When I was unhappy in my old career, I’d have given just about anything for the frustration and discomfort to end.
I was in such a hurry to shift; to finally make the pain go away once and for all.
All I wanted was a single, clear job title to aim for – a specific target to orient myself toward so I could speed up the process.
I used to scroll through websites looking at all the job titles, hoping for inspiration to strike.
But the more I scrolled, the more hopeless and confusing things felt.
There were millions of jobs advertised, and it felt like hundreds of thousands of directions I could head in.
My mind was overwhelmed with options, and trying to navigate through all these potential careers was exhausting.
And when people asked me what I wanted to do, I didn’t know how to answer them.
There were lots of random ideas floating around in my head, hundreds of clues I’d come across in my explorations thus far, but picking just one to share with people felt like committing to something – and I wasn’t ready for that yet.
Does any of this sound familiar?
If you’ve done a thorough job of Discovering, as we covered in yesterday’s email, it’s likely you’ll arrive at this sensation of ‘option-flood’.
You’re inspired and excited by what you’ve encountered and learned, but you’re really craving a bit of order in the chaos.
That’s the role of the Focusing stage.
And while ‘focusing’ might sound like ‘narrowing down on a job title’, that’s not what we’re doing in this stage – and for good reason.
Here, your primary task is to identify the patterns that have emerged from the Discovering stage.
At this stage on the Career Change Map, you’ll notice that the lines of the double diamond converge to a narrow point.
Instead of having hundreds of puzzle pieces laid out on the table, you’ve organised them into 3-5 broad areas to explore.
We call these your career themes, and they capture the things that you’ve noticed you’re consistently drawn to.
When you look back at the conversations you’ve had with people about their work; the new experiences you’ve had; the new ideas you’ve exposed yourself to, what common threads have emerged?
- You might notice that the moments you felt most inspired all involved food bringing people together.
- Or perhaps of all the conversations you had with people about their work, you felt most ‘at home’ around the academics.
- Maybe you went to lots of events and workshops, and the most interesting ones were all about pushing boundaries in some way, whether it was a talk about the history of punk, or a seminar about a new development in artificial intelligence.
It may take some digging, but this is the work of the Focusing stage: drawing out the themes within your newly-gathered data (and this is why it’s so important to explore widely in the Discovering stage – to give you as much to work with as possible).
Great career themes are not job titles, industries, or even what we’d call ‘career paths’.
Instead, they’re broad areas, challenges, or activities that you could get involved with in a range of ways (more on this in tomorrow’s email).
You’ll know you’ve landed on a great theme when you’ve identified something that:
- Inspires, intrigues and energises you, and
- Is easy for you to communicate to others in a way they understand
If you’re feeling the levels of frustration and urgency we talked about at the start of this email, this might be disappointing.
After all, what you want is a clear job title, right?
However, by identifying themes instead of job titles at this stage, you give yourself:
- Both confidence (that you’re on the right track) and flexibility (so you still have options)
- Something to share with people about what you’re seeking (so they can help you with connections and ideas)
- A sense of direction and focus (so you can focus your attention on a set of areas you know are right for you)
It’s very likely, even now, that the specific job title you’re looking for is outside your field of vision.
Were you to jump straight from the Discovering stage to job titles, you’d be drawing on jobs you already know exist – and if you already know they exist, you’ve probably not gone after them for a reason.
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“I feel much, much clearer about what I want and why now that I’ve got my career themes.
I’m not looking for a needle in a haystack now, or doubting every potential idea I have.
I’m calmer and more focused, and it’s so nice to be able to finally explain to people the kind of thing I want to go into.
It’s not a question of what I want to do any more, it’s just a question of finding how, where, and with whom I want to do it.”
– Balvinder, Career Change Launch Pad participant
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To make the most of your Focusing stage:
- Resist the urge to jump straight to job titles. A little ‘loose’ is a good thing at this stage.
- Look for themes that point to something external. In other words, seek out things you want to explore, not ways you want to feel.
- Tell people about the patterns you’re noticing (yes, even if they’re loose right now!). Often, a nice broad theme will prompt others to suggest ideas you might not have thought of yourself.
How would it feel to have some clear career ‘themes’ to focus your exploration? How might it benefit your career change?
Natasha
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Natasha
Head Coach, Careershifters