Yahoo column: Five ways to make career change easier
Most of us will change careers at least three times in our lives. And most of us will be nervous at one point or another in the process.
Invariably, you’re giving up the known to pursue the unknown. So, even if you hate your current career, it’s still scary to give it up.
I have a lot of experience in this arena. I’ve changed careers a lot, going from professional beach volleyball player to software marketer to entrepreneur to freelance writer. While I was doing that, my husband changed careers three times in five years.
Each change was different and difficult in its own way for both of us. But I’ve learned some tricks along the way to make career changes easier.
Go to Yahoo Finance to read five ideas to consider in your own career change. Here are two of the ideas:
Make the change before you go nuts.
Most people hold out in a career until it’s clear that it’s not for them. All change is hard. We like to be stimulated and interested, but most of us don’t like constant change. It’s too stressful, so we find ways to avoid it.
The problem is that if you put off change for too long you compromise your ability to orchestrate it. I spent a lot of my career with the bad habit of letting myself bottom out before I made a big change, so take it from me — the change is much harder to manage when you’re operating from a place of desperation and exhaustion.
Keep your significant other in the loop.
A career change is so emotionally and financially profound that it’s practically a joint decision if you’re living with a significant other. I learned this the hard way, when my husband changed careers.
As a career advisor, I had a lot of opinions about what he should be doing, but I didn’t want to step on his toes so I tried to leave him alone to make the decisions himself. But I started getting nervous about the instability his choices might create.
There’s a definite balance you need to strike between wanting to support your partner in chasing his or her career dreams, and wanting to maintain sanity in the relationship while the chase is on. Keeping your partner in the loop, not just about what you’re doing but also what you’re thinking, can go a long way toward creating a team feeling.
Read the rest at Yahoo Finance.
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6 Comments »
I read the article and it did bring up a point I’ve been wondering, (since I’ve read it in the advance copy of your book–which is really excellent and if people don’t buy immediately when it’s finally for sale they are really missing out and my opinion is so unbiased) and I think others will be too. The figure of $40K being the amount that will make you happy and anything beyond is just gravy. To quote the blog post where you elaborate on this: “To someone who just spent four years in college living off nine-thousand-dollar loan stipends, an increase to forty thousand means a lot – moving from poverty to middle class. But it’s a one-time rush. After you hit the forty-thousand-dollar-range money never gives you that surge in happiness again.”
In this quote, its about basically going from $0 to $40,000. Of course there will be a rush. But, even if you don’t get a SURGE of happiness, I think a reasonable increase will bring you happiness. Not the same roller-coaster feeling, but happy satisfaction. I know I felt that way when I hit $75,000.
Could you provide the link to where the figure of $40K is given? I really feel skeptical that $40K works for a family of four. If it’s from the book you cite, “Ruminations on a TwentySomething Life”, I think the sequel, “Ruminations on a ThirtySomething Life with a Mortgage and Saving for my Kid’s College” will offer a higher figure.
However, I could be wrong–the Economist just cited that of people in Udaipur India living on a dollar a day, which for the math impaired is $365 a year, only 9% of people say their life makes them generally unhappy.
http://www.economist.com/finance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9080048
Posted by Mary | May 3, 2007
Penelope, I’d suggest a possible 6th step:
Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.
Before you rush to a “career change” think about how you got to your current job. What are things the drew you there in the first place? Is there a way to make a shift that would allow you to do more of what you like and less of what you hate? Is it the career you hate or just the current incarnation?
I speak from experience - as a Computer Science major, I got a “great” job when I graduated. Good pay. Good company. Blah blah blah. But I was MISERABLE. Had a horrible boss who publicly reprimanded me if I was 15 minutes late for work. The work was mindnumbing. There was no one there to mentor me. And I had to DRESS UP. So I quit, travelled for awhile, and became a teacher. But that sucked too. Eventually, I went back to software engineering, but this time in a company with flexible work hours, smart, experienced developers who taught me plenty, and work in a field that was interesting to me. Oh, and I could wear whatever I wanted. I ended up being the first to arrive and the last to leave, because I was challenged and excited about the work. Seriously.
Posted by Chris Angelli | May 3, 2007
I think you make some very good points. I can completely relate to your significant other advice, as well, since my boyfriend is currently working two part-time jobs and going back to school to make a career change.
My question relates to that situation, though. A career change that requires extra schooling brings the stress and trepidation to a whole new level. With school schedules changing every 10 weeks, there’s no guarantee that the same money you’re able to make this quarter will be there next quarter, but you have to keep pushing through to justify the enormous financial investment you’ve already made.
What suggestions do you have for that situation?
* * * * * * * *
Think very hard before going to graduate school. So many people think they need to go to meet their goals, but they don’t. Or, worse, they go to make a change, but they don’t know what change they are going to make. Both situations are not good times to go to graduate school. I’ve posted about this here:http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2005/08/01/is-grad-school-right-for-you/
-Penelope
Posted by Jacqui | May 3, 2007
Another hard thing I found about changing careers is dis-associating your personal identity and sense of self from your career/job.
I was “a grad student” then an adjunct professor of history. Next I was a website content manager — all these “titles” somewhat summed up what I do.
And then was a year+ of looking for a new career — and it was tough as I also felt like I’d lost some of my identity.
That’s the tough part. The only useful advice I ever found (might have been from Penelope, I can’t remember) was to create a mission statement for yourself. What defines you and what you like to do, and hang on to this.
Posted by Wendy | May 3, 2007
Penelope: Some people have enjoyed testing the waters on career changes by trying the new job over a vacation (Vocation Vacations, an Oregon-based company, offers this service for all sorts of “dream jobs” but it’s possible to do on your own, too). I interviewed some people for a magazine who decided to go from real estate and law to chocolate making after working with a master chocolatier over vacation. At the time they were in the process of opening their store and were thrilled with the career change — but had no illusions about what running a store entails. Something to chew on :)
Posted by Laura Vanderkam | May 7, 2007
I think that the best way for someone to shange his/hers career is switch from an employee to entrepreneur.
Regards,
William
Posted by William Profet from OneJobTwoSalaries.com | July 5, 2007
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