In January 2025, a publication titled “75+ New Career Change Stats And Graphs”, I found some amazing statistics, but two stood out.

• 78% of workers under 40 have reconsidered their careers since the pandemic.
• Only 14% of US workers are completely happy with their jobs.

How are you feeling about things? Do you have the feeling that you should be getting more out of your job, your career, and your life? It’s obvious from the above statistics that many people feel that way.

What’s the solution? Let me tell you a story. About 10 years ago, when I was enjoying my morning in  Harwichport on Cape Cod. I found myself running down  Snow Lane and came upon the Wymchnere Beach Club with a great big welcoming sign. I ran right past it, and 10 minutes later,  I turned around, retraced my steps, and looked up at the sign again. I stopped dead. On the back of the sign was a quote from Mr. Thoreau:

“ Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.” 

Do those two statements sound like a contradiction? They’re not. Think about it:

Thoreau observed that “the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation”.

Thoreau strongly encouraged folks like us to  not join that mass of men but rather to “Advance confidently in the direction of our dreams and endeavor to live the lives which we have imagined.”

What are your thoughts? Which path are you going to pick? If it’s the second, we should talk. I’d like to help.

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What should you be looking for in a career coach?

In a word, experience. And lots of it. You’re not looking for an academic who has studied the theories. You’re not looking for a statistician who has run the numbers. You’re looking for someone who has experienced the same things that you’re going through and has learned his lessons through “hard knocks”. That would describe me. Here are some of the roles I played and how they can help you.

Job seeker. I’ve been this many times in my career, both within my company and outside of my company. I’ve made some horrendous mistakes and have done other things well. In my entire career, I’ve been unemployed for a total of 40 days.

Hiring manager. As a sales manager for over 40 years, I have reviewed between 100,000 and 200,000 resumes and conducted between 15,000 and 20,000 interviews. I know what works in the job search and the things that can wipe you out in the first five minutes of a job interview.

Business professional. Over my 45 years of business experience, I’ve seen it all. 

I had “golden years” when everything seemed to flow like magic, and I could do no wrong. 

I’ve had down years where the economy went south, major customers went somewhere else, and layoffs became a normal course of business.

I spent 17 wonderful years with IBM, which was, in my opinion, one of the finest companies in business.

I went to work for smaller companies that were a fraction of the size of IBM, and my life was under the constant threat of acquisition, merger, and bankruptcy. It was tough, but not only did I survive, I loved the experience.

Survivor. This is a key skill that’s mandatory for any employee. To “thrive”, you have to first “survive”. After working for IBM, one of the largest companies in the world at that time, I ended up working with a group of very small companies. Layoffs were almost as commonplace as waking up in the morning. During my time with Data Switch, we changed our name six times, had 10 different presidents, and 14 layoffs. After the last of those layoffs, I was the sole remaining regional sales manager from our original company. I continually managed to do everything in my power to be one of the “last men standing”. It worked. In my entire career, I was unemployed only one time, I was back to work within 40 days

Sales Manager. As such, I hired my people and then proceeded to train, mentor, and coach them to where they went from successful sales executives to management positions throughout the country.

Coach and Mentor. This flowed naturally from my role as a sales manager. I saw my job as having two major objectives: 

• Producing results. I was responsible for ensuring that my team exceeded its requirements every quarter. Businesses succeed when managers meet their commitments, and my teams did.
• The “Care and Feeding” of my people. I worked continuously with them, encouraging them to set lofty goals and doing everything I could to help them exceed them. I did this for two reasons:
  • The better my people performed, the better our unit would perform, and the better our compensation would be..
  • I love to watch people grow and get to the point where we work together as partners.

My Unemployment Seminars. In 2008, I retired for the second time. (Full disclosure: I have a character flaw. I have great difficulty staying retired. It’s in my DNA to be productive in a job where I can help people.) I’m sure you recall 2008. It was not the best of times. We went into the great recession with hundreds and thousands of people- good, productive people – being laid off. I looked at what was happening and thought, “somebody should do something to help”. And a little voice inside my head said, “Why not you?” Why not indeed? And so I did.

I got together with the pastor at our church, told him I wanted to build an unemployment seminar and make it available to anyone who needed it. He agreed and gave me the use of a room, and I went to work. I took all I had learned as a hiring manager, coach, and mentor over the years, read or re-read a number of books, looked at all the latest figures, and, and in less than a month, put together a two-session employment seminar. I thought that if I helped 15 to 20 people, I’d be doing something positive. I was wrong about the number. I ended up training 185 people and had a success rate of 93%. It was a very rewarding experience for me.

Career Coach. This is my current position, one that I plan on doing for the rest of my life.

Ket Point

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