Thrilled to be tapped by The Morning Call, Lehigh Valley’s leading newspaper, for this piece in the Sunday career section. Thank you for great questions!
Read here: CareerWellnessInTheMorningCall
“Meaningful work, for me, is about helping others find their meaningful work.” ~Barbara Berger, CCC
If you want to brainstorm ideas for your next career move, contact me at barbara@CareerWellnessPartners.com
“Are you still just consulting?” she asked me. At a networking event. In front of a colleague. In a room of professionals where I belonged. After realizing her blunder, she tried to recover, “Oh, I don’t mean it like ‘JUST consulting,’ and then she mumbled something else that only made her fabulous flub worse.
I brushed it off and continued my conversation with my colleague. The comment that would have made me question my professional existence (with that one word “just”) ten or fifteen years ago, now simply made my soul giggle.
Look, I’ve interviewed enough candidates to know when consulting is a gap-filler on a resume. But as the world of work evolves, the contingent workforce swells, and more people embrace a gig mindset to craft their ideal careers, we will eventually have to shift our model of what constitutes a “real job.”
I smiled as I walked to my car because I’ve held more traditional and acceptable (I guess) titles that, if asked that question back then, “So, are you still just a sales coordinator?” the “just” would have stung because I wasn’t sure of my path, or my contributions, or how it aligned with what I desired from my work.
This brief exchange was a gift that I will now share with my clients and with any of you who are struggling with doubt about doing what you desire to do for fear of how others might judge you.
You will know for certain that you are doing what you’re meant to do when you come up against a “just” question, while perhaps not intentionally demeaning, and you are rock solid inside. And you can answer, if only internally, “Yes, I’m just building my career exactly the way I want it.”
Get weekly boosts to your career wellness here.
Image courtesy of Shutterstock.
There are lucky souls on this earth who find their calling early. Many of us envy them, but some people find it in their early years. They may be 22 and on their way through medical school knowing that they were put on this earth to heal someone. It doesn’t mean they’ve peaked of course, but it does mean they’re lucky.
Some people find their calling early and then fall out of love with it. Things happen in life that change us, change our jobs, or change our industries. Companies change and responsibilities evolve. Sometimes we are promoted out of a job that was the perfect fit for us, or we outgrow the perfect job.
When you’re young and looking for your calling life appears filled with opportunities, and most of the time you’re living on less than you elders. Perhaps you rent an apartment and live in a city. You probably don’t have dependents. Of course, I realize there are things like student debt and individual challenges, but hear me out.
As you climb your career ladder, you get used to certain things. Apart from a larger paycheck than your early career years, you probably have earned a certain level of responsibility and respect within your company and industry. Maybe even a title that reflects that. You also probably have a mortgage, more luxuries in your life that you don’t want to give up, and children who depend on you. Leaving the job you used to love for a new one you’re passionate about may mean giving up a lot. It’s frightening, but so is the idea of spending the rest of your work life in a job that drains you.
Like almost everything we try to accomplish in life, fear is the primary obstacle to our success. Fear of losing our material belongings, status, and security are especially difficult when we look to alter our career. And of course, the demon of all fears – fear of failure – overshadows it all. There is no easy answer; tackling fear can be a show-stopper if we let it. So my one piece of advice, the only way I know to get past it, is to accept it. Know and accept that you will be scared, and get comfortable with that fear.
But understand this, it won’t always be scary. You will actually, despite what you think now, get used to the idea of change and it will become less scary. And you don’t have to QUIT your job. You can do the work on yourself and your career without giving up your job, you just have to commit to it and remain focused, and disciplined, on walking down that path.
If any of what I described above resonates with you, and you desperately want to love your job again, there is help out there. This is what career coaches do. You don’t have to work with me; I’m not trying to hard-sell you, but trust me, working with a professional can make this journey far less scary, and far less frustrating.
Need some inspiration? Check out this post about how four people in different stages of their careers successfully made a shift happen.
photo credit: Alfonsina Blyde » I will try fix you via photopin (license)
SHIFT HAPPENS!
It may not happen as fast as you want it to happen. It may not be easy. But it does happen.
Take a look at the following examples:
Recent Grad: Executed shift from retail to professional role in logistics/distribution
(Networking & Recruiter)
Early Career: PhD transitioned to new field and landed industry dream job
(Networking & Job Board)
Middle Career: Finance professional successfully re-entered workforce (Networking)
Late Career: Seasoned sales professional refused to take company restructure as an off-ramp to retirement – landed major sales position in high-volume market (Networking)
What do they have in common?
1. Yes, they are all recent clients, but the next two points are where I want you to pay attention.
2. They all incorporated some form of networking, some way of making new connections, into their job search strategy. (Note that only one in four landed their new gig by applying on a job board – supporting the popular job search statistic that 80% of positions are filled though networking.) Use job boards. Definitely. But not as your only approach.
3. All of these shifters took ownership of their career wellness. They created their next steps. They didn’t lead with fear. They worked hard. They didn’t listen to the naysayers. They had the guts to take action and the stamina to keep going when they felt like quitting.
From creating a strong brand on LinkedIn to attract the attention of recruiters, to learning the art of the informational interview, these shifters made it happen.
Kudos to them for showing the rest of us how to do it right.
There is something incredibly rewarding about working they way I want to work, not because someone is telling me what to do or how to do it. Something so fantastically different about working my own gig and knowing that the compensation is a result, from start to finish, of my own efforts. Not to mention that I value the money so much more because I’m in a helping/teaching/giving role which is where my gut knows, and past career experiments show, I belong.
There is something so decadent about having the freedom to structure my work day as I choose. It might mean the ability to take a break to eat the last piece of cheesecake for a mid-morning snack (I just did that), or thinking through a presentation while taking the dog for a walk (much better option than the cheesecake.)
But that’s me.
Does it mean I sometimes work at midnight, or during the evening between my boys’ baseball games, and on weekends? Yes, it does. There’s a cost to every decision. However, for me, this way works best.
I love my offices. I have a home office where I work with candles lit, or incense burning, or loud music, or soft music or Howard Stern on XM. I talk to (and answer) myself. At my other office, where I see clients and pay rent and get my dose of human interaction, it’s tiny and cozy and it’s me. (Sans Howard Stern and the out-loud personal dialogue.)
I value freedom, and variety, and days that I get to structure any way I like. Some days I’m seeing clients all day, some days I’m delivering workshops, other days I’m writing resumes, or LinkedIn profiles, or blog posts. I love options.
But that’s me.
What about you? Do you need quiet? Do you need lots of social interaction? Do you need tight deadlines to perform your best? Do you want to walk away from the day at 5:00 and not have to think about it until you punch in again the next morning? Do you need to be outside?
There is no one way, no way more important than another, to work. There is only your best way and you need to know what it is so you can help make a well-informed decision about your career options.
If you know that you need structure and clear-cut, specific guidelines during your time at work, then that is a huge piece of the puzzle for you. And when you know something like that about yourself, and how you work best, you begin to make choices. Better choices. Aligned choices. Choices that lead to career wellness.
How do you find out what your best way is? You experiment.
Pamela Slim talks about “thinking like a scientist” in her book Body of Work: Finding the Thread That Ties Your Story Together.
When talking about what makes or breaks an entrepreneurial journey, Slim writes;
What I mean specifically is a willingness to create a working hypothesis, test it, observe with curiosity, ask why, tweak, retest, observe, et cetera, until you are satisfied.
Take some time to reflect on past experiences, pay attention to current situations, and make a list of times when you know you preformed at your best.
It’s not for the weak; this experimentation thing. There are lots of hypotheses that deliver disappointing results. When this happens, add the experience to your list, break down what you learned about yourself, and experiment again. And again.
Keep experimenting until you notice that one of your experiments leads to unexpected peace, surprising happiness and an increased feeling of overall wellbeing.
When that happens, celebrate with cheesecake.
He’d rather walk!
cheesecake photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/10506540@N07/5806546039
One of my favorite career-change sites is Careershifters. I always discover something valuable in their articles that helps a client or two of mine along the way.
I found this gem today and had to share for anyone who is thinking of changing careers or making a move to a new industry. http://tinyurl.com/k4mdkzl
Nobody likes to feel like the newbie…so don’t be one!
In the spring of 2013, I initiated my own mid-career transition when I resigned from the most amazing company ever, MyHR Partner, to become certified as a Career Coach and start my own career consulting practice, Career Wellness Partners. I expected the first year to be a year of learning about running my own business – and it certainly was. But, there was one thing for which I wasn’t prepared at all:
I wasn’t prepared for how much I would learn from my clients.
I work with women in all kinds of transition; women who are recently divorced and re-entering the workforce before they planned, mid-career women who are suddenly unemployed and determined to make their second act one that matters, and women whose career dreams took a back seat while caring for ailing parents. I work with women who have experienced such loss they don’t even know where to begin to build their lives (let alone their careers) to some state of “normalcy.” And, I work with women who are trying to find a way to infuse meaning and joy into their current work situation.
My background as a Hiring Manger provided me with the skills to assist clients with the mechanics of the job search; resume writing, interview prep, LinkedIn profiles, applicant tracking systems (ATS), etc. Through education and training, along with plenty of pro-bono work prior to launch, I discovered my own coaching style. That’s when the learning really began.
Here are the top five lessons from my first year as a Career Coach for women in transition:
1. Work heals – Work pays the bills. It also can be a place of refuge, rebuilding and recovery. It can be experimental or monumental. It can be a primary or parallel endeavor. Work can help free us from debilitating introspection, spiraling depression and loss of connection. Work sucks sometimes. And sometimes, it saves.
2. “Way leads on to way” – My favorite line from Robert Frost’s The Road Not Taken is “Yet knowing how way leads on to way…” My favorite because it speaks to endless possibilities resulting from one small step. And I’ve learned that getting beyond lesson #3, so that women feel worthy to take that first step, is the most important part.
3. Fear & Lack of Confidence Cause Paralysis – These are big saboteurs for most women and we feed them by the negative way we talk to ourselves and frame our circumstances. They keep us stuck. Watching women learn and practice strategies to combat those obstacles leads to lesson #4.
4. Strength. Resilience. Persistence. Spirit. – Wow. Remarkable. Awe-inspiring. Humbling. I am blessed to witness such personal transformation and rebirth.
5. The Power of Women Helping Women – Transitions expose our vulnerable spots. I work with men too. But something genuinely magical happens when women work together in the spirit of owning, and then honoring, their talents and desires.
By combining my insatiable curiosity of career discovery, industry-specific skills, and an innate drive to help and inspire others, I have found my “work worth doing.” I send heartfelt gratitude to the inspiring women who have trusted me to help them find theirs.
Check out these 3 scenarios where saying “yes” moved real people to the next leg of their careers. None are over-the-top-non-relatable-stories where someone with a few million in savings chucked it all to find their bliss as a scuba instructor. These are examples of how saying “yes” to occurrences which, in hindsight, we call “serendipitous events,” can re-chart your career course. They may seem inconsequential at the time, but when we connect the dots and see how staying open can influence our career path, it’s worth a serious look.
1. “Have you ever done any bookkeeping?” L’s aunt asked. “Some, but I’m not a fan;” L replied. “Well,” her aunt continued, “your kids are getting older and I need to find someone to manage my part-time bookkeeping job while I head to Florida for three months this winter. Wanna do it?” In her head, L thought, “Why not, I can do anything for 3 months, even bookkeeping, and I’ll get paid, and I’ll see what it feels like to work part time after being home with kids for five years.” After taking a few days to consider what she would do for child care, L agreed, not knowing that this “yes” began her re-entry into the workforce. (When her aunt returned in the spring, L was asked to join the organization in a role more suited to her past experience and skill set.)
2. “I heard that you do some freelancing on the side. Do you want to work on some marketing materials for my business?” Already balancing work, freelance, family and more, the “Yes!” that S heard coming from his mouth surprised him. It eventually led to a significant freelance gig and ultimately to being signed on as an employee of the company where he stayed for the next 6 years. This new assignment allowed him to relinquish some of his more time-consuming (and stressful) freelance jobs and build on a specific product area of expertise. His “yes” resulted in a total industry change (even though he wasn’t looking for one) and propelled his career in a new direction while achieving a level of work-life balance he never even expected.
3. The voice on the phone said, “E, we want you to work here, in the poorest school district in the area. With your experience, we’d love to have you.” She thought; “Out of the burbs and into the bowels of the city? Hmmmmm? I’ve been teaching students in a district where bedtime stories are expected, where pantries full of food are taken for granted and test scores are highest in the state. Why would I go teach where the school feeds their students three meals a day, where resources are scarce, and where turnover is ridiculously high?” The answer came quietly, but with clarity; “Because I’m needed there. There are a ton of teachers waiting to take my place at this school; they don’t need me here. But those kids…they need me there.” “Yes, I’ll take, it;” she answered.” (E is now on the road to making a difference in lives of disadvantaged youth and, she says, evolving as a human in ways she could have never imagined.)
Note that each person above dealt with a fear of saying yes. Fear of becoming a working mom and all that goes with that, fear of taking on more work and upsetting family balance, fear of going from a cushy-comfortable routine to something unpredictable. In each case, the gut instinct, the unexplained pull to say yes, trumped fear.
I’m calling for guest bloggers who are willing to share how an unplanned YES moved them in an unexpected career direction. Click for submission guidelines.
Photo credit: Flickr via renaissancechambara
You’ve seen these images depicting the difference between what we are taught and the reality of success or achieving our goals. It’s the same for career evolution. For most of us, we draw squiggly career lines without even being aware of it. Squiggles happen because that’s just the way life works. They happen when we connect with a new networking contact, get laid off, agree to a new ”short-term” project, or have a conversation with a total stranger in a coffee shop.
Squiggles are the unpredictable events in a world of things that we try to predict and control.
Knowing about the squiggle phenomena isn’t enough. You could decide that since “random stuff happens” you’ll sit back and put pen to paper to connect the dots after the fact. It is true that with hindsight you can link defining events more clearly; however, you can choose a more active role if you are first open to the curves, and then mindful of things that appear to have squiggle potential. This way, you fully participate in moving the pen across the paper.
Remember these DRAWing tips when contemplating the art of your career:
While you’re DRAWing, don’t forget that:
Look back from where you are now and consider the unexpected connection or chance meeting that led you to your current position. Accept squiggly lines as career reality and you’ll be free to get out of your own way!
That formula was written on a sticky note and affectionately placed on my computer screen by my colleagues in my former role as a Hiring Manager. It was no secret that I fell short when it came to details and rule-following. My company used DISC assessments (love that tool) internally and helped clients do the same. It was obvious that I, as a D/I, found it a real stretch to follow the systems that were put in place and necessary for others to do their jobs properly. A business needs systems to run smoothly and I know this, but I really struggled with upholding my end of the deal.
I don’t believe I’m entitled. I don’t believe that I have the right to NOT do things the way they are supposed to be done. I try to follow the formulas provided to ensure a streamlined work flow but I don’t always succeed. My files are a mess, the way I organize isn’t like everyone else’s way, and I often make it difficult for others to fulfill their responsibilities without coming back to me with things I’ve missed. Thankfully, in that company, I worked with dedicated, professional, authentic women and we all supported each other’s strengths while acknowledging and helping to fill in where we were weak. Every organization should be so evolved!
I’ve tried my entire life to follow the formulas. I was constantly trying to figure out what was wrong with me and why it was so challenging to stay on a straight line. Then I finally realized that there’s nothing wrong with me and I accepted that, for me, Systems + Processes = Hell.
Systems + Processes = Hell!
There are employees everywhere who, unlike me, may have been written up, or terminated or left to their own devices to try to keep their heads above water. If that sounds like you, it doesn’t mean you’re not worthy. It may mean you’re in the wrong job, maybe you’re not in a position that draws on your strengths and minimizes your weaknesses. It may mean you have to reevaluate the types of jobs you’ve been searching for because this is a consistent theme in your work history. Finding Career Wellness can sometimes be as easy as starting with these things:
1. Deem yourself worthy (even though you have weaknesses).
2. Acknowledge where you fall short.
3. Laugh at yourself – find humor in your flaws (and in others’).
4. Support others who are weak where you are strong.
5. Do your best; and ask for help where you need it.
6. Seek out positions and companies that value and utilize your strengths.
The sticky note with the formula is now proudly framed and displayed in my office. It reminds me that I’m not perfect. It reminds my clients that they don’t have to be perfect either.
If you do well working with formulas, why not write your own unique formula for Career Wellness? Once you have your formula, you are better armed to make career decisions that align with your core strengths and values. Mine would be:
Creativity + Freedom + Relationships + Helping = JOY!
Commit to creating your own formula for 2014, either in your current role or as you seek a new position, and ask yourself if your choices fall into the formula. Even I can see that this system, which is really just taking what your gut already knows and putting it on paper in front of you, is a necessary first step for gaining a new perspective on your life at work.