Career crisis can happen to any of us, at any time. You wake up one day feeling not fully sure what you should do with the rest of your working life. You may have a friend opening up to you about the same issue. You soon realise you need help, your friend needs help. If you are not fully sure as to how to approach career crisis conversations in general, then look no further. This career crisis blog is a great starter to understanding as to what is going on with key points on how to approach it.
You may find this surprising but I am a great believer that all answers are inside us. We just need to find a way to get them out, start making some sense of them and putting them together into a plan. A big objective with this approach is to try and find a way towards a job or career that is truly fulfilling and promising. Now, this does not normally happen over night and it requires some thinking, networking, talking to people about it and eventually coming to realisation as to what can work for you. Some may describe it as a light bulb moment.
STEP 1 - First of all WHY NOW/TRIGGER POINTS?
What do you think triggered it? Can you describe a moment it happened? Could it be due to new year's resolutions? Maybe you got a new planner and as it started to ask you random questions about your plans for the new year, you soon realised you needed a change, a career change, a new focus.
How to find work you love? Apparently 72% of millennials want to change career completely. Millennials, also known as Generation Y or Gen Y, are the demographic cohort following Generation X and preceding Generation Z. Researchers and popular media typically use the early 1980s as starting birth years. In order to keep the Millennial generation analytically meaningful, and to begin looking at what might be unique about the next generation, Pew Research Center decided a year ago to use 1996 as the last birth year for Millennials for their future work. Anyone born between 1981 and 1996 (ages 23 to 38 in 2019) is considered a Millennial, and anyone born from 1997 onward is part of a new generation.
4 TIPS to consider before you resign from your current role:
1. Reflect - sometimes people love their job but may not like their line manager. Don’t let one person make you think you need to change your career completely. Think about your work environment, industry, your work colleagues.
2.Ponder - think about ideal careers, what do you enjoy doing at work, do you like leading teams, do you like work in more general or specialist roles?
3. Be clear about what you want - what is it that motivates you, what difference do you want to make, do you prefer small or big organisations, what about industries, how to do you like to work (office, home, travel)
4. Explore all options before you make a big decision and test a few things - can you work more flexibly, can you take a career break or sabbatical, start mapping your career plan and have short- medium - long term plan in place to keep you focused!
STEP 2 - REFLECT
Reflect on your childhood, progression in school, any career advice that was shared with you (if any). It may not come to you as a surprise that some of us might have never had any career input in what we could be or do when we grow up. We are often left to our devices or due to a random set of circumstances we may end up in a job that is just not right for us and difficult to get out of because we start paying our own bills and living on our own. I am sure with a good plan in place and savings while you transition into a new career or job, is more than just achievebale. Positive mindset is something that springs to my mind here and make sure you surround yourself with positive people who give you energy and encourage enthusiasm and positive behaviour.
STEPS 3 - IDENTIFY BLOCKERS
Identifying blockers early is very important before you embark on doing something about your career. This could be anything, from I have so many bills to pay and no savings to I know I would like a change but I am not sure about my options. If you have no one to speak to, please consider finding yourself a career coach. You may be thinking "WHY ON EARTH DO I NEED A CAREER COACH TO ASSIST MY JOB SEARCH? Fair question.
Here are the top 7 reasons why people are getting a coach like me to help with their job search.
I see this becoming the norm in the future:
1. Some are failing at interview and frustrated. They want to get the candid feedback that the market will never give them.
2. Others simply accept that the job market has changed since they were last looking for a role and need help to navigate it.
3. Many have outgrown the network and need to build new channels to market at a junior/senior level.
4. Some simply want help building a Linked In profile that is optimised for attracting opportunity.
5. Plenty need to get their narrative and interview technique locked in so that they perform at their best in the key moments at interview.
6. To transform that text heavy CV into a high impact 2 page document that closes you more opportunities.
7. To get help pivoting into a different role, industry or phase.
The crazy thing is that those who most need it seem the most cynical about it.
If you are interested check out my Upgrade Yourself offers
STEP 4 - LETTING GO OF THE PAST AND MOVING ON
This part may be very hard for some of us. How easy or hard may depend on so many factors. Some of us may get there sooner rather than later and we all deal with this at our own pace. It is important not to rush any of this as you may find yourself getting back into your comfort zone and back to square one.
“The comfort zone is a great enemy to creativity, moving beyond it necessitates intuition which in turn configures new perspectives and conquers fears” - Dan Stevens
Steps for Successful Change. There is a lot of literature on how to manage change. The truth is it is rarely easy. However, what is consistent in all the literature is that following should take place:
1. A clear vision - if you don’t have this, you will get a fast start that fizzles out . 2. Actionable first steps - without this there will be lots of false start . 3. Capacity for change - if you don’t have this there will be a lot of anxiety and frustration . 4. Pressure for change - if there is no need to change, you probably won’t .
STEP 5, Final step - GROWING UP AND MATURING | NEXT STEPS
Start in small steps and try to think about opportunities, reflecting may prompt a change altogether.
As the purpose of this blog is about career changes, I suggest that you complete a Personal Aspirations Exercise. The intent of this exercise is to help you develop a clear sense of purpose about your career. This may be expressed as a statement of purpose or direction as an aspiration or as a goal(s).
Process
Identify a ‘Golden Moment’ in your working life, a moment where you felt completely fulfilled and valued, when you have contributed something special and made a difference.
Write down: a) what the situation was b) the key elements/qualities and c) any other key words or phrases
Repeat steps 1 and 2 above, describing approximately 5 such “Golden Moments”
Using the notes generated, develop a statement beginning something like “My purpose in work is....” “I aspire to....””My career goals are....””What I want from my working life is...”
Note: When writing your statement, some will find this more difficult than others and it may be appropriate to simply note the key elements so that you can refine the statement later. People have been known to work on statements such as these over many years before they arrive at something that is satisfying.
What next...
You are not on your own. I have created a Career Changes and Consultation Group on Facebook you may wish to join us there for a further conversation.
If you have any questions, please sign up as a member/subscribe to my website below and/or send me an email on info@focusyourself.co.uk. You can also find me on Instagram at @yourself.focus, Facebook at @focusyourself.
Best wishes
Sanja
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