Career Change: How Do You Start Your Career Change?
Confused? Overwhelmed? Wondering how to even start thinking about a career change?
No worries – you’ve come to the right place. What I am about to share with you here is my quick low-down on the most empowering and effective way to approach the initial stage. And it’s based on what has actually worked with my career change clients – no “pie in the sky” here!
What is important to get right is where you initially look for ideas and pointers and who you ask for input. I call the approach I recommend ‘The Internal Approach.”
How to avoid sabotaging your career change from the very start:
To make my point really clear, I’ll start by outlining the approach you want to avoid, as it will sabotage the process from the very start! It’s what I call “The External Approach.”
The External Approach:
Most people sabotage their career change process from the start by looking externally first and therefore quickly give up. Too many obstacles, gatekeepers and feelings of lack.
DON’T start your career change by:
Looking at job ads (and then quickly thinking “I don’t have that”and feeling defeated).
Speaking to recruiters about your “options” (when all they are paid to do is to find a “square peg for a square hole” for their clients) and then feeling disillusioned and out of options.
Looking at ‘quick fix’ career change ideas like teaching (…only 1 year re-training and you’ll get work and long holidays…), but feeling lukewarm about the job/career itself.
Coming up with crazy escapist fantasies (move to France, marry Prince Harry etc.) and quickly talking yourself out of them.
+ All of the above are done on a rather sporadic basis….
See where this is going?
The above approach is rarely successful, as you are pretty much giving all of your power away by relying on external factors and other people and information sources at this early part of the process.
Of course you will need to look at external factors too to reality-check, but that stage will come later. It’s time to take you power back first!
How to successfully start your career change:
The Internal Approach:
This is where you start the process internally by first discovering and deciding what YOU want and have to offer BEFORE going out and seeing how that matches the external world (or how you can create it, if it doesn’t exist!).
This way you are taking power into your own hands and learning to rely on what you bring to the table as well as what you actually want.
Here’s is a quick framework to get you started:
DO start your career change by:
- Identify what you naturally do really well and enjoy doing – talking to customers, drawing, selling, coming up with new ideas etc.
- Identify areas and subjects you are passionate about, love reading about and maybe even doing things related to.
- Write your ideal job description or business plan – or a couple of them if that works better for you. Really focus on what activities you actually want to spend your day doing.
- Nail down what the “gist” of what you would like to do is.
- It’s at this stage (and not before) that you can start looking at what’s available out there and start comparing that to what you have to offer and want and get further ideas. But you will come from a much more powerful and considered background and are not limited by the few options that might “seem” to be on offer or by what those imaginary ‘gate keepers’ think.
With my approach YOU are in the driving seat.
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