. My son actually attended GA in their intensive 12-week Data Science program over the summer before he went into his sophomore year. He’s now graduating from college with a great job doing work he loves, and has a bright future ahead in the Big Data world. Many other programs, often called Boot Camps, are available online and in other cities, that provide rigorous, hands-on training. UCLA… Read More

Do You Know How to Keep Your Next Options Open?

I want to share one of the top issues most of my clients and I discuss early on in their work with me. These scenarios, below, may sound like a familiar. If so, and you’re a former or current client, please don’t think I’m using your personal story here…it could be one of many of my clients! Something happens. Something changes. A client has been working in a particular job or industry for years. Could be 7 years, could be 20. Working diligently, head down, doing a good job, maybe really liking their work…but… something happens. There’s a re-org and they’re suddenly let go, or the client has gotten married and now they need to switch gears and find something that is more lucrative, or flexible for a new baby on the way, or maybe they’ve been traveling so much for work that it’s putting a strain on their marriage… Read More

Bad Behavior and Your Happiness

The kinds of issues I discuss with clients often seem to come in waves. Patterns emerge. Of course I’m usually hearing about various levels of distress that women and men are experiencing at work, and not surprisingly, a difficult boss or team dynamic prompts a lot of people to seek my assistance. Lately many conversations with clients seem to revolve around bad behavior of managers and people in power and how to do what’s best given the circumstances. On a broader level, as well, we’ve all been watching the undoing of many men who have used their power and status in despicable ways; while we feel relief that their gig is up, we’re also asking why did the unmasking of this undermining abuse take so long? It’s hard to speak truth to power. When we want to bring difficult topics and issues to light we know we need to be… Read More

Job Searching in Los Angeles: The Popular Jobs and Companies Edition by Sydney Frazer

When you think about Los Angeles, you probably think about the iconic Hollywood sign, the Walk of Fame, and the beach. You probably don’t think about it in terms of its thriving local economy and labor market. But you should! Los Angeles has the second largest economy in the United States. So what does this look like for the Los Angeles labor market? For starters, the LA unemployment rate is right on par with the national average at 4.7 percent as of December 2016. In addition, there are 91,415 open jobs in the area and a population growing faster than the national average. This means a high cost of living, similar to the rest of California. The cost of living in LA is most greatly affected by the housing prices. However, the median base salary reflects this by standing above the average salary in the United… Read More

Ready for your ideal job? Do these 3 things.

There comes a moment when you hit the wall and realize you’re really ready to let go of the ‘good’ to go for the great! These 3 actions are the shortcut to make your dream a reality. 1) Find a comfortable place to sit down to write – coffee shop, kitchen table, wherever. It’s important to get this out of your mind and onto paper. Otherwise it stays in the ether of your mind; writing it down makes it more real. Make a list of all the accomplishments that have made you feel most satisfied and proud. Notice how you feel as you list these. Feeling energized and excited? Good! If you feel a little squirrely know that this is just your inner critic trying to get in your way of recognizing what’s inspired you, and gets you feeling good about yourself. In fact, this can be good news, because going… Read More

Are You Really Ready To Quit Your Job?

Ask yourself these 4 questions before you take the plunge Sometimes you just want to throw in the towel and move on. After the holidays, coming back to work can leave you feeling drained and wiped out at the end of the day. Your motivation is low, perhaps your mood is too. To compensate, you scan jobs on all of the internet, but nothing looks interesting because these jobs look like what you’re already doing. Or perhaps, they ALL look inviting because even if it’s similar, it’s not where you are now. Maybe you feel boxed in because you need the money you’re making and don’t feel like you can afford a cut or loss of benefits right now. Maybe you’re finally doing well and have accumulated some good vacation time and a bit of stature and really don’t want to lose it. So what do you do… Read More

Ready for that New Job? 5 Actions You Must Take

January is the big month for job changers. But did you know it can take 18-24 months to land a job? You can cut your job search short by starting with these 5 actions. 1) Write your ideal job description; include all of the criteria that are essential like commute time, environment, desired responsibilities and those new challenges you’re ready for, salary range, perks and benefits you’d like, even the organization’s mission if that’s important to you. Write about the immediate contribution you can make in this job. Get excited about this. Really see yourself here. Make it real. 2) List all the work you’ve done that you’re most proud of. Be detailed and write down the skills you’ve used to be successful at what you’ve done. Note what the results have been when you’ve contributed your efforts. 3) Think of everyone you know and write their names down. Read More

Creativity for the New Year!

I am an intellectually and creatively restless person. I love to be creative every day in my life. I Create. All. The. Time. If I’m not learning and trying something new, then I’m probably sleeping. You, and most of my clients, probably feel the same way. Go ahead and call me ADDHD; I’m happy with the label at this point. People like us are what’s fueling our economy. We are the people looking to change things up and we’ll do the necessary work to figure out how to do whatever needs to be done to make those changes. We do the creating, and innovation, the ‘scratching’ as Twyla Tharp calls it, to come up with something new, and energizing. Or do we….? If you’re like a lot of people I know (ok, including me) you, too, probably let yourself get lost and sidetracked by doing things that end… Read More

5 Steps You Can Take Today To Banish Mommy Burnout For Good

You know that feeling. It’s like the gears just don’t connect, there’s no traction, no energy to accelerate. If you’re a mom who’s burned out from taking care of everyone at home (and at work, playgroup, your extended family too), it’s predictable that your feelings of guilt, anxiety, resentment and outright anger are building to the point where you’re afraid you will blow like a rocket. That’s super scary because if that happened, you’re sure you’d ruin everything. So what can you do instead? It’s not your habit to share with others what’s really going on inside. Your habit is to go underground with your feelings. In fact, as your anxiety grows, you take fewer healthy steps to feel better. Instead of reaching out to a friend, you tell yourself you need to work harder, and, well, get over yourself. Read More