Interview avec Hannah Morgan, Career Strategist/Consultant et fondatrice de Career Sherpa

Hi Hannah, could you introduce yourself?
Gladly! I am a career strategist and consultant. I share advice and information on how to proactively manage a career and create new opportunities. I blog and participate in other forms of social media to help educate and inspire.
I’ve been helping job seekers for the past eight years and prior to that, I was an HR specialist, project coordinator, tele-sales rep, operations manager for a start-up, recruiter/placement specialist and legal assistant.
Why did you come to the career industry? What's behind the Career Sherpa concept?
Who knew there was such a field? I knew about Human Resources, but I was always more interested in the personal development part of it. An opportunity simply fell into my lap to work for an outplacement firm. The rest, they say, is history.
I love the definition of a sherpa- they serve as a guide or expert in navigating terrain. That’s what I do. I provide guidance through my understanding of the treacherous terrain of today’s workplace.
I don’t necessarily do the heavy lifting, but show the different or alternative paths.

Social technologies are here to stay. What are the main benefits for job candidates? How could they take advantage of it?
Social technologies are so great for reputation management! Each of us wants and needs to be known inside and outside of our organization for the successes we’ve made. This is a form of marketing.
They also allow us to network without limitations. As an introvert, I love social media tools! They have enabled me to discover and reach out to people I would never have otherwise. It feels safe and is so easy.
These tools also enable us to stay better connected, acquire information more easily and find like-minded camaraderie.
I came across a reading about the Proteus Solution. What's your definition of this? Your point of view?
Jay Block’s concept is what I’ve been thinking and trying to piece together for years! Based on the fast and ever-changing global world we live in, there are changes we need to make in how we look at careers and business in general.
Proteus, the Greek Mythological god, was known for his ability to predict the future AND his ability to acclimate to his predicted future.
While predicting the future is difficult, nearly impossible, we do need to take accountability for understanding what’s happening in our industry so that we can monitor and adapt our skills, talents, abilities to be a viable asset in the future. We are in charge of when and where we’ll be working.

To you, is the "career" concept getting obsolete and why?
The concept of a lifetime career is obsolete in my opinion. I think we need to re-define what a career is. I believe, from my personal experience, that a career is how we web together our past experiences to create opportunities in the future.
We need to identify the combination of skills and experiences to invent our future. There are no right or wrong answers. In other words, I could not have told you 10 years ago that I would be helping people develop their online reputations… it didn’t exist.
The other point I really want to make is that we all need to become solo-preneurs in addition to the other work we do. Why would we put all our income eggs in one basket? (Jay Block says this too!) I recommend reading Jason Alba's blog, Jibberjobber.com. He regularly writes about his multiple income streams. It just makes sense to me.
At one of the twitter #MBAchat sessions, you talked about "simultaneity" rather than linearity. Could you tell us a bit more about this? Any examples?
Barrie Hopson got me excited about “portfolio careers” several years ago when he started blogging and wrote his book "And What Do You Do?". It is a patchwork of opportunities. So rather than aspiring to climb the corporate ladder, we instead should be looking at the combination of assignments we take on with multiple companies.

I know people who have a portfolio career. One woman teaches HR classes at a local college, runs a program for new retirees to help them figure out what to do next with their lives and also works for an outplacement firm.
Another woman I know works for a marketing firm, has her own consulting business and is an adjunct marketing professor. It is difficult to manage, but all the pieces fit.
Having a diverse background can, if we use it correctly, allow us to be more versatile and resilient to future changes. We can’t always know how our past experiences will help us, but being self-aware will help piece the puzzle together more easily.
Thank you very much Hannah!