Well, I got your attention didn’t I?

The symptoms that I see are related to things that could lead up to being ill-prepared for upcoming career-related life choices. Career health is also something that each student needs to be proactive about rather than waiting until they feel like their career is filled with troubling systems, or worse yet, on life support! You, like so many, probably need a career coaching appointment.

Often students wait until they are nearing their final term to begin to look for work, or even as late as when they complete the program. This is simply far too late to generate any career success or momentum. Often students who choose this approach find themselves unemployed when they complete the DAP program. As a result, anxiety is high, desperation become obvious and it makes it even harder to gain traction for a successful job search.

Over the years of coaching thousands of students, there have been many conversations regarding parents’ expectations about focusing on studies and achieving high academic results. This reality is, this is even more common among international students. As much as this may seem like an expectation that has merit, it has proven to be a much less effective way to generate career success. By avoiding other things and focusing solely on studies, students leave career preparation to the end of their program and leave themselves at a real disadvantage. However, if a student strikes a balance between a good academic result and active career preparation activities, employment success is far higher. A discussion with these stakeholders about this expectation is necessary.

In the book “The Power of Focus” for College Students, many points are made regarding focusing on the right things, making plans and achieving them. On page 268, the authors’ address a group of people they call “Stop People.” These people, well intentioned or not, pressure us to make decisions that are counterproductive to our career success, all the while thinking they are helping us. This is largely due to the fact that they are expecting us to do what they did and what worked within their context or culture. They are uncomfortable with anything outside of what they know and what they have done. But, that does not mean their perspective is the only one that works. This is constantly true with career advancement and job search strategies.

In the 1939 movie, The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy says to her dog, “Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.” This phrase has come to mean that we have stepped outside of what is considered normal; we have entered a place or circumstance that is unfamiliar and uncomfortable; we have found ourselves in a strange situation. Well, student, you are not in “X” anymore. It’s time to think and act differently.

Employers are not lining up at universities to hire graduates just because they went to a prominent school or achieved an impressive GPA. In fact, there are many academically brilliant students from famous universities that are unemployed. That is simply because looking for work and academics are two very different things that need to dovetail together. Neither one should be done without the other. On page 73 of the same book, the writers highlight the recommendation of “Choosing your own direction.” This is done through a process of identifying your values, interests, skills and ambitions. Of course, when we all vary in our personalities and our personality is often different than those giving us their timely advice. We need to do our own assessment and being to pursue our own path.

A couple of years ago, I had a very high net worth client that reached out to me, because a colleague of his had used my services to land a successful career move. He was very excited about meeting with me and we met over coffee. As I began to share the strategies of looking for work, he was surprised he was not acquainted with many of the strategies and was quite surprised that he could not just send out an updated resume and have employers crawling over each other to hire him. We set goals and a time to reconnect to revisit them and see how his progress was going. When we met, I asked him how his goals were coming along and he said pretty good. So I went to the list that we had set and agreed on, only to find out he had not accomplished any of them. So, I closed my computer and told him that if he wanted my help, and wanted to enjoy success like his colleague had achieved, he would need to trust that what I was sharing with him and the goals we had set would accomplish that. He responded by telling me, “Well, my wife said….” and began to describe why he was not going to look for work the way I was suggesting. I told him that I thought he should probably pay his wife a consulting fee and follow her advice then, because there was really no point in continuing with my services if he was not going to do them. He awkwardly chuckled but agreed. A few months later, he reached out in desperation, still unemployed with increasing tension in his home due to financial pressure and a lack of career success. Yes, it’s a sad story, but is worth telling because it happens more often that it should. His career health was sick and he needed an appointment.

Remember that you have blindspots when it comes to your career, just like those who speak into your life do. When it comes to successful career strategies, there are people available to help you and fill in those blind spots. In fact, you have already paid for these services through your course fees at UBC. Why not take full advantage of this opportunity while you are in the DAP program.

Here are a few things you can do…

1. Review the Career Toolkits created and revised to meet the needs of your student demographic https://professional.sauder.ubc.ca/dap/students/myubcdap/career/online-resource.cfm
   
2. Attend Public Practice Recruiting Prep Workshops if you are considering working for a Public Accounting Firm. You can register for these though COOL. Two upcoming dates are January 24th and February 7th.
   
3. Take advantage of scheduled coaching dates communicated to you through the MyUBCDAP and the JICYM weekly emails send out by the DAP office. You can register for these through COOL. There are open appointment slots now and more will be opened up as students need them.
   
4. If the scheduled career coaching appointments do not fit with your needs, the send Russell Garrett (me) an email at dapcaeersupport@sauder.ubc.ca and request a random appointment time and a mutually beneficial time will be set up to meet your career need.
   
5. Reach out to your Career Consultant, Russell Garrett through email with any questions you might have about your career plan and strategies. If your questions requires more that just a simple response Russell will recommend an appointment.
   
6. Plan to attend the Career Workshop Series. This seven workshop series will cover everything from career planning to signing an employment offer and everything in between. Learning these strategies will prepare you for your next career move and any subsequent career moves that follow.

So, if you feel like you have a symptoms that might indicate that your career health has the sniffles or is truly sick, then reach out for an appointment. It would be my pleasure to take your career pulse and begin prescribing what is best for your career to get and stay healthy.

Best,

Russell

Russell Garrett is the Owner of Protocol Business Solutions, a Certified Career Consultant and your DAP Career Coach. Russell will be delivering workshops for DAP students throughout 2022. For scheduled in-person coaching appointments with Russell, you will be notified of dates through the DAP Student Blog and by email. These in-person 30 minute appointments will be found in COOL where you can register for the time slot that suits you best. Simply search using “Garrett” to find open slots. Russell is also available to DAP students for random online coaching appointments set up through email requests. You can contact Russell at dapcareersupport@sauder.ubc.ca.