My journey
Working in academia seemed great to me. So I was happy when, after my research masters in modern history at the RuG, I managed to get a PhD position. I was a good researcher, but I saw few opportunities for the future. That challenged my ideas about an academic career.
I found a new job at the university library. Still, my search did not feel completed and I kept looking for vacancies, each time hoping that the one with ‘the answer’ would present itself eventually. Searching for vacancies on my phone every day on the train home: that won’t make you feel any better, I can tell you.
Slowly, I started considering completely different jobs and wondering what I actually found valuable work.
When I realised that I just couldn’t figure out myself what career path to take, I finally decided to approach a career coach. What I learned from career coaching was to take myself as a starting point again. That may sound like stating the obvious, but looking back now, that’s what it was.
After all, searching for jobs and hoping to find the answer to my career question there did not bring me closer to myself. It made me unhappy because those vacancies were about what others wanted, about what others were looking for, but not about me. Career coaching helps you connect with what comes naturally to YOU, what YOU get out of bed for and how YOU come into your own. In other words, YOU are the focus and no one else.
Career coaching helped me shift my focus to what drives me, instead of what the outside world wants from me. How? For example, by taking stock of my talents, my natural abilities. Everyone has a unique set of personal qualities. You take them for granted and therefore often leave them unsaid. If you have a better understanding of what you are good at, it will be easier to choose a job that suits you.
Increasing your self-knowledge and self-esteem makes it easier to find your own answer to your career question.
As a career coach, I am here to help you find an answer to your career question. I do this by helping you to gain new insights through assignments, exercises, questioning and mirroring.
As a coach, I am calm, positive, accessible, analytical, respectful and emphatic.
Important values for me are: equality, freedom, independence and openness.
For my complete cv go to LinkedIn
I am a member of NOLOC, society for career professionals and job coaches. I abide by the NOLOC code of conduct.