This month is a highlight in the career diary, the Reinvent Your Career Expo is on in Melbourne over the weekend of 11 and 12 July. My career practitioner colleagues and I will be providing free career health checks and resume checks. We will also be offering a smorgasbord of seminars on a range of career and job search issues. You can find out more about this on the Career Dimensions web page as well as at www.reinventyourcareer.com.au.
This expo is aimed at adult career changers and so I have been thinking about how adults manage the career change process. It is understandable that students often have trouble working out what to do with their lives; after all, everything is new to them and they don't have a lot of life experience to work with.
But an inability to make good career decisions, and to take appropriate actions, is not restricted to young people. From my experience working with people across the lifespan and in diverse industries, I think we have a long way to go before we can say we do this well. I count myself in this group, if I am being honest. I have often found career change to be a difficult process, fraught with complications and strong emotions.
I have had trouble leaving a job that I have been unhappy in. I have dithered and delayed moving on to something better due to what I have argued is loyalty when really it had more to do with fear of the unknown. I have cried myself to sleep at night wondering why I didn't seem to fit in, couldn't develop a particular skill or do a task as well as others around me, and have berated myself for being lazy and not putting in enough effort when really I was simply a square peg in a round hole.
Does this sound familiar? What is even stranger is that, despite my ability to help others dream about the perfect career and then take steps to make it happen, I still struggle with all these issues myself. So it appears that knowledge does not always equal power!
But there is good news. Career change can and should be a highly positive experience. If we can identify the real issues, rather than laying blame on a difficult boss or boring tasks, we can begin taking real steps to move on.
At each stage in life we have different needs, and recognising when our needs have changed, or when we are no longer challenged in a particular work environment, is the first step to reinventing our careers.
Why don't you give yourself the opportunity right now to work out what it is you need from your career, and then measure these against your current job role. Are you feeling stressed, unchallenged, or just plain bored? You probably need to move on. If this sounds like you, why not start with one small step? See a career counsellor! Reply now and find out how you can reinvent your career.
The poll we conducted in July 'Have you ever stayed in a job past its use by date' attracted 7 responses - 6 Yes and 1 No. On the basis of this poll (which admittedly isn't truly representative of the population at large), 85% of people have stayed too long in a job. Which is quite believable, based on my own anecdotal evidencesourced from direct contact with clients.
You make some good points here Julie. I have undergone the career change process a number of times, and it doesn't seem to get any easier with experience. There seem to be certain stages you go through each time. Starting with a vague sense of dissatisfaction, then fault finding with the organisation, grumbling with like minded colleagues, and eventually when the sense of unease gets too much one finally cuts the ties.
ReplyDeleteI had one job I enjoyed, but the politics was very challenging. I felt I had been put in a crate, and each day I was being pushed deeper into it, and finally big nails were hammered in.
You might observe that there was a message here for me!
When I finally resigned, the sense of release was enormous. I felt like I was on the edge of a fabulous cliff overlooking a savanna with many varied paths down to and across it, and I was able to choose which one to take. It was tremendously exciting.
As generally happens, you wonder why you took so long to leave when the writing was on the wall.
Having a supportive coach as times like this is fabulous.
Sue: www.traverselife.com.au
This is so true. I waited five years - yes five years - after my boss told me I would never make any progress in my organisation. I wanted to prove him wrong. A session with a career coach made me see just how stupid I was being and I not only got a better job but had two promotions within 6 months of starting with my new employer.
ReplyDeleteMark J