life@work

What It Takes To Change Careers In Midlife

I get a number of calls every month from people in their late 30’s, 40's or 50's who want to know what kind of process I go through with clients to help them change careers. They’re all revved up about possibility and change. Some of them sign up for the adventure while others, sighing as they hang up the phone, do not. 

Changing careers after 10 or more years is an incredibly daunting task. It’s a complex process that takes a whole lot of energy, creativity, persistence and work. And chances are you are already engaged in a life that requires a whole lot of energy, creativity, persistence and work.

I was interested to read this useful piece that sums up the process of changing careers in mid-life. If you’re thinking about it, I recommend you check it out.

Here is an overview of the steps, with my editorial comments:

• Assess yourself (There are 468 ways to do this, including written exercises and various tests.)
• Know what’s important to you. (Pay, hours, tasks, challenge, industry, people contact, etc.)
• Find out what’s out there (Research online and/or use a career counselor or coach.)
• Narrow down career options. (Between two and four options is manageable and not overly limiting.)
• Talk to people in the field (informational interviews, attend professional association meetings).
• Volunteer, work as a temp, or moonlight to try something out first while minimizing risk.
• Engage your existing network of people to assist you. (This is one of your biggest advantages over younger career-changers, so use it!)

You've heard about all of these steps before - none are difficult to comprehend. A big challenge for most people is deciding exactly how and exactly when and exactly with whom they are going to accomplish the steps.

But perhaps the most daunting challenge is keeping up the interest, momentum and sheer stamina it takes to change careers, while at the same time navigating the ever-changing currents of the river called My Life Right Now.

Just because you're in the midst of engineering a career change doesn't mean you can't go through a re-org at work, or the dog won't die, or your teenager won't test your limits, or your spouse's mother won't need to move into assisted living, and so on and so forth.

It can be tempting in the face of such distractions to give up on your career change plan altogether. But with a little patience, and a caring person in your life to nudge you, you can do it.

I'd love to hear: What made it possible for you to change careers?

What Season of Transition Are You In?

A transition is "the process or a period of changing from one state or condition to another".

Transitional times are challenging times. There are highs and lows, factors in and out of our control, and it can take a long time to go through a transition completely. Some would argue that all of us are in some kind of transition most of the time.

It's worth knowing whether you're in a transition and where you are in its cycle. When you understand what you're experiencing, you can develop new perspectives, learn how to be a little kinder to yourself and prepare for what's coming next in your transition.

Some of the most insightful ideas I've read on transition are from Carol McClelland, PhD, author of The Seasons of Change. She uses a metaphor of the seasons as a way to describe our personal transitions.

Fall is about preparing for what's to come. You get news of change, you feel your feelings, you wait and you worry.

Winter has three parts. Early - when you retreat and reflect. You feel tired, and you don't know anything. Solstice - when you catch sparks of hope in the darkness. This is the turning point in the transition journey. Late - when you define your vision. You catch new insights, are open to new insights and see glimmers of spring.

Spring is about bursting with energy. You experience some storms and struggle with reentry.

Summer is about celebrating the harvest. You feel confident, have clarity and feel that life is abundant.

Here's an example of how the seasons metaphor applies to a career situation:

• Summer: Work is easy because you know what you're doing and you like it.
• Fall: Rumors start flying about a reorganization. Within a couple of weeks your work group is disbanded and your job duties are changing. You're worried you'll need to make changes soon.
• Winter: You're confused and obsessed about whether you should stay or go. There's no one left to talk with. Then you realize that you want to find a situation more in line with your interests and values. You start to look at options and get ideas on how to proceed.
• Spring: You make connections, leads come in, and you land a great job. Because you spent time during Winter identifying your talents, you negotiate a package that is right for you. You're excited about the potential of this new job.

One reason I appreciate using a metaphor from the natural world to describe change is that before our world was industrialized human beings had a strong connection with nature and its cycles. (Some of us still do but many of us do not.) There is much wisdom in nature. When we were connected to nature we knew that change takes time and is gradual, that it might come in the form of growth or decay, and that we were not in control of it.

Now many of us feel pressured to master change quickly and live in a state of perpetual growth. We believe we should be able to follow a formula and enjoy instantaneous results. When we realize that despite all of our scientific understanding and all of our technology we are still subject to Earth's laws of nature, we are better equipped to navigate our transitions.

The seasons metaphor also brings reminders of tales of the "hero's journey", when heroes or heroines embark on journeys and return home with new wisdom and strength. According to Joseph Campbell, the hero's journey is undertaken by people of all cultures and across many periods of history.

How can all this help you with your transition? When you know what season you are in, transition-wise, you can know what is normal to expect and what are helpful steps to take (read Carol's book for more detailed information!)

For example, most everyone I coach goes through some kind of winter period while we work together. Winter is not a place our society wants us to spend much time in - to be in eternal spring and summer are the expectations. But there is valuable and essential work to be done during winter! Winter is the key to unlocking the future. However, you can't do that work if you are denying that you are winter or trying to skip ahead too early to spring.

Transitions can be exciting, and they can be difficult. When you're aware of your own transition journey and work with it rather than fight it, you are on your way to creating a successful future.

I'd love to hear: What Season of transition are you in right now?

Why Deciding to Change Is So Difficult

Why is it so hard to make a career change?

Let me count the ways. We may not have the information, training, education or contacts that we need, just for starters.

Or perhaps simply the act of making the decision to make the career change is a huge hurdle to clear. After all, deciding to make any important change can confound us. But why?

One big reason is that when faced with a decision, we humans perceive the pain of loss to be about twice as potent as the pleasure of gain. The fancy term for this is loss aversion.

It's part of a larger psychological phenomenon known as negativity bias, which as Jonah Lehrer explains in his book How We Decide, means our brains perceive that bad is stronger than good.

Loss aversion is not rooted in logic; psychologists discovered that it's a defect hard-wired in the brain, present in all of us who experience emotion (which is as I see it, most of us). Loss aversion has widespread implications for many areas of our lives, including relationships, how we manage investments, and how we steer our careers.

When we consider changing careers, we naturally imagine all kinds of losses. We fear losing financial security, traction in our career trajectory, close relationships with people we work with now, that feeling we have of being competent at what we do, even perhaps the good opinion of our friends and of society.

Compared to the losses, the possible gains, such as feeling more satisfied, feeling reinvigorated, learning new things and even earning more money trigger a weaker emotional response.

So what can we do about loss aversion? According to Lehrer, "The only way to avoid loss aversion is to know about the concept."

So now you know. You can practice being aware of when you're engaging in the mental habit of loss aversion and then turn your attention to the facts of your situation.

Does this mean that emotions play no part in complex decision making? Absolutely not. In fact as it turns out, making complex decisions requires tuning into our emotions (also known as a "gut check") after we've had a chance to mull over data.

You can overdo the pros and cons list-making, however. Psychologist Ap Diiksterhuis found in his experiments that that the longer people spend analyzing options in complex decision making, the less satisfied they are with their decisions.

Deciding to change is hard because we focus on what we have to lose if we make the change. But when we realize that potential losses may not in fact be a bigger deal than potential gains and decide to do more investigating, we just may make the best decision of our lives.

I'd love to know: Have you ever decided to make a career change, despite fearing what you had to lose?

Changing Careers: Research Before You Dismiss

At some point in our careers, most of us dream about doing something completely different. Those of us who want to do more than dream can quickly feel stymied and frustrated.

Many people I talk to who are thinking about making a significant career change feel alone in this pursuit. It seems to them that everyone else is happy enough toiling away at their current job, or have dismissed ideas of change because, "I can't afford it" or "I'm too old" or "What would I do, anyway?"

If you notice that you keep imagining yourself doing something else, you owe it to yourself to look at that carefully and give it due regard.

This doesn't mean you have to follow every whim. But if you pay attention to the truth in your gut and have the courage to research the possibilities, it could be one of the greatest gifts you can give to yourself.

Why does it take courage to research? Because for a lot of folks, there are large psychological barriers to making a career change. We want to stay in our comfort zone (remember homeostasis from science class?) We are used to a certain income per month. The state of the economy seems like a good reason to hunker down. Certain people count on us to continue to be what we are. Facing risk is just plain scary.

When we quickly dismiss our ideas, we get to stay in our comfort zone. When we research, we may find a way to move forward, and we can feel pretty ambivalent about that.

But when you take your ideas seriously and take the time to research the possibilities - talking to people in the field, talking to companies and organizations and researching professional associations, salaries and job openings online - you can experience some relief from the persistent nagging in your gut that you've been ignoring. (Note: "Research" does not mean merely taking one person's opinion as the Gospel Truth).

Through research, you might discover a way to pursue what you want to do "on the side". You might decide that going back to school for a Master's degree is feasible after all. You might resolve once and for all that acting professionally was a pipe dream, and then be ready to put all your energy into something that is going to work for your life.

Doing the research isn't sexy, but it can lead to all kinds of options.

When I talk to a new client who is tentative about sharing her desire to go from, say real estate agent to kindergarten teacher, I've noticed she likes to hear about what changes other people are making. So here's a partial list of the recent changes that people I know professionally and personally have made:

• From mechanical engineeer to attorney to manager at a start-up specialty beverage company
• From college athletic coach to self-employed personal trainer
• From journalist to law school student
• From full-time instructional designer to contract instructional designer
• From laid off administrative employee to self employed retailer
• From technical writer to TV production
• From hi-tech manager to at-home parent
• From corporate training manager to self-employed consultant and professional speaker
• From working for corporations to working in two-person partnerships in law, management consultancy and architecture
• From full-time high school teacher to part-time curriculum designer
• From biotech marketing to self-employed chef-for-hire
• From community college dean to e-learning consultant and retiree

What's your gut nagging you about? What questions need to be answered so that you can do more of what you want to do?

What are you waiting for?

How to Know Whether Entrepreneurship Is Right for You

There's a lot to be said for being your own boss. You get to chart your own course, create your own hours, and choose your own employees.

However as glorious as it can sound especially in today's job market, entrepreneurship is a big-deal decision that isn't right for everybody.

What do you need to mull over to make a decision? If you're thinking about owning your own business, first see how accurately you believe the following statements describe you:

• I am comfortable owning my own business and not realizing a profit for one to three years, even if I need to work long hours.
  
• I feel comfortable knowing that entrepreneurship involves employing skills in a variety of roles, such as technician, manager, administrator and accountant.
  
• I am self-motivated and rarely procrastinate.
  
• I enjoy challenging myself to move beyond my comfort zone.
  
• I have had positive experiences selling and/or I believe I have some talent in sales.
  
• I am willing to challenge myself and explore getting out of my comfort zone.
  
• I find taking risks to be exciting, motivating and energizing.
  
• I am persistent.
  
• I shrug off mistakes and failures pretty easily and get back to what I need to be doing.
  
• I am decisive and action-oriented.
  
• I enjoy talking with people, am a good communicator, and I get along with most everyone.

Recently the Wall Street Journal Online interviewed Pamela Slim, author of "Escape from Cubicle Nation: From Corporate Prisoner to Thriving Entrepreneur" and blogger extraordinaire at Escape from Cubicle Nation, about what kind of mindset it takes to be an entrepreneur.

"Entrepreneurs are wired to be comfortable with open-endedness and ambiguity," Slim offers.

Some people choose to start new businesses repeatedly, while others switch back and forth between entrepreneurship and working for an organization.

If you're ready to take your entrepreneurship exploration to the next level, SCORE offers small business mentoring.

Another key step to take is to talk with entrepreneurs about their experiences. What are their challenges and how do they handle them? What do they find are their most critically used skills? What advice can they offer?

There are many other considerations in addition to the viability of your business idea, your temperament, your skills, and your contacts that you'll want to think about before taking the leap into entrepreneurship. Two key considerations are money and family.

Money

Obviously you'll want to crunch the numbers carefully before quitting your day job. Many people start businesses in their off hours at first, as profits can be slow to trickle in.

Family

If you are part of a partnership and/or are a parent with children at home, be sure to think about and discuss the ramifications of being a business owner with them. What would need to change at home to make this work? What additional support might you need?

If you decide to start your own business, you don't have to go it alone. There are many support organizations for entrepreneurs to connect with and learn from.

If you're thinking about starting a business, what's holding you back? And if you own your own business, what do you most appreciate about that?

Cultivate a Burning Desire to Reach Your Career Goals

I love beginnings.

Whether it's the start of spring, the first two weeks of a new exercise plan, the start of a new friendship, or the first meeting with a new client, I feel energized, refreshed, invigorated, happy. There's so much possibility and potential, and it feels like I will be enthusiastic and motivated for weeks on end.

Except that I won't be.

Because I can only be at the beginning of something for a certain amount of time before it necessarily becomes the middle of something. And the middle of something feels like a totally different place to be.

Fortunately or unfortunately, we must all journey through the middle to get to the end. And of course I try to embrace the journey as a whole and enjoy every minute. But sometimes I've got my eye on the end results.

So how can I ensure I'll get to the end when I no longer can rely on my enthusiasm for the beginning to propel me forward? How can I maintain that burning desire to get where I want to go?

Glen Allsop of PluginID wrote a great guest post over on Zen Habits with great ideas on how to build a burning desire for your goals that will help you stay in action.

Here are the tips:

1. Pick the right goal.
2. Know you can do it.
3. Know how others succeeded with this (and write it down).
4. Connect with others who want the same thing.
5. Frequently visualize a successful end result.

I like all these points, but I'm especially interested in 1) Pick the right goal, and 2) Know you can do it, because these are by far the most difficult to pull off.

What's so important about picking the right goal? Because we're only going to stick with a process that has ups and downs, such as changing our career or exploring a new career, or searching for a job, if we care deeply about the end result.

If we don't care enough, we're going to quit. This isn't to say that all we need is to care enough in order to achieve something big, but without a deep desire to realize the end achievement, it ain't gonna happen.

How do we know what is a right goal and what is a wrong goal? Glen has some ideas for a litmus test:

• If money didn’t exist would you still do it? (if your goal is a career /hobby)
• Are you working towards it already in your life?
• If I gave you 10 million dollars tomorrow, would it still be in your plans?

That's right, the desire for money just isn't enough to propel us through to the end. If you're thinking that your career goals are primarily about making more money and you're facing some daunting challenges in the execution of these goals, I suggest you create goals that fit the above litmus test and see if that works better for you.

In a world where the only things that are certain are death and taxes, how can we know we can reach our goals? And why is it so important that we know we can?

Our beliefs drive our actions, which drive the results we experience. If we don't really believe we can change our career or start a new business or find a job, we're going to engage in all kinds of behaviors that reflect those beliefs, even if we don't want to or intend to.

Tune in and notice how close or far away you are from truly believing you can achieve your goals. What's getting in the way? What are your most deeply held beliefs about the goals you have in your sights?

If you're noticing limiting beliefs around your goals, list out the actions you see yourself taking that reflect those beliefs. What results are you getting?

Now think about the beliefs you want to have around your goal. What would be powerful, not limiting? And if you truly held these beliefs, what would you be doing? What results do you think you'd experience?

If you just can't inhabit powerful beliefs about your goals yet, then act as if you could. Take the actions that a person who knew they could achieve these goals would take. This is technically known as the "Fake it 'till you make it" strategy.

Before long you'll begin to experience new results that will help you believe that yes, you can achieve what you are setting out to do. Notice when this happens! The new results will be the evidence you are seeking to help you believe in your ability to realize your goals.

When the newness of your career exploration or job search process wears off, and you find yourself in the middle of a challenging time, rekindle your burning desire for change. It just may be that jolt of energy you need to keep going.

It's Time for Energy and Enthusiasm!

Bad news is everywhere - do you really want to read more of it on this blog?

So I'm turning my focus to subjects and people that inspire and expand, and away from news about the job search. There are many other great blogs where you can read about job search how-to's and all the data you could ever want about who is laying off and who is hiring.

Today's bit of energy and enthusiasm I have to share with you comes from twentysomething, Cody McKibben, of Thrilling Heroics.

Cody writes compellingly about his unorthodox career and encourages other to "Optimize your life, rock your career, and make the world your playground!"

Here's what I thought after reading his post today:

• Love his energy! What a breath of fresh air.
• Great idea to turn his blog into a community!
• Ouch! I'm afraid he's right about the K-12 experience being pretty inadequate. And I'm sending a kid to middle school this fall.
• I hope my kids figure out how to be excited about their careers, 11 and 14 years from now when they're out of college. If I can play a part in inspiring them to do so, I'll be extremely grateful.

What do you think? How are you rocking your career?

What Drives Me Crazy About Time

Photo by laffy4k

There are 24 hours in a day, and I can drive myself crazy deciding what to do with that.

Ah, time. I struggle daily with how to manage it, budget it, watch it pass, schedule it, forget about it, savor it, and squeeze every last drop of productivity out of it.

I have a fear of wasting it, except for those times when I commit to doing so with glee.

I have a nagging desire to have more of it, yet no clear idea of what I'd do with it. Most likely I'd struggle more with managing it, budgeting it, watching it pass, etc.

Or perhaps I would take a nap.

Stephen Covey's classic The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People offers quite a useful Time Management Matrix. Barry Zweibel at GottaGettaBlog! recently posted a thorough review of it I recommend you check out.

Here's the very short and sweet overview.

You can describe everything you do in one of four ways:

1. Important and Urgent
2. Important and Not Urgent
3. Not Important and Urgent
4. Not Important and Not Urgent

Naturally, spending as much time as possible on the important things is what most of us aspire to.

But this is tricky, because it's hard to:

• Recognize what is important and what isn't (many times it all seems important.)
• Recognize what is urgent and what isn't (many times it all seems urgent.)
• Reserve time and take the initiative to attend to things that are important, even if they aren't urgent.
• Resist the impulse to spend a lot of time on activities that are neither important nor urgent because we're so burned out reacting to all the things that seem urgent and important.

The tricky parts summarize how I can drive myself crazy about time.

What makes the tricky parts tricky:

• We allow other people's ideas of urgency and importance to trump our own.

We feel pressure (either real or self-imposed) to say yes to all requests without negotiation, respond to all emails within an hour (or some similarly impossible standard), and so on. Or, depressingly, despite our best attempts to negotiate, we remain saddled with a workload greater than one human could possibly do.

• We become addicted to "fire fighting" at our jobs, and the accompanying adrenaline rush that comes with dealing with crises.

If this is true, sooner or later we depend on external urgency to motivate us to do anything. Our lives become about reacting to urgent situations rather than building on important opportunities.

• We underestimate how long things will take us to do.

We classic overachievers have a list of 45 things to do each day and little sense of how long these things physically take to accomplish. Also we assume it takes about ten minutes to get to each appointment, no matter where it is. So we're usually behind and rushed. Some of us are always late.

• We subject ourselves to information overload.

Too much news, too much TV, too many hours surfing, too many Facebook updates, too many tweets. We surprise ourselves by how many hours we fritter away, and often end these information intake sessions feeling scattered and unfocused.

I'm working on recognizing what's important yet not urgent, and making time for these things as much as possible. For my personal life this includes exercise, creative endeavors such as playing the piano, keeping up with friends, and keeping my dog well exercised and happy.

At work the important yet not urgent tasks involve long term planning, creating new products, reaching out to new people, and writing.

Life is richer and our relationship with time is friendlier when we make time for what's important. It's an ongoing process that isn't always easy, but it's worth the effort.

What drives you crazy about time? What are you doing to make peace with it?

What Do You Want?

It strikes me that there are a whole lot of people succeeding in good jobs who have no clue what they really want to be doing.

It's the price of being both highly competent and habitually taking the next opportunity just because it has arrived. This pattern works for a while, sometimes many years.

And then one day when we take a look at the bigger picture of our career and our life, we realize that we lost track of what we really care about and enjoy doing.

Or sometimes we simply grow out of our job or industry. We lose interest, and we haven't thought of what could come next that would be a better fit.

Knowing what we want requires a little introspection, an activity many of us resist. Here are the top reasons why:

• I'm too busy to reflect.
• Being introspective doesn't get anything done.
• This is too large a question to solve, so I'll just stay with the status quo - it's good enough.
• Nobody gets what they really want, so I'll just stay with the status quo - it's good enough.
• It's a terrible economy - I better stay put.

But here's the good news: you don't have to leave for a week-long silent retreat to address this question of what you want. You don't have to come up with "the" magic answer or take risks greater than you can responsibly handle.

You can understand what you want, enjoy and care about at work by tuning in briefly yet frequently to what you're doing and how it's affecting you. Are you engaged or bored? By what? Are you dreading tomorrow or looking forward to the challenge? Why do you think this is true? 

By checking in often and perhaps writing a few observations down, you stay connected to yourself. You don't lose yourself quite so completely to the busyness of your days and the demands of your job.

When you frequently consider your desires, likes and dislikes about your career, it results in you having meaningful and fruitful conversations with contacts and knowing when to raise your hand for certain projects. You lay the foundations that attract the people and opportunities that will help you get more of what you want.

Knowing what you want in your career is not something you answer four times in your life, but something you consider weekly, in small portions. This is because most of the time getting what you want is a result of many small decisions and actions rather than just a few sweeping, dramatic decisions.

Whenever I meet with clients who tell me they want to change jobs, first we take a close look at what they've got going for them at the current one. Many times there is still room to improve their experience substantially without having to make a dramatic job change.

Don't be afraid to ask yourself what you want. Even if you have a high salary and an impressive title and believe you couldn't possibly walk away from that, realize that no one's asking you to. Just hang in there and see what happens when you dare to connect your awareness of what you want with what you're actually doing.

When did you last ask yourself what you want from your career? And how did that go?

Book Review: A Vigorous Mind, by Ingrid E. Cummings

I have a confession to make: I am a generalist.

This truth operates as a confession because I know I live in a culture that educates, values, and demands specialists. The reputation of the generalist has been eroding since the 19th century. We're called dilettantes and flakes. We're antiquated (when's the last time you read a call for "Renaissance Person" on a job posting?) We're not experts and therefore not credible. Resume writers don't know what to do with us. Our personal brand is fuzzy.

But hold on a moment, enter Ingrid E. Cummings and the arguments she makes in her new book, The Vigorous Mind: Cross-Train Your Brain to Break Through Mental, Emotional, and Professional Boundaries.

Cummings makes a convincing case for how consistently challenging our minds in new ways and becoming more well-rounded can not only be a cure for the blahs but improve how we perform at our jobs as specialists.

Most of us by midlife hit a period of "flatlining" when we feel burned out, disillusioned or simply just bored out of our minds.

"Is this it?" we ask ourselves as we go about a day that seems so much like yesterday - and the 2,000 days before that.

Cummings suggests that these feelings are largely a result of mental starvation, and that the remedy is cross-training our minds.

Cross-training our brains is a lot like cross-training our bodies - we exercise all different areas of our mind, learning new skills and subject areas we're interested in that are not directly related to our careers (although often we can draw creative connections). This cross-training process leads to our becoming more of a generalist.

But how can we possibly make time to learn Japanese, or learn about the history of Bolivia, or get better at basketball?

The secret is kaizen, a Japanese philosophy that focuses on continuous improvement throughout all aspects of life. Cummings recommends we devote twenty minutes a day, several days a week, week after week, to cross-training activities.

An hour a week sounds like a pretty doable commitment to me.

This book covers a lot of interesting territory, and it would be impossible to summarize all of the juicy ideas here in this review. life@work readers would probably get a lot out of reading the chapter on how generalists can thrive in today's workplace (Hint: get really good at describing your value and your unique point of view and have your finger on the marketing pulse.)

I also especially appreciated the many descriptions of famous figures of the past and present day who are Renaissance people. What fascinating individuals who can't be described in four words or fewer!

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, an homage to the liberal arts and validation for systems thinkers. It's an intelligent read that I found both inspiring and practical.

If you're feeling flat, bored, or stuck, I recommend you pick up this book. If you know everything about one thing and nothing about everything else, I recommend you pick up this book. If you've embraced your generalist self and would like to embark on a more disciplined approach to learning more about new things - yep - get the book!

One of my favorite passages:

Resist the too-common American syndrome of striving to make your life easy and carefree. Elsewhere in the world - I'm thinking Europe here - they emphasize making their lives rich and complex, which is really a much more evolved idea.