My Biography (the formal version)
Rob Archer (C.Psychol, MSc, Grad Dip Psych, BA Hons)
Rob is a chartered occupational psychologist and management consultant with 15 years’ consulting experience in both public and private sectors.
Rob set up The Career Psychologist in 2009. This coaching business offers help to those who are stuck in terms of career direction. Through a combination of applied psychology, decision sciences, psychometric tests and 1 to 1 sessions, The Career Psychologist helps get people unstuck and moving through their career change with purpose.
In addition to career psychology and coaching, Rob works within organisations specialising in culture and behaviour change, training, coaching, leadership development and assessment, Rob has extensive experience of consulting to world class FTSE 100 companies , public sector organisations and social enterprises.
Prior to becoming a psychologist, Rob was a management consultant with two world-class consultancies, where he worked on large-scale organisational development and change projects. He was part of the team which established Serco Consulting, now a leading UK management consultancy. At PA Consulting, he was part of the team which won a Management Consultancy Award for Best Strategy and Business Transformation project.
Along with The Career Psychologist, Rob is currently involved in two businesses:
- LPP Consulting. Rob is a Director at this fast growing performance consultancy, where his main areas of focus are in culture and behaviour change, employee engagement and resilience.
- Working with ACT. Working with ACT is pioneering the use of Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACT) in the workplace. ACT is an evidence-based intervention which has been shown to build resilience, performance and wellbeing in the workplace. Along with Rachel Collis, we offer training courses and consultancy which use the latest in applied behavioural science to solve common business problems and build sustainable performance.
Rob writes regularly on the psychology of career change on his blogs, Headstuck! and Working with ACT.
He is a keen but deteriorating sportsman, and once appeared on Channel 4’s Faking It, where he taught a dog to dance in a field.
For more information, here’s Rob’s LinkedIn profile.
My Story (the informal version)
Hello. My name is Rob Archer and I am a Chartered Occupational Psychologist living and working in London, UK.
My story begins in Liverpool, where I grew up. It was the 1980s, and unemployment was rife. I remember the worry this caused and the overwhelming sense of hopelessness it brought. Money was a constant, nagging refrain. This was the era of Boys from the Blackstuff, and it felt real.
At school I was often in trouble, but when it came to exams I learned to be very focused. Eventually, this meant I could work my way out of Liverpool and into a great job as a management consultant in London. It was secure, well paid and I should have been very happy. Indeed, I tried very hard to be happy at it.
But in fact, I was miserable. For a long while I tried to ignore this. I assumed I should be grateful just to have a job, but eventually it caught up with me. I became chronically stressed and anxious. I started having panic attacks. I couldn’t go on.
The problem was the alternatives – changing career, starting again – all seemed impossible. I felt as though I was risking going back to where I had come from. I became paralysed with indecision – something I now call Career Paralysis. Not a nice place to be.
But slowly I began to make small changes. I started running instead of drinking. I tried to work less. And I decided to follow the path that interested me most and became a psychologist. It was a long and tortuous journey, but I got there.
Today I do many things, but my interest in career change has grown. It is my firm belief that career decisions are becoming more and more complex and our minds are not well equipped to deal with the challenge. I also think that for many, the objective of their working day is simply to get through, rather than actually engaging in work in any meaningful way.
This is both an individual and managerial problem. But psychology is at the heart of solving both.