News and Articles

Legendary Re-careering coach Helen Harkness has seen her clientele grow younger and become more wired in the past 15 years. In keeping with changes in the constantly evolving career field, Harkness recently re-released her groundbreaking book The Career Chase for eBooks, available in Amazon Kindle, Barnes and Noble Nook, Apple iPad and Borders Kobo formats.

“This book directly addresses the challenge of changing careers successfully – discovering your purpose to pursue with passion and personal power. I was using this process as Dr. Harkness was writing it,” said client Todd Wagner, founder of Audionet and Broadcast.com, Todd Wagner Foundation, 2020 Productions, Magnolia Pictures, Landmark Theatres, HD Net Films and partner with Mark Cuban.

Dr. Harkness says that her other two books, Don’t Stop the Career Clock and Capitalizing on Career Chaos are also now available in eBook format for a variety of readers. Harkness owns the digital rights for all three books, and is publishing them through Career Design Associates, Incorporated.

“Dr. Harkness’ books remain contemporary in both content and presentation,” said client David Leonnig, who prepared the books for electronic release. “I read all three books initially, and have now read them again in formatting them for e-readers, and find that the books are as relevant today as when Helen Harkness wrote them over the past dozen years or so.”

All three books are available now in the most popular formats, and will soon be migrated to other readers. Most eBook owners can access the books using one of the formats, and their existing reader. The Career Chase is priced at $7.95; the other two titles sell for $9.95 each. Those who want the books in traditional printed format can contact Dr. Harkness directly at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or via the web site at career-design.com. Don’t Stop the Career Clock is also available as an audio book, available from Dr. Harkness and Amazon.com.

Published in the Dallas Morning News, March 24, 2010 - written by Cheryl Hall.

For many aging baby boomers, the specter of being involuntarily put to pasture is a reality-based nightmare.

Helen Harkness, a noted career mentor, says “no-choice retirements” are on the rise. And while losing your job at any age is traumatic, older workers feel particularly defeated because they think it’s too late to start new jobs or careers.

“Of all the mindless myths that we have, this one is absolutely sheer bunk,” says Harkness, principal of career Design Associates Inc. in Garland. “I tell my clients, ‘Tell me what you would do if you were 20 years younger.’ And we start from there.”

She calls that chronological age vs. functional age.

During my three decades as a career coach in Dallas – helping adults replace the conventional personality Type A or Type B with the Type CC (the Career Change Catalyst) – I have experienced an infinite number of “dark nights” of recession similar to our current one. I have survived and thrived despite crisis changes and the rise and collapse of countless industries, including my original profession, teaching. In the mid-70s, Ph.D.’s were driving buses and painting houses. My reality was that a Ph.D. and a dime could get a cup of coffee. Consider the major industries in Dallas that have “boomed and busted:” oil, finance and banking, real estate, telecom corridor and dot coms. As residential real estate faces new challenges, all businesses face threats from international competition.

Published in the April, 2006, newsletter of the National Association of Working Seniors.

Specific Strategies for Breaking the Barriers of Aging

Millions of Americans suffer from the "finished at 50" syndrome. Based on the numerous negative myths that aging automatically brings irreversible mental, physical, psychological, and creative decline, this belief is foolish and potentially deadly for continuing career success.

Unfortunately, much of Corporate America is nourishing this notion and pushing more mature employees out the door. However, there are strategies that we can use to advance one’s career far beyond society’s limits which are based upon concepts of age. The truth is that absolutely no research has validated that chronological age is reliable in determining one’s “functional” age.

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