It's Who You Know! The Podcast · Michelle W. Malkin: Nonprofit Jewish Professional

Building Career Capital with Denise Fowler, Founder of Career Happiness Coaching

·56 min·3 clips

A laid-off government-relations professional imagines becoming either a rock star or a truck driver.

1. It's Who You Know! The Podcast examines building career capital through Denise Fowler's career-happiness and job-search guidance. 2. Michelle W. Malkin hosts Denise Fowler, founder of Career Happiness Coaching and director of a career center at George Washington University. 3. Fowler's central question is how people can identify work that uses their strengths instead of remaining trapped by what they think they should do. 4. Fowler spent a decade in public service focused on poverty alleviation and community development before changing direction. 5. At Brandeis, Fowler managed the War on Poverty project until funding ended and the CFO told her she was out of a job. 6. Her next position in career search included a $10,000 pay cut, uncertain duties, and an unexpected fit with her abilities. 7. Fowler says she needed months to make peace with leaving fieldwork and to “shed the shoulds” surrounding her career. 8. Malkin connects this idea to Jewish community professionals and nonprofit workers who can pursue impact through volunteering or donations outside their paid work. 9. Fowler distinguishes managing, leading, teaching, and coaching by comparing project direction with giving someone space for personal and professional development. 10. Fowler describes coaching as holding up a mirror and changing its angle through questions, reflection, restatement, and clarification. 11. Fowler says job loss places people in an emotional state rather than their “thinking part of your brain,” making reassurance such as “everything happens for the best” unhelpful. 12. Citing Tal Ben-Shahar, Fowler replaces that phrase with the idea that people can “make the best of everything that happens” after acknowledging the loss. 13. Fowler recommends micro-moments of joy, silliness, play, and laughter to help people recover from the immediate shock of leaving work. 14. One former government-relations client considered becoming a rock star or truck driver before recognizing that autonomy was the real priority. 15. Fowler says that client later reported being both harder-working and happier after building his own thriving private business. 16. For people who cannot quit immediately, Fowler recommends financial mapping, stepping-stone jobs, or changing tasks, relationships, and meaning to make work more livable. 17. Fowler cites Jobvite research contrasting the 90% of people who consider their resumes good with the 5% that human-resources professionals say stand out. 18. Fowler advises tailoring resumes to job descriptions, maintaining LinkedIn profiles, and contacting hiring managers or weak-tie connections before submitting applications. 19. Career coaches, nonprofit professionals, and people planning job changes will appreciate Fowler's practical frameworks. 20. Listeners seeking broad labor-market news or unrelated career topics may skip this coaching-focused conversation.

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from It's Who You Know! The Podcast