Career Coaching Testimonials

Career direction, Moving on

I appreciate your coaching.  It has caused me to think more deeply and critically about my future direction.  Thanks for the ‘closure tool’ and I will work on it ASAP. Regards, C.B.

New options, Courage, Critical Thinking

Thank you so much for your input. Going through the process with you has certainly made me aware of options I had not thought of and made me much braver!  I often visualise your model of the person-obstacles-goals <a critical thinking framework> and it definitely influences my thinking.  K.W.

Enduring progress

Hi Frances … This is my 6th year. It was a wonderful move and many thanks to Max and you, as I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for you.  Kind regards, S.K.

Family follows passion

After Frances worked with three sisters over a period of time, their very grateful mother wrote … S, A and C all found and followed their passion … (we are very proud of them). Thanks to ‘find my forte’.   J.

Behavioural Interviews strategy

I have to tell you both that modifying the behavioural responses as you suggested is making it much easier for me to prepare for my next interview. So, thanks for the brilliant idea – I am sure it will make a difference to me tomorrow and will help me to tell great stories rather than long stories!  FJ (Successfully appointed to the position)

Interview coaching at a critical moment

We will never forget the small but huge help (confidence and interview training) that you gave her to help her get a foot in the door. You have had such a huge influence in helping her achieve the ultimate goal of her life. You touch people in such life changing ways – thank you.  B.H. (A father whose daughter we worked with to get into medical school)

Career planning

It’s been a full-on year, and I now have more clarity on the 5 year plan that we discussed when we did the futures exercises many moons ago. Once again, thanks for all the help you gave me during our sessions.   N.D.

Career Direction – from food manufacturing to public policy

I have decided to pursue a new career in public policy …. It’s fascinating and I am learning so much … Thank you hugely for taking me through the process of figuring things out.   R.T.

Discovering what I really want

The rewards of all that preparation work I did in the Career Direction Set-Up Project came in the following sessions with Frances, as she often referred to my preparatory work in pulling together my aspirations and passions to help me “find my forte” so to speak. Frances also exhibited the rare skill of drawing out and reflecting back to me was what was already ‘inside’ of me. In doing so, she helped me find the clarity of direction that I had been seeking for many years.  S.M. (university lecturer).

Interview Confidence and Strategy

The meeting today with the director and recruiter went very well, so thank you. It was relatively informal, but I was prepared! The conversation flowed easily. I felt like I spoke well and was confident in my ability and relevant experience from the work we had done. They have asked me back for a second interview next week to meet the other Directors …  I’ll be ready!  G.R. (And she got the job – senior position in the perfect consultancy for her)

Developing High-level Interview Skills

I engaged Frances and Max to help me prepare for a key interview and to test my skills and performance in interviews.  That proved to be a very wise investment. Their experienced and independent observations (including video feedback), helped identify weaknesses, enabled me to amplify strengths and to polish my delivery. The interview simulations were confidence building and enlightening.  Highly recommended – and I was successful.  R.D.

Tricky Career Decision Making

I love your always helpful input!  I’ve been trying to organize a lot of things: London and New York, and make progress on my dissertation as well! I am emailing to see if we could set up a career decision making consultation? I’m considering an opportunity that’s been offered that has implications for my future decisions and I am not sure whether or not to take it.   J.H. (now with PhD and a great research position in New York)

Interview strategies

The interview went really well. The questions you and Max ran me through certainly helped to ensure my head was in the right place. I used the strategy you coached me in to help me to stay calm and focussed.  It worked well. Thank you so much to you and Max.  R.S.

Business from Passion

…. nobody could understand how I would ever be able to make a business out of my passion, but I was confident in my abilities, thanks to the work I had done with you. (The business went on to impact the lives of hundreds of people across NZ) C.H.

New confidence and techniques

“I am so grateful for my work with Frances and Max preparing to apply for the Rhodes Scholarship – an application which turned out successfully. What they focused in on were my unique strengths, how to identify them, and how to communicate them vividly and memorably in interviews. (What they emphasised was the use of anecdotes and also summaries of points – helpful tools that I will use in future.) Frances and Max were very accommodating with short-notice requests and conversations at awkward times and gave me the confidence and techniques I needed to succeed. Thank you!” H.M.

Case Comments

Case comment one

Career direction & personal effectiveness

Life priorities

In November I moved to New Zealand with my husband and 3 children. The trigger that led to our decision to move here was the realisation that “going back to the City” in London meant spending minimum 2.5 hours on a train each day. The salary as a lawyer was great but this was not enough of an upside against the downsides of leaving home in the dark and arriving home in the dark. Going back to work after a 4 year hiatus also meant I was extremely aware of the people around me. I saw that many had submitted themselves to a corporate life and had become used to lamenting about the loss of family life as a result of working.

Real talent discovered

So when we moved to New Zealand I decided that not only was I going to try something different (I didn’t want to put my family through starting another job if it wasn’t long term), but also had a niggling feeling that my career in corporate law was not really a true reflection of my personal skill set. Finding out about “Find My Forté” really was truly very lucky. I wasn’t exactly looking for someone to tell me what I was good at. Instead I was looking for direction and guidance. I didn’t think I would come away discovering a talent buried deep in my psyche, but I did want to talk to someone about what my present-day skills were and my moral and personal priorities were.

Self-awareness insights

I approached Frances and it has been the wisest decision I had made for my career since the choice I made at 18 as to which University I went to. And looking back, I realise that after the comforts of schooling and career advice at school, I had not been entirely making the correct decisions for my career as an adult. The sessions with Frances required commitment. When she sent me the papers ahead of our first meeting I was a little daunted. But this work is necessary. The papers were asking me to tick which skills I would apply to myself – it was eye opening. These papers have a way of making you tell the truth about yourself.

Community feedback

The exercises asking friends to answer questions about you was also very grounding and extremely helpful. I chose people who knew me well. The career analysis process regarding previous jobs was so useful! Themes and guidance were appearing.

Self-exploration

But it was when we met in person that the real work began. Frances really is like a co-pilot on the journey that is your journey. We began at the beginning and we unleashed and explored what really made me tick. No, this experience has not led me in to following a career in to astrophysics from the world of corporate law, but it has led me to turning back the time and making a career choice that I perhaps should have made a long time ago. I had jumped from university to corporate finance. The opportunities it has given me were amazing – I still managed to learn new languages and travel and meet diverse people, but with hindsight I ought to have followed a profession which focussed on government, policy and social policy. My personality was all about these issues but my profession was all about the private sector.

Futures exploration

With Frances we explored a range of opportunities I could pursue and each time it was up to me to look into them and find out the pros and cons and report back. Moreover, we discussed techniques to find positions – not just use the internet blindly – and how to contact key decision makers. She also showed me that I was in the driving seat and highlighted to me that I needed to be managing job offers to suit me, and not just jump at them. That I could try work experience was something I never even knew was possible. Frances taught me that this could be a great way to get a feel for a place before committing to a job. We also learned how to look at job specifications and read between the lines for what messages they send out about a company.

Self-knowledge

After my sessions with Frances I can confidently tell anyone that my passions are writing, social issues, society and working with people. That being close to my home when at work is something I preferred even before having a family. Positive working relationships are more important to me than salary. If problems were to arise at work now, I would know what the “bigger picture is” and use the Critical Thinking techniques Frances taught me to work through any problems. These are invaluable skills that have now led me to working positively in the sector that is right for me and my family. I now write a private micro magazine style newsletter – it now has about 150 readers. I do some volunteer community service work at the Citizens Advice Bureau and also work with the Learning and Development team in a paid role as a facilitator for them. The CAB work is great. I received professional training to become a volunteer and now am part of the team that give the training. At the CAB we help people with any issue they walk in with – a huge range! These issues make me tick. The people I work alongside inspire me. Although I had some great times as a lawyer working in finance in Rome, Japan and London, working in the social sector is my niche and a reflection of my present-day skills and personal situation. These skills were always within me, I just don’t think I would have ever had the courage or ability to make something out of them if it wasn’t for the work I did with Frances. Thank You! M.S.B. (corporate lawyer)

 

Case Comment two

Thriving after Redundancy

Self-Belief, Optimism and Positivity

I’ll put down my guiding thoughts that took me through from impending redundancy, redundancy and finally securing a new role. These thoughts were largely stimulated through our sessions. Thanks! I’m grateful for our time and look back upon it as the best thing I did during this difficult time.

Research methods lending a sense of dignity

The research methods you taught me give a sense of empowerment. They give you a sense of dignity and take your mind off “looking for work” and finding where and what you want to do next.

Valuable research

I found that the “researching” approach was useful because it enabled me to discover things without scaring people off. It was also critical in helping me gather enough knowledge to decide not to take a certain career path without having to commit to it first to find out!

You taught me about valuing my “unique skill set”. I never forgot this and it gave me the confidence to put myself out there

Cheers to your excellent advice!

Success !

R.C. successfully secured a Senior Sales Executive position in an international software company and is extremely pleased with the process he went through to achieve this.

Subsequent update

Just wanted to drop you a note to say Hi! Hope things are well. You were a big part of helping me so I just wanted to tell you what the bottom line has been for me. If I was to summarise what I took from our discussions it has been self-belief, optimism and positivity.  Work has really been taking off internationally … R.C