I’m sitting at home in front of my chunky laptop doing my daily scroll through the relentless email alerts for new jobs. “Not enough experience”, “Too much experience”, “Sounds dull”, “Sounds way too exciting!” are the thoughts that are running through my head. Scroll, click, delete.
This method of hunting for a new career has the obvious benefit that I felt like I am taking action. However, it took a conversation with a friend to give me a kick up the career change backside as my friend asked how I could make decisions on likely roles with only half of the facts. She encouraged me to dip my toes in and contact organisations that were possible contenders before I rejected them. As a career strategist she had seen many of her clients staying in a holding pattern because they did exactly what I had been doing. Enough said!
Although I knew her advice was good, and that I had been hiding from the fact that I was rejecting potential jobs before they rejected me, it still took me 4 days to pick up the phone. The mind can be a funny thing and I had been mulling over one part time job in particular. I realised I was missing the point as I was focused on the detail of whether I could live on what the part time job would pay me when I hadn’t yet asked the salary!
At this point I gave myself a firm talking to; wrote a list of exactly what I wanted to know about the job and organisation, asked myself “what was the worst that could happen?” and picked up the phone.
After the call I felt great. It turned out the pay wasn’t going to be enough so I had saved my time (and theirs) by not drafting a covering letter and sending my CV in. I had gathered enough facts to make a quick decision. Taking this action also gave me the confidence to call other organisations and have some pre-interview coffees to see if I liked the people I would be working closely with and learn more details about the roles themselves. And would you know it within 2 weeks of taking those actions I was being interviewed for two 6 month contracts with people I knew I could work with in roles that I knew were heading in the right direction.
My advice for any career shifters (whether to a new career or starting your own business) would be:
- Go with what feels right; you are not looking for perfect.
- Have the courage and commitment to take action even if you don’t know if the area or job is going to ultimately be the right one. Move in the right direction for now; you don’t need to know exactly where the decision will take you.
- Constantly check in with yourself about how you are feeling. Are you still enjoying the job a month into it? Are there aspects you enjoy more than others?
- If you feel that you have made the wrong decision then make another decision that gets you out. Always remember that you have choices and it’s up to you to alter your course.
If you are in the middle of a career transition, dip your toes in. Who knows, you may find a lovely place to take a swim.
