Ruth Schimel, PhD - Consultant - Washington, DC

I Believe

You'll probably have a more authentic, successful outcome if you start with who you are and what you want to do, first, rather than play ping pong with what's out there.

About Ruth Schimel, PhD

Ruth Schimel, PhD, Career & Life Management Consultant, Speaker, Management Consultant, Workshop Designer and Presenter offers expert guidance with original, personalized ways to leverage opportunities and transcend internal barriers to happiness and success by:

Mastering effective, unique processes and tools for current progress and independent applications in the future
Liberating your full, authentic self to make wise, ambitious choices about the work, purposes, and life you want, and
Making sense of your varied interests, skills, and goals using a 360° view of your potential and the situations you're in.

Based on original doctoral research, Ruth published Choose Courage: Step Into the Life You Want using a range of disciplines, poetry, photos, and humor. A series of related short handbooks on success, relationships, happiness, and potential followed all available on Amazon and in local bookstores. Honoring human possibility, Ruth continues her interdisciplinary focus and learning related to the arts, sciences, and humanities.

Previously, a professor of human resources, diplomat, and management consultant, she speaks Spanish. Her B.S. in industrial and labor relations is from Cornell. She earned both her M.A. and Ph.D. at George Washington University; interdisciplinary focus throughout her education included human resources, public management, behavioral science, gerontology, and workforce development.

Ruth is currently working on her latest offering Happiness and Joy In Work to be published in 2018.

Visit Ruth’s Website to learn more about her practice and if you’re interested in working with Ruth, click here for a free 30-minute consultation.

Ruth Schimel, PhD Success Stories

Make Wise Career Moves

"I would never recommend that you rely on a headhunter for career advice. Headhunters earn their money from placing people in jobs, so their incentive is to match skills with job functions—not to engage you in the labor-intensive and delicate work of helping you identify your passions, abilities, and propensities, and how all of this can translate into an inspired career path. By no means am I suggesting that headhunters are sinister or soulless. They just don’t have what you seek.more

Who does? First, there is a great deal of conventional advice out there in the form of career counselors and self-help books. I tend to favor offbeat resources that can help you to stretch your concept of self and develop the heightened awareness and insight you need to make the next career move a wise one.

In the realm of individual consultants, I highly recommend Ruth Schimel, who offers a range of approaches to suit her clients’ varied personalities. I worked with Ruth some years ago when I was leaving the practice of law. What differentiates Ruth from others in her field is that she helps people integrate complex information and envision a career in the context of their lives." ~ LG, 35, lawyer and corporate human resources chief

Face Fears at Mid-life & Move forward

"The age of 40 was hurtling at me at a hundred miles an hour, and my soul-deadening federal job made that inevitable milestone seem all the more depressing. The fact that my career path was strewn with two master’s degrees and the corpses of many unfulfilling jobs just added a sense of panic to my overall unhappiness.more

The work Ruth and I did together really helped me get to the root of why I was unhappy and to understand what was truly important to me. Through the homework and our meetings together, Ruth challenged me to take some mental risks in determining where I could go with my life. Perhaps more importantly, the work we did provided a framework that I have been able to use on my own to guide me as I move forward with my career change and starting my own business.

Instead of being afraid of reaching 40, I am looking forward to all of the exciting challenges I will face before I get there." ~ TJO, 37, Business Owner

Discover Your Strengths & Where You Need To Be

"I just accepted a high-level management position, and I want you to know that I would not have gotten it without you, Ruth. I would not have recognized myself as someone who had the abilities required to apply for it, nor would I have been able to think as broadly and openly as the interviews demanded of me. Our work together enabled me to know myself more truly and in a whole new way. At the same time, our work gave me the skills to create a winning resume and to come across well and actually enjoy two days’ worth of interviews with nearly a dozen different people. Best of all, I am going into this job with the feeling that it will be a good fit. Thank you so much for helping me discover who I am and where I need to be." ~ LR, 50, Professional Association Executive

Liberate Your Authentic, Whole Self to Do the Work You Want

"Ruth helps you bank (quite literally) on the positive—your talents, abilities, and interests. She works with you through a very creative process in a caring—dare I say, nurturing—way. Ruth speaks truth to the powers that rule you, so you can liberate your authentic, whole self. Working with her and that new-old self is revealing and fun!" ~ MS, 44, Freelance Editor and writer on health, environment, and the arts

Transform Your Career

"When I was struggling to find a new career direction, Ruth Schimel provided a structured process of self-discovery, along with compassionate and perceptive coaching as I worked through this process. The end result was a new career that I love!" ~ JS, 48, Divorce Mediator (formerly a practicing attorney)

Fulfill Your Dreams

"Ruth is much more than a career and life management consultant. She becomes your mentor and partner. She really cares what happens to you, even beyond your meetings with her. She leads you, step by step, much like a gourmet chef leads her apprentices through a complex recipe, until you create a gourmet meal. Ruth brings a wealth of experience to the table to help you find the life you want to lead. She has done it all herself: government, education, consulting to the private and nonprofit sectors, and now, her own successful business. She can answer most of your questions, and some you haven’t even pondered, about your career and life path. Of course, she can help you perfect your resume and practice interview skills. But she can do so much more for you. Her clients leave their last session empowered to take the next step to lead the life of their dreams. I did.more

Ruth helps you answer all of your important questions:

Am I a good match for my current job?
Where am I going next? How do I get there?
What is my greatest potential and how can I reach it?
How can I best fit together the pieces of the workplace/home life puzzle?
How can I make the time to attain my career?

How does she do so? First, she asks the right questions of you. Next, she has broad knowledge of and contacts in most career fields. Finally, she somehow knows who you are. Like any good mentor, she makes you see yourself for what you are. She is a wonderful mix of assertiveness and compassion, equally adept at pushing a bird from the nest and helping it fly. She is insightful, and acutely perceptive, and wise.

Make an investment in your life, because you only live once. Ruth can help make it the life you have always dreamed it could be." ~ KR, 48, marketing and communications consultant to international humanitarian organizations and novelist

Use Career & Life Management Skills - Improving Your Situation

"It has been 12 years since I first worked with Ruth to design a life and career that felt right for me. Every time I am considering a change in my professional life, I pull out my Ruth Notes to see if the new opportunity meets the test of being a good match for me. Over the years, I’ve met with Ruth intermittently to “keep me honest” and on track. She has an amazing talent for bringing out the best in people and helping them find their way." ~ SVM, 47, business owner in real estate and marketing

Long-term Benefits of Working with Ruth

“Ruth Schimel gave me a great, structured opportunity to assess where I wanted to go in my career, at a crucial moment after having completed a mid-career fellowship at a major US university. The introspection and exercises she helped me to pursue gave me added confidence for what I can now say, 25 years later, was a high-achieving, highly individualistic career indeed. I would say that the most important result was how positively I have approached challenges in my life ever since. In a world where we’re taught to detect (and express) the negative, I gained a new, far more effective frame through which to see (and react to) others and events.” ~ AEW, 65, planner, author, teacher