User:Jeff Garton

Jeff Garton is a specialist career-coach and independent executive search consultant living in Chicago, Illinois. His career prior to becoming an author and entrepreneur was over twenty years in Human Resources with the Philip Morris Companies where he led the global recruiting and internal staffing functions for Kraft Foods and the Miller Brewing Company. He has devoted his entire career to recruiting and coaching people through transitions in North America, Asia, Europe and South America.

Jeff holds an MA in Organizational Communication and Public Personnel Administration from the University of New Mexico and a BA in History and Political Science from Glenville State College in West Virginia. His coaching certification is with the Career Coach Institute. He is the recipient of two Employment Management Association best in class awards for recruitment marketing, essentially helping to establish in the early 1990s what is now referred to as “employer branding.” He has been a contributing author to Employment Management Today, a former advisory board member to the National Society of Hispanic MBAs and a volunteer facilitator for the Career Resource Center in Lake Forest, IL. He is a member of the International Coach Federation, International Association of Career Management Professionals, the Society For Human Resources Management and the Employment Management Association.

Jeff is noted for coining the term “career contentment” in 2000. The term was initially used to help express how career coaching helps individuals to recognize and leverage the “feel good” elements of their work. During initial training sessions on this topic people jokingly referred to “career contentment” as an oxymoron, suggesting in this case that you can’t work and be content at the same time. Through his work on this topic, Jeff has helped many people to realize they had been conditioned to think of their career only in either/or terms, either they had job satisfaction or they didn’t. And from this limited perspective they were overlooking the fact that contentment is feasible with or without job satisfaction. “Career contentment is not out there waiting for you to grab like the proverbial brass ring. Nor is it dependent upon your employer, next job, more money, other people or even job satisfaction. Contentment is feasible with or without either of these things, and proof of this exists in the fact you can find enjoyment in some elements of the jobs that don’t give you satisfaction. This occurs because contentment is from within and derived from utilizing your gifts, fulfilling your purpose and making a contribution, and it’s recognized by how you think and reason to find the satisfying middle ground in any employment situation.”