Career coach uses simple learning tools to help job-seekers find a true vocation.

Mary Jeanne Vincent seems like a cheerleader, in the best sense of the word. She doesn’t possess an overly chipper persona, but an attitude that says: “I’ve got your back and I’m going to see you to victory.”

On an early spring afternoon, she’s wearing a pink vest layered over a pink turtleneck, with a “Carpe Diem” pin on the lapel and an engraved nametag over her heart. She’s got on pink pants too. The outfit and her warm smile are welcoming, but she also has a professional cut-to-the-chase way of speaking that demands focus. She seems well-suited to her job as a career coach.

Vincent says she found her calling after years of working in the human resources field and seeing job candidates flail during their interviews.

“I saw so many people making mistakes in the hiring process,” she says. “People aren’t focused and don’t know how to present themselves. I felt so bad for them.”

Vincent’s been a career coach for a dozen years and, for the last four, she’s run her own career coaching business, WorkWise. Located on Cass Street in Monterey, the office is filled with tools—many of them Vincent’s own creations—to help clients take nebulous goals and put them into reality. Or at least headed toward reality.

“Most people are really looking for meaningful work in which they can use their gifts and talents,” she says. “But they don’t know how. They become very frustrated and then they’ll take any job.”

In order to help clients narrow down their desires, Vincent has developed sets of “tip cards” that ask hard questions and give advice during the vocational search. The set called, “Uncovering Your Passion,” can be used alone or with the help of a career coach.

Vincent says the cards can be used in many ways. Clients might read through each card, deciding which ones speak to them. Or she might ask a client to shuffle the cards and randomly select three.

“I would ask you to challenge yourself to implement the three tips by next week,” she says.

Card titles include things like, “Imagine Your Success is Guaranteed,” “Give Yourself Permission to Fail,” “Take on a New Persona,” “Acknowledge Your Knowledge,” “Describe the Job from Hell,” “Analyze Your Escape Dreams” and “Do What You Are!” A card that says, “Volunteer” reads, “Are you willing to offer your services for free to increase your future marketability?”

The ideas may seem basic, but with Vincent’s prodding, clients quickly get to the source of their resistance to finding the career they really want. Basically, she says, the cards are a conversation tool to help discover a clients’ gifts and desires, as well as what they hate doing.

“Too many people have this much of what they don’t want to do,” she says with outstretched arms, “and then they have a tiny sliver of what they want to do to feed their soul. That isn’t enough for them.”

As clients get closer to realizing what they really want to do, Vincent says, a lot of fears come up. She says she offers a flat rate so that she can continue to support people as they take the risks.

“Everyone gets scared, and at some point going up the mountain, it gets hard and people get tired,” she says. “I offer support…so people can take the next step.”

The next step for many people involves applying for and interviewing at different jobs, a stage where Vincent says a lot of people blow all theirhard work.

Another set of cards she designed, “Acing the Interview,” prepares people for tough interview questions and shows people the “hidden opportunities” during the process.

Indicating a card that poses the interview question, “Tell Me About Yourself,” Vincent says the hidden opportunity in that question is to “show that you know what’s important, and demonstrate why you are an excellent choice.” The card suggests that people prepare for this question by “identify[ing] four or five key skills that will be of most value to the company in the role you seek.”

Vincent also offers advice on negotiating for salary and raises, how to “bounce back” from being fired or laid off, and how to write a strong résumé.

Most of all, she encourages people to take the time to really consider their dreams.

“In a study of people in retirement homes, people said they regretted not living as fully or deeply as they could have,” she says. “That’s what people are sad and angry about at the end of their lives. I want to feel like I took it tothe limit.”

Mary Jeanne Vincent can be reached at 394-8240 or at www.2bworkwise.com.