Jeff’s Blog

On October 19^th yourcareerplace.com will be hosting our 14^th event since going live on July 28^th.  As a reminder, past Webinar and Office Hour broadcasts are available to members 24/7 under archived events.  I am extremely excited about our upcoming Webinar, “Moving From Contributor To Leader” because it will be presented by my good friend Howard Lewis.  Howard is not only a wonderful communicator, I know him to be a man that absolutely understands that leadership must be earned and having the authority to manage a team, does not make you a leader!  Howard has joined the yourcareerplace.com team and will be hosting many additional webinars in the future.  Don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter because for those of you seeking to find government jobs, Howard will be hosting a series of Webinars on this topic.  Finally, I am excited to announce that to celebrate Howard’s first Webinar, we are providing a discount coupon that can be used to either attend his Webinar for $10 instead of our normal price of $25 or you may use it for a $25 discount and become a member for one year and attend all our Webinars, past and future.  Join us on October 19^th and you’ll understand why I am so excited to welcome Howard to our team.

September has been a very eventful month.  It began by carefully planning the precautionary steps necessary to protect my family and my home from Hurricane Irma.  Then came four days of moving potted plants, removing patio furniture, shuttering the windows and tying plants too large to move to trees or fence posts. Fortunately, the only casualty of the hurricane was a palm tree and all seemed well.  Tired from a couple of sleepless nights, I set out to resume normal activities.  Before noon that next day, I managed to total my beloved CT 200 Lexus.

Miraculously, no one was hurt and the financial hit was zero dollars.  I had taken out gap insurance to cover such an event.  In both cases planning kept me safe and secure.  This same attention to detail and plan development will make the difference between a career that just happens to you or a career that provides satisfaction and financial growth.  Take advantage of the wonderful yourcareerplace.com webinars archived or scheduled to help develop your plans.

It’s been almost a month since yourcareerplace.com went live and we opened our site to the public.  Since our introduction Elizabeth Lions, Pat Cross and I have all hosted Career Training Webinars and Pat hosted our first Office Hours.  What’s even better than that, is that all of our webinar and office hour events are archived on our site and can be viewed at any time by our members.   If you miss a webinar or simply want to experience it again, it’s there for you.

Some of you have emailed us and asked exactly what is an Office Hour?  Although this is explained on our site, I thought I might answer this question on my next blog.  An Office Hour is an opportunity for our members to get specific questions answered about what was presented at the host’s recent webinar. It’s an opportunity for one on one counseling with one of our professional career coaches or financial consultants.  It’s also a great opportunity to get questions answered that you didn’t think of asking, but glad someone else did.  For one low annual fee, about the cost of two cups of coffee at Starbucks a month, you can join us for our next webinar on August 17th, “Ten Interview Questions You Should Be Prepared to Answer and Five You Should be Prepared to Ask,” hosted by Pat Cross.

Many of us entered 2017 hoping that this year would bring about positive changes in the way we manage both our careers and our finances.  The year is more than halfway over and for many of us, things are still the same.  Perhaps our careers have stagnated and the Company we are engaged with, no longer presents an opportunity for growth.  Perhaps we find ourselves living someone else’s dream and believe it’s time for major changes.  Some of us are reflecting on 2016 and are disappointed that we failed to save any money and the retirement plan we intended to start is still just a plan.  At yourcareerplace.com, we want to become your partner and the place you come to seek the answers for those difficult decisions and challenges. Through my weekly blog posts, I will share knowledge gained through many years of experience both as an executive and a career coach, I will also seek to bring you options and opinions that could make a real difference in your success story.  In this quickly changing world, business as usual doesn’t work anymore.  Job seekers must learn to use technology effectively and those with jobs must learn how to stay relevant.  All of us must learn how to better manage our money and our time.  I look forward to sharing my thoughts and ideas with you and hearing from you about topics you’d like me to discuss.  On Friday August 4^th, I will be hosting my 1^st Webinar, “Developing a Resume Strategy.” Developing the ability to write compelling resumes may be a great place to start making those changes.

I have enjoyed a long career in the technology space.  My experience includes serving in Vice President roles with seven different semiconductor companies before founding my first startup.  I have been blessed to have enjoyed my chosen career, and have become passionate about sharing what I have learned with others.  At Yourcareerplace.com, I have been joined by a team of seasoned professionals to create a web community THAT CAN MAKE A REAL IMPACT on helping our members traverse the challenges of their chosen careers.  We will not only teach you how to find a job, we’ll be your resource to help you deal with the issues and decisions that can become inflection points for your career and life.  Some of these issues will have financial impact and therefore we believe it is also important to provide support that enables you to better manage your finances to prepare for whatever challenges you face and eventually become able to comfortably retire.  In future blogs, it is my intention to educate, motive and sometimes challenge you.  I look forward to a long and successful relationship that will give you both confidence and a competitive edge.