Career and Pursuits - Experts and Resources

Burning Down the Barriers to Success Post-Divorce

Posted to by Cathy Meyer on Sun, 01/20/2013 - 11:15am

Do you ever ignore an opportunity? Or, worse yet, make excuses that keep you from facing fears that can come with an opportunity? I had an opportunity stare me right in the face last week and I found myself making excuses, backing away from it as if it were a threat instead of a gift.

We all have our list of excuses. I work with clients regularly who can instantly recite from their list of excuses. The list typically sounds something like this:

"Oh, I can't do that, I need to lose 20 pounds first."

"I'm too shy, I could never speak in front of a group that large."

"I don't have the money, time, energy, education...yada, yada, yada."

One thing I have found to be true is that people who have a long list of excuses rarely have anything else.

The gloomiest times in my life were the times that I let my list of excuses take over. I thought it was easier to say "I can't do this, that or the other thing" instead of taking responsibility for my quality of life. The longer I allowed myself to use my list of excuses, the more dismal my life would become.

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How to Pay for Your Education After Divorce

Posted to by First Wives World on Sat, 11/17/2012 - 8:30am

We've received letters from divorced women asking how best to go about paying for their education in order to become better positioned for new career opportunities. This is a question that many divorced women face when they are re-entering the workplace.

Common solutions:

The obvious solution is to borrow money to pay for tuition and related expenses. Most colleges and universities have a financial aid office prepared to provide students (and prospective students) with information about local, regional and national programs.

Some programs are available to students regardless of the school they attend, others are school-specific, and some are specific to a particular discipline. The financial aid office can help you navigate.

A word to the wise about borrowing: Remember that borrowed money must be repaid, so borrow wisely and spend carefully only for the purpose intended. Even though student loans are often at low interest rates and can be repaid over the longterm, interest accumulates over time and can greatly increase the amount borrowers owe.

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Top 3 Career Moves for the Just-Divorced

Work It!

Posted to by Joan Schramm on Thu, 09/27/2012 - 8:14am

A job search can be intimidating for even the most confident person. It's all the more daunting after an emotional set back like divorce.

Perhaps you want to start a whole new life direction for yourself. Or maybe you're re-entering the job market after a long absence.

Are your skills current? How you will handle an interview? How you will measure up against other job-seekers? Here's how to brush yourself off and make your job search pay off:

1. Fill in the blanks. Is there a gap in your resume staring you in the face? Find a way to fill it. Even if you weren't working outside the home, you still developed and maintained many skills that translate to the workplace. Present them in a way that shows off your strengths and demonstrates that you're qualified to handle ANYTHING that comes your way. Chances you did something that called for business skills. Did you:

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Why You Need a Life Plan

Map out your goals after divorce for success

Posted to by Cathy Meyer on Fri, 09/14/2012 - 8:54am

Do you have a life plan? If not, why not? Especially after a divorce, women should have their future goals and aspirations clearly mapped out and organized.

If you think you're too busy to sit down and create your own life plan, consider the following:

In a 1953 study conducted at Yale University, students in the graduating class were interviewed and asked whether they had a life plan, with a set of written goals. Less than 3% had a clear plan of action and written goals. Twenty years later, researchers re-interviewed the students. The 3% that had written goals had a net worth greater than the other 97% combined! As well, the 3% reported a higher level of life satisfaction than their counterparts who had no action plan or written goals.

A higher level of life satisfaction seems like a good reason to finally sit down and come up with a life plan, don't you think? It isn't difficult, but it will require some time and effort on your part. You will need to mark off a time slot in your busy schedule.

Supply yourself with a favorite pen, some paper or a journal and then follow these helpful steps:

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Don't Allow Your Divorce to Interfere With Work

5 important professional mistakes to avoid

Posted to by Lee Miller on Thu, 08/30/2012 - 7:56am

Getting your career back on track after going through a divorce is not easy, particularly if you have been out of the workforce for some period of time. Because it's an emotional time, recent divorcees are often not in the best position to make the right decisions.

Too often, due to fear or financial exigencies, or simply because they are relying on bad advice, divorcees fail to take the right steps to get back on track and simply take the first job that they find. The labor market is very open to women returning to the workforce after time off.

A recent survey by the Center for Work/Life Policy found that of women with college degrees, 74% who took time off to raise families were able to return to work when they decided to go back. The key is to know how to go about it.

Here are some common mistakes that women make regarding their careers when they are going through a divorce:

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5 Tips to Successful Independence After Divorce

Why you need to learn to say NO more often

Posted to by Naomi Dunne on Tue, 07/03/2012 - 3:37am

If you're anything like every other working divorced mother on the planet, you have too much on your plate.

You also have a really, really hard time saying no.

For a while after a divorce, when we have nothing better to do or we're trying to make friends or build our career, being asked to do things for other people makes us feel needed and wanted. It's wonderful to feel like you're an important part of other people's lives. Eventually, though, it gets tiring. Eventually, you've said yes too many times, leaving you focussed on anything but regaining control of your life after your divorce.

Eventually, you need to stop.

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3 Steps for Maximizing Your Time Post-Divorce

Treat your time like your money

Posted to by Naomi Dunne on Thu, 04/12/2012 - 8:33am

Being a single mom can be tough. Working from home can be tough, too. Being a single work-at-home mom? Don't even get me started.

Everyone says they need more time... but you? You really need more time. Here are some tips for getting a few extra hours in your day:

1. Do a time audit

Each one of us has a bunch of really useless things we do that take our time without giving us anything in return. Figure out what your time suckers are. Do you watch Friends reruns? Hang out on Instant Messenger? Read gossip magazines when you should be catching up on sleep? Like buying unnecessary lattes or inappropriate shoes, engaging in these kind of activities is a drain of resources already in short supply.

2. Slash the offending activities

Once you know what you're wasting your time on, you can start thinking about what to cut. This isn't a scheme to get you to cut everything fun out of your life — on the contrary. You need to slash the things that are not fun, but are not critical either. If you don't actively need to do it and you don't actively want to do it, stop doing it.

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