Future-Ready Careers

The ideas in my PsychologyToday.com article today hold the possibility of getting on the ground floor of some next Big Thing.

11 Big-Money, Big-Status Careers

Most people believe it’s shallow to choose a career based mainly on money and status, but being human, they often succumb, forgoing careers that would be more contributory and pleasurable.

So in recognition of that common human craving, my PsychologyToday.com article today offers some careers offering big money and status.

10 Big-Impact Careers

Unless you’re at risk of poverty, in which you’ll understandably take any job, most people want their job to be impactful.
Of course, all ethical work is impactful, from ditch digger on up. But if you’re thinking (ahem) higher, perhaps the 10 big-impact careers I describe in my PsychologyToday.com article today will help.

Careers and Workplaces for Liberals, Conservatives, and Libertarians

These days, we seem to be holding our politics quite dear. Passion used to primarily refer to sex but these days passion for or against Donald Trump may be as strong. Indeed, a Stanford study found that political kinship is a stronger bond between people even than race or religion.

So it may be worth identifying careers and workplaces in which you’ll likely find kindred spirits. Of course, that doesn’t replace the need for choosing a career that matches your abilities, skills, and interests, but political kinship is an under-considered data point. Hence, I offer some suggestions in my PsychologyToday.com article today.

Career Change for Creatives

Some creatives decide they're not making enough money from their creative work acting, writing, painting, music, etc. So they decide to get a straight job. But what? And how can they make a straight employer take them seriously? And what sorts of careers are creatives wise to consider. I address those questions in my PsychologyToday.com article today.

Career Change for Teachers

Had enough of the classroom? Perhaps you’re tired of dealing with students who don’t want to learn? Or of correcting sheaves of painfully bad student writing? Or of trying to motivate kids to work hard at an unrealistically challenging mandated curriculum?  Of teacher trainings that don't train well? Pushy parents or uninterested ones?  An unfair principal? Hand-tying administrative rules?

My PsychologyToday.com article today offers careers that are well-suited for teachers who want out, plus how to convince employers that "Those that camn, do, but those that teach can too."

Big 5 Careers Options for people who score high or low on the Big Five personality traits.

Typically, careers are recommended based on skills, aptitudes and interests, for example, as in the Holland RIASEC Codes: hands-on, investigative, artistic, social, entrepreneurial, and office-detail. 
Less often are careers matched to today’s popular Big 5 personality traits: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Emotional Stability.

Of course, with thousands of careers and variants thereof, I can only scratch the surface in a PsychologyToday.com article. I’ve picked careers that capitalize on each personality style (low as well as high) and that Psychology Today readers might enjoy and do well at. For each category, I offer merely one or occasionally two or three careers that may be particularly worth your attention.

Career Change for Therapists, Counselors, and Coaches Who Want Out

Maybe you’ve had enough of listening to clients complain? Or of their yes-butting? Or no-showing? Or of pleading poverty when you sense it’s untrue? Or of not paying? Or of clients’ lack of progress?

You’ve tried or considered career tweaks.Alas, nothing sufficiently has assuaged your malaise. So you want out, but you’re scared: “What else could I do?” Would anyone pay me decent money to do something else?”

I offer some possibilities in my PsychologyToday.com article today. 

Troubleshooting a Failed Job Search

Despite unemployment being at a 50-year low,  some people are coming to me, a career counselor, because their job search failed. My PsychologyToday.com article today describes how I troubleshoot it.

Live One Second at a Time? An approach to life.

In my PsychologyToday.com article today, I make the case for living one second at a time, and with minimal looking back and forward.

How-to-Do-Life Tweets: What's new? 42 ideas on communication, personal growth, work, men, and education.

I tweet to archive my best ideas. Since 2009, I've posted more than 5,000 tweets. A year ago, here on Psychology Today, I posted  How-to-Do-Life Tweets: 30 of my most useful practical tips.

My PsychologyToday.com article today offers a new collection of 42.

Mentoring a Gifted Child

We tend to donate our time and money to “the least among us.”  But if the goal is to make the biggest difference, we might want to focus on people with unusually good potential to profit. My favorite example: Mentor or fund the mentoring of a kid(s) from families with modest income who are high performers. Why can that be so potent?

• Of course, some not-high-performers become late bloomers. But current high-performers are more likely to grow up to cure our diseases, create better products, be wise leaders, etc.
• The rich are more likely to help their high-performing kids to live up to their potential. That’s less likely with kids from lower-income backgrounds.
• One-on-one efforts are likely to yield significant benefit because the engagements are individualized and they bring the emotional connection that can foster motivation.

My PsychologyToday.com article today shows how to recruit and make the most of such a mentoring relationship, for the child and for you.
Of course, in today's era of suspicion especially about sexual predators, you may be limited to being a participant in an existing at-school program, but maybe not. In either case, the following should be helpful.

Thinking Cosmically: The wisest approach to life?

he concept I've learned in school that has most affected my day-to-day thinking is Kohlberg's six stages of moral development. At the highest stage, decisions are based on what's universally, cosmically, wisest. 

 My PsychologyToday.com article today encourages you to do the same.

Choosing a Counselor

When choosing a therapist, counselor, or coach, it’s tempting to just get a referral from a trusted friend. But it’s highly unlikely that with all the counselors out there, that your friend’s practitioner is the best and most cost-effective fit you could find without undue effort.

It's also overly restrictive to rely on a reference from a professional such as your physician—they rarely see a recommended practitioner in action.

You’re seeing a counselor because you have a serious issue, so it's wise to treat the selection process seriously. I offer my best advice on how to do so in my PsychologyToday.com article today.

Pruning the Dead Wood From Your Life

When pruning a rose bush, you remove weak canes (the branches) so all the plant’s energy can go into the strong canes, yielding more beautiful flowers.

In improving our lives, we tend to think of adding, but sometimes pruning the weak wood is wiser. Yes, less can be more. Or to invoke another metaphor, when a cook sautes mushrooms, the water evaporates, leaving richer flavor.

My PsychologyToday.com article today offers pruning opportunities for your worklife, relationships, charity, and more. 

Making Tasks More Pleasant An under-discussed key to reducing procrastination.

If you hit a dog a few times, s/he’ll learn to avoid you. Similarly, if your experience in doing tasks is often painful, you’ll soon avoid them. In other words, you’ll become a procrastinator.

My Psychologytoday.com article today may help replace your mindset that 
task = odious with task = neutral or even pleasant.

Training Hachi: A doggie diary

Just five days ago, I adopted my latest in a lifetime of having a doggie. I share lessons learned (and a nice story) in my PsychologyToday.com article today.

10 More Self-Improvement Musts

Fads come and go. Yesterday’s magic pills, for example, “Grit” and “Growth Mindset” are being replaced by the next crop wannabe bestsellers, for example, "Slowing Down to Get Ahead,”  "Burning Bright," and "The Little Work."

But a few self-improvement tactics have survived the most rigorous test, the test of time. A while back I described ten.  My PsychologyToday.com article today offers ten more.

9 Counselor Dilemmas Judgment calls that can make a difference.

A counselor’s effectiveness depends significantly on the ability to make good judgment calls. I’ve found nine dilemmas important and frequently occurring. I describe them in my PsychologyToday.com article today.

Dismissed or Demoted and Dispirited Five tips embedded in a story.

I’ve previously offered tips for people who’ve been dismissed, for example, 55 and “Laid Off.” Now What?

But some people learn more when tips are embedded in context, hence as my PsychologyToday.com article today, I offer a composite story.

Successful and Still Unhappy: 3 possibly easy fixes

Many of my clients are financially successful yet still unhappy. I’ve offered tips on this previously, for example, Wealthy but Sad Syndrome. But some people learn more when the tips are embedded in context, hence, as my PsychologyToday.com article today, I offer a story.

The Impulsive Person

My PsychologyToday.com article today offers a suggestion for big adrenaline secreters and  people who care about them, presented in the context of a story.

Should You Take That Job? The art of vetting a position

So many people begin a job with high hopes only soon to have them dashed: a bad boss, cold workplace, poor ethics. job description changed for the worse.

Given that, I’ve been surprised at how poorly most job seekers vet prospective employers. My PsychologyToday.com article today offers tips on how to do it well.