Getting ready to shift ... but not quite brave enough yet!

By laurajanewrites

Hi. This is my first shift log. So, I suppose I start with me and where I’ve got to on my shift journey. The honest answer is not very far. I have what many would consider a successful career, working for a prestigious professional firm with a good salary. I’m ambitious and have moved quickly throughout my career to accelerate promotion (and to overcome the inevitable boredom that comes with my restless personality). But, I’m bored and uninspired and feeling like there is a lot more in me. I feel like I’m reigned in by my career and the interminable corporate bureaucracy, and I’m looking for ways to make a break and follow my dream.

I graduated in 2002 with a business degree and a built in career decision maker to head for the business world and get a career measured by financial reward and big name CV entries. OK, I didn’t go the whole hog and join an investment bank but I did head to a big four accountancy and started my career in professional services marketing there. Since, I’ve moved every 18 months to 2 years, taking big steps forward and reasonable pay rises as I go. The change has kept me interested and I now find myself in a fairly autonomous business development manager role for a high profile commercial law firm.

So, at this point I would worry everyone will be shouting “stop moaning and get on with it”. And to an extent I agree. I spend a lot of time urging myself to pull myself together, take a reality check and get on with making the most of what I’ve achieved. But I have this constant nagging in the back of my head that I should follow my dreams. Yes, those head in the clouds dreams you have as a child. Mine still keeps coming back to me. I love to write, I’ve always wanted to call myself a writer. So should I bite the bullet and go for it? Well, I’m seriously thinking about how I can do this but I fear it will be a slow and rocky journey. One that you will probably become all too familiar with if you follow my shiftlog.

I could take you through my many confusions and conundrums at the moment but this has gone on long enough for now. I’ll come back with that one soon, hopefully with some ideas on what I am going to do next to make it happen. If anyone out there has some words of wisdom, they'd be very enthusiastically received!

How can we make Careershifters better?

Do you like following our shiftloggers' progress? What else would you like to see on this site?

Give us your feedback

By laurajanewrites

Thank you both for the encouragement and tips. Next blog will be up soon. Have a good Christmas.

By markmccluretoday

Laura-Jane, Well, you're already displaying your skills by leaving us all in suspense waiting for the next shiftlog - where I hope there'll be more about the writing career path you're most interested in pursuing! And it's a wonderful thing that your husband is so supportive because many dreams sadly fade away when others (even close friends and relatives) start to rain on your parade - 'change' is threatening to them too, often in ways they can't easily articulate. BTW - have you heard of Judith O'Reilly and her 'Wife Up North' literary adventures? Now that is really inspiring to me when I look at her early blog posts and see how far she's come. http://www.wifeinthenorth.com/

By Richard

Laura-Jane,

First of all, welcome as a ShiftLogger. It's great to have you writing on the site.

Secondly, I wanted to say that, as someone who's made their own career shift from a similar background to yours, I know a little about what you're feeling now. Confusions, conundrums and worries are all part of the journey. And, while that may not help these feelings go away, I do hope it reassures you that what you're going through is fairly typical and that you're not alone.

Thirdly, I think it's worth pointing out a number of positive things that come out in your story. For starters, you have an intuition about what your dream career is. Count this as a blessing. You've also gone further than many people who find themselves in a similar situation: in particular, you've acknowledged your dissatisfaction with your current role, you've started talking to others about your situation and you've taken some action, small as it may be, to move you forward. All important initial steps. Finally, you also have what sounds to be a supportive husband. Another wonderful blessing.

From reading what you're saying, the biggest thing stopping you right now is fear. I don't know exactly how this breaks down for you, but it might be fear of whether a writing career is really for you; fear of whether you can make it pay; fear of loss of status from your current job; and fear and lack of understanding of how you would make the change.

Some questions you might want to consider to help you start to overcome these fears are:

1. What could I do while still at my day job to test out whether writing really is for me? You've started blogging on the Careershifters site, which is great, but what else could you do?

2. What could I do to understand more about how to make a living from writing?

3. Who could I find who's made a shift from another career to writing that I could learn about what the potential steps might be?

4. What options could I find for working part-time on my writing (while I build up that side of my career) while maintaining some element of my old work to keep the money coming into my bank account?

Finally, as perhaps additional motivation (if you need it), one further question I would leave you with is this: "How will I feel if I still have the same nagging feeling in my head in 10 or 15 years time? What will be the impact on my life of me not taking action now?"

Hope this is some help and do keep us updated with your progress!

Richard.


25 Top Tips to Kick-Start Your Career

Recent comments