Take Action for successful Career Transition.
Self-motivation and the ability to be accountable and to take action is essential for a successful career transition. However, it is not necessarily as easy as we would like.
When I first started working in Career Transition most of my clients had been in the same organisation for many years. This meant they lacked confidence but also felt rejected and a sense of having been left to cope alone in an unknown and alien environment.
Also, they were completely wedded to referring of themselves in terms of their job title. They just didn’t see themselves as a person separate from their work.
Some stated it felt like stepping off a cliff or diving headfirst into the unknown.
Identity
Now my clients are less likely to be working through the feelings of loss of family or having been institutionalised. They tend to take the security of a job with a pinch of salt and have an identity outside of work.
This is mostly because the job market has changed and the average job lasts 3-5 years rather than for life.
Having said that, the issue of identity is still very much there.
After all, what is the first thing you usually ask someone when you meet them at a social gathering like, say, a wedding?
In that situation you would probably ask which side of the wedding they are connecting to (bride or groom) and if the conversation continues it may be that asking what they do for a living will come up next.
Although you are probably are more aware of the fragility of your job now, and clients often say they had seen the writing on the wall prior to company restructuring (redundancy!) you can still find it stressful.
If you have faced several enforced career changes or had roles that were fixed term contracts etc. you will probably be very clear that you are more than just a job title. Although this situation can bring up other concerns for you (also see Dealing with Change).
In my experience anything over 7 years can lead to a feeling of being in a rut.
Belonging and/or identification with the role and can make moving on very difficult. It takes confidence and often a lot of effort overcome this inertia and make yourself take the necessary action for successful career transition.
Self-Worth
To find a sense of self-worth and identity it is necessary to work hard on raising your level of self-awareness. This will include:
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- What you love to do? – what you love is what you are best at (so will help identify your transferable skills)
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- In what different circumstances have you used the above skills? – this will demonstrate their transferability.
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- What knowledge have you gathered? – including professional, industrial, systems, cultural etc.
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- What different types of challenges have you met and overcome within your career? – this will help you identify achievements you might be proud of.
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- What motivates you? – thinking of your achievements above. Identify what values motivated you to step outside of your comfort zone and keep going.
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- How does your personality support your performance at work? – i.e. supportive and empathic when dealing with client issues / curiosity might help you solve problems …
Confidence
Once you have found a way to see and talk about yourself as an individual of worth, outside of any one specific job, your confidence will increase greatly.
Following on from this you will undoubtedly have questions about the process of either deciding on what you want to do (if you want to change careers) or finding another role.
These are practical steps that I help people with every day. Again, if you have been in a role over 3-4 years there are some very specific change you might need to make to your CV and the language you use. See article on Simple Steps to Market Yourself Effectively.
What does action look like?
There are two types of actions you should take:
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- Preparation: Do not mistake preparation is passivity. It is a very important part of the process, and a lack of preparation will undermine any work you put into applications.
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- Proactivity: Move outside of the comfort zone of your computer and reach out to people to network, apply for jobs, interview.
You must do things in the right order but don’t fall into the control/perfection trap (see Escaping the Perfectionist Trap). You will never be fully prepared; you just have to recognise when you have done enough to feel ready to try.
Once you have reached this point your are ready to take action for successful career transition.
If you would like to discuss any of this further or learn more about my coaching programmes etc please contact me on info@truecolourscoaching.com or via the website to be put on the mailing list.