Amanpour: In Today's Job Market, Self-Understanding Is Key to Success

NEW YORK, Feb. 6, 2006 -- From very senior management to recent college grads, people are trying to navigate a job market that has radically changed in the last decade. It is an uncertain marketplace, said Sherry Amanpour, founder and president of AMAN Consultant (http://www.amanconsultant.com), but for those who really know themselves, the new work environment holds unlimited possibilities.

Amanpour isn't just talking. The Barnard College graduate, a cousin of CNN chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour, was raised in Iran by Iranian parents. She went on to become one of eleven women diplomats in a 400-person diplomatic corps in the Iranian Foreign service during the Shah's regime in Iran. Since then, she has transitioned to no fewer than three impressive careers: From the diplomatic corps to relationship banker for one money center U.S. bank and three international banks; from banking to founding AMAN Consultant, a search firm serving financial institutions as well as providing career guidance to senior management and college grads. Amanpour has placed hundreds in new jobs, counseled others towards career change and yet others to identifying and changing self-defeating work patterns. Prior to her diplomatic and banking careers, Amanpour began her post-college career as a librarian at Columbia University's Teacher College.

"We live in a time of vital change and opportunity," Amanpour explained. "Today it is not the strongest or most intelligent who survive and succeed, but those most responsive to change. Professionals must be captains of their own careers. Companies no longer manage employees' careers; rather, our careers are in our own hands."

Before job seekers can become captains of their careers, said Amanpour, they must have realistic views of themselves. Amanpour contends each of us is hard-wired to do well in certain careers, thanks to the gifts, talents, skills and constraints unique to each person - but few people understand how to identify and use those traits to find the right job match. That's where AMAN Consultant comes in. Using methods Amanpour developed and has successfully used with hundreds of clients around the world, the firm works with clients to construct a step-by-step plan for using their gifts to change jobs or careers, re-enter the changed job market or identify careers that are growing in the 21st century.

"At AMAN Consultant, we believe if you don't know where you are going you will end up in the wrong place," said Amanpour. "Today there is no future in a job. The future lies with the person who holds the job. We help our clients discover what they want that future to look like and work with them to develop a roadmap to get there."

About Sherry Amanpour

As an Iranian diplomat, Amanpour served as Vice Consul of the Iranian Embassy in Paris during the turbulent pre-regime change period. She has traveled globally and attended meetings at various forums including the United Nations in Geneva and New York. Amanpour speaks several foreign languages and has successfully lived and worked in the Middle East and Europe. Since 1980, she has lived and practiced in New York City.

Contact:

Sherry Amanpour
AMAN Consultant
212-517-3180
aman1@attglobal.net
http://www.amanconsultant.com

New Blog Launched Dedicated Solely to Work and Life Issues

Industry Thought Leader's Blog Believed to Be the First of Its Kind a Resource for Both Individuals and Employers

MADISON, N.J., Feb. 7, 2006 -- Work Life issues industry expert and author, Cali Williams Yost, has launched what is believed to be the first blog dedicated solely to the subject of work and life from the perspective of organizations and individuals. The blogwill serve as a resource to bring individuals and employers together to advance mutually-beneficial work life "fit" solutions.

Yost, author of the critically acclaimed "Work+Life: Finding the Fit That's Right for You" (Riverhead/Penguin Group, 2005), has studied and consulted on work life issues for more than ten years. She worked at Families and Work Institute and Bright Horizons Family Solutions, two of the industry's leading organizations before starting Work+Life Fit, Inc.

"This blog is a dynamic, interactive medium to share important and helpful information from the work life industry with individuals, and to inform organizations what individuals are doing to strategically manage their work and life in today's 24/7 global work place environment," Yost says. "My mission is to create stronger, more strategic work plus life 'fit' partnerships between employers and individuals."

Commenting on Yost's new blog, Author and Blogger Ann Douglas, "Mother of All Blogs," posted, "Here's a really smart new blog that qualifies as a 'must read' if you are interested in work life issues."

According to the Alliance for Work Life Professionals, while an increasing number of companies provide work life flexibility there is a significant gap between the availability of policies and use. Yost says for flexibility to be successful it must not just be "policy," but a process initiated and managed by the employee in partnership with the organization.

"Employees must create, negotiate and manage a work life 'fit' based on their unique work and personal realities, not on a mythical goal of 'balance,' or an all or nothing approach," Yost says. "Work life fit is often about small changes. It's not one size fits all."

Yost's blog includes commentary on trends, research and recent articles; individual and corporate work life innovations; links to resources; and comments from industry professionals and others interested in the latest developments in the work life field.

In posting her first entry, Yost wrote, "This blog will provide insights that challenge old, limiting beliefs and hopefully inspire you to make a change-for yourself or within your organization. Moving Beyond the 'All or Nothing'
Mindset-Why It's Fit, Not Balance. If I had to pick one thing that would reduce everyone's level of work+life conflict it would be eliminating the 'all or nothing'
mindset. Our 'work or no work' mentality traps us unnecessarily in extreme choices between our work and life."

Yost's blog is published weekly on Tuesdays.

Contact:
Pam Kassner
pam@superpear.com
414-510-1838