This document provides an overview of Paulette Glass's career development and experience with skill gaps due to periods of illness. It begins with her educational and work background, then discusses her understanding of the differences between jobs and careers. Later sections provide insights on self-assessment, creating a personal mission statement, using mind maps to identify opportunities, and an example of how mapping skills helped someone refocus their career after an illness. The document advocates for seeing times of illness as opportunities to sharpen skills and provides lessons on recognizing how illness and career can coexist.

1. Mind the Gaps –
Professional Skill Development During Times of Illness

2. Who Am I? What Do I know?
• 1980 BA in Soc-Anthropology/Clinical Psychology from
Western Illinois University (after 14 majors/minors)
• 1977-2001 Volunteered in various communities with low
income and unemployed individuals to help find employment
and develop job skills (Worked about 42 different jobs.)
• 2002 Pfizer downsized office and I began caring for family
with significant long & short term illnesses
• 2005 Graduated from SNL with MA while caring for family
• 2005-2008 Focused on skill development planning to help
friends and others with illnesses – got others jobs.
• 2008- Present Part-time Job Coach / Developer for UCP in
Chicago

3. Understanding the Gaps
A Job is…. A Career is….
• Doing • Become
• Now • Over Time
• Performance based • Recognized Expertise
• Growing skills or learn • Teaching skills or elements
elements of work to others
• Titles may differ, work • Clear identity of skill field or
remains the same industry
• Jobs are added or lost • Careers change, but never
are lost

4. Sage Insights
• Make sure the reality of your expertise lives up to
perceptions of those around you – if not, identify areas
for improvement and fix NOW, not later.
– Reality shows prove that many of us think we have
talents that make us stars or winners.
– Mirror, Mirror on the wall. Who is the best worker?
Syndrome -Performance reviews and co-worker
comments are not best places to see reality for career
choices.
– Remember : Jobs are the things we DO. Careers are
what we BECOME. Gaps can become the garden
bridge between them.

5. Personal Mission Statement
• Simple one sentence • Guides both personal
statement and professional life
• Easily understood by • Clearly defines passion
4th grader and life goal
• Able to memorize and • Simply is a life compass
repeat any time / – States boldly “This is
anywhere / under any what I am about.”
life stress

6. Mind Mapping
What is mind mapping?
• According to Wikipedia: A mind map is a diagram used
to represent words, ideas, tasks, or other items linked to
and arranged around a central key word or idea.
• Mind maps are used to generate, visualize, structure, and
classify ideas, and as an aid in study, organization,
problem solving, decision making, and writing.
• A mind map is often created around a single word or
text, placed in the center, to which associated ideas,
words and concepts are added.

7. How to use a SWOT ANALYSIS
with a MIND MAP
SWOT ANALYSIS
A SWOT analysis is a popular project
STRENGTH WEAKNESS
management tool used in business
planning to determine a snapshot of
where a project or team is, what it
faces , and see gaps or connections
not yet made.
In working with planning gaps, this
method allows a quick, compact view
of situations or sudden detours that
might otherwise cause gaps in skill
development.
OPPORTUNITIES THREATS
I call it the opportunity maker, as you
can see problems and brainstorm
around them.

8. Starting Point
Family
Job (s) Family
Education /
Volunteer
Volunteer
Professional
Training

9. How to Map the Gaps
Drawing a mind map:
• Start in the center of a blank page and draw or write central
theme – This is the Career focus. The “Illness” is under career.
• Place sub-heading in each corner - These are areas of life
such as hobbies, education, family, etc.
• Connect sub-headings/areas of life with branches/ arrows to
central theme if a relationship to career or skill development
opportunity can be shown
• From areas of life corners, more than one sub-heading activity
can be placed.
• Consider all opportunities to learn or develop new skills and
add to map with dashed lines and consider using colors.

10. Mind Mapping
The basic Rules:
• Use colors, pictures, images, words, symbols, etc.
• Use one word or very simple phrases
• Use both straight and curved lines or arrows for branches
• Use circles, boxes, etc to capture key sub-headings and place
in corners
• Depth or focus on sub-headings should be placed on separate
“focus map”

11. Looking for Opportunity
Where & what can I teach?
In my illness, What can I learn to share with others?
During my recovery time, Can I add to my skills?
ILLNESS

12. Charting the Gaps
• Look at the Big picture of how jobs and life fit
toward career goals
• Look for Opportunities that have been over
looked or never considered
• Skill knowledge or experience brushed off
because not gained on a “job” or at school
• Chart skills needed for career goal and best
choices of time / money use

13. Skill Gap Charting for Career
Burger King
Burger King Fry
Fry Cook/PT Timing
Cook/PT AM Paper
Customer Service Route
Counter help
Local Library

14. Mapping 101
What she loved What are her skills
• Teaching others • Natural gift for breaking
• Black /White ethical lines down ideas or concepts
• Details • Knack for editing and
• Finding errors proofing anything
• Working independently • Managing projects alone
• Creating data analysis • Maintaining ethical self
reports or spread sheets • Ability to compile data into
easy to understand formats

15. Illness verses the Map
What Illness gave What map gave
• Time to research field and • Clear goal path
study for auditing exam • Assessment of skills from all
• Met many new people and areas of her life
made network contacts • Refocus on life and career
• Opportunity to reinvent self • Learned what she is about –
and adjust career to illness Teaching and Resource
• Insights to personal limits • Targets without time limits

16. Minding the Gaps - Results
• Given the knowledge of illness ups and
downs, Lyn could see down times as skill
sharpening opportunities
• Gaps in her resume no longer are illness or
job loss excuses, but have a planned purpose
• Planning for detours gave her options and
control/power illness thus increasing energy

17. Lessons Learned
Before the Map After the Map
• Paranoia and illness caused • Saw relationship of illness
performance to decline. to performance issues.
• Checked herself into an • Began to focus on career
outpatient therapy. skills and development.
• Illness and career co-existed
• Illness was main focus and and were recognized as
career/job was not on radar. equally important.
• Illness was elephant in the • Illness and career are
room, career wasn’t even IN treated like objects that
the room. move around in the same
room.

18. Your turn
In the workbook, more details and actual breakdowns of elements.
• Define your main goal as the center topic of your map.
• Next add your primary values to your map as free-floating topics.
• Add primary topics, one representing each of the major life roles or
domains in your life (i.e.: work, family, church, hobbies, etc.)
• Then add secondary topics, steps and strategies you will undertake to
achieve your goal within the context of each life role. (If your map
becomes too cluttered, consider creating sub-maps to expand details of
each life role.)
• You can assign numeral rankings to create action steps in your plans,
allowing it to be easier to know where to start or what is next.

20. Thank You
Paulette M. Glass