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Patricia's TV show is the right job

Thursday, 11 March 2010

A POLISH woman living on the Southside who was made redundant last year will be one of six unemployed people to take part in a new RTE television series that attempts to steer them onto the right career path. The fly on the wall programme ‘Rising after Redundancy’ will follow the attempts by career specialists to help motivate and advise the six recently unemployed participants to choose a new career that suits their interests and abilities. The series followed participants as they were filmed in the six month project from August 2009 to February 2010. Successful career coach John Fitzgerald, who owns his own company Harmonics Career Coaching Ltd, will tell viewers how he believes many unemployed people are looking for an instant quick fix. However, Mr Fitzgerald believes this approach inevitably leads people right back to where they started on their career paths. The series will show that career change needs huge determination through various ups and downs to succeed. Patricia Helowicz (29), who currently lives in Rathfarnham, was an au pair when she came to Ireland. She subsequently worked for a while as a secretary and administrative assistant at a GP practice in Dublin. However, when she was made redundant from this job in July of last year she applied to take part in the new RTE show. Patricia said a desire to help others prompted her to set up business coaching for people who find it difficult to accept their physical appearance to come to terms with their looks and how to change their image. “The whole idea of working with people who do not accept their bodies came from my own personal experience,” she explained. “When I was much younger, about 10 years ago, I was really affected by low self esteem. “I was typical of many girls my age who were really insecure in their bodies. I hated everything about it and I was struggling with this for a few years. “My idea is a coaching business which is going to help people to accept their body, the way it is at the moment,” she added. “It will help people with low self esteem or imperfect body image who perceive that they are looking a certain way that is not necessarily true. “I will be helping people to come to terms with their appearance. Motivation is needed from the outside and the inside to help people to come to terms with what they haven't been accepting so far.” In addition to completing a course at the Style Coaching Institute in the UK, Patricia is currently doing a course in the Terenure Enterprise Centre that teaches people how to start their own business. She added that participating in the programme was challenging but ultimately helped her to determine what she really wanted to do. “People usually struggle with coming out of their comfort zone, especially when they are unemployed as it is often more difficult because they want to remain in a reality which is more familiar to them. Talking about my ideas and sharing my personal story on television was difficult as well,” she admitted. “But the programme really helped me initially to realise what I wanted to do, to reach my potential and how I could put it into practice and turn my plan into my future job.” ‘Rising after Redundancy’ will air in early May and will be shown on RTE One as a six-week series. Those who want to find out more about Patricia, her own personal experience and her bid to set up her own business can do so by logging onto her blog at www.xxlplease.wordpress.com