Career Coach Meg Montford

My name is Meg Montford, Executive Career Coach and President of Abilities Enhanced®. I help you make friends with change to manage your career for life. Services include career coaching, job search training, and resume writing customized for individuals, groups, and organizations. As the chief coaching officer, I administrate and coordinate all programs and services to meet your career development, career management, and career change needs.

With my team of highly qualified certified Professional Resume Writers and Career Coaches, we meet all project deadlines and ensure your customer satisfaction. Many clients have called me their career partner, their secret weapon, their angel. My mantra is simple: “Believe in yourself and everything is possible.” Printed on a postcard above my desk, this saying has inspired me for over 20 years. I am ready to help you achieve your goals!

Visit Resumes, Coaching, and Business Services for additional information.

Client Successes

My clients sometimes even surprise themselves with the amazing results they achieve. Read what they say about their career coaching experiences. Testimonials as published are with permission from the authors.

	VP Marketing/Sales: More than just earning money, he wanted to work his passion. He shifted directions to follow his life purpose as a sculptor and planned to use his business acumen to build a studio for young artists.
	VP Business Development: Discouraged with building his own business in a stalled economy, he paved his reentry into Corporate America.
	Marketing Director: Victim of a layoff with no job prospects in sight, he sought career coaching to find his way back to the field he loved.
	Purchasing Director: After working 10 years for one company, she saw the “snowball rolling down the hill” when a new CEO was hired. She proactively sought and found a more compatible work environment where she went to work everyday with a smile on her face.
	VP Investor Relations: Downsized and burned out, he used career coaching to find life / work balance while starting his own business.
	IT Trainer: Downsized at 38, she was tired of the high tech industry roller-coaster. She discovered her passion in pharmaceutical sales and broke into the field working for an industry leader, and is still there four years later.
	Technical Writer: Tired of working 60-70 hours per week, she converted her passion for Yoga and exercise into a career as a personal trainer at the age of 48.
	Broadcast Manager: Unemployed for over a year, a media manager and standup comic landed his dream job with a national television network after six months of clarifying what was most important to him.
	Business Analyst: Terminated from a corporate position captured with her finance degree, she clarified career goals, discovered her life purpose, and entered the teaching profession.

With consistent experience in the careers industry since 1986, I have provided career consulting to clients from varied industries and for all career types. My expertise includes career coaching for executives, midlife career changers, new managers, and entrepreneurs. My specialty is sales and marketing executives and professionals, though many others have achieved results through our career coaching partnership. In my early career, I did recruiting and business development, and understand career change first hand having entered the career management field following my own transition from several years as a college financial aid administrator. It took me three years to discover my passion. If only I'd had a career coach to help me I could have realized my ideal career much sooner!

My career-related presentations to corporate, educational, government, and community groups include topics on career self-management, life after layoff, understanding communication styles, job search strategies, and more.

My credentials include Master Certified Career Coach, Career Management Fellow, Certified Professional Resume Writer, and Certified TeleLeader. I hold a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from the University of Missouri. My professional affiliations include coaching and careers industry associations plus a Kansas City-based professional organization, The Central Exchange.

	Career Highlights Associate Coach (and trainer), Coaching Business Mastery Program - Milana Leshinsky, founder and marketing guru for professional coaches, 2007-2008. ExecuNet Forum Expert for executive members. Career Coach Trainer, International Coach Academy, 2006-2008. Instructor and Mentor Coach, Career Coach Institute, 2003-2005. National Speaker, Career Masters Institute Annual Conference, 2003. Corporate Coaching Graduate, Corporate Coach University, 2002. Monster.com Career Coach for the “Job Good. Life Good” May 2001 sweepstakes winner. PARW/CC Best Resume Writing Contest four-time winner. Columnist, ACCPOW Newsletter, 2003-2004. Interviewed and quoted by The Wall Street Journal, Kansas City Star, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine, Diversity Inc., Kansas City Fox news, and others. Authorized Now What?™ Life Blueprint® Facilitator - coaching program created by Laura Berman Fortgang, MCC. Contributing author to 19 nationally published careers books including Martin Yate’s Knock ’em Dead series, Wendy Enelow’s 101 Ways to Recession Proof Your Career, Marcia Bench's An Insider’s Guide to Career Coaching, The Twitter Job Search Guide (Whitcomb, Bryan and Dib), and Power Tools: Top Executive Coaches Put You on the Fast Track to Success (The Business Tool Kit Series).

Credentials

Master Certified Career Coach: Awarded by Career Coach Institute (now Institute for Purposeful Entrepreneurship), this certification required completion of 2 six-month training programs focused on career coaching skills, career development methods, and best employment practices. Core learning competencies were achieved as defined by professional coaching industry standards. Over 1000 coaching hours with clients were documented.

Career Management Fellow: Awarded by the Institute of Career Certification International, the accrediting body for the Association of Career Professionals International, this certification recognizes commitment to advancing the career management profession and its ethical standards. It validates career management competencies throughout one's entire careers industry service.

Authorized Life Blueprint® Facilitator
Awarded by the Life Blueprint Institute®, this credential requires completion of the 20 hour Life Blueprint® training program and successfully passing the final exam. The program includes training in the International Coach Federation’s Core Competencies, personal development of the coach, plus skills and tools directly applicable to coaching.

Certified Professional Resume Writer: Awarded by the Professional Association of Resume Writers & Career Coaches, this credential was initiated in 1991 as the original certification for professionals in the resume writing industry. It is based upon demonstrated attainment of the highest resume writing standards through written examination and peer evaluation.

Certified TeleLeader: Awarded by TeleClass International, this certification requires completion of criteria in three categories: attending teleconference leader training classes, leading TeleClasses critiqued by a peer, plus observing and critiquing TeleClasses led by others. TeleClasses are conducted conveniently by telephone through quality teleconferencing bridge systems. Class participants can learn from their own office or home!

Professional Affiliations

Abilities Enhanced® adheres to the Code of Ethics of these professional affiliates:

	Association of Career Professionals International, Officer of the Board
	Kansas City Chapter - Association of Career Professionals International: Past President
	Institute of Career Certification International: Career Management Fellow
	International Coach Federation: past host, Career Coaching Special Interest Group
	Career Coach Institute: Master Certified Career Coach; past Marketing Trainer for Coaches
	Career Management Alliance: Charter Member
	Association of Coaching & Consulting Professionals on the Web
	Association of Online Resume & Career Professionals
	TeleClass International: Certified TeleLeader
	The Central Exchange of Kansas City: Member