Career Coach/Job Coach/Headhunter wanted!

Firstly, what are your interests?  Teaching?  Technology?  Finance and accounting?

Secondly, what did you do before?  What sort of skills does that equate to?  What soft skills do you feel you possess?

Thirdly, what do you NOT want to do?  What sort of things in a job would you absolutely hate?

Write them down, then look for something that matches. 

Oh, I'm in a similar boat! I had been with a company in various capacities for nearly 20 years, then decided to leave and try something I figured I'd like. That didn't quite pan out as I had hoped and I was let go for reasons I'm not fully sure of after only a month. So that was nearly 3 months ago and here I am pondering...what do I want to be when I grow up. I know what I DON'T want to do but then there's that pesky reality that we need an additional income sooooo eventually I may be forced to compromise.

I did go to a networking dealeo that is nationwide. It's called Gray Management Networking (geared towards those mid-upper career levels and not necessarily older) http://www.grayhairmanagement.com/

Also, there's www.worldwit.org that has been great (local chapters) from everything from job info, business start ups, recipes and travel etc..

I'll be interested to read others' responses too.

I'm going to slightly disagree with surfwallace. I'm a technical recruiter in Portland and I only take electronic resumes. My clients want resumes emailed due to confidentiality. Networking is critical but a good chunk of clients don't make certain openings public so they rely on professional recruiters to fill those openings. It definitely depends on the type of work. I work on some senior level positions (IT Director through C-Level positions) and those are hardly ever made public. Positions where employees are being replaced are never made public within a company so that's where we step in.

I have a lot of job hunting tips and articles that are up-to-date. I obviously follow hiring trends very closely so that I can be proactive in the market. I have one article in particular entitled, "How to Answer the Tell Me About Yourself Question." You wouldn't believe the success I've had with my candidates. Most interviews start with some form of this question and most people answer it ineffectively.

You can send me an email at: sharon at ATSIGroup dot com and I'll email you the articles and some interview and networking tips including how to have a successful phone interview. LinkedIn is great and has been very effective for me as well.

Good luck!!
Sharon

I'm going to agree with Elektra as well on the subject of resumes (I'm in HR/Recruiting).  I'd much rather get electronic resumes than paper.  Easier to store, search, recall, and distribute. Most recruiters get hundreds of resumes a week--I don't need that much paper in my office. 

Is that @ATSIGroup dot .com or just @ATSIGroup.com?

Reminds me of when my Father first got online and he would spell out the . (dot)

Amen.  I deal with enough paper as it is.  I was out of my office yesterday and came in this morning to 139 emails.  Oy.  That was fun to sort.

And Tim...stop making fun of the way I gave out my email....I don't want any more spam than I normally get!!!  Just for that:  No article for you! (yes, I channeled the Soup Nazi.)