Life and career coach

Working and finding work takes up a lot of time and energy, so it isn’t surprising that sometimes we need a helping hand to figure out what we want to do.

That is when career and life coach Jeanene Savelkouls can help.

After starting off her working life as an actress and then spending a number of years teaching drama, Savelkouls was much like the people she now coaches.

“It wasn’t until I was 31 that I realised what I wanted in my life,” Savelkouls says, relating to the difficulty some people have in finding just the career they want.

But Savelkouls noticed that when she drew on the acting methods she had been taught, the result was life changing for her students.

“I was watching people go through this amazing process — they built up confidence and developed relationships having come to me quite insecure.”

Using what she learnt while acting and teaching drama, Savelkouls started working as a recruitment operations manager.

“It was an eye-opener. It was almost devastating to see how people carry themselves in an interview,” she says. “I believed that it was my responsibility to give feedback. I was thinking these people should know this stuff and no one is teaching it to them.”

Recognising a need, Savelkouls decided that by working as a life and career coach she could use her skills and her passion to help people of all ages to first discover and then achieve their own career goals.

“I do find younger generations that fit into the Gen Y box tend to have less concern for the consequences, whereas it is harder to get the 50-year-olds to dream,” Savelkouls says.

Tackling this challenge has been at the forefront of career coaching for Savelkouls, who will be holding mini “get that dream job” workshops as part of the Centrelink Jobs Expo on this Friday in Liverpool.

“Getting a job comes down to the person’s attitude, not solely their skills anymore,” she says. “A lot of people go in thinking ‘these people are judging me’ and that’s where they lose it and get nervous [but] it’s all about learning how to build rapport, how to respond to the person sitting in front of you.”

Savelkouls aims to uncover the reasons behind doubt in those she works with.

“It is so common for people to not know what they want,” she says. “People become so confused about what they stand for. They wake up and it’s the ‘Oh s…, oh my God, where is that voice I had 20 years ago that told me what I am doing was something?’.”

Savelkouls finds that using her old drama techniques often is the best place to start, particularly in building up confidence.

“I use it to awaken the senses. One of the most common exercises I use is to ask the question, ‘If the only sense you had was sight what would you see?’.

“Often they are amazed at what they do see. Once you become aware you realise eventually what you want,” she says.

“It is the `uh-huh’ moment of when they get it that is so rewarding.”