What are some of the latest trends and developments in the career development field that you follow?

As a strengths-based career coach during the pandemic, helping people explore new realities and pivot to realistic possibilities that were available was critical. For some this meant changing roles, for others changing companies, but for many it meant changing industries or finding an aspect of your industry that was still available. For example, a commercial airline operations manager pivoted to cargo operations. A private chauffeur pivoted to driver training. A marketing professional in the wedding industry pivoted to Web3. Understanding the changing workplace is a critical skill required of career coaches and that became very evident during and after the pandemic.

I specialize on career coaching and technical skill development for software developers. What I see happening in tech is that many companies use hybrid work as a way to slowly bring back on site work. This is another reason why it’s important to have a clear career map, a career strategy and know your ideal employer you would navigate career quickly.

The first thing that happened when COVID hit us, was that most companies were unprepared. After quick technological adjustments, the challenge became that some Managers were up to the new way of delegating, empowering, and motivating their team members, and others were uncomfortable. The question to ask yourself when evaluating a job or a promotion is what kind of manager will I get and will his management style adapt to my needs for hybrid work?

We all have biases, even if they’re unintentional or they’re favorable biases. However, if we can become more attuned to those biases, we can identify them more easily and stop any potential actions resulting from them. I like to pause every so often and ask, “What assumptions am I making right now?”

The cycle of learning, unlearning, and relearning is at the heart of lifelong learning. As the futurist Alvin Toffler said, the future truly does belong to those who can master this cycle. For example, a marketer who is unable or unwilling to learn how to use disruptive technology such as AI in their work would be like a marketer who refused to adopt social media or digital marketing methods many years ago when the likes of Facebook first came out. It’s impossible to stick to what you know if you want to succeed in today’s ever changing world. We need to be constantly learning, unlearning and relearning for the rest of our lives.

Lifelong learning is not negotiable. Today it is AI and tomorrow it might be something else. Learning agility and continuous learning are two things new age organizations are looking for when hiring or promoting talent. Hence it becomes extremely important to be lifelong learners and be on top if your game.

Career professionals can use technology in many ways and need to be up to date on tools available for job seekers. - Generative AI can help job seekers brainstorm and research careers. - Job search tools can help maintain records, speed up applications, and make follow-up more consistent. - ChatGPT can write sample bullets targeting specific jobs that clients can use as inspiration **not copy into their resume! - AI-enabled tools can help with interview preparation and provide feedback. There are also many tools for managing a private practice more efficiently. We teach clients to be lifelong learners, and integrating these technologies is us doing the same. See a video on AI in hiring and career services https://youtu.be/ArKsrBx8aGc

Many people want to use ChatGPT to write their resumes. A good resume has to be YOUR story that celebrates your achievements. Having AI regurgitate the job listing in different words does nothing. AI can't include that time when something screwed up and you saved the day or that you exceeded a $1.5M sales quota by 21%. It won't prepare you to answer "STAR" interview questions. It's easy for candidates to upload their bad AI resumes. But they're easy to spot. According to Global Village Space, "39% of HR professionals said the use of AI tech during hiring is a dealbreaker." And "AI can make up information and may not accurately reflect a candidate's skills and experience." So, if you can't write it yourself, hire a professional!

The most powerful asset in any career development process is self-awareness. One client realised he needed to focus more on developing relationships with his broader team, which had been neglected. He realised his preference to "hide in a corner and just do my job" would not serve his career opportunities, so with some intentional focus on being more relational and involved, he was able to make a more meaningful contribution to the organisation. This in turn resulted in a promotion within 6 months.

As an unregulated field, coaching offers ease of entry that has allowed many of us (myself included) to start successful businesses and help thousands of people, but that ease of entry is both a blessing and a curse. With no formal certification track or global governing body, coaches are left on their own to determine an approach and to obtain certifications, which means that is a wide variety of skill levels out there in the coaching world. If you're a coach, I encourage you to adopt the ethics and ethos of a larger, more established, reputable association or accrediting body (ICF, PARWCC, CTL, etc), where you have access to your own professional development community as well as accountability, insight, and credibility.