Helping others make their “visions” real is what drives CareerVision’s Geneva Owens

 Geneva Owens

by Kia Marie Cook

Do you know what it’s like to go from job to job, searching for the perfect career? Geneva Owens does.

Owens’ career moves span the gambit from working as an office receptionist to a medical assistant.

“I was trying to find Geneva. So, I had experienced so many things. When I knew it was something that wasn’t for me, then I would try something different,” she said.

Like many Milwaukeeans, Owens spent many years going from job to job before she discovered her true love.

“My main love is helping people find what their passion is,” Owens said. “Through the job experiences that I’ve had, I learned a lot ... but none of my experiences were from the heart; I didn’t feel fulfilled.

“I knew that I wasn’t the only one out there who was in that position,” she said.

Knowing that she wasn’t alone in the quest for professional fulfillment, Owens created a viable career option for herself.

In April 2006, Owens launched CareerVisions, LLC, a small business specializing in career results.

Owens developed her company out of her love for helping people find their passion, a passion that will also provide a sustainable living.

“Life is short. If you have to work, you might as well do something you love,” she says. “I always hear people--out anywhere--complaining, saying: ‘I can’t stand my job.’ Well, I can help.”

At least twice a month for 30 to 45 minutes, Owens’ clients--job seekers, changers and teenagers--come to her downtown office for one-on-one career sessions.

In these sessions, Owens helps her clients determine a plan to find their destiny by “digging deep to find what’s in their heart,” she says. Within time, Owens then maps out a plan of action to help her client achieve their professional goals.

As a career specialist and coach, Owens also completes counseling and workshops in resume writing and offers interview techniques. In fact, she often travels to different schools and youth organizations talking with teens about career goals and options.

“For our African American community, our teenagers--and even some adults--I see the need ... I see that they really don’t know. A lot of our young people don’t have the seeds or knowledge to know what it takes to grab that interview,” she said.

“I try to prepare (teenagers) for what’s out here when it comes to their job search.”

Equipping her clients with tips for success, Owens covers what she calls the “basics” for job hunting.

“I tell them the simplest things, like bring a pen with you when you go job hunting,” she said.

Owens also uses a professionally dressed mannequin, who travels with her to different schools and youth organizations. She uses the mannequin to show the young people how to dress when applying for a job or when going to an interview; she even brings extra clothes to allow the young people to dress the mannequin for success.

“I want them to go prepared--I’m helping them and preparing them so that when they go out and are competing, they have a chance,” she said. “I want them to stand out.”

Though CareerVisions is not a staffing agency as of yet, Owens has plans to one day expand her business’ services, making CareerVisions “one of the top successful staffing agencies and career development centers, providing professional development classes, employment and career opportunities,” she said.

Whether functioning as her business does today or as it will in the future, Owens stresses one concept to her clients: “If you can see it, you can become it ... Look at me, I did.”