Career Planning
Why Can’t I Get a Job?
How to Debunk the “No One’s Hiring” Myth: Twelve Proven Methods to Help You Land—Yes!—a Job Looking for a job right now feels overwhelming. But companies are hiring, and, if you do the right things, one will hire you. The Five… Read more
Successful Job Hunters Report Getting Meetings and Handling Interviews
When job seekers first contact The Five O’Clock Club to inquire about our services, one of the things that they most frequently ask about is working with one of our coaches to upgrade their current résumé. Many people beginning their job search… Read more
Having a Written Plan in Achieving Your Goals
A recent study at Dominican University compared different groups from various professions on their success in achieving certain goals. The degree of their success in achieving these goals (e.g., learning a new skill or increasing their income)… Read more
Discovering Spot Opportunities to Advance Your Career
In the contemporary realities of the 21st Century it pays to engage in non-traditional approaches to your career design or job search. One such approach is the practice of finding and taking advantage of “spot opportunities.” Persistently… Read more
Developing New Momentum in Your Campaign
This week’s Five O’Clock Club presentation was on “Developing New Momentum in Your Campaign.” It reminded me of the summertime can cause job hunters to lose momentum in their searches. At the 5OCC, we know from the experiences of our… Read more
Getting Your Mojo On
One of the goals of The Five O’Clock Club is to reach out to potential members through speeches to professional organizations in order to increase its own membership. After all, the 5OCC is as much about career development as it about job… Read more
The Successful Job Hunters’ Report Five O’Clock Clubbers Tell You How They Did It
Listening to our successful job hunters tell their stories of triumph, it is amazing how each story seems to build on the other. The same kinds of issues take on a different complexion each time, showing how personal and unique the process is for… Read more
A Successful International Assignment Begins with The Five O’Clock Club’s Fifteen- Year Vision and Seven Stories Exercises
As an executive coach working in Tokyo helping expatriates manage their careers overseas, I was looking for a methodology that I could use to get them thinking about what life after an international assignment might look like. It was at this time,… Read more
Thinking of Having Your Own Business? Start with The Seven Stories Exercise and Lots of Research
Fifteen percent of those who attend the Club start their own businesses. Many become consultants. For example, an actor who attended the Club became a presentation coach for senior executives. Some start growth businesses (such as a… Read more
The Six Missing Pieces
by David Madison, Ph.D., Director, The Five O’Clock Club National Guild of Career Coaches In the fall of 2009, a member of the Club told me that he would like to change coaches. He said that he had been attending his small group for eight months,… Read more
Having A Career Instead of a Job
by Kate Wendleton Most people say their main fault is a lack of discipline. On deeper thought, I believe that is not the case. The basic problem is that their priorities have not become deeply planted in their hearts and minds. Stephen R…. Read more
How to Target the Job You Want
I always wanted to be somebody, but I should have been more specific. Lily Tomlin Now we will work on firming up your job targets. You will do some preliminary research on each target through the Internet or library and by talking to people to see… Read more
Selling Your Value on the Job: How to Be a Winner
By Stacey Jerrold, Certified Five O’Clock Club Coach Have you ever felt stalled in your job? Perhaps you have been working at your company for a few years, getting good feedback and decent annual reviews…but you’re not getting ahead. You and… Read more
Make Sure You’re Headed in a Satisfying Direction
by Kate Wendleton Last week, I met Andy, a mid-level accountant who simply wanted another job in accounting. Where he worked didn’t matter to him. He just needed money so he could live his real life at home. He said he had never had a truly… Read more
Your Boss and Your Career
by Dwight Clarke, Five O’Clock Club Career Coach, with David Madison What kind of grade will you give to your career on the day you get the gold watch? Of course, nobody actually gets a gold watch anymore—it’s become a metaphor and a cliché… Read more
Isn’t It Time You Got Yourself a Career Coach?
by Aurora Brito, certified Five O’Clock Club Career Coach As a career coach in private practice, I am often asked what it is exactly that I do. If you are reading this magazine you probably have a better understanding of the role of a career… Read more
An Open Letter to Five O’Clock Club Members
by Steve Sidorsky Successful job-hunters are always encouraged to return to the Club after landing new jobs or consulting assignments. In lieu of a personal appearance, Steve addressed this letter to Jim Borland, the head of the Five O’Clock Club… Read more
Going for Jobs, Consulting and Career Change
By: David Madison, PhD, Guild Director Keeping the Big Picture in Mind: Aiming for 200 Positions Matthew’s hard work at the Five O’Clock Club resulted in his landing a CFO position at a private investment company. He was able to report his… Read more
Upgrading Your Job to “Business Partner”
By: David Madison, PhD, Guild Director The following article is based on a panel presentation at the June 9, 2003 meeting of the ‘HR Network’ at the Marsh headquarters in Manhattan. The network is co-sponsored by Marsh and the Five O’Clock Club,… Read more
Job Hunt Success Stories From the Telephone Coaching Program
-by David Madison, PhD Landing at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory How do you find a job that will allow you to use a background in physics and software testing? That was the challenge facing Brian Newport, who lived near Seattle. He searched the web… Read more
Job-Hunt Success Stories; Working The Method Pays Off
by David Madison We have always said, Don’t skip any part of the system! But we know that different elements of the Five O’Clock Club methodology have come to the rescue for different people as they have applied the methodology to their… Read more
Working with a Career Coach.
by Kate Wendleton Here’s the lowdown on how these “guidance counselors for the working world” can help you reach professional highs. When I was looking for some professional guidance back in 1978, finding a career coach was like looking… Read more
A Christmas Story: from homelessness to a vision fulfilled
by David Madison, PhD Ask Mary Margaret Cannon about obstacles—she has quite a story to tell. More than most of us, she has known the trauma of opportunities “falling away through no fault of your own.” Indeed, a series of dramatic… Read more
What Longevity Means to Your Career
by Lydia Bronte, author of The Longevity Factor In every era there have been a few people who lived to be unusually old, but who kept working—and were still good at what they did. We all know that Pablo Picasso and Marc Chagall continued to paint… Read more
Time to Review Your Career Direction
Develop a Vision and Do Better People tend towards inertia, and take action only when the ax is ready to fall. There is a better way—the Five O’Clock Club way. Through the Seven Stories Exercise® and the Forty-Year Vision®, Five O’Clock… Read more
Working with a Career Coach
by Kate Wendleton The world has changed. When I was looking for a career coach—back in 1978—there were very few. The company I was working for went through five downsizing’s! Even then I couldn’t get career coaching, so I started The Five… Read more
What Should I Do When I Grow Up?
Career Planning For Lawyers – and Everbody Else! Everybody—regardless of level or profession—would be well served to go through the same process: the Seven Stories Exercise and the Forty-Year Vision. The psychological tests that some… Read more
When Lawyers Seek Career Counseling
by David Madison, Ph.D. Three of our busiest senior counselors, Ellis Chase, Jim Borland and Kate Wendleton, took time recently to sit down with our Associate Editor, David Madison, and share their thoughts about counseling attorneys. Ellis has… Read more
The Interactive Job Market: A Great LONG TERM Career Path
Yes, there’s been a downturn in Internet stocks and significant downsizing at many Internet companies. Yes, many employees who had hoped to get rich quickly found out that they had to take a slower route. This turn of events was predictable and… Read more
A Career on the Rise -Profile
Profiling Five O’Clock Clubber Tom Lewis by David Madison, Ph.D. Tom Lewis can tell you that 1975 was a bad year for college graduates. In the middle of a recession, he was one of many students left empty-handed when campus recruiting was over…. Read more
A Roadmap for Life: The Forty-Year Vision
by Steve Bolerjack As the century ends, professional life in America has reached extremes-both promising and troubling-that no one could have foreseen even ten years ago. Certainly, we’re in the best job market in 25 years and opportunities abound… Read more
Messages From Your Parents Helping Through Words and Example
Cindy’s father served as her role model and remained a valuable resource throughout her tenure at International Harvester. Although they worked in different departments, she often sought his input. “It was a big step from the suburbs to a… Read more
Notice Where Your Feet Are Taking You And See Where You End Up in Twenty Years
Today, the name of the game is continual career management–taking small, ongoing steps in the right direction. Five O’Clock Clubber Carroll Cavanagh’s feet were taking him in a certain direction, but he didn’t notice it at the time. Often, it is… Read more
Five O’Clock Clubbers Share Their Recipes for Job-Hunting Success
by Mary Harmon This month The Five O’Clock News reports on four members who applied the Club methodology and strategies to find their jobs–and one member who neglected to use a vital element (she learned from her mistake and later landed a… Read more
The Year You Write the Script
by Kate Wendleton The backlash started quietly in 1992. You won’t read about it in Department of Labor statistics or in the New York Times. We saw it at The Five O’Clock Club because we’re on the front lines. In 1992, more workers decided to write… Read more
The Forty-Year Plan® . . . It’s (Almost) Never Too Late: How to Create Your Future Five Years at a Time
By David Madison, Ph.D. When my daughter was a month old, I started writing a daily diary to preserve memories of her growing up. She’s now 28 and I haven’t missed a day since. Now well past the l0,000 page mark–and with my daughter living in… Read more
Planning for Career Success: Those Who Plan Do Better; Here’s How
See, it’s like a game of cards and if you think the game is worthwhile, then you just play the hand you’re dealt. Sometimes you get a lot of face cards, sometimes you don’t. But I think the game’s worthwhile. I really do. Christopher Reeve, former… Read more
Six Predictors of Career Success — The Five O’Clock Club Sponsored a Study to Help You Get Ahead: Understand Your Industry; Develop Your Contacts
The Five O’Clock Club Sponsored a Study to Help You Get Ahead: Understand Your Industry; Develop Your Contacts by Terri Lowe, Ph.D. People who see themselves as successful told us that they: are knowledgeable about trends in their… Read more
How to Improve Your Position Where You Are
by Kate Wendleton A man’s work is in danger of deteriorating when he thinks he has found the one best formula for doing it. If he thinks that, he is likely to feel that all he needs is merely to go on repeating himself . . . so long as a person is… Read more
Trying to Make a Winning Move Into Sports
by Patricia Kitchen, Staff Writer for Newsday RICH KIER CAUGHT BASEBALL fever when he was 7 years old, watching the 1956 World Series with his dad and his grandfather, who were both rooting for the Brooklyn Dodgers. For Kier, it was the beginning… Read more

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