A Professional Portfolio is an organized compilation including pictures and if possible physical samples (including pictures and newspaper clippings) of your personal and professional accomplishments, experiences, training and education. It can contain stories of life experiences, vacations and learning moments. It can be used as part of all your career development activities:

• An archive to mine for career insights
• A master CV from which to develop your targeted CV’s
• A targeted version to present during an interview
• A place to store examples and stories to use for interview preparation (we often need a little help remembering these)
• A support tool to remind you of who you are and all you have done

It can also be a family activity! I have been promoting the use of a portfolio for children beginning at an elementary age for a number of years now as well. I developed a workshop on this for the Dutch Catholic Parents Association and I even gave some good friends kids portfolios for their birthdays. This week I heard what a difference this gift made for the seven-year-old daughter of a dear friend.

Here’s the story of Leila. Kids can be quite hard on each other as we all know and probably experienced ourselves while growing up.  Just last week Leila’s friend said some horrible things to her for no reason that she could understand and pronounced their friendship as over.  This left her feeling confused and hurt.  As she sought for answers within herself, my friend, her mom, was helping her put it into perspective. “Sometimes arguments happen because of things that we have done wrong, and sometimes it is not our fault at all. We can’t always have everyone like us who we want to have like us”, she said. Then sought for something deeper. She underscored that the most important thing is to know yourself, “then you won’t be filled with doubts and ‘I should haves’ and ‘I should be’s ”. My friend remembered Leila’s portfolio and suggested they look at what Leila wrote about herself last year and the year before during the May vacations. Leafing through the portfolio, Leila laughed, enjoying hearing her own words about herself again. She saw how much she had changed and grown, recognized what remained constant about her character and interests, and also noted what she thought she would like to improve.  She went to bed feeling strong in herself and was able to let go of the worry she felt about the situation. The next day the friend apologized and all was forgiven.

That afternoon while walking back from a school outing Leila and her friend were followed by some slightly older boys who were taunting them and said some things that were intended to hurt and tease. Leila turned around and said jauntily, “Ha, that just shows that you don’t know me at all if you think you can say that about me!” The boys had no words to respond and Leila felt proud of herself  “in a new way”, she said. What a gift for a child to have those insights and strengths at seven years old.

It’s also a great gift for yourself. Adults reading this will recognize that the themes in Leila’s story can recur at any age. My own experience is that during transition, work search and relocation, my portfolio gave me the reminders of who I was and what I had accomplished that fed my motivation to make one more contact, to knock on one more door, to send one more application and to attend one more networking event on the way towards my career goals.

I am so happy that I made that very simple start on a portfolio. It doesn’t have to be elaborate. It just needs to be there. Facebook and LinkedIn can also become a sort of portfolio for you, but I think a paper version is an ‘unmissable’ tool for us all in these times of change and transition. What will it take for your to make yours?

Note: There are tips and a step by step process for developing your own portfolio in A Career in Your Suitcase, 4^th edition.

Mr. Tibbs the cat loses his job and starts out on a journey of discovery…

Read The Permanent Cat.

The statement, ‘she’s just an amateur’ tends to devalue someone’s achievement. When you think of being an amateur in the sense doing something because you love it and not being coerced through other motivators, it puts a whole different light on it. I am happy to be an amateur pianist and singer. Playing music allows me to express something from deep inside. It is not something I want attention for. I do it purely for the love of it. It brings me joy.

Because it is Valentine’s Day I’d like to encourage you to celebrate Valentine’s Day in this way: take some time to enjoy an amateur endeavour of yours today. Do something on Valentine’s day for the love of it!

p.s. Do this every day!

Your choices lie in:

• how you combine your different life-roles: parent, partner, daughter/son, sibling, friend, sports enthusiast,  community member, mentor, learner, occupation, etc.
• what elements you choose to give the most priority to and find most satisfying
• what skills and qualities you choose to invest in the different aspects of your life
• how you weave in economic and labour market factors

All of these together determine how the fabric of your career will look. The way all these elements are incorporated make your career unique and yours alone.

For a career to become portable or mobile it is essential that you start with this mindset of crafting your career. To start with appreciating what you have already woven into your career, of looking at the currently available threads and choosing those that will continue to take your career fabric in a personally desirable direction. It is also a time to step back and explore how your fabric could be looked at from a new angle and thus creating openings for unplanned threads to be woven in. There will always be more than one way of working a thread into your career fabric, and there will always be more than one thread available when you widen your perspective.

A flexible and creative mindset is needed to widen your perspective. This is a mindset that recognizes that you have control over your responses to life events and that security comes from knowing your skills and finding ways to apply them. A mindset that is willing to see the choices available and recognize the options that seem to be most promising. A mindset that is flexible, creative and willing to take an informed risk. That sees a career as something you are continually adjusting and crafting as your life and life-roles develop and change, as the world develops and changes, and as you move from one location to another.

A creative and crafting mind-set also provides the needed foundation to find ways around, over and through the hurdles and obstacles that appear along the way. Whether the hurdle is a language barrier, a work permit barrier, limited Internet access or a credential issue, creatively thinking from a transferrable skill perspective will generate options.

This creativity is fed by the inspiring context of connections with the other people in your life, past and present. It is often the case that the perspective you need is sparked by your interaction with someone else. Using these perspectives and approaches, weave yourself a magic carpet career that will take you anywhere in the world!

The Brookfield Relocation Trends Survey 2012 clearly identifies that failure of the spouse (and family) to adapt well is the top reason identified by respondents for failure of an international assignment. So the survey would say the answer to this question is the spouse. The Brookfield 2012 survey also points out that most spouses who were employed prior to the posting still want to work while on assignment. There is a major identity shift that takes place on the part of the spouse in an international assignment. How one defines ‘career’ or ‘meaningful activity’ makes a big difference to the options available as an expat. There is no one-size-fits-all response from the company itself that will work for everyone.

Take responsibility of managing the process for yourself and your own situation.

So what are possible solutions? A finding in the Career Choice and the Accompanying Partner Summary Report, July 2012 (www.AccompanyingPartner.com) noted that the personal characteristics of the accompanying partner play a role in determining their sense of fulfillment while on assignment. In many ways it really comes down to the person themselves and how they approach it all. Key qualities that have been identified for success as an expat include:

• Flexibility
• Curiosity
• Empathy
• Sense of humor
• Sense of adventure
• Collaborative and social approach
• Respect for differences
• Cultural (self) awareness
• Realistic expectations (based on pre-assignment preparation)

Regarding expectations, understanding that relocation is a process and not an event can help. Frequent relocation means repeating the first parts of the process over and over again, without necessarily getting through the process far enough to feel ‘really settled’ or ‘at home’ in ways that may be important to you. Some people find the first parts of the process exhilarating and the last parts of the process boring. Others long for the last parts of the process they seem to never quite achieve before moving again.

The Career Choice and the Accompanying Partner Summary Report, July 2012, found that those who had been abroad the longest reported the highest levels of fulfillment. Those in the first year of an assignment rated themselves as the most unfulfilled. These results may speak to the fact that those who have been through the process more often and perhaps more completely have developed the skills needed to succeed on assignment. Those at the beginning have yet to learn and more fully develop the skills that experienced accompanying partners have. It is unrealistic to expect to have relocating and adjusting all sorted out within a few months or even a year. Set yourself the goal to actively learn these skills and stay at it. Expat skills are highly transferrable to many settings and crossover with what are also called employability skills.

What type of person are you?

Respond to the statements below by answering if they are more true or more false for you.

• Change excites me.
• I long for adventure.
• I don’t like routine.
• I’m curious.
• I enjoy people, all kinds.
• I like it ‘my way’.
• I’m open to learning.
• I’m experienced with transition.
• I adjust plans along the way.
• I can ask for help.

Knowing this about yourself, you can identify where you can learn, adjust and be more flexible in order to succeed as a person making international transitions. Whatever you do, don’t do it alone. Connecting and sharing with others online and especially where you are physically will make a huge difference. Journaling about your experiences will help you reflect and learn as much as possible from the experiences. This, alongside reading related books (visit www.expatbookshop.com) and resources will help you gain insights into the process on which you have embarked. All of these activities will help you learn what questions to ask next. Being interested, curious and asking questions can build connections and open some amazing doors to help create an unforgettable, personally meaningful international experience as an accompanying spouse.

The principles of improvisational theatre and the skills needed to keep the action going on the stage will also help you to keep the action going in your life. Improvisational theatre is a great tool for today’s world, and it makes life a lot more fun too.

Improvisational skills will help you to:

1. Create momentum in your life and career
2. Connect you with others
3. Teach you to take risks
4. Help you overcome a fear of failure
5. Learn how be in the present
6. Let opportunity help shape your journey
7. Exude a ‘YES, and!’ attitude

Interestingly enough, in true improv the emphasis is not on the performance or trying to be funny, it is on letting the narrative unfold and keeping the energy flowing on stage. It’s about making the other guy look good. These are also desirable elements for your own life narrative.

Here are two fun clips that can give you a sense of what improv can look like. These professionals are simply applying the techniques of improv to produce these results. Learning and practicing these techniques is what improvisational theatre groups do. See if there is one located near you and sign up!

Mission Improvable (Vancouver, Canada)

The technique in this clip is great for learning more about yourself in a team, listening, being in the moment and making the other guy look good. See how the ‘mistake’ adds to the enjoyment and fun. You can also see when they are not being in the moment as effectively and what happens then.

Whose Line is It Anyway? (USA, with Robin Williams)

This clip demonstrates how far you can go with these skills, although since it is for TV they often tend to use elements that will get a quick laugh. Here you will see making the other guy look good, being in the moment, advancing the offer and more. You will also see what happens when someone gets a little bit distracted and isn’t in the moment.

Come to the Connecting Women meeting in the Hague on Monday, May 7, 2012.  I will be facilitating a session to introduce you to the principles of improv and let you experience them for yourself. You are guaranteed to laugh and go home feeling energized. I hope to see you there.

I came across this film clip today and wanted to share it with you. It is a 17 minute talk by Simon Sinek called ‘start with why’. His ‘golden circle’ elegantly explains this concept.

He also explains how this circle expresses the brain’s natural functioning and gives insight into your own decision making. Knowing your own ‘why’ is a critical piece for doing what you do meaningfully and authentically. Being able to communicate your why is also something that convinces hiring managers that you are the person they cannot do without, in addition to your skills and competenties. Your why will keep you going in times when the going is difficult. It can give you focus and purpose. It will also help you say no when you need to.

My own why is empowering people to make personally meaningful career choices. In other words, I want to help others connect with their why and find ways to live that out in their life and career. Let me know how I can help you.

There is no clear answer to the question, although if you look at it from the big picture of what a career is, there are insights to be gained.

There are a number of perspectives from which to view your life-work (career) and that impacts how you communicate it to others. If you are a trailing spouse, you have found yourself in a unique situation which will impact your sense of self and identity. I look at career from a holistic perspective that includes all elements of your life (work, learning, leisure, life roles). This allows you the freedom to express your own unique self and find your own personally meaningful way in the world, including that of paid employment if required or if you choose. It also allows you to incorporate expat experiences, paid or unpaid. When you define career this way, then including your role as a mother becomes an essential part of your career story and something to include in your profile.

Perhaps though you want to include some elements of your career story on your Facebook timeline and keep LinkedIn just for what you would consider professional roles. I understand the urge to provide the complete story and fill in the professional ‘gaps’ that people worry will undermine their chances. Just as with a resume, if the elements of the story you do provide are compelling and convincing, then people will be interested in knowing more. Take the time to understand your story to date; be convinced yourself that you have valuable skills and experience and trust that those you include in your LinkedIn profile will be enough to open the conversations that will lead you to the fulfilling opportunities you seek.

If you do not get the responses you are hoping for then, just like with a resume, continue to revise your profile until you do. Again, just as in a resume, prepare your LinkedIn profile with a focus and purpose. For example, if you work with youth, perhaps having children yourself is an experience that adds credibility to your professional training and experience and thus it makes more sense for you to include it than for people in other lines of work. The book Career Management via LinkedIn suggests a simple title like ‘time out to raise children’. In the case of the youth worker example, using a more specific sentence which profiles the personal experience and makes it professionally relevant may be appropriate. As an alternative, this information could be included in a carefully worded LinkedIn profile summary. For example a more personally specific version of, ‘Over 10 years of professional and personal experience with youth issues’ could be used.

A final tip is to join the LinkedIn groups relevant to your profession and career path and take a look at other member’s profiles. Learn from what others are doing and what you think communicates most concisely and effectively for you. You can update your LinkedIn profile every few weeks so don’t feel you have to get it 100% right the first time. The key is to make a start and be visible on LinkedIn. By contributing actively to LinkedIn groups you will be able to demonstrate your competence in your area of expertise and a gap in your experience will become less of an issue to those viewing your profile.

Steve Jobs in his 2005 Stanford University Commencement Address used the metaphor of Connecting the Dots to tell graduates that, in life “you can’t connect the dots looking forward. You can only connect them looking backwards… Believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well-worn path, and that will make all the difference..” Steve Jobs 2005 Stanford University Commencement Address. Steve Jobs followed his heart in his course selection at college and took a calligraphy course. If he hadn’t done that it’s quite possible that an appreciation for fonts and how words look would not have been part of our personal computer experience for as long as it has. He certainly had no idea when he chose to take that course that he would apply the learning from that course when creating a personal computer!

Trust that your dots will connect and follow your heart!

A ‘career crisis’, as this could be termed, is often a lack of imagination or the ability to see a different future than the one currently in front of you. It could also be the inability to connect current activities with what’s really important to you in life. The career development process is one that assists people to gain the insights needed to get unstuck; to set goals, dream new dreams, learn more about themselves and find and create new opportunities.  Spring is just the time to get started on growing new things. The days are longer and often this is accompanied with new energy to plant seeds and nuture dreams.

As a way to nurture the desire for something new, go for a walk outside and pay attention to all the spring changes you see. New shoots poking out of the ground. Buds on the trees with just a hint of green starting to poke out. Birds sitting in their nests keeping their eggs warm. Let go of your own worries and desire for changes and appreciate all the changes you see happening right in front of you.  After having had this experience you may find that you have created a little mental space for yourself to start dreaming something new or rediscovering an idea that was planted long ago. You may have a different way to create this space for yourself, but whatever you do do not get hung up on exactly how you are going to make it happen. The momentum you create by opening yourself up and dreaming your dream again will help you discover the next step. You will also no longer feel like you are stuck anymore.

If you would like assistance getting ‘unstuck’, please contact me for a free information session. As a client recently said, it makes things so much clearer just to be able to talk about them.