Ep. 88: Alison Cardy – What to Do When You’re Feeling Stuck in your Career

Alison Cardy is an expert coach who runs an international career coaching team specializing in guiding people through career changes. She personally coaches a handful of select clients on creating greater alignment and success in their life, love, and work. She has the unique ability to zero in on the perspective shifts and small tweaks that create the biggest positive results. She’s written the 5-star rated bestseller Career Grease: How to Get Unstuck and Pivot Your Career. Her work has been featured in many publications. Alison is eager to share some great tips and experiences with us today.

TWEET: “You get expert help for your car, and your #career should be no different.” @cardycareers

Getting Unstuck

Have you ever felt stuck? Most people probably feel this way at one time or another—or maybe several times! Alison’s specialty is helping people get unstuck from jobs, degrees, or careers that haven’t been a perfect fit. Sometimes we just have to ease the gunk away so we can move forward. Alison’s solution is a structured, systematic process in finding clarity.

TWEET: “Going through multiple #career changes doesn’t make you an expert on career change.” @cardycareers

Things that hold people back

What holds people back from making changes? Alison has a few reasons that so many fail to ask for help. Some people just don’t realize that helpful resources are available. The idea that work can be fulfilling and purposeful is a relatively modern idea. Some people think “going back to school” is the solution to find what they want to do. Some go about solving the problem in the wrong way, which leads to analysis paralysis and looping thought patterns. Finally, as helpful as friends and family might be, they are not the best go-to resource for career advice, for various reasons.

TWEET: “Going ‘back to school’ is a seductive idea for many.” @cardycareers

Commonalities among stuck people

Why do people seek help? The answer is because they are in pain. They’ve tried other things and they feel hopeless. When pain brings people to this point then they are ready to put in the work to sort things out and fix the pain. If only they could figure that out sooner, then they could increase their level of engagement and be willing to ask for help.

TWEET: “The idea that “you can do anything” is really stressful.” @cardycareers

GUEST RECOMMENDATION: Think of something you can do that gets you out in the world, talking to real people about what you want to be doing.
OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE:
[1:25} “Career Grease”—where the book title came from
[5:15] How stuck people find Alison
[7:30] Get professional help for your career
[9:40] Things that hold people back
[21:00] The solution for the next generation
[25:40] Why Alison doesn’t work with people straight out of college
[27:25] Commonalities among stuck people
[32:41] Taking charge and ownership
[35:15] Ask for help
[37:30] Alison’s action for a dream chaser to take