I don’t recall exactly how many girls turned me down when I asked them to the senior prom, but there were a few. Even though that was 25 years ago, I still remember how much I wished I was one of “the beautiful people”. Today, I’m glad I wasn’t. When I finally made it to the major leagues of my industry, two things immediately struck me.

The first was how accepting everyone was. People were amazingly supportive and oddly non-competitive. I later realized this came from their sense of security and accomplishment, since successful people don’t feel threatened by others who succeed. The second thing was that most of the powerful and famous people I met looked like ordinary average individuals, even though some of them get more for a one hour speech than many people pay for a house. This made me wonder how much one’s looks really impacts career success.

Being attractive can certainly help in the short term.  Television news magazines such as 2020 have conducted tests which confirm that society gives special consideration to attractive people. However, being so attractive that one draws excessive attention to him or herself can impede long term career success. Beauty can become the temporary crutch that some people try to keep leaning on long after it has been taken away. While attractive people can skate by on looks for a while, eventually beauty fades. They may then struggle when it’s gone and they can no longer charm people with their million pound smile. Meanwhile, their average looking counterparts start to excel in their careers because their greatest assets –their job skills– are increasing.

This success principle of “what matters most is what’s on the inside” isn’t limited to work. It also applies to personal relationships. While the newest glamour couple here in my hometown of Nashville is the equally attractive Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban, not every pretty woman goes for the handsome leading man look. Just look at Lyle Lovett, who married  Julia Roberts in 1993, and Billy Bob Thornton, who married Angelina Jolie in 2000. Both Thornton and Lovett readily admit they don’t have Brad Pitt or Tom Cruise looks. The one thing they needed to get these beautiful women to say yes was the same thing that made their careers so successful – confidence.

So what’s the moral of this story? If you happen to be an ordinary average looking individual who’s competing against a job applicant or coworker who has drop dead gorgeous looks, don’t assume they have an advantage. It could turn out that looking average helps you become more than average in your career.

People often talk about the role of PA, (Personal Assistant) as if it were the kind of job that is always the same, but the role of PA can vary greatly from company to company. In big companies there may be a few PAs, in smaller companies there may only be one. But one thing is for sure, PAs do varied and interesting work and it is a popular job.

The best way of getting started is to enlist with a recruitment agency to get different kinds of work, in different environments. Talk to the PAs there. What kind of role do they have? What is expected of them? Are they a real ‘Girl Friday’ or are they viewed as part of the management team?

Eventually you will get a feel for whether you want to work as a PA in a large, corporate organisation, or whether you would prefer to work in a  smaller, perhaps family run company. Then get your recruitment agency to seek out any kind of administrative role in a company that appeals to you. When you start make sure that you are punctual, reliable, that you show initiative and that you start to become viewed as someone that really needs to be around, in order for everything to run smoothly. Then you should land a secretarial job, providing you have the typing and administrative skills (if you don’t make sure that you get them). Then from being a secretary you are well placed to start looking for a PA role, in a company that is suited to your needs.

A PA has to be adaptable, flexible and command a presence of being there to make everything run like clockwork. These are skills that are built up over time, but once you have them, then your career will simply take off into another realm !

Career planning is an excellent way to prepare for what the world ahead has to offer you. While many people find that career planning is something that is done in college, it can be and should be done throughout life as a way of making sure that you are on the right track. There are many opportunities to get the planning that you need. In fact, it can start a long time before college as well. So, what can career planning do for you?

To start, we need to understand when you can get career planning started. You can find a wide range of options right from the high school level. You?ll find that career planning can and does happen as an introduction to college as well as all through college. But, you can also take advantage of services long after you have graduated. Career planning can happen anytime.

What happens in career planning? There are a number of different things that can happen in career planning. You will be able to get an understanding of what the career you are considering has to offer. Or, if you are unsure of what you would like to learn and do, you can take a wide variety of testing solutions that will help you to determine what you are interested in as well as careers that you are talented for. You will also find that in some college level classes of career planning you will be able to learn about many different careers and test your hand at what they have to offer you. This is an excellent way to see what?s out there.

Career planning is important because it allows you to be able to get a good idea of what you would like to do with your life. Counselors and teachers can help you find the answers that you need to your questions and give you options to consider. Career planning can help anyone, at anytime in their lives to find solutions to their needs. Beyond being able to help you plan for the classes you will take, career planning can help you to begin your future.

Have you ever felt stuck in your career?  Employee stress and burn out can account for a lot of dissatisfaction in your life.  After all, you are at work some 8 hours a day or more.  That’s 13 of your day if you don’t count sleep.  That’s a long time to be dissatisfied.

If you feel stuck, here are 6 great ways to find your ideal career:

1.   Brainstorm on a sheet of paper - I’ve talked about this before and it’s a strategy I use all the time.  Take a pad of paper and write down at the top your objective in question form.  Then, simply list out 20 answers to your question.  For example, you could write “What should I be doing with my time and life?”  Then stay seated for a half hour to an hour coming up with answers to that question.  The key to this exercise is coming up with 20 answers - don’t quit until you have 20 answers.  You can repeat every day until you get the answer you seek.

2.   Ask 3 close friends - Sometimes our friends know us better than ourselves.  While meeting with one of your friends, mention you are at a crossroads in your life and career.  Ask what they think you’d enjoy doing.  You might be surprised at how easily they can zero in to your strengths and abilities and report a perfect job area.

3.   Ask your boss and coworkers - much like your friends in the example above, your boss and coworkers most likely see you in a way you do not see yourself.  In fact, they are likely most familiar with your strengths and weaknesses in the work environment.  Compile all the answers you get from them and see if there are any common threads you can explore.

4.  Call a headhunter - If you are searching in your career, it’s likely you have a resume.  Sometimes you can catch a headhunter or recruiter during their slow times and meet with them to pick through what you might be good at.  I’ve done this at different times in my life and the people seem open to talking with people.  After all, if you don’t get paid, they don’t either.  The ideas I get are usually good.

5.  Take a career assessment test - There are several sites on the Internet you might be able to take one of these tests for a fee.  But using my ‘headhunter’ tip above, many headhunters have this software and don’t mind you taking the test in their office.   I’ve taken these tests two times in my life and they usually take an hour or two, but they are thorough.  They ask you to answer a series of questions about what you are good at, what you like to do, what you prefer doing over what you don’t.  If you take one, you will likely see some new exciting areas to explore in your life.

6.   Keep a journal - Do you keep a journal?  If so, read through, looking for common threads in your writing.  Keep your eyes peeled for trends and activities you like as well as don’t like.  In fact, finding examples of what you don’t like and what frustrates you is almost as important as finding what you do like.  For example, if you hate an overwhelming boss, you’d probably like a self-directed position.  If you hate nosy coworkers you’d probably prefer your own office.

Discovering what you really want to do with your life is the most important decision you can make.  We spend 13 or more of our lives at work.  So figuring out the right career is important to keeping that 13 of our lives happy and productive.

Is your disability a reason not to aspire to great success in your career, great achievements and overall fulfillment? Absolutely not! There are some severely handicapped individuals who are incredibly successful and have attained prominent roles in politics, business and the sports arena. Some of these prominent people, you may find out, have even more severe handicaps than you and come from a more disadvantaged background than you. So what enabled them to get to the top? It all starts with having the right frame of mind. It means having your focus on the right target, concentrating on possibilities and opportunities rather than on impossibilities and barriers.

It is true that you are facing some significant challenges,but so did these other successful individuals, some more, and some less. The fact is, all jobseekers have some obstacles to overcome, whether or not they have a disability. At some time or another, we all face setbacks and barriers that bring us to a crossroad in the pursuit of a career. This crossroad will cause you either to retreat or proceed. How will you react?

That’s why you need a researched-based job market strategy, that enables you set realistic job market activity goals. This strategy will enable you to create an effective plan for creatively managing your disability when packaging yourself to employers. It will also provide you with key information on where and how to locate jobs that are appropriate for you.

When faced with such a career crossroad moment, you will need to take an honest look at your current aspirations and how realistic they are in comparison to the job market standard. Error of blame is a common factor that unfortunately blinds a lot of jobseekers to the real reasons why they are experiencing challenges in trying to achieve their job goal.

That’s why you need a researched-based job market strategy that enables you set realistic job market activity goals. This strategy will enable you to create an effective plan for creatively managing your disability when packaging yourself to employers. It will also provide you with key information on where and how to locate jobs that are appropriate for you.

However, do note that there is a process to job market success and the proper implementation of your job market strategy depends entirely on how well informed you are of this process. Mastering this process will enable you develop the lifetime skills required to achieve any job goal you desire. So to put yourself on the right track, start off by taking this FREE Job Market Performance Assessment to determine your current level of job market performance competency.

Did you know that the average person changes their career six times in their working life? There are many different reasons why a person would decide to switch careers- they may be laid off at their current job, a dream job may come along, people in a committed relationship may find themselves having to consider new prospects due to a change in location of the job of the other partner, or someone may just become plain bored in their current career, to the point where it feels like there is no point to the day. Career changes are not a bad thing, but they need to be planned according to the circumstances of your life, in such a way that you will still have the funds coming in which you need to survive.

Most of us will spend our lives hoping for the ideal job, but this will rarely materialize. The fact is, almost all jobs have their pitfalls- we may scoff at actors of musicians who complain about their long workdays or schedules, pointing to their pay checks, but the fact is that many jobs that offer lucrative incomes also entail a lot of dedication and hard work in order to get to the top. When you are defining your dream job, remember that almost every job comes with its downside, even if that downside is only the repetitiveness of the day.

A career change does not necessarily have to entail extensive retraining. Many people who have lost their jobs through layoffs or downsizing will find that their skills are still in demand, and that their experience is very useful in finding a new career. If you do not feel like retraining, consider a job with a different company where your skills fit. If you want to get right out of the corporate area, the odds are good that you can find a niche for yourself as an independent consultant or another area in which your expertise will add to your marketability.

Some people decide that they in fact do desire a total 360 degree turn from their current career path. In such circumstances, it is again best to begin by shopping the skills obtained at your former job only applied to new markets. You may also want to consider some retraining through college or university courses. There are many training courses available online, so people often do not even have to leave their homes in order to obtain the skills necessary to their new careers.

Whatever your decision, remember that it is always easier to find a new job when you are not desperate for one. Take the time to think through your decisions and applications carefully before severing ties with your current job; you may be ready for a change, but you will still have to eat in the meantime! In the event that your company has been downsized or other circumstance that has led to being laid off, find out if there are any contingency plans in place for retraining through the company or through any of the levels of government. This can provide a good financial buffer for that in-between time.