Interview with Dr. Barbara Moses

Interview with Dr. Barbara Moses

Best Selling Author of What Next? – The Complete Guide to Taking Control of Your Working Life on her new on-line Career Advisor

Contact Point Staff Amber Taverner interviewed Barbara Moses, career expert, author and speaker on July 13, 2005

CP: Career Advisor is a very comprehensive tool with a vast amount of information. What inspired you to develop this resource?

BM: I wanted to provide an efficient tool that would allow people to get help and support regardless of the career issues they were dealing with. Young people starting out are asking different questions than those in mid-life who are grappling with issues such as aging parents and raising children. Some individuals may be experiencing burnout while others who are working in jobs they like may be looking at ways to further develop themselves and their careers. Regardless of the career stage or challenges that the individual is facing, there is comprehensive career advice to assist them with their career needs.Career Advisor is a cost effective tool for delivering career support services and many managers, coaches, and HR specialists are using this tool when working with their employees. By having the individual complete the activities and exercises beforehand – it speeds up the process and gives the both the manager and employee something more to talk about. By using this tool, more information is available in the coaching relationship and this adds special value by building on what is already there.

CP: There are a lot of assessment tools and activities available today. What makes this tool unique and different than other tools or resources currently available?

BM: Career practitioners and HR professionals who have used Career Advisor basically have all reacted the same way..they’ve all said something like “Wow, I love it, I’ve never seen anything like this and I’m familiar with what’s out there.” They say it is far more comprehensive tool and easier to navigate, and the layout is great and beautiful to look at. This tool talks to them as a human being. The words are powerful and well written – it holds your attention. The self-assessments and the reports are rich with information.

CP: What is your favourite assessment, activity or section in Career Advisor? Why?

BM: I’m particularly proud of the Know Yourself assessments because it contains the richest information and it is the foundation for career management no matter what challenges you are dealing with. This section includes Work Satisfiers Assessment, Motivational Type, and The Work Preferences Profile – psychologically they are incredibly rich.

Most of these assessments were in my Career Planning Workbook which was completed by over half a million people world-wide. With technology we can give people reports which are very complex and basically blows them away.

It gives individuals concrete recommendations for work environments that they will be effective in. It also will get them thinking about the implications of different environments and individual differences, and how these factors will play out in terms of different roles and environments. It will also get them thinking about which roles will make them the most happy and effective, as well as what characteristics they may want to manage better.

CP: For people who are interested in Career Advisor, how can they access it?

BM: For an overview of Career Advisor and the content pages, they can go to my website at http://www.bbmcareerdev.com/main_menu.html. They can also get in touch with me through the website.

CP: I found the sections Coach Others and Career Proof Kids especially interesting, why did you include these sections in Career Advisor?

BM: Career Proof Kids was included because there are many critical issues that parents are dealing with and they are hugely under-serviced. No one is talking about these issues or how to address them. In my book Career Intelligence, I dedicated a whole chapter to addressing these issues. Parents want to help their children and give them a leg up. Often they are micro-managing their kids and giving them the wrong advice. Also, some parents are engaging in behaviour that is unhelpful for their kids even though they are motivated and truly want to assist their children.The Coach Others section is an optional section. This section and Find Work are both optional sections. Coach Others shows how to coach and mentor, and how to use Career Advisor as the foundation to do so. Many managers are playing an important coaching role or a mentoring role – mentoring younger people at work. This is a tool to help them in their unofficial or official coaching capacity.

CP: For individuals in leadership roles who are interested in coaching their staff or assisting them with their career management, what suggestions do you have?

BM: Leaders can be incredibly helpful in sharing information regarding what is helpful to get ahead in an organization but not necessarily helpful when it comes to what an employee really wants, their strengths, or environments where they work best. Go through Career Advisor, there is a lot of valuable information to assist in the career management process.

CP: Career Practitioners may find Career Advisor to be very interesting tool to explore especially when taking a closer look at their own careers. For many of them, their main focus has been on assisting others in finding work or developing their careers. What recommendations do you have for them regarding their own career management or dealing with some of their own career challenges?

BM: I’ve done a lot of speeches for HR and Career Practitioners. This occupational sector is under-nurtured and many of the practitioners go through the same questions they provoke in their clients. There are no strategies that are unique to them. However, they are in the field and they don’t ask if they are still happy or if they are engaged. There are different levels of awareness among career practitioners regarding contemporary work realities, individual differences and aspects of social psychology. Many are not given training on the full spectrum of issues and sometimes do not have the complete understanding of what employers are looking for. Many have a high level of academic training but not experiential training.Career Practitioners need to know themselves and the environment where they are most effective. Do they want to be in the front line? What clients do they want to work with and why? What do they need to do if they want to get to the next level in the industry? They need to know how the industry and sector, individual differences, and life experiences impact their career, not just the technical components. For example, a resume is just a bi-product of a work seeker’s understanding of themselves and their skills, as well as their ability to translate this information. It shows their understanding of the requirements of that particular role.

CP: What other projects are you currently working on?

BM: I am writing a book called Dish: Women Tell the Truth About Work, Relationships, and the Rest of Life. The publishers see it as a landmark book. It will be out in the Spring, published by McClelland & Stewart.