I can’t help but compare our situation today, to almost 100 years ago when the tramway started replacing carriages and stagecoaches.  

​Many employees lost their jobs, companies went bankrupt and so naturally, there was some resistance to the tram with people comparing it to a devil or goblin.

Are you worried about the new technology? Everyone seems to be using the acronym AI and trying to explain it. Too many articles, workshops and webinars are popping up. Everyone is sharing their experiences and expertise.
 
How are you feeling?
 
Who do you trust more? Cyber-physical systems or humans? Technology or people? Are you worried about hackers? Are you scared of the new technology in the same way that people in the 1900s were?

Ladies and gentlemen, the future is here and you need to embrace innovative knowledge and skills. Yes, jobs will be lost and companies will go bankrupt and you may find yourself looking for a new opportunity or even a fresh career.

Attending every AI webinar or reading every article on recent innovations available is not going to be enough for you to be ready.

You can, if this is of interest to you. However, your priority should be to explore, experiment and experience. It is the most significant way to alleviate your concerns.

Evolution is perfectly normal. Technological innovations indicate progress. And you are in the middle of this wonderful era.

You need to be a part of this advancement if you want to remain a part of the workforce.

​Remember the dinosaurs? Recent research shows that dinosaurs became extinct because they could not adapt to the new conditions on Earth

​I like to think we are smarter than the dinosaurs. And based on past innovations, you know better than the people who resisted the tram. You have access to innovative tools and you need to adapt to fit in a world that is constantly changing.
 
Have you already adapted your job mindset to deal with innovative technologies? How are you growing professionally? Which skills have you developed to keep your place as an expert in your field? Please share.

A few years ago, we were calling them the skills of the future and they had many names depending on who and what you asked. The most common name in North America was soft skills. I’ve also seen them called success skills, human skills, and non-cognitive skills. They were basically the work skills that you needed to learn to stay marketable including:

1. Creativity 
2. Persuasion
3. Collaboration 
4. Adaptability 
5. Emotional Intelligence

​
Can you think of other skills?

While the above-mentioned skills are still beneficial, the new skill I suggest is an inherent mindset shift to be open to change and to increasing your opportunities to experiment and explore.

I evaluated colleagues’ advice and reviewed clients’ feedback. I reflected using questions such as:
​
1.How do I persuade a twenty-year-old to make my services a priority?
2.What type of services would appeal to a 15-year-old who is not getting along with their parents?
3.Which unique career services make me stand out in my profession?
4.And last, but not least, in an age where AI powered chatbots are writing resumes and providing coaching support, what chances do I have against AI?

I reinvented my services to reignite innovation and passion for me and my clients.

In an age where everybody is talking about AI and how to handle new technology, and based on recommendation from my colleague, Dr Brian Hutchison, I re-humanized my services. Face to face interactions and human support are dwindling. I found a gap in the field and upped my game.

My goal was and continues to focus on helping clients transition from school/higher education to higher education/work by knowing who they are, how they grow and what’s next for them. I also still delve into clients’ specific needs going beyond goals.

However, I now provide regular check-ins, consistent nudging and a 24-hour support line.

My clients love this service!

I focus on accountability and handholding. I help clients stay accountable while offering steady support when setbacks occur.
 
Take the time reflect and ignite self-awareness to ensure your continued success. Don’t be like the dinosaurs or the people scared of trams.
 
How are you adapting and winning the future in your industry?
 
Share your story and let’s support each other during these exciting and innovative times.

It is an acronym I came up with to support my young clients. Feel free to play around with the words and create your own acronym.

What’s the tool’s name? Discover your BEAVI©
​
The acronym facilitates reflection on what makes you happy, what gives you meaning and motivates you to act i.e., the thing that prompts you to get up and start doing stuff.
BEAVI is an acronym for:
B - Beliefs
E - Experiences
A - Abilities/Skills
V - Values
I - Interests
 
With my support and assistance clients proceed to unravel the value of these five factors through powerful inquisitive questioning and 5 tasks that raise awareness, stimulate reflection, and provide in-depth insight into my clients’ BEAVI©.

Discover your BEAVI © Bundle is a professionally designed narrative career coaching instrument. Use Discover your BEAVI© Bundle as a resource to assist you in launching self-awareness among your students or young clients. A Discover your BEAVI result underscores each client’s unique repertoire. The assessment tool is very simple and its power lies in its simplicity.
​
Discover your BEAVI© supports you to enable students to understand their BEAVI © (beliefs, experiences, abilities, values and interests). It is intended to be a self-awareness and personal reflexivity tool. 

Self-assessment plays an important role in helping youth discover what is most important to them. Start with group discussions if you are using the BEAVI© in your classroom and follow up with individual conversations to elevate self-awareness and increase engagement. It is the self-knowledge and the discussions that motivate students to employ their BEAVI© and take the next confident step.
​
The discussions should focus on what students can do and choose the category that they think is a best fit. As they self-assess and think about everyday behaviour, utilizing the questions below, they will move forward. There is no right or wrong answer. Students do not need to answer the questions, they are provided to launch self-reflection.
 
·      What are the first words that come to mind when describing yourself? 
·      What do you consider to be your two or three most outstanding accomplishments from the past three or four years? Why did you select these as most important? 
·      Reflect on any experiences that you think are reflective of your personality, character, intellectual capacity or passions. Be prepared to talk about your choice.
·      In what area(s) have you shown the most development and growth during the past three or four years?
·      What do you consider to be your most outstanding personality trait? 
What do you like to do during your free time?                                                               

BEAVI© results provide a visual of who they are, what they have accomplished, and the experiences they enjoyed. In effect, a self-assessment opportunity.
​
Try the coaching and assessment out and connect with me if you have any questions or concerns. Remember, if you are working one-on-one with young clients, make sure to alternate tasks with reflexive conversations.

The past few months have been busy supporting young clients to complete university applications. Most applications require students to write essays that describe their lives, successes, failures, commitments and or learning. They are asked questions that many adults may not be able to answer. Yet, the young students persevere in completing the applications convinced that this is the path for them.
 
I can see the huge transformation in my young clients. The essay questions lead them to dig deep to uncover who they are and truly get to know themselves (beliefs, experiences, abilities, values, and interests or BEAVI© as I like to call them) and where they are headed. They evolve from having little self-awareness to gaining a deeper understanding of their true identity and how they fit in the world.

Many parents criticize universities for mandating these essays as part of the application process. You have to agree that the process is very stressful. As a Career and Academic Coach, I find the reflection that goes into writing these essays very valuable. The reflection process takes them on a very unique yet challenging journey. As my young clients struggle and persevere, I find myself wondering, if we want to prepare students for the world of work, why were students not asked these career reflective questions in school?
 
The resistance is clear.

Starting career conversations at 13 years old is too early, firmly stated a parent as I was getting ready to present at a parent event.
 
Statistics agree... “Among youth aged 25 who were asked about their career expectations on a regular basis from the age of 15, few held to the career expectations they had as teenagers” (Statistics Canada, 2015). So perhaps the parent knows something I don’t???

I agree, I replied, particularly if we are asking them, what do you want to be when you grow up? This is NOT a career conversation.
 
I encouraged the parent to listen first and engage after...

"Career guidance should consist of offering sufficiently varied work experiences, and counselling when individuals experience conflicts that impede direction finding" (Luken, 2019). Great research and I also agree. I am big on encouraging exploration and planned experiences. However, if we wait until it is time to find direction, we may have waited too long.

“More than 13% of young adults were still undecided about a career at age 25, while almost 4 in 10 (38.3%) had decided to pursue a new career” (Statistics Canada, 2015).

Students hesitate to take action or commit to a decision because they are typically presented with structured weekly schedules. Real life is not so neatly packed. Some students experienced the chaos that life can be during COVID. Research is showing that this experience was almost a good one teaching students to adapt, a skill that is typically not taught in school.

Life is chaotic presenting us with new problems and tough decisions every single day. “The notion of traditional occupations that have provided vocational stability is vanishing, and university students are being trained for occupations that are yet to be discovered” (Livingstone, 2018). Imagine where your thoughts would be headed if you were in high school...

Career conversations at an early age (yes 13 and younger) focus on constructing identity, taking initiative and pursuing interests. Career initiatives at an early age centre on becoming socially active (yes, pick up the playground garbage with your child or volunteer in homeless shelters) or building an awareness of the work of others. Career guidance at an early age encourages understanding of stereotypes and employing creativity to solve problems.

“Awareness, and education were primarily identified as having been helpful and wished for” in a recent study that aimed to investigate career decision making among successful youth (Nordin & Mathew, 2024).

Most importantly, career development at an early age is about opening young minds to learn and experience a life typically lived in chaos so they are not hesitant when it is time to decide on what's next.

University admission letters have trickled in adding new dilemmas to the young people I work with. The “reach” universities that have said, “we are pleased” bring with them financial cost, separation from home and adapting to a new lifestyle that my young clients did not have time to think about. The letters that started with, “we regret to” transport students to a state of utter dismay and uncertainty. How well do we prepare students for these situations?
 
More importantly, how well have we prepared students to transition from school to life after grade 12? So many choices (job, college, university, apprenticeship...) yet so little time if we wait till grade 11 or 12 to have career infused conversations.

Have fun! Reflect and share!