Career Coaching for Students and Working Professionals.

Career coaching includes working with clients on issues around transitions, decision-making, assessments, and planning. Career coaching is about more than resumes, interviews and job search — it’s also about helping people tap into their purpose and passion, express their natural gifts, and love their work — instead of just putting up with it! By aligning goals with values, interests, skills, and preferences, people can discover work they’ll really enjoy doing.

Parents can learn to help their children prepare to make a positive contribution with their lives and live their authentic purpose — in very practical ways.

Individual adults and youth can discover previously unrealized potential to either make their current jobs more satisfying or transition to take the next step on their career journey. Clients gain deep insights through highly reliable assessments which are used by human resources professionals and recruiters to match jobs with candidates.

Career Oracle a Career Coaching for Students is the leading career exploration and planning program that takes a proven approach to:

·         Recognizing your talent, greater self-awareness

·         Understanding your strengths

·         Identifying high-potential career options that leverage your talents

·         Leveraging a network of people you already know that will help you achieve your goals

·         Investigating careers of interest beyond the typical surface analysis

·         Obtaining summer internships that align with a career interest

·         Choosing an educational strategy that positions you for the best job opportunities

·         Differentiating yourself from the crowd

·         Building a foundation for future success and satisfaction

·         Envisioning a future that is economically self-sufficient

·         Articulating a plan that will help you achieve your goals and dreams

·         Understanding the consequences to the many aspects of your life if you don’t follow through with your plans.

Personal Coaching + Career Coaching + Mentoring — You will find that we use a blend of both personal and career coaching techniques, as well as mentoring, to provide you with professional and powerful coaching, customized to support YOU to achieve YOUR goals. Personal coaching includes working with clients in areas such as life planning & enhancement, relationships, health & well-being, organization, and finances.

Invest in your self-development and get on track to success. Choose the investment option that’s right for you. BASIC package includes assessments, reports, and 3 coaching sessions. COMPREHENSIVE package includes assessments, reports, and 12 coaching sessions to ensure you realize and can communicate your value, explore your options, plan your actions, and create your desired future.

Coaching conversations are usually weekly, 45-minute sessions. Most coaching is done by phone, email and skype or gtalk, although it may be possible to arrange some in-person meetings. In between our sessions, you will be asked to complete customized assignments. Your fee also includes email support as needed between sessions. All services are paid in full prior to the first session.

Gift for a Loved One (or anyone else): Do you know of someone who would benefit from any of our program or coaching offerings? Give them a gift certificate! This unique gift is not only useful but life-changing. For more details, write to us at – info.careeroracle@gmail.com. Parents: Write to us today to receive free parent style assessment.

5 Ways to Climb the Ladder of Success in your Career!

Most people have ambitions and aspirations for where they’d like to take their career—and where they’d like their career to take them. Whether you are a recent college grad gaining real world experience in office etiquette for the first time, or you have been in your current position for a while and find your trajectory in the company at somewhat of a standstill, these 5 tips will help you exude the energy of someone who is ready to take on more responsibility in their professional life, and aid you in achieving new career goals.

Always Be Prepared

If your current job or position doesn't seem like it requires a lot of daily preparation, then you are in the perfect position to improve your standing in the company. Coming into the office well dressed, especially if you work in a more casual environment, lets others know that you take what you do seriously. If you have a deadline or presentation, be the person who has the work completed ahead of schedule—and then use that extra time to look for possible improvements. Nothing says “I am valuable to this company” like someone who is always ready to give their all.

Work on Effective Communication

Communicating with your managers and coworkers in an effective manner is absolutely essential to furthering your career. Being a good employee is one thing, but being able to convey new ideas, handling misunderstandings or issues with ease, and knowing the right questions to ask puts you on a level above the rest. Bonus: having a good relationship with your superiors makes it much easier to talk about possible advancements or promotions. Effective and positive Communication is something that I keep stressing on.

Take Initiative

It is easy to get caught up in your everyday responsibilities and do the minimum amount of work that is required, but this sort of individual does not often earn huge promotions or move upwards in a company. The successful professional, no matter where they rank in the corporate food chain, always brings new ideas to the table. Volunteering and showing that you don’t mind putting in extra effort attracts a lot of positive attention from higher-ups. Again I would like to add a point here that just taking on and executing the extra job is just not enough you also need to be smart enough to look for the right opportunity to bring it to your boss`s notice. Let me share an example here – working for Boss Z(Z) were two employees A & B. Both were highly competent, witty, hard working, smart and knew how to get the work done and also fulfill additional responsibilities. When an opening for senior level promotion came up Z was extremely confused to promote one. The job went to B. Simple when both A & B figured out that there was an opening for a promotion, A thought silently to himself that he has done all that he can and he needs to get the job. However B went a step ahead and communicated the desire to get promoted to Z clearly.

Be Consistent

Those who consistently deliver great work and handle emotions and situations in a stable and even manner are better suited for upper-level positions in a company. Openly expressing too much anger or annoyance at a situation or towards those you work with will gain you a reputation for handling things poorly. Likewise, if you are too easy-going or bring too much of your personal life to work, you may have difficulty gaining respect in the office.

Define Personal Goals

While you may not know exactly where you’d like your career to take you, it is important to strategize to a certain degree. Could you benefit from moving to a different department in the company for the same pay—something commonly referred to as a “lateral move’’? What positions would you ideally want to work towards, and what skills can you be working on right now in order to strengthen your chances of being promoted? Enrolling in programs that provide leadership training for motivated professionals will help you determine—and improve upon— areas where certain necessary skills are lacking. Better still get yourself a Career Coach who will help you analyze your strength and weaknesses and motivate you to reach and climb the success ladder!

New Year’s Game to bring in the New Year!!!!!!!!!!

New Year's Eve - a time for closure as well as dreaming.

For the last few years, just before the clock strikes 12:00 pm, I play an easy but rewarding little game that I’ve come to call, the New Year’s Game (I like names that say what they are). It’s the perfect way to wrap up the past year and bring in the new.
You can play with your partner, a friend, your immediate family, or even at a party (if people work in small groups). The New Year’s Game is an intimate and fun experience for all who play!

 What is the New Year’s Game?
Well, it involves reflection of the past year as well as prediction for the future. BUT with no strings or project plans attached to it!
I mean, what’s more fun than reviewing what makes you great and at the same time dreaming up what you’re going to achieve next!

 Here’s How You Play…
Buy yourself a little notebook (you’ll have this book for years to come and each year you’ll fill in 2-4 pages, so make sure it’s pretty and durable)
Just before midnight on New Year’s Eve, you and your partner/family/friend chat about and write down all the important things that you achieved in the year. Be sure to list something from each area of your life.
After midnight, once the New Year has rolled in, dream up and write down all the important things you’d like to achieve in the New Year.
That’s it. Keep the book in a safe place till next year when you can open it again and see how you did. If you do this every year, pretty soon you’ll have an awesome souvenir from your life.

Get Your Dreams Out in the Open.
The point of the game is not to win or even to lose to everything on the list. The point is the discussion, to have fun and to dream big. The act of having closure with the past and putting your new dreams out there is a huge step.

The universe is listening.

The last post for this year and Career Oracle wishes its readers a very happy and prosperous new year!!!!!! Let us all learn to be a a little more empathetic to each other in 2014! Discrimination: Coping With Discrimination

Purpose of activity: To understand what it feels like to be left out from a group.

To be aware of people or groups who are left out in society.

Lifeskills: Critical thinking & Empathy.

Materials: Sets of stickers in three colours – or bits of coloured paper and pins. There should be enough of each colour for one third of the children in the group.

Steps:

1.            Tell the children that in this game, they will greet everyone differently according to the colour of the sticker placed on their shirt at the back (or a sticker on their forehead!).

2.            Each child has one of three colour stickers placed on the back of their shirt (or forehead). They don’t know which colour they have. They must not tell each other what colour they have pr it will spoil the game!

3.            Tell the children that they can move around the room and greet each other in the following way:

Green sticker - greet this person as if they are very important to you and who you haven't seen for a long time. You are VERY happy to see them and greet them warmly.

Yellow sticker - greet this person as if they are someone you pass everyday. You greet them but it is not a big greeting.

Red sticker - this is someone you do not want to see or greet. Try to avoid them but if you must greet them, do so coldly and try to get away quickly.

4.            Children move around the room and make their greetings for 5-10 mins.

5.            Now the children can look at their sticker and form groups according to their colour. The groups discuss what happened in the activity and what it felt like.

6.            Mix the groups so that there are some of each colour in each group. These groups discuss:

What did it feel like to have the red, yellow or green stickers?

Are there any people in society whom society does not like or leave out? (For example, people whose skin is a different colour, people who have a disability, people who have HIV, women, people who are homosexual, people of a different religion)?  Why?

How do you think those people feel when they are left out? How can we help make those people feel more included?

7.            Each group presents their key points.

How to Develop Leadership Skills Within You!

The leader inside you often needs some encouragement and support from your side to show-up itself. Many people take-up personality development or similar such courses and try to enhance the leadership skills within.

Let us take on certain issues and fathom how a leader should tackle them:

1. Handling Disagreements - Never show your aggression when there is a conflict, either between two subordinates or between you and others. Just remember it is a simple difference of opinions. It can always be solved if tackled discreetly. And that is exactly what a leader does, he never loses his temper rather helps other stay in control.

2. Helping Others Achieve - It’s not solely your accomplishments that count. As a leader you have a whole team to progress along with. Therefore you have to encourage each teammate and even support them in working on their problems. When you hit the road for the first time on your cycle, there were vehicles overtaking from one side and approaching from the together. What did you do then? In fact you encouraged and assured yourself, that you have the ability to do it. The same formula has to be applied every time, but for your colleagues now.

3. Problem Solving Attitude - Are you able to provide solutions or do you end up getting tensed and panicking, when confronted with issues? Well! It is not entirely in your hands to prevent going into hysteria. Many of us do, but your talent lies in overcoming that stage as soon as you can and support others in finding the key to get out of the trouble.

4. Be A Proficient Communicator - This is indeed the most crucial role that a leader has to play. Let’s take one more situation from the above instances: When you go to a store to buy something, are you able to explain clearly and specifically what your requirements are, to the keeper? If you have to clarify things to him again, then you certainly need to work on your communication skills. Similarly, your words should not be misinterpreted nor should you sound authoritative. Be diplomatic and suave, it is the best strategy but put your foot down whenever the need arises.

As a leader earning respect is important but that should come because of your talent and influence, not with command and domination.

Behaviour which Hurts, Helping to Resolve a Conflict

This is a single activity session plan.

Purpose of activity: To explore how to help as a go-between in a conflict.

Life skills: problem-solving, creative thinking, empathy

Steps:

1.            Remind the participants of the discussions they have had in Activities 43 and 44. Explain that sometimes it is hard to sort out conflict or arguments, for example when:

 All people in the argument think they are right and will not back down

If one side is not telling the truth, if one or other or both are VERY angry

When this is the case, someone may be needed to act as a go-between: this is someone who negotiates between people in an argument.

2.            Ask participants to give examples of when this has happened. Discuss who helped and how - teachers? Friends? Relatives? Colleagues?

3.            Divide participants into groups of three or four and ask them to do a role-play either around a situation known to them or give them an example. In this role-play, the problem is not resolved so another person is called in to help. The groups have to decide who this person is.

4.            Participants perform the role-plays and after each, the whole group comments on how this extra person helped solve the argument (for example by calming everyone down, by suggesting a compromise or an alternative that no-one had thought of.)

Final discussion: How can a go-between help sort out an argument. Is it good to be a go-between? Why / why not?  Have you ever been a go-between?

Behaviour that Hurts, What Happens to Us When We Get Angry? Avtivity!!!!!! Happy Diwali!!!!!

Purpose of activity: To become aware of our physical reactions when we get angry and how anger might be controlled.

Life skills: problem-solving, creative thinking

Steps

1.            In pairs, ask the children select one idea from the list they made: What makes me get angry? In pairs, children act out one of these situations.

2.            In the whole group, ask the children to say what happens to their bodies when they get angry (these responses are different for everybody and in different situations). Some of them can be:

shouting

head pulses

stomach aches

clenching the fists

frown

face turns red

crying

feeling scared

3.            In the whole group ask children to say what people might do when they angry: hit someone-     throw something-                shout sounds-   shout insults (which they may later regret)

4.            In pairs, the children make two short role-plays from one of the situations identified in the Activity. In the first role-play, shows how things quickly go from bad to worse when someone gets angry. The second shows how the person controlled their anger.

For example by:

walking away

reasoning

ignoring

getting someone else to help

5.            The pairs perform their plays. After each, the whole group can comment on how the anger was controlled.

Final discussion: In an argument, is one person always more to blame than the other? Can you do something about your anger in the same way each time?