12 Crafty Ways To Tell If You’re Ready For Career Change
Maybe you have an idea of a different career direction already and you’re not sure if you should go for it. Or perhaps you think its safer to stay as you are in this current climate.
It’s easy to be confused at this point.
Let’s take a look at some of the ways to determine if career change really is for you.
1.You’re a mid career professional who is questioning your career path after having made a long term investment in that path.
2. Your desire for change dovetails with hitting forty as part of the famed mid life transition.
3. You are experiencing new degrees of freedom now the children have flown the nest, maybe you’re enjoying being single again and rellish the opportunity of spending the next 15-20 years in a different way.
4. You’re already planning your exit strategy.
5. You are preparing to take your next step up into a leadership or executive role.
6. You perk up when you hear about the accountant who gave it all up to be a landscape gardener, or the senior manager who ditched her firm to became an independent coach and training consultant, or the nurse who became a writer, and wonder what if?
7. You started your career young and are considering retraining in your chosen career.
8. You are an established consultant, coach or trainer who wants to do more of the work that gets you out of bed in the morinings.
9. You feel like you’re stood on the edge of a high diving board, feeling excited and nervous at the same time.
10. You yearn for change, but remain stuck and unsure of which path to take.
11. You want to get your spark back.
If you caught yourself nodding to just one of these statements you’re in good company.
Most of us will navigate at least one major career shift in the course of our lives.
Many of our friends, family and professional associates will make similar changes. But the difference is between you and the rest is that you are here today.
Learning what twists and turns might lie in the road ahead will not reduce the uncertainty about the ultimate destination. But it will increase your chances of getting started.
12. For you it’s like what?
Please leave your comments, viewpoints, questions, examples in the comments section below.
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Best wishes
Angela
Posted on September 2, 2011, in Career Advice, My Blog. Bookmark the permalink. 8 Comments.
I admire your work , thankyou for all the great blog posts.
Nice read, I just passed this onto a colleague who was doing some research on that. And he actually bought me lunch because I found it for him smile So let me rephrase that: Thanks for lunch!
As an acolyte of Angela’s for about a year now I am happy to add my thoughts to this forum – I am a great believer in the power of support networks to help individuals make lasting changes.
As always with any coaching scenario the most important step is to work out what the goal is – and to feel able to take the time to do so.
What is it then about the ‘over forty’ bit that is relevant and that will help us to work out what we are aspiring towards?
This may seem like an odd diversion but trust me. As an afficionado of the type of programme that now seems to make up most of the scheduling for ITV3 – Morse, Lewis, Midsummer Murders, etc. – I know that in any detection process the two key factors are opportunity and motive.
Now, I am no Morse, but I understand that being (well) over forty was a big factor in both those aspects of my own crime against my previous career. And in both cases there is an obvious and a more subtle aspect.
Motive – the obvious one for me was that I had been with the same company for 30 years and, while moderately successful, I knew I had gone as far as I was going to go both in terms of my capabilities and also, legislation not withstanding, age profile. So I could sit out the next 10-15 years and sulk or go and do something different. But it turned out there was a further angle, and one that I could not have become aware of without taking the plunge. Through all the self reflection that developing as a coach requires I have become aware that there were other things working within me that would drive – which continue to drive – my life and career and it is the maturity and capacity to reflect that seems to come with being of a certain age that helped kick start that process – the urgency created by a sense of time passing that was able to unlock doors long closed.
Opportunity – there is a practical side to this. My age and years of service meant that I was able to take advantage of yet another reorganisation to leave with a bit of capital behind me and I would be the first to admit that I would be a good deal less gung ho about my career change without that security. But again, age, experience, whatever, these factors conspired to create a foundation on which I could start to build something new. 30 year old Mike would have done something very different – and much less exciting – with a pot of money and some spare time.
So – my advice is to recognise the extraordinary capacity for change that comes with the energy and experience we all retain after 40 – to work out what drives you (and to recognise that takes time and you may have to start the process before it really kicks in) and go for that career over forty – whatever it is.
My top tip when starting something new would be to do exactly as Christine is doing: get experience.
As someone who tends to dive right in, I have learnt that it is best to think about the direction I want to go in and find the best place to start the journey. Testing the water first, making sure that the conditions are right for me, checking I can float, swim and keep my head above water means that I can then push forward and, with my eyes set on the horizon, let the movement of the tide help me.
…And the tide has been kind enough to bring me to Angela, allowing us the opportunities to support each other on our journeys.
Great contributions. Thank you, Angela
Until last June, I was Head of HR and Marketing for Aspen Insurance and had been for six years. I had previously headed up HR for major organisations. This summer I left Aspen. As it happens, I had been thinking about setting up a new business, probably in my mid fifties but my departure from Aspen at 49, got me thinking about whether this was the moment. I attended a course on Executive Coaching, co lead by Angela Watson, and she pointed me at a book called Working Identities which I found very useful. The process of change took a couple of months in which I talked to a lot of people, was coached by colleagues and talked to my family and friends. I took steps to establish the company and I launch next Friday. Who knows how it will turn out? I feel very positive and am looking forward to building Leadenhall Consulting into a thriving business. I will now find out if I have what it takes, and will not always wonder if I should have set out on my own……
Several of the points resonated with me. I recently took the plunge and left my role after 29 years with the same employer. I want to get into employability coaching, welfare to work, working in the non-profit sector. It felt like the right time for a change however opportunities are limited in the current economic climate. I have arranged two volunteering opportunities in employability coaching and would welcome any advice on how best to navigate these waters.
Hi Christine, first of all congratulations in taking the plunge and thank you for sharing your experience here. I’m sure this blog site will be of support to you over the coming months as you navigate these waters.
To your success!
Best wishes
Angela