In this article, coach Anita Houghton explains how to make good career change choices by gathering information, networking and gaining experience.
If you decided that you wanted to buy an important piece of equipment, for example a music system for your home, you'd probably want to do some careful research. After all, we're talking significant money here. You'd probably start off with some thoughts of what you want to play on it, how much power you want, and a price range. You then might ask around your friends, look in shops, catalogues and on websites. During this process you'll gather some general information about specifications and price, and start whittling down your options to a handful. You may go to the shop and listen, look in more detail at the features, compare prices.
If you do go through all these processes, the chances that you'll end up with a piece of equipment you are happy with are good.
How many people plan their careers
While you would have thought that people would plan something as important as their career much more carefully than when buying a piece of equipment, a surprising number of people take rather less trouble, resorting instead to methods such as:
- Eliminating careers or work areas because of a bad experience in a particular job - this may have simply been due to an unpleasant colleague or boss.
- Extrapolating from good experiences. Just as risky as the former, you work for a charismatic boss and mistake him or her for the work.
- Falling into careers by chance, applying for jobs because you happen to be there when they pop up and it seems like a good idea at the time.
- Taking advice from well-meaning onlookers. You meet up with someone who has just started a new career and they convince you that you would enjoy it too.
- Following parental wishes. That old but powerful chestnut.
These are all high-risk strategies, and I should know, I've used most of them.
If you want to maximise the chances of finding a career in which you will thrive, and which will be grateful to have you, you need to do some research.
The three essential areas of career research:
- gathering information
- networking
- experience.
Gathering Information
The internet has revolutionised career research. Here you can find information on training and requirements, professional organisations, commercial organisations, government departments, books, careers advisers and coaches, audio tapes, distance learning. Libraries are also an excellent source of a wide range of information, and many will have specialist careers advisers.
Networking
Personal contacts are crucial to good career planning. People are useful sources of information, as mentioned already, but they provide much more than factual help - they may have first hand experience of particular jobs or careers, they will know other people in the same field, they will have heard of relevant organisations that you might not think to search for, they may even have courses or jobs on offer. Meeting people also gives you the chance to assess the source of a piece of information or set of views. You may read a section in a careers book which raves about a particular career. This has been written by an individual with a certain set of characteristics, experiences, and views. These are bound to translate into personal agendas, tastes and prejudices. If you take these at face value you do so at your peril. Sitting down with someone enables you to see what they are like, and in particular to see if they are like you.
If the thought of networking is enough to send you into a cold sweat, start with the people you know, and get more contacts from them. Make a point of mixing at conferences and meetings, send exploratory messages by email. Whatever method suits you, do it!
Gaining Experience
A young doctor came to see me. A few years before she had set out to specialise in hospital medicine, but her training had been interrupted by a long period of illness. While she was now fit to return to work, she no longer felt equal to the unsociable hours, high pressure and long training involved in hospital medicine, and was contemplating general practice. I asked her if she had ever spent any time in general practice. The answer was negative.
It‘s easy to gasp in astonishment at the notion someone would plan to enter an area of work, perhaps for the rest of their working life, with no first hand experience of that work. But it would be disingenuous to do so, for that's exactly what most people do.
Work experience can range from spending a few hours shadowing someone, to doing the job for real for a while. In planning your experience you need to consider spending time in more than one place. Every workplace is individual, in terms of the people, the environment and the work. Making a decision on the basis of a single experience exposes you to the same risks as mentioned above - an over-dependence on personalities and chance.
As you would listen to a stereo system or test drive a car before you bought it, so too should you try out the careers or jobs you have in mind before committing yourself to them. Not only does it help you to decide if the career is for you, it looks excellent on your curriculum vitae, and makes a good impression at interviews.
Leave a comment below: What steps will you take to take back control over your career and career change?
This article is based on a chapter in Anita Houghton's book "Finding Square Holes: discover who you are and find the perfect career. "
Anita Houghton is an experienced career coach. Trained in NLP and psychological type, her coaching focuses on the individual - what they love and what they bring to the workplace. She has published two books based on this approach, 'Finding Square Holes' and 'Know Yourself', both available from www.workinglives.co.uk.
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