|
Tip of the Week | Blog | Upcoming Events | What's New | About | Subscription
Welcome to the Green Career Tip of the Week
|
|
Online Version of this Issue Green Career Tips Archive
While on your Green Career search, you are likely to experience a few disconnects along the way. Don't give up! In this week's tip I'll show you how you can use a creative process to discover solutions for the dilemmas you are experiencing. I've also included a link to a simple worksheet members can use to walk you through this process. It can be fun and effective!
We added another new industry profile for you this week. Check out What's New at GreenCareerCentral.com.
Tip of the Week: Four Steps to Solving Your Green Career Dilemma
When you are looking for a new career, it’s possible that all the pieces will fall into place. After discovering what you want to do, you meet the people you need to meet, and you find the opening that’s a perfect fit for you and your needs.
What’s more likely to happen is that you’ll run into a few disconnects in your search.
- You can’t find a local company for your career focus
- You can’t find an opening that’s a good match
- The opening you find won’t pay what you need
- The opening you find requires education or experience you don’t have
- The opening you find doesn’t utilize all of your skills and interests
- The opening you find means you’ll have a difficult commute
Although you might think that these disconnects mean it will be impossible to reach your green dream, don’t give up quite yet. With some creative thinking and brainstorming, you may find a solution that resolves the dilemmas you are encountering.
You can use this creative process for dilemmas you are facing in:
-
The research and networking phase [how to do informational interviews when you work full time]
- Ways to get green experience [how to get the experience companies require to get hired]
- Your work environment [how to commute in a way that works for you]
- Your career direction [how to focus your interests in a way that earns the income you want]
Four Steps to Find a Creative Solution to Your Dilemma
1) Describe the disconnect you are facing.
Begin by making some notes about what’s not working for you. Then create a concise description of your dilemma.
Example: To work in the green industry of my choice, my commute is likely to be a stress-filled, three hour round trip. I’ll arrive home exhausted and I don’t like the greenhouse gases my commute will create.
2) Describe the essence of what you want.
Rather than focus on the specifics of your situation and what’s not working, think about the essence of what you want. What is it you truly want in your career? How do you want to feel in your career? What impact do you want to have with your career? What’s your greatest truth about your career? (If your issues are about your work environment, use your essence statement to describe the essence of the work environment you want to have.)
Example: I want to work in a green job that allows me to have a green commute.
3) Brainstorm new possibilities.
Now keep your focus on the essence of what you want. (Let go of the specifics of your situation that aren’t working.) Brainstorm ways you can bring your ideal essence to life in your life. Think expansively. Dream big. Imagine all your ideas are possible. Don’t evaluate your ideas at this point, just get your ideas down on paper.
If you have a supportive friend, ask them to help you brainstorm. Don’t let them evaluate your ideas either.
Example: Buy a hybrid, telecommute, work close to home, work at home, find a office hotelling situation, carpool with a neighbor, ask your company to set up a shuttle from your neighborhood, research green industries in my home town or online, identify existing local companies that could benefit by going green, explore starting my own green home-based business.
4) Develop creative solutions.
Review your list of brainstormed ideas. What elements of your list give you hope? What aspects of your list give you a new way to look at your situation? Are there any ideas you can combine to create an even better solution? Add any additional ideas that come to you.
Remember, for this creative process to work, you must stay focused on the essence of what you want to create for yourself. If you keep getting sucked back into thinking about the specifics of what isn’t working, you’ll want to take a break or ask a supportive friend to help you see beyond your limited thinking.
You may want to identify a short-term solution that you can act on immediately and a longer term solution that you can implement over time.
Example: Short-term – look at options that allow me to ride to work with others.
Longer term – find a green job option close to home or create one.
In the next two newsletters, I’ll share additional tactics to help you when your dilemma seems insurmountable.
In the meantime, experiment with this creative process. This same process can be used for any dilemma you experience. I recommend you begin with a dilemma that is
not quite as life changing as your entire career. Think about a dilemma you are experiencing in your research or in building your network.
If you are a member: Use our simple worksheet to help you with this creative process: Downloadable File
Copyright © 2008 Transition Dynamics Enterprises, Inc.
.
"I've got my green niche! The brainstorming sessions in this eBook are a great tool for capturing my random thoughts and actually organizing them into cohesive career paths. Amazing! Thank you Carol!" --Taj
|
Are You Searching for Your Green Niche?
You know you want a green career, but do you know what you want to do in the green economy?
The key to discovering your green niche is pinpointing how to leverage your skills, passions, talents and experience to plug into the green economy.
When you know what part of the economy you want to target, you’ll have an entirely new level of clarity. With that new clarity, your current level of overwhelm and confusion will decrease.
The What’s Your Green Niche eBook eBook takes you through a step-by-step process to determine your green niche. Here's a list of some of the things you'll gain as you work through this eBook. You'll:
- Create your personal definition of success.
- Discover how you know what you are drawn to.
- Develop a list of your 40 favorite skills and interests with the help of checklists.
- Brainstorm over 40 career ideas based on your favorite skills and interests in an hour or so.
- Narrow your career ideas to your top two ideas.
- Develop a plan to achieve your green career goals whether you want to return to school, launch your job search, or start your business.
Members - Download (part of membership)
Non-Members - $55.00
|
Green Career Central Blog:
Check out all the recent postings on the Green Career Central Blog.
Read the posts and add your comments
Membership Has Its Advantages!
The discussion forum topic, audios, ebook, and articles listed below are available to members of GreenCareerCentral.com as a part of their membership. If you're not a member and would like to have immediate access, we'd love to have you join us now!
Green Career Central is a membership site with a comprehensive set of easy-to-use programs, resources, and events to help people achieve their green career dreams whether they want to find a green job, start a green business, or get a green education.
  
"This is likely the only site of its kind on the Internet. A lot of thought and care have been put into it. Thanks to the exercises in Step 1, I'm finally able to articulate what I'm passionate about and how I want to use my passion in the world. Thank you so much." -AM, California
.
|
|
This Week's Drawing for a
30-Day Trial Membership: klcartwright
If this is the beginning of your email address, contact us with a subject line of "Trial Membership" and we'll tell you how to get signed up for your 30-day trial membership to GreenCareerCentral.com. You must reply within 2 weeks of the date of this newsletter.
Current Members...you didn't think we'd leave you out, did you? If you see the beginning of your email address, we'll add one more month to your membership.
|
What's New at GreenCareerCentral.com
New Industry Profile:
Green Policy and Direction actually covers several paths; Advocacy, Activism, Regulations, Legislation, and Lobbying. These terms often overlap, so that lobbying is included when speaking of activism, advocacy frequently covers lobbying and activism, and so on.
Check out our latest Industry Profile - Green Policy and Direction.
Cool Green Career Interviews
One of the best ways to learn what's possible in the Green Economy is to hear from people who have green careers.
Listen to interviews with our Green Career Experts
Articles
Thinking of owning your own green business or greening a business you already own?
Check out the articles to help you Go Green!
Did You Know...
...if you missed a Tip of the Week, you can read the archived publications?
Green Career Tips Archive
About Us
|
|
Green Career CentralTM is a membership site for people who want to transform their passion for the environment into a prosperous green career.
Carol McClelland, PhD, founder and managing editor of this site, has helped thousands of people discover their dream career through her book Your Dream Career For Dummies and her work with individuals, groups, and students. Together with her team of experts, researchers and writers, Carol has pulled together sixteen years of experience into a broad collection of how-to articles, resources, support, and teleclasses to help you find your way to make a difference and prosper.
Why not have the green career you've been dreaming of? You can struggle on your own or gain support throughout your journey. The decision is obvious ... Join Us Now! |
Copyright (c) 2007-2008. Transition Dynamics Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Green Career CentralTM is a trademark of Transition Dynamics Enterprises, Inc
PO Box 354, Menlo Park, CA 94026
650 322 8661 | Contact
Subscriber Information
|
