CAREER DEVELOPMENT COACH MOTIVATES JOB SEEKERS

Stephanie Heath is a career development coach who helps former workaholics, empaths and soft-spoken professionals in the tech and tech adjacent space to resign from the positions that drain them. Photo courtesy of Stephanie Heath
Stephanie Heath is a career development coach who helps former workaholics, empaths and soft-spoken professionals in the tech and tech adjacent space to resign from the positions that drain them. Photo courtesy of Stephanie Heath

 Career development coach motivates job seekers

BY TIA CAROL JONES
     Stephanie Heath is a career development coach who has seen both sides of the job market, as someone seeking opportunities and as someone who recruits candidates for opportunities.
     Because of her expertise, she has been named Top 10 Career Coach to follow on LinkedIn. On her website, soulworkandselfies.com, Heath helps those who want to exit the job market as well as those who want to negotiate their salaries.
     Heath said that during COVID-19, what she does has changed drastically. She said before COVID-19, there were a lot of job listings posted and a lot of movement. She said it is a lot more difficult for entry level people to get hired because they’re competing with those more experienced people who are looking for jobs, due to layoffs. Also, positions have either been discontinued or budgets have been removed for certain roles. “Now that we’re starting to see that come back and we’re starting to see more remote roles come back. But, there was a moment there when it was just really difficult,” she said.
      When coaching others about career development, Heath talks about soul alignment. She said it is finding a company and a role that is the person’s dream, where co-workers feel like friends and aren’t in quiet competition or where they aren’t the only minority so they have to code switch and don’t feel like they can be themselves.
     “It’s basically aligning the two, what is the role I went to college for that I’m really obsessed with, that I really don’t think about anymore because I have bills to pay, plus finding it at a company that’s made for you where you can be yourself,” she said. “I think it’s important for everyone to go after that now and it’s completely possible for you to do it. It just takes a few steps.”
     Heath said those steps include getting really clear, using Heath’s Market Value Guide. In that process, she said it gets people to fall back in love with themselves. Instead of focusing on things they hate about their job or the reason why the jobs is bad, the focus with the guide brings a sense of optimism and hope.
     “The questions that it asks, it starts to make you ponder different things you haven’t thought about before, then get the courage to either change your LinkedIn or start working on your resume,” she said.
     Heath also suggested people brand themselves on LinkedIn. She said there are so many tools on that platform that can help people brand themselves for the role they are targeting. She said the tools on LinkedIn include using the headline space to call yourself the role you are targeting and using the summary space to talk about why you’re transitioning to another role. “Using it [LinkedIn] to tell that story and having recruiters start messaging you and finding you, because you have all these new keywords that’s triggering the LinkedIn algorithm,” she said.
     Heath also talked about interviewing confidently. She used white males as an example who are “out there” and who are “super confident, that have two years of experience interviewing for CTO roles at startups because they want to, and they don’t feel like they can’t,” she said. “I feel like a lot of times with women or people who are soft-spoken or people pleasing and minorities, we tend to feel like we need to have all these certifications, xyz degrees and it’s ridiculous because I’m out here hiring, and I see other people not needing to do all that and getting these high six-figure positions because they were just brave enough and they just have the audacity,” she said.
     For more information about Stephanie Heath, visit soulworkandselfies.com.

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