Career In Progress

Career In Progress Coach for Career Coaches:
Earn internationally recognized credentials as a career services provider. A seasoned professional in the mist of transition?

Join my Facilitating Career Developments (FCD) Training or get 1-1 coaching on how to amplify your coaching practice! Are you a new graduate navigating the world of work for the first time? A job seeker looking to reinvent in your professional brand? A career practitioner interested in furthering your skills and abilities? Career In Progress is designed to provide assistance with all aspects of yo

ur career and professional development. Together we will work to clarify and reach your goals, and set in motion your career satisfaction. An award winning Career and Professional Development Instructor, providing career literacy training to career practitioners globally since 2002.

06/23/2026

The fastest way to disappear is to become acceptable to everyone.

That can sound dramatic, but I think it is often true in career growth.

Being likable can look like a strength from the outside.

But when being liked becomes the goal, it starts to cost you.

And eventually, people may like you, but they do not really know you.

People want more visibility, but they are afraid to be too direct.

They want stronger leadership presence, but they are trying not to make anyone uncomfortable.

They want to build a personal brand, but they keep sanding down the parts that would make it sound like them.

Authenticity means being willing to be clear about what you value, about what you believe, and about what you will no longer tolerate just to stay in someone’s good favor.

Some people will connect with that.
Others people will not.

That is the cost of becoming easier to recognize.

And being recognized by the right people matters more than being vaguely acceptable to everyone.
____
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Video credits: Mel Robbins

06/22/2026

Not every moment needs a five-year plan.

Most of life’s moments are much less impressive.

A slow morning.
A good cup of coffee.
A walk with no real purpose.
A song you forgot you loved.
A text that makes you laugh out loud.
A meal that tastes better because someone else made it.

We spend so much of life trying to build toward something bigger.

Goals. Milestones. The next version of ourselves (who will, of course, be organized, hydrated, well-rested, and fully caught up on email).

Adorable.

Happiness is often less dramatic than that.

And sometimes we dismiss these moments because they are ordinary.

Today, try to notice one small thing while it is happening without needing to chalk it up as productive.

Enjoy the fact that, for a minute, nothing needs to be solved.
That counts too.
____
Happy day!

Stop giving your energy to things you were never going to control.➤ That meeting that went sideways.➤ That coworker’s to...
06/18/2026

Stop giving your energy to things you were never going to control.

➤ That meeting that went sideways.
➤ That coworker’s tone.
➤ That leader who changes priorities like it’s a hobby.
➤ That email sitting in your inbox with the emotional weight of a small raccoon.

Ugh, we do this all day long.

Some parts of work will always be outside your control.

But that does not mean you are powerless.

You still control how you show up.

➤ You control what gets your attention.
➤ You control whether you respond from panic or intention.
➤ You control how prepared you are when you walk into the room.
➤ You control whether your workspace helps your brain.
➤ You control whether you keep learning and building skills that make you harder to dismiss.
➤ You control whether you become the person who adds more chaos to the room or helps lower the temperature.

And maybe most importantly, you control whether you keep confusing over-functioning with commitment.

Because a lot of workplace stress comes from trying to manage things that were never yours to carry.

That is where burnout starts to sneak in.

So the question you should be asking yourself is “What is mine to manage here?”

That one question can help you stop treating every workday like a five-alarm fire.

Control what is yours.
Release what is not.
_______
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06/17/2026

You teach people how to treat you by what you allow.

That line stings a little because it is usually true.

Workplace boundaries are not about being difficult, unavailable, or not a team player.

They are about protecting the conditions that allow you to do good work without slowly becoming a resentful shell of yourself.

When you do not set boundaries, your work expands.

→ One more quick favor.
→ One more late message.
→ One more meeting over lunch.
→ One more “If you have time” that turns into two hours.

And eventually, the problem is no longer the task.

It is the pattern.

APAs 2024 Work in America survey found that many negative workplace experiences are associated with burnout, and 25% of workers reported emotional exhaustion.

That matters because emotional exhaustion does not usually arrive with a dramatic announcement.

It shows up as:

→ irritability
→ dread before meetings
→ checking email when you meant to be present
→ saying yes with resentment
→ needing the weekend ro decrease the workload

A boundary does not have to sound harsh.

It can sound like:

“I can take this on, but I’ll need to move another priority.”

“I’m offline after 6, but I’ll respond tomorrow morning.”

“I’m not available for meetings during that block.”

“I want to help, but I can’t commit to that timeline.”

Boundaries are instructions.

They teach others how to work with you, and they teach you not to abandon yourself every time someone else has an urgent request.

The goal is to stop paying for everyone else’s lack of planning with your own well-being.
———

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Career coaches are rarely short on tools.Most of us have plenty: assessments, worksheets, prompts, frameworks, certifica...
06/15/2026

Career coaches are rarely short on tools.

Most of us have plenty: assessments, worksheets, prompts, frameworks, certifications, articles, labor market links, resume templates, interview guides.

blah, blah, blah...

The problem is not access.
The problem is judgment.

Knowing what to use, when to use it, why it fits the particular client sitting in front of you, and when to make the expert decision to leave it alone.

That is where coaching maturity starts to show up.

Under pressure, it is easy to reach for more:

➛ More questions when the client needs silence.
➛ More resources when the client needs clarity.
➛ More advice when the client needs to hear themselves think.
➛ More data when the client needs help making meaning from it.
➛ More credentials when the real gap is confidence in practice.

And I say this with a lot of respect for professional development. I mean, I help coaches develop professionally, so I believe in training, I believe in tools awareness and application, I believe in models crafted to the individual.

But none of them replace the deeper skill of knowing how to think like a coach in real time.

Career coaching is not just having a full toolkit.

It is knowing which tool belongs in your hand.

And sometimes, having the restraint to put the tool down.
_____
Check out the 4 Biggest Mistakes Coaches Make Masterclass: https://lnkd.in/epyeuSwU

Confusion is not the opposite of direction.Sometimes it is the beginning of it.Career professionals are very good at hel...
06/12/2026

Confusion is not the opposite of direction.

Sometimes it is the beginning of it.

Career professionals are very good at helping other people move.

We help clients…
> Name what they want.
> Challenge old assumptions.
> Build confidence.
> Make decisions.
> Take action.

And then somehow, when it comes to our own career growth, we can become professional stallers.

We call it being realistic.
We call it reflection.
We call it research.
We call it timing.

Sometimes it is these things.

But sometimes we are just standing between two choices.

One is full of confusion: having too many ideas, directions, credentials, platforms, opinions, reasons to wait.

The other choice is not yet fully formed.

It’s blank.

And blank can feel intimidating because it requires us to choose.

This is where I think career professionals need to coach themselves with the same honesty we offer clients.

Being confused isn’t always a sign that you are off track.

Sometimes confusion is the first evidence that something in you is ready to move.

We know too well that career growth does not usually begin with certainty.

It begins when you stop treating uncertainty as a reason not to grow.

Your next direction may just be waiting for you to stop staring at the scribble and pick up the brush.
____
In a rut? Take my free masterclass on the 4 biggest mistakes coaches face and how to address: https://lnkd.in/epyeuSwU

12 podcasts to next-level your career. One episode at a time:I’m a huge podcast listener.+ In the car+ Walking the dog+ ...
06/10/2026

12 podcasts to next-level your career. One episode at a time:

I’m a huge podcast listener.
+ In the car
+ Walking the dog
+ Drowning out my kid’s minute-by-minute demands

What better way to pass the time than absorbing strategies for elevating your career?

Because, let’s face it.
We are constantly evolving.

These twelve podcasts have fueled big “aha” moments.

Helping me rethink my purpose and the future of work.

Here are my top 12 picks:

1/ How to be awesome at your job
https://lnkd.in/esXPuZHt

2/ The art of speaking up
https://lnkd.in/eBGZa883

3/ Squiggly careers
https://lnkd.in/eR6RVmpD

4/ Startup
https://lnkd.in/ed9xEsQA

5/ Degrees of success
https://lnkd.in/eu_ft7JP

6/ Happen to your career
https://lnkd.in/e85yzAR9

7/ Vantage career
https://lnkd.in/eZQwyBVw

8/ The unapologetic career
https://lnkd.in/eDiHdsbY

9/ Career tools
https://lnkd.in/eSJjADdS

10/ Find your dream job
https://lnkd.in/eHx8Twma

11/ Career Contessa
https://lnkd.in/ebeHbY5f

12/ The teacher career coach
https://lnkd.in/eJaKZuCa

Each podcast will challenge you (and your clients) to:
⇢ Redefine YOUR version of success
⇢ Upgrade how you think, not just what you do
⇢ Take smarter, braver action in your career

Drop your go-to CAREER podcast in the comments so I can add it to my queue. ⬇️
_______
🔔 Follow for more like this
📌 Coaches: Ready to help clients reinvest their careers? Check out my free masterclass on how to fix the most common coaching mistakes: https://lnkd.in/epyeuSwU

06/09/2026

We are more creative than we think. It’s just buried under all the ways we learned to judge ourselves too soon.

Growth mindset gets talked about a lot in career work. But I think we miss one of the most important places it shows up:

Creativity.

So many people move through life believing they have a hard creative ceiling. They decide early that they are analytical, practical, organized, responsible, strategic, academic, technical, service-oriented.

And somehow, creativity gets assigned to other people: the artists, writers, designers.

But creativity does not usually disappear. Instead, it gets...

↳ buried under perfectionism.
↳ crowded out by overwork.
↳ trained out by systems that reward the right answer.
↳ shut down by comparison.
↳ confused with performance.

A fixed mindset around creativity turns a block into a personal verdict but a growth mindset treats the block as useful information.

Maybe the person needs more practice or permission to make something awkward before it becomes good.

This matters in career development because creativity is part of almost every meaningful career move.

↳ Exploring options requires creativity.
↳ Reimagining identity requires creativity.
↳ Telling your story requires creativity.
↳ Solving workplace problems requires creativity.
↳ Building a next chapter requires creativity.

Career professionals can help reacquaint clients to their creative side through simple exercises.

One example is the 3 rough versions exercise.

1/ Choose one doable career task, like crafting a networking message or outlining a possible career direction.

2/ Ask the client to create three rough versions: One clear version. One bold version. One unexpected version.

3/ Evaluate each version and review the three versions together. Ask:
What feels most honest?
What has energy?
What sounds forced?
What surprised them?

4/ From there, help the client build from the strongest pieces, offering a practical way to practice creative thinking.

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06/08/2026

Getting the job is not the same as belonging in the job.

And career coaches see this all the time.

A client reads a job posting and immediately starts asking:

“Should I make myself sound more corporate?”
“Should I downplay my background?”
“Should I pretend I have more experience with this system than I do?”
“Should I leave out the parts of my story that don’t seem to fit?”

Sometimes the issue is not the resume. It is the belief that being selected requires becoming someone else.

A 2023 ResumeLab survey of 1,900 U.S.-based workers found that 70% said they had lied on a resume, and 37% said they lie frequently.

SHRM also reported that common resume lies included responsibilities, job titles, number of people managed, employment dates, and even entire positions.

Maybe this is evidence that many candidates feel pressure to perform fit instead of communicate fit.

That pressure gets reinforced everywhere.

➤ Applicant tracking systems reward keyword matching.
➤ Hiring processes often favor familiar language.
➤ Job postings ask for impossible combinations of skills.
➤ Candidates are told to “sell themselves,” even when nobody has taught them how to do that with integrity.

So they start performing fit.

They copy language they do not really understand.
They over-polish their story until it barely sounds like them.
They try to look like the “ideal candidate” instead of a credible candidate.

And yes, sometimes it works. They get the interview. They get the offer. They get into the room.

But can they sustain the version of themselves they sold?

That is where career coaching matters.

Our job is not to help them understand the difference between translating their experience and misrepresenting their experience.

Between adapting to the audience and abandoning themselves to be chosen

Between communicating fit and performing fit.

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Your client’s career breakthrough means very little if it dies in the parking lot.Most coaches I work with start the eng...
06/05/2026

Your client’s career breakthrough means very little if it dies in the parking lot.

Most coaches I work with start the engagement strong.

The discovery call goes well, the first session motivates, the client leaves with language they didn’t have before. And then somewhere around session three or four, the client goes quiet.

Reschedules once. Reschedules again. Stops responding.

The coach assumes it’s the client. Life got busy. They weren’t ready. They weren’t a good fit after all.

It’s almost never that.

The client ghosted because they stopped believing the process was going to get them somewhere.

Insight on its own doesn’t build confidence in the coaching relationship.

Structure does.

And most coaches were never taught how to build it.

Here’s what tends to happen in those early sessions: The coach asks the right questions, they help the client name the pattern, they create real clarity.

The client leaves feeling seen.

But there’s no scaffolding around what happens between sessions, no clear sense of what we’re working toward over the next six weeks, no way for the client to feel themselves making progress in the days when nothing dramatic is happening.

So when the job search gets hard, the client doesn’t have anything to hold onto. They start to wonder if this is actually working.

And slowly, without a confrontation, they disappear.

The fix is an accountability structure built into the coaching arc from session one.

If your clients are ghosting mid-engagement, the question you should be asking yourself is “what does my coaching structure ask of them between sessions?”

That’s the difference between a coaching relationship that holds and one that quietly ends.

Where do your clients most commonly stall after a session ends?
_______
🎓 If you want a framework for building this kind of carryover into every session, FCD was built for exactly that. careerinprogress.com/fcd

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