Change can be hard but SO worth it

December 9, 2021December 14, 2021 tessaarmstrong.co.uk Career Change, Career Coaching, Coaching, fear of failure, job search, new job, Performance at work, Redundancy, Returning to Work, Uncategorized, work-life balance Career Change, careercoaching

Have you read Who moved my Cheese? by Dr Spencer Johnson? If you haven’t, read it now! If you have, read it again!

It’s a great book about making changes (and it is not very long). I read it about 15 years ago and have just read it again with a younger generation. It appeals to all ages, that’s the magic. It is a fun and imaginative story about mice, cheese and a maze with a serious message about how you can look for what you want in life to make you happy. The perfect balance for all!

When I was reading it, it made me think about all the changes I have made in my life, particularly in developing my career, as well as ones I am thinking of making in the future. It also made me think about the mixture of emotions that can accompany change such as feeling excited, daunted, worried and happy.

My experience of change may be very different to your experiences of change. However, what we all have in common is that we all experience it. Change is happening all the time in the world, within our own environments, to people around us and within us. It can be simple. It can be complicated.

No matter who you are or how old you are, we all experience change in our lives and cope with it in different ways. Sometimes we know what to do to adapt to or make a change, but sometimes we have no idea where to start and that can be tough. You might know that a change is needed but just can’t see how to make that first step towards making it or perhaps you don’t even know what change you need. You may be experiencing job loss, wanting a career change or perhaps something else has happened in your life that requires you to rethink your career.

Whatever your circumstances, when considering making a change think of it as changing traffic lights.

Stop!
- Think about you first. What do you want? What will make you happy? What part of the change are you alone responsible for? This is the part that you can control.
- Relax and enjoy imagining what life will be like if you made the change. This is the part that will make you feel excited and motivated.
Get ready!
- Think about who else will be involved or impacted by the change? How will it affect them?
- How does the change fit in within the world around you?
Go for it!
- Take action and start taking some steps towards the change you want to make.
- Seek help as necessary.

Making the first step towards change can be so worth it.

Is it time to move away from the typical career path? Have a read about how I did it!

May 24, 2021May 24, 2021 tessaarmstrong.co.uk Career Change, Career Coaching, Coaching, job search, Lawyers and Solicitors, new job, Returning to Work, Well-being Career Change, careercoaching, job search, Lawyers

I was asked recently about the typical career path of a career coach and how my career path took me into this line of work. I think those who asked me were a little surprised by my response!

My answer to the first question is that there isn’t one. Career paths and expectations are different for everyone. The risk is that as soon as we define career paths as ‘typical’ we inevitably start to move away from our own paths and what we want to the expectations and requirements of someone else’s path (and who says they are typical!).

My answer to the second question is about to follow. As you will read, my career path is certainly not typical!

I did a music degree.
Following my degree, I studied and trained to be a lawyer and worked as family law solicitor for a few years.
I then decided to take a career break to give myself time to piece together what I wanted to do in my career as I felt there was something else. I really wanted some of my work to eventually include working with children.
During this time, I gained experience working with children as a teaching assistant as well as on other voluntary projects and completed Place2Be’s Foundation Certificate in Counselling Skills for Working with children.
Following my career break, I secured a job working as a Major Gifts Officer for Macmillan Cancer Support.
During my time at Macmillan Cancer Support, I came across the idea of career coaching through various conversations with people and the penny dropped.
I have now been a career and performance coach for over 10 years helping individuals gain confidence to achieve the best careers for them, perform well within their careers and overcome both emotional and practical difficulties. 50% of my work is with lawyers and 50% is with individuals from all professions.
While building my business, I also continued to work with children on a voluntary basis in different ways and study.
A few years ago, My Space 4 Me was created which is a part of my coaching business providing confidence coaching to primary school children to start linking my interests in psychology, counselling, education and children.
…and then in 2020, I set up and co-founded Voices for Life, a very exciting charity to inspire children to be happy and confident through music.

My path has had its ups and downs and it has sometimes been challenging working out next steps but it has been so exciting when things have come together. Some of the steps I have taken may have appeared unexpected to others but they all slot together. My music has come back into my career, my skills as a lawyer helped me to set up my business and the charity and my experience of fundraising is proving to be quite useful too! I am also using my coaching skills which include still working with lawyers.

For this all to happen, I had to create my own expectations and career path which is what I now help adults to do as well as preparing young people and children to be able to do the same.

I love seeing others become excited about what they can achieve as they create visions of what they want and move forward step by step towards these visions. It is so important to manage your own expectations and career path in line with what you want, not the ones you think are typical, and go for it.

Why this is the best time to review your career

March 19, 2021March 19, 2021 tessaarmstrong.co.uk Career Change, Career Coaching, Coronavirus, new job, Performance at work, Uncategorized, Well-being, work-life balance Career Change, careercoaching, Well-being, work-life balance

As we approach the milestone of it being a year since we first went into lockdown, I reflect in this video on my thoughts about how a shift in thinking this year has prompted many to review what makes them happy and how the re-evaluation of career choices is becoming a large part of this review.

On the day we, in the UK, are ranked as the 18th happiest country, this video and blog seems highly appropriate! This video is all about what success and happiness means to you and what will make you smile at the end of the day and say ‘yes, that was a good day’.

Preparing for changes in your career in a post-coronavirus world

July 27, 2020July 27, 2020 tessaarmstrong.co.uk Career Change, Career Coaching, Coronavirus, fear of failure, job search, new job, Redundancy, Returning to Work, Uncategorized, Well-being, work-life balance Career Change, Coaching, fear of failure, job search, new job, Redundancy, Returning to Work, work-life balance

“The measure of intelligence is the ability to change”

(Albert Einstein)

We are all now starting to look to the future in a post-coronavirus world. Some of you may already be putting plans in place for your careers, others may still consider it too early to make any decisions or are unsure what to do next. How do you prepare to make changes in your career in a post-coronavirus world?

I am finding that career change, flexible working and wellbeing are some of the main areas of change being reviewed by individuals at the moment as they consider the future of their working lives. These are the areas that are often considered when deciding on best-suited career paths.

Career Change

According to recent research by the Adecco Group UK and Ireland, 29% of the UK’s workforce is considering a significant career change. One of the reasons being that many individuals (nearly one in five) felt they were not being treated well by their employer during the pandemic. There are also many people who, before the time of coronavirus were considering a career change, and still want to pursue this.

Flexible Working

Working patterns have changed over the last few months allowing for more flexibility and working from home arrangements. This has prompted thoughts on how our working lives can benefit from this flexibility. Is there more scope for portfolio careers? Can our working lives work around our family and home life in a more beneficial manner?

Wellbeing

In recent months, we have also had lots of time to think about our wellbeing. Spending more time at home has enabled us to spend time discovering what really makes us happy and feel good about ourselves. There will be changes many individuals will want to make to their lives now and in the future.

Since March, I have published a series of blogs, articles, and videos to assist you in navigating the impact coronavirus is having on the world of jobs and careers. These are all summarised below – I hope they will be helpful for you as you start to make decisions about what the future holds for your career as we emerge from the affects coronavirus has had on our lives.

BLOGS

Looking after your career in the time of Coronavirus

This blog was written at the beginning of lockdown to help those worried about their future.

5 ways to get out of lockdown lethargy

To help you manage any uncertainty in your life and career.

Coronavirus and careers – what happens next?

Helping you to navigate the impact coronavirus has on your career.

Making career decisions in uncertain times

Some useful thoughts and ideas on how we start making decisions about our future careers when everything appears so uncertain.

How do we develop ways to get through the hard times in our careers?

Find out how to make career changes during tough times to enable you to move forward happily in your career.

CVs that stand out – this will make you smile!

Just for a bit of fun! Have you ever thought of presenting your CV in the form of a cereal box? Discover some fun and creative examples of CV writing to make you stand out from the crowd.

ARTICLES

How to adapt to uncertain times to find the career you love

VIDEOS

Making career decisions in uncertain times

Building your confidence for a career change

MY BOOK

‘The Tea Model: Slowing down in a fast-paced world to find the career you love’

My book provides a structured process to help you move forward in your career. I had had over 700 downloads over lockdown so I’m hoping it is currently helping lots of individuals with their careers!

Whatever your circumstances, this may be the right time for change no matter how big or small. If you need some assistance do have a look at my website where you can browse through lots of free career resources.

CVs that stand out – this will make you smile!

July 1, 2020July 1, 2020 tessaarmstrong.co.uk Career Change, Career Coaching, job search, new job, Redundancy, Returning to Work, Uncategorized Career Change, Coaching, job search, new job, Redundancy, Returning to Work

Have you ever thought of presenting your CV in the form of a cereal box? One person did, have a look here.

As we pass the 100^th day of lockdown, I thought I would take a more light-hearted approach to my blog writing and provide you with some fun and creative examples of CV writing that made applicants stand out from the crowd.

CVs, on average, are looked at by recruiters for about 7 seconds. With this in mind, have a look at these examples and see what you think. What was your first impression? Would you give the applicant an interview? As you will see, it’s all about tailoring your job application to the potential employer.

Social Media Executive, Wagamama – A fantastic lockdown example using social media to gain an interview having missed the deadline.

Just over a week ago, a final year university student wanted to apply for a role as a Social Media Executive at Wagamama. Having creatively prepared her CV, she went to upload it and was devastated to discover that applications were closed. Instead, she posted it on LinkedIn for all to see – have a look at it here – she has created it in the style of a Wagamama menu.

Following her post on LinkedIn she was offered an interview despite missing the deadline.

Google – The CV that got this man a job at Google

This man cleverly tailored his CV to replicate a Google search results page and was offered the job! Have a look at it here.

Facebook – The CV that replicates a Facebook profile

This lady didn’t get the job due to a hiring freeze but the director of the company shared her CV because of its brilliance. Have a look at it here.

Although these might seem extreme, consider how well they tailored their CV to the employer. It is so important to stand out from the crowd and link your job application to the job you are applying for. For many jobs, flexibility and using the right tool is key when making applications. Sometimes moving away from the standard 2-page Word document might be just the answer to landing your ideal job.

Coronavirus and careers – what happens next?

May 29, 2020May 30, 2020 tessaarmstrong.co.uk Career Change, Career Coaching, Coronavirus, job search, new job, Redundancy, Returning to Work, Uncategorized, Well-being, work-life balance Career Change, careercoaching, job search, new job, Redundancy, Returning to Work, Stress, unhappy at work, work-life balance

2020 has brought an unexpected change to all our lives, a change that will be with us for the foreseeable future and remember forever. The cause was the rapid spread of the coronavirus outbreak which, on 11^th March, was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation.

Stress, confusion, and uncertainty started to fill our lives as we faced an uncertain time of illness, loss of income, job insecurity, isolation and change to all aspects of our daily lives.

Schools, shops, restaurants and many businesses closed and working from home systems and methods of online learning were quickly put in place. Parents became teachers, individuals were furloughed, the risk of future redundancy increased for many, some experienced big pay cuts and others were categorised in the newly evolving definition of the ‘Keyworker’.

Home took on a different meaning in our lives becoming our place of work, our children’s school and our place of relaxation. We couldn’t see friends or family and relied on video calls for contact with the outside world. We couldn’t go on outings and had to create our own home entertainment.

Whatever your circumstances, we have all been affected by Covid-19 in some shape or form and are all reacting to the unpredictable disruption to our lives in our own way.

Will life go back to the normal we used to know, or have we now got to get used to the inevitable ‘new normal’ that will lead us into 2021 and beyond?

The questions now facing us are profound:

How do we develop ways to get through the hard times?
When can we start making decisions again about our future?
How will the way we spend our time and energy change?
Will there be an escalation in working from home?
What will our commutes to work look like in the future and will we reconsider long distance travel for meetings?
Is this the time to be reinventing our lives and our careers considering options such as a career change?
Will people consider portfolio careers as a safer option against aligning themselves to a single employer?

Over the next few months, I will be publishing a series of blogs to help you start piecing together the answers to these questions. I admit I do not know all the answers, if only I did! However, what I can provide is help based on my many years of experience in career, confidence and performance coaching combined with what I am currently witnessing in the world of careers. As we continue to face disruption in our personal and working lives, I hope I will be able to provide you with some consistency, calmness, and support to help reduce anxiety and stress, raise positivity and encourage aspirations, enabling you to discover ways to move forward happily and confidently into your ‘new normal’.

In the meantime, think about the best next step for you to take that will help you adapt to any concerns you currently face, focusing on the things that are in your control now as you start to gradually see and experience the world outside your home again. Start reintroducing feasible aspects of your life that you enjoyed before and can enjoy again, no matter how small. It may be a walk with a friend or trip beyond your home and surrounding area. Think of new ways to look after yourself.

Lockdown can be an opportunity for us all to reset, rethink and re-establish our lives as we emerge into the new world of careers.

Looking after your career in the time of Coronavirus

April 13, 2020April 21, 2020 tessaarmstrong.co.uk Career Change, Coaching, job search, new job, Redundancy, Returning to Work, Uncategorized, work-life balance Career Change, careercoaching, Coaching, fear of failure, job search, Lawyers, new job, Perfectionism, Redundancy, Returning to Work, Stress, unhappy at work, work-life balance

We have recently entered a really uncertain time in our lives. It has been a really worrying and emotional time for many, all for many different reasons but with the same underlying cause – Coronavirus. We have our inspirational NHS workers, carers and other key workers working around the clock to help provide and care for those affected. There are also those who are quietly at home not knowing what to do and wondering what’s going to happen.

Many of these individuals are wondering what’s going to happen in their working lives. They may be on furlough, facing possible redundancy when we come out the other side, reassessing their values in life or thinking it is now time to follow their dreams and do something different but unsure how to go about such career changes.

For five days at the beginning of lock down, I gave away my eBook, ‘The Tea Model: Slowing down in a fast-paced world to find the career you love’ for free and had over 700 downloads. This tells me there are many people worried and anxious about their future careers.

If you are feeling worried or anxious, that’s okay. You are allowed to feel this way. Things are tricky at the moment. All I want to say is once you feel ready, I really hope you can use my career resources and coaching experience to help you move forward:

My website has lots of free career resources and videos for you to browse through at your leisure.
I have written lots of articles on my blog. Make yourself a cup of tea and have a read.
Read some of the Inspirational Career Change Interviews on my website. These are true stories from individuals who made successful steps towards building satisfying and fulfilling careers. They have kindly shared their stories to inspire you if you are struggling with your career. They want to reassure you that you can find a career you love.
If you haven’t already done so, grab a copy of my book ‘The Tea Model: Slowing down in a fast-paced world to find the career you love’. My book provides a structured process for planning your career. It includes career coaching exercises to help you discover and pursue a satisfying and fulfilling career.
Contact me for a free career coaching consultation. We can have an informal chat about how career coaching can help you.

I have 10 years experience of coaching and have won awards for my services, including most recently ‘Recognised Leader in Career Coaching Services UK, 2020’ by CV Magazine. If you want to hear more, have a read below about what one of my fantastic clients said about career coaching.

‘My career was not moving in a positive direction, and I had been feeling unhappy after two redundancies I experienced in less than one year. And whilst the redundancies were out of my control, they were a further negative impact on advancing my career, so thought that career coaching would help me see things more clearly.

Working with Tessa was far more than I thought it would be. I am still a work in progress, but she helped me see some underlying patterns of thinking that were having a negative impact on my moving forward. She also provided me with a systematic process of looking at career options and how to move forward to achieve them. I have found a new role with a great company and I am studying in order to bring about the change I want to see in my career. I also feel more confident that I can better handle any bumps in the road…and there are always bumps in the road!‘

Kate G, April 2019

It’s okay to feel stuck, it’s okay to feel anxious, it’s okay to feel uncertain. If you have no idea what to do, that’s okay too…..I have been there too (read about my career change journey here). A little bit of guidance (or a lot of guidance!) may be just the thing you need to help you move forward and start making positive changes as we navigate these uncertain times together.

The secret to finding happiness in your career

February 4, 2020February 4, 2020 tessaarmstrong.co.uk Career Change, fear of failure, job search, new job, Performance at work, Redundancy, Returning to Work, Uncategorized, work-life balance Career Change, Coaching, job search, new job, Redundancy, Returning to Work, unhappy at work, work-life balance

Success does not make you happy, happiness makes you successful.

Success does not make you happy

How happy are you on a scale of 1 – 10?

If your score isn’t 9 or 10, I wonder what is happening in your life right now. You may not be enjoying your job, you may have no idea about your future career path, you may be questioning whether you have the right skills for a career change, or you may be fed up with working long hours.

What would make your score a 10?

We often hear people say,

“I will be happy when I have a job I love.” “I will be happy when I get a good grade in my exams.” “I will be happy when I can afford a new house.”

It is so often the case that we postpone our happiness until a successful event has happened in the future. Once this event has happened, you have a new job or new house, it is mission accomplished and you shoot to the top of the happiness scale. Your success has made you happy…or has it?

It is indeed very common for people to think that their happiness is dependent on a successful event happening in the future. However, the problem with this dependency is that these individuals postpone their improved happiness and become focused on what is currently making them unhappy, rather than what can make them happy now. They focus on the jobs they don’t want. They talk about the skills they don’t have. They complain about the long hours they are working. There are so many things in our lives that can make us unhappy and it can be so easy to focus on them while we wait for a future success. However, this is what can make us feel miserable and we may be waiting a very long time to be happy.

…but if the future success actually happens, I will then be happy so that’s okay, isn’t it?

Unfortunately, the happiness we get from success will only provide us with short-term increased happiness. Think about it. When you passed your driving test, you were really happy but are you still feeling the same level of happiness now from that event? You will probably find that once you passed your test, the happiness from this success gradually wore off. You got used to being able to drive independently and it became normal for you. What now is going to make you happy? Do you wait for your next success? When will this be? How long will you be waiting for? You enter the happiness waiting game again.

Happiness makes you successful

The good news is that happiness is not dependent on the end result, it is not dependent on success. In fact, it is the other way around. Happiness makes you successful and so if you are happy during the journey to the success you increase your chances of being successful – a win-win situation!

What can you do now to make yourself happy and increase your chances of finding the job you love?

Based on research carried out by Positive Psychologist, Prof Sonia Lyubomirsky,

50% of happiness is determined by your genes.

10% of happiness is determined by the circumstances in which you live.

40% of happiness is determined by your actions, your attitude and what we do on a daily basis.

This is great news! You have a whole 40% to play around with to make you happy and increase your chances of being successful in finding a job you love. Use this 40% to start considering the following steps and make changes in your life to make you happy right now.

Focus on what is right, building on the skills and positive attributes you already have.
Discover what gives you meaning and pleasure in life. What are your passions?
Take part in activities that fully engage you.

These steps will raise your score on the happiness scale and increase your chances of being successful in finding an amazing job.

The Tea Model

Steps 1 – 3 above forms the basis to Stage 1, ‘Time To Think’, of my Tea Model Career Coaching Programme. Stage 1 ultimately helps you to be happy and motivated as you work towards finding a job you love by considering enjoyable activities you can do now to improve your well-being as well as enhancing your appreciation of your skills, interests, knowledge and values.

This is not about waiting to be happy, it is about focusing on the positive and taking part in activities you enjoy to enable you to overcome current challenges, raise your happiness score and give you the best chance of success in finding a job you love.

Don’t wait for happiness to happen to you…Do things now that will make you happy.

Happy people are successful

Tessa Armstrong’s Career Change Journey

January 7, 2020 tessaarmstrong.co.uk Career Change, Coaching, job search, Lawyers and Solicitors, new job, Redundancy, Returning to Work, Uncategorized, work-life balance Career Change, careercoaching, Coaching, job search, Lawyers, new job, Redundancy, Returning to Work, work-life balance

I want to let you all know that I have been there too!

Many people ask me about my career and what led me to running my career coaching business and so my blog this month is all about my own career change journey.

I want to let you know that I have been there too! I have spent time wondering about and imagining a career I would really enjoy and I have spent time planning and developing this career. It is these experiences that have enabled me to build a career coaching programme with a lot of understanding behind it of what people go through in their careers and how they can create a fulfilling career.

From the beginning…

Many of you may not know this, but I actually did a music degree at Birmingham University. I chose music because it is a subject I am very passionate about. Whilst studying music, I started to think about my next steps and made the decision for music to become more of a hobby than to provide me with an income. At this point, I started looking into law. I was particularly interested in family law as I wanted to be able to help people resolve issues in their personal lives.

A few years later I did indeed qualify as a solicitor in family law. It was an amazing experience, representing individuals from a range of backgrounds. It was also hard work and you had to learn fast. I will never forget walking into the office one day as a newly qualified and being told I was going to have to go and do a court hearing (alone!).

However, something still wasn’t quite right. After a few years, I was still really wondering what else was out there in the world of work. It fascinated me and I knew I had other passions I wanted to explore. I decided to take a career break to allow me time to make these explorations. My plan was to do some voluntary work within the charity sector as well as build more experience of working with children (two areas I am really passionate about). As it happened, within a few weeks of leaving my job, I was offered a job as a teaching assistant for a very good teacher friend of mine which I did at the same time as doing the Place2Be Certificate in Counselling Skills for Working with children. When these came to an end, I managed to secure a major gift fundraising role at Macmillan Cancer Support. I had carried out a lot of research through networking in the charity sector and had previously done some voluntary work abroad and so I already knew a lot about the roles available.

My time at Macmillan was extremely inspiring, working for an organisation which delivers such a fantastic service and with people who are so passionate about the cause. It was also fascinating to work in a place where there are lots of different jobs available within one organisation. Although I missed parts of my role as a family law solicitor, at this point I knew my career was going to take a slightly different direction.

What led me to career coaching?

After making the move from law into a different sector, lots of people started to ask me for career advice and I realised I was really enjoying the process of speaking to them about their own careers. Deep down I’d always wanted to work for myself and so looked into how I could make a career out of giving careers support helping those who are struggling going into work each day. I discovered career coaching and you all know what happened next!

I have now been running my business for 10 years. I coach many solicitors as well as many individuals from other backgrounds and professions.

What about my passions for children and charities?

…and I haven’t forgotten about my other passions…children and the charity sector…

My passion for helping children has continued in a voluntary capacity leading me over the last couple of years to designing my primary school confidence coaching programme (My space 4 me) as well as a secondary school careers programme.

As you will no doubt realise, none of this happened overnight. It took time, thinking, experimenting, talking, getting things right and getting things wrong!

My Book

Everything you read in my book (The Tea Model), I have done personally as well as used this programme to coach 100’s of individuals. I have made goals, assessed my skills. I have developed a career vision, overcome that tricky negative mindset. I have explored different options through paid and voluntary work, networked to help me find the answers as well as battled with that work-life balance (which is always a work in progress for everyone!).

I want you to know that carving your own way through the world of careers may take time, but it is possible, and it will be worth it as I can honestly say I love what I do. If you are not enjoying your job, please do use the people around you who have been on a similar journey like me. There are always times in our lives when we need a bit of extra support and that is okay!

It is possible to find a fulfilling and satisfying job for you.

www.tessaarmstrong.co.uk

20 Pieces of Career Advice For You!

December 3, 2019 tessaarmstrong.co.uk Career Change, Coaching, fear of failure, job search, Lawyers and Solicitors, new job, Performance at work, Redundancy, Returning to Work, Uncategorized, work-life balance Career Change, Coaching, fear of failure, job search, Lawyers, new job, Perfectionism, Performance at work, Redundancy, Returning to Work, Stress, unhappy at work, work-life balance

It’s that time of year when I do a round-up of all my articles and blogs for the year. I do this so that when reflecting on your career (as many do over Christmas and New Year) you can quickly scan through this round-up and read what is relevant for you. I hope it is helpful!

I try to cover a range of topics in my articles. This year many of the topics covered are hinting towards what is covered in my newly published book (The Tea Model: Slowing down in a fast-paced world to find the career you love’.)

BLOGS

VIDEOS

ARTICLES

CAREER ADVICE BOOKS

….Did I mention MY NEWLY PUBLISHED BOOK?!

The Tea Model: Slowing down in a fast-paced world to find the career you love

Do get in touch now or in the New Year to tell me your career news (or dilemmas). In the meantime, I wish you a very happy Christmas and a fantastic new year!

Best wishes

Tessa