Jayson Blair

There are many signs that the Washington economy has experienced a resurgence. Unemployent is below the national average. Housing prices are better than they have been in recent years. Foreclosures here are happening at much lower rates than places like Baltimore, Las Vegas, South Florida and Phoenix. It’s a wonder with all the good economic news that we do such brisk business in career coaching in Northern Virginia. Some of our clients include high school, college students and college graduates trying to find where their aptitudes and interests align with their purpose and passion. Some of our clients include those returning to the workforce, like the stay-at-home dad re-entered as a budget analyst at a large government agency. Others are doing financially well but don’t have passion for their work, like the high-paid government contractor who was a rising star at his company who left to work as an entrepreneur in a gym business. But we have recently been seeing two new types ...

We all are often asked why we do things. We often don't have logical, cogent answers. I often get asked the question "Why" I do certain things, and I often rationalize my answers - my "go big or go home personality," because of the righteousness of the mission or because of the outcomes. Sometimes, it's because of what my man David says. I'm just shooting until I run out of bullets. Many of my friends and former colleagues are writers, and several of them have sharp wit and insight. For those who are blessed by the talent gene pool, none can compare to the hard-working yeoman, David Carr, a media columnist at The New York Times, who has an ability to consistently throw the last-minute, three-point literary shoot to win the game or to just run up the score. David has a way with words that sets him far apart from many of his contemporaries. He once wrote a column about the future of journalism in New York City in the cadence of E.B. White's "Here ...

Quotations are the last refuge of the intellectually lazy -- but they beat trying to think of something pithy of your own -- and this one is one of those classic quotes that I share with my high school and college students who are struggling with becoming more mature. Clichés have resonance because they reflect underlying truth, and when it comes to the fulfilling, fraught, fun-filled, fertile, formative and fluctuating, world of growing up you can't say it much better. "Meek young men grow up in libraries, believing it their duty to accept the views which Cicero, which Locke, which Bacon, have given, forgetful that Cicero, Locke, and B acon were only young men in libraries, when they wrote these books." Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote this in an essay I have on my shelf at home, where he eviscerates those who would become bookworms, instead of using and abusing books, as they learn and in life, and as an ode to the power of creation and its link to action. In the last thre...

There has been a surge in recent calls to Ashburn Psychological Services from people looking to figure out what to door with their careers or to make a occupation change. One of the questions I often get during phone consultations is about the difference between career coaches and career counselors. Though the lines between career counseling and career coaching have become blurred, there are some distinctions that can make a big difference in determining your future. Coaching is usually more individualized, results-oriented and guided by the client's agenda. Counseling and psychology often seek to fix what psychologists called pathology, whereas career counseling focuses on identifying career interests, aptitudes and creating a life skills plans that allows clients to accomplish those goals. A career coach can help you, like a career counselor, figure out where you want to be through talking and testing, but a coach usually also helps develop a plan, coach you on the interview pro...

So, I broke my own record for career evaluation, testing, interpretation, report writing and feedback yesterday. A client who is a college student at the University of Virginia and first met me in January came in to be tested at 10 am on Monday and I was able to interpret, write and report and discuss the results with her by 6 pm on Thursday. We had to get it done before she returned to school from Spring Break and it was a whirlwind process. The best part of the process was how much the testing results and recommendations, despite the short amount of time for analysis and writing, rang true for the client, her brother (a former client), her mother and others in her life. This all makes me think of how far we have come in the area of career testing. I've been able to help high school and college students, corporate executives, mid-level managers, government workers, clerical workers, para-professionals, professionals (even a medical doctor) and all sorts of others over the last yea...