So much of the writing on career change is centered around those who have not yet found their niche. But what do you do when a career that’s worked for you stops working?
Anyone who’s felt this knows it’s like an earthquake. Suddenly you find yourself – an expert in your field with many years of experience, serious credibility and a hard earned reputation – staring at a workscape that you’re fundamentally done with. It’s a horrible realisation – one that’s likely been a long time in the brewing, but when it finally hits you it does it high on the Richter.
It’s a bit like realizing that the person you have loved and lived with for many years is no longer the person you want to be with. You don’t want it to be that way; you desperately want to get back the early years, when things were great, when you were alive and engaged, hopeful and inspired. But you can’t. It’s over. And you are left, feeling trapped, oarless, hopeless...
Why this can happen
There are so many reasons this can happen. The industry you work in may have changed beyond recognition; you may have peaked and can’t see any more to learn or anymore that you want to learn; you may have spent too many years giving too much to other people and are finally down to empty; maybe it’s a young profession and there’s no room for veterans; maybe you’re tired of not getting paid enough money; or not having enough time; you maybe even just be good old fashioned bored.
Whatever the reason it’s more or less guaranteed that you are regarding your future with a mixture of dismay, despair and confusion. Not a pleasant cocktail. Typically this hits when you’re older, often your 40’s or 50’s and perhaps still saddled with a mortgage and responsibilities. You know nothing beyond your own profession and have neither the financial freedom nor the inclination to position yourself at the bottom of a new ladder. So what on earth next?
If there were a neat answer to this difficult predicament I’d be either very wise or very rich or both. So I’m not going to trot out a list of trite solutions. What I am going to posture is a few things that people in this situation have found useful…
Take time off
First – can you take a break? I don’t mean a holiday, though of course that would be great. Can you take your foot off the gas a little bit? Take on less high profile or demanding projects? Achieve rather than overachieve? Cruise for a while? Earn a little less? Rest a little more? When we hit a career crisis like this, we are so exhausted, so blocked, so trapped that carrying on is difficult, and being able to see an alternative future is a real challenge. It’s an impossible place to navigate from. So you need to create some space. And time. Let go of thinking about where you can go/what you can do. Create room. Then allow the dust to settle. It helps clear the air. And allows you to come OFF crisis mode.
Ask yourself what's wrong
When you do find yourself thinking about what on earth you’re going to do – first ask yourself what’s wrong. Get to the REASON you feel like this. With so many people I have worked with in this situation, getting to the reason and then exploring options around the nub of the problem have often salvaged the baby and the bath water. It’s easy to assume that it really is all over, whereas maybe to use telly speak it needs a make-over.
Look to see how you can feel better
Going freelance or starting a consultancy if you were permanent, finding an office or a partner if you were working solo, teaching within your profession, going part-time, finding a new cause, a new setting etc etc etc – all new spins on a familiar yarn. These may just be temporary fixes of course, a band-aid over a larger problem. But temporary fixes do one very important thing. They make you FEEL better. And it’s much easier to see and build a different future when you do.
Design the life you want
Allow yourself to see the life you now want for yourself. This can be difficult- feeling so entrenched in your current profession that you can’t envision anything else. Being able to see and possibly believe a new way is possible is a huge leap, so allow yourself to do that. You may not be able to put definition around it yet, but that’s ok. You may even feel a sense of panic as it feels so impossible and out of reach. And that’s ok too. The important thing is to permit another future however ill defined into your consciousness- and don’t limit yourself to one, there may of course be a few.
Ask yourself if you want to formally learn something new or if you want to do something different with the skills you’ve got. Simple. But changes your focus and approach significantly. It also changes where on the ladder you may potentially stand. Running your own business neatly bypasses all the usual challenges – certainly you’re not at the bottom of a ladder having to start over, though you may be a small fish in a big pond!
Age is by far one of the biggest deterrents to parachuting out of your profession. The common sentiment is if only you had acted earlier a few years ago then all would be fine. You wouldn’t be too old. It wouldn’t be too late. You wouldn’t need as much money. And yes there are some very real logistics around this. But, in a few years it will be ANOTHER few years. So if you do something now, whatever that might be, in a few years you won’t be saying that again.
All or nothing? The great thing about having expertise, even if its in an area you’re no longer keen on is that it IS expertise. In other words it’s a saleable skill. This gives you something that is incredibly valuable to any career changer…a means of transition. Often when posed the question whether they would continue to do what they do part-time most people say yes. It’s the relentless endless full time road that can be so wearisome and draining.
Consider a portfolio career
Portfolio careers are bandied around so much these days, and that’s because so many people have them. They are of course an incredibly useful way of funding yourself while you learn something new or while transitioning towards a new life. But they are also great in themselves, doing a couple of quite different things, is a mix that many find invigorating, bringing freshness and variety to all camps and keeping all too frequent burnout at bay. What often happens is that one strand of your portfolio takes on a life of it’s own, gradually becoming a new area of expertise so that before you know it you have transitioned. You have changed career!
Experienced career coach Sonia Lakshman specializes in helping people make really satisfying work transitions. Read more at www.onesmartstep.co.uk
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