Changing Your Career

For decades, people thought that doing their job – and “doing it well” – was sufficient to ensure long-term career success, plenty of financial rewards, and job security well into the future. In this school of thought, managing your career was only like a tiny piece of the picture – when it came time to stop working for a time (in the case of parents wishing to stay home with their children, for example), or under extremely unusual circumstances (such as when someone wanted to actually change careers).

Today, working professionals typically change careers 5 – 7 times before retirement. Yes, you read that right – they change careers, not jobs, 5 – 7 times. Many people are still only equipping themselves to deal with the old reality and are unprepared to navigate in the new reality of career management, where jobs are only a subset of the overall “Career” bigger picture.

A Career change is a good way of getting that “oomph” back into your professional life. Most people battle with this idea all of their professional lives and a few of us choose not to take the beaten path and try something new. Most career changes if well planned do not require much additional qualifications or risk-taking.

So, you will ask, “when does it call for a career change?”

And I will answer you this – “career changes should be considered if you experience a few or all of the following criteria”.

• When your job becomes mundane, overtly routine and boring, and you sense that you are not adding any value to yourself or to the organization. You have reached that burnout stage (or bottleneck) and you have advanced as much as you could in your line of work. Your work now no longer offers the challenges it used to
• You have changed employers in the hope that a new organization might offer new challenges and it has not.
• After graduating, any new recruit has two basic requirements of a job - lots of travel and lots of money. When you are no longer single, all that hectic traveling is bound to place a lot of stress on your family life.
• When you are young, you are more mentally prepared to take on the stress that your job entails. As you grow older, your tolerance to stress decreases and you might find yourself seeking less stressful jobs
• There are challenges, but there is no job satisfaction. And no amount of additional money in your current job is giving you that satisfaction. Though there might not be as much money in the job that you are considering, the thought of it itself is making you happy
• The current job does not hold as many opportunities as it used to or it is being phased out for a more technologically advanced function.

Ah-ha … you seem to fit into one or more of those “unfortunate” situations I mentioned and now you’re pounding your head as to what to do next? Take it easy… things aren’t as bad as you think. Let me share with you some steps when you are considering making a career change of your choice.

First and foremost, you should be suitably qualified to make that change in career. If you are less qualified, consider taking up distance learning or training courses to bridge the gap. The more the information you have, the better it is. Understand the industry well and be prepared for the challenges you may have to face. Also understand that this is going to take longer than planned

Next, carefully evaluate the reasons that are making you head for a career change. If it is bad performance on your part, try better it at your current job itself. Changing your career because of a tough boss is not a valid enough reason to leave your job. This might boomerang when your prospective boss does background verification at your workplace

When you consider a career change, you must be open to starting at lower strata in the organization. Since you are just starting out in that new career (remember this ... .it’s not a job you have done or experienced in doing), no employer might consider you for a senior or managerial position. But that should not be a stumbling block when you are working on your dream career

Then, as you begin to research on the industry of your choice, also begin building a network that you can fall back on for information. This provides a lot of leverage. Prospective employers will be aware of you as a potential resource. Also reading up on the Internet, joining discussion forums to help you gather information helps in making career changes.

Once you have completed the steps above, you are at least prepared mentally to make that career change. But this is not the end of it all… remember, making a career change is a long process and it takes time. I will touch on other elements of this topic in my next article so stay tuned in.

Partnering With A Professional Career Consultant

When I first moved into a career consulting role, my friends and business contacts would ask me… “what do you do as a career consultant and coach?”; “why do people want to work with a career consultant, especially if they’re already relatively established within their industry?”; “what’s the value in engaging a career consultant?”, and many other related questions…

Considering I am in Asia where the concepts of career consulting and career coaching are not as wide-spread in this part of the world, as compared to North America or Europe, their queries and skeptism are of no surprise to me.

Today, I shall attempt to answer some of their queries here. Off course, portions of the information here were obtained through other sources and not all are entirely my origination.

Understanding Career Consultants and Their Work

Why Professional Career Consultants?

While many people today are happy to manage their career progression themselves, on some occasions the most effective way of reaching your goals is to call in some professional help. Professional career consultants can help you determine what kind of career you should be in, set career goals for yourself, and prepare for a job or promotion campaign.

To find the right career consultant for you, be sure to do your homework. Not all career consultants are created equal, and not all will be the right fit for your situation and personality. Not only will you want someone with good credentials, you will also want someone with whom you feel a sense of compatibility and trust. And considering that they are not inexpensive, you want to make sure that you get the most for your money.

Key considerations as we set out to work with a career consultant?

Prior to working with a career consultant, you should answer the following questions:

• What is your goal in working with a professional career consultant?
• What are some of the services typically offered by career consultants?
• How do you find the right person?
• How do you manage the relationship effectively?
• How do you know when your goal has been achieved?

When is a professional career consultant most useful?

Career consultants are most commonly called up on when someone is looking for a new position or considering changing careers. However, career consultants can also prove useful for anyone seeking advice about their current role, and they can be an objective and impartial sounding board. And some people use career consultants once or twice a year for career “tune-ups.”

Is there a typical fee for a professional career consultant?

Obviously, when we engage professionals, there will be some form of monetary investments required. Some career consultants charge by the hour, and their fees generally range from a low of US$70 to a high of US$400 per hour (I have heard of some consultants charging over US$500 per hour), whilst others may charge according to programs, and cost of each program varies according their intensity, coverage and duration, from US$ 1,500 to US$ 12,000. Off course, do bear in mind that the amounts here are to be taken as a general reference only.

Generally speaking, career consultants can offer you a battery of tests to help you understand your skills and your personality style. They may also conduct a self-assessment that can guide you in deciding what kind of career you will be successful in. Such extensive testing will not be right or necessary for everyone, but in cases where a person is really floundering in his or her career, it may prove helpful.

What is the best way of finding a career consultant?

Personal referral is by far the best method of finding a career consultant. If you know someone who has successfully used a career consultant, you can ask them to give you the person’s name and number. Without a personal referral, you will have to do the research on your own. Use the Internet or your telephone directory to search for career consultants (also called career coaches or career counselors). Ask the consultant about his or her background, methods, fees and references to be sure you find the right person for you.

What Do I NEED TO DO?

Set Some Goals

To get the best from working with a career consultant, you need to have some concrete goals to work toward. Define these in results-oriented language, being as specific as possible so that you will know when you've reached your target. For example, you might want to:

• To find a new job;
• To obtain a promotion and a raise;
• To change careers to something more fulfilling.

Be Skeptical about Big Promises

Career issues are complex and often take time to work through. Be skeptical of career consultants who promise a quick fix, easy money, résumés that get speedy results, or other come-ons.

Create a List of Potential Career Consultants, Research Their Qualifications, and Make a Choice from Your List

Using the Internet or your telephone directory, make a list of career consultants in your area. Some career consultants work with clients outside their physical location. You may want to check them out too.

Once you have developed a list of candidates, it is time to narrow that list down to the one career consultant best for you. Begin by conducting a telephone interview with each person on your list. Introduce yourself and explain your goal to them. Ask them about their methodology, what their costs are, and how their background will help them to help you.

In addition to the qualifications and methodology of your career consultant, you will want to pay attention to your comfort level with each person and to what your instincts or intuition tells you. You want to select someone that you can trust and who will challenge you to reach your full potential.

When you have narrowed your list to two or three potential career consultants, make a face-to-face appointment with each in order to make your final decision. Most professional career consultants will not charge you for an exploratory meeting.

Clarify Your Goals and Expectations

Explain your goals to your career consultant, and make your expectations clear right from the start. Your career consultant will also explain what is expected of you, for example, what you are to do between sessions.

Be sure you understand the payment schedule and amounts. Will you pay by session, or will you be billed at the end of each month, for example? Most career consultants expect you to pay something before the sessions commence as a sign of your commitment, and many will ask you to sign a contract. Only sign the contract if you are completely comfortable with all elements of it, though, and be sure to question any items that you do not understand or like.

Think About How Your Professional Engagement Will End

Because you set a list of clear and specific goals when you started working with your career consultant, it should be pretty clear when your work has been completed. If, however, new goals arise as you work through that “To Do” list, you may want to sign up for a new contract. Or you may decide that you want to meet maybe twice a year or on an “as needed” basis.

Because the relationship with a professional career consultant can be very personal and rewarding, it’s always nice to end with a little celebration or with a small gift to mark your appreciation.

What Do I NEED TO AVOID?

Not Setting Specific Goals

Some people go into this relationship because they have been laid off or dismissed and the company pays for a career consultant as part of the severance package. The result can be that you meet with your consultant regularly but without any direction, and nothing gets done.

A good career consultant should guide you into setting goals right at the beginning. If you find yourself meeting for over a month without seeing any progress, it’s probably time to move on and find someone else who can help you more effectively.

Can't Let Go

If the relationship has been really successful, you will have developed a powerful bond with your career consultant, and it may be difficult to terminate the relationship when your goal is met. But it is important to recognize when it is time to move on and to begin to apply what you have learned.

Having a celebration dinner is a nice way to symbolize the ending of your working together, and you can always schedule career “tune-ups” if you need them.

Not Committed to Making Progress

You meet weekly with your consultant and you agree to take certain actions such as working on your résumé or making five phone calls. But the following week when you meet again you have not done the things that you promised you would do. If this happens regularly, you must take a serious look at your goal. You may have set a goal that is not realistic or is not really what you want to do. If you feel this is the case, when you next meet your consultant, ask him or her to advise you on how best to re-evaluate what you are doing and how appropriate your efforts are.

Working with a career consultant can help you go a long way in your personal and career development. But whilst the benefits of this partnership are significant, you need to do your homework on choosing the most suitable consultant for you and you must also be committed to invest time and effort into the partnership

I hope the above will prove useful to those of you considering a career consultant.

What Makes You Happy At Work?

Finally, I manage to log back on to my blogger… after 4 days of continuous no-success, and I had to get a few people involved before the access problem got resolved … Modern technology – you can’t live with it and you can’t live without it. Hah, what an irony!

Nonetheless, I’m back online again and this posting is to continue building upon where I left off on my previous article “What Career Is Right for Me?” As I have previously mentioned, there's nothing more challenging (or emotionally tearing) than changing careers half way through your life. Oftentimes, we find ourselves in a situation where we thought the job we chose was something we really wanted in our overall career roadmap, but as time goes by day by day, we find ourselves becoming more and more unhappy.

If we are unhappy, we know we’ve made a wrong choice. Now, the question is – how do we work out what we really want and what is that ideal job that goes with that territory? Here're some suggested ways and means to start formulating an answer to the above question (extracted in part from CareerExec International's Career Transition Program).

Ways & Means Number One: Understand why you are unhappy in your job
Good information comes out of understanding why you are currently unhappy in your job, and in my experience there tend to be six reasons why this is so. Which ones are relevant to you?

Your job is boring and unchallenging

This is often the case when people have been doing the same job for a long period of time, and colleagues and bosses can quickly forget that you have more to offer.

Dealing with difficult people

Often it’s not the specific tasks of a job that are stressful it’s the people you have to deal with that make life so difficult. Colleagues, bosses, clients and suppliers can all be difficult to get along with or be unreasonable in their demands.

Too much politics

It’s hard enough dealing with difficult people directly without having to deal with underhand politics as well. Even though it would be nice if everyone just got on with each other and did their jobs, the bad news is that politics will always happen.

You’re doing the wrong job for your personality

Imagine someone who likes working with details, such as an accountant or an engineer, suddenly being asked to take on a role in sales or a people management role with no additional training or support. You may feel that you just don’t “fit” into a role and that extra training just isn’t the answer.

A sign of other issues

If you’re unhappy in your job, it could be a sign of unhappiness or stress in other areas of life leading to a reduced ability to deal with what could be normal levels of pressure at work. Issues such as strained or failing relationships, poor health or money worries can all have a huge impact on your feelings of satisfaction with work.

Your work is just not your passion

It could be that although you are doing well in the eyes of other people, your work just isn’t what you are passionate about. Lots of people have a dream to do something that is really meaningful to them, but they are too scared to take a first small step to achieving that dream, or just don’t know how to start.

Ways & Means Number Two: Understanding yourself
To understand what work would be ideal for you, you really do have to understand yourself first, and in four key areas – your work interests, work motivators, your personality preferences and your personal and professional values.

Your work interests

These are the things that interest you in the world of work. Do you enjoy adventurous and risk taking activities or are you more interested in things like science and technology? Do your interests lie more in finance and administration or in working with words and being creative? Do you enjoy managing, organizing and getting results through others or do you have an interest in caring activities?

Your work motivators

These are the things that really drive you at work. For example how driven are you for recognition at work, or the need for responsibility, having control over your own work and being accountable for your actions? How much do you need variety and change in your work, or are you motivated more by stability and security? Are you driven by the need to excel in what you do and to find new challenges to overcome or do you prefer to have friendly colleagues at work? How motivated are you by your interest in the work that you do, or is pay and other material rewards a key motivator?

Your personality preferences

These will impact on how you prefer to work, and therefore your choice of ideal job. For example, are you good with people and do you gain energy by being with them, or are you good with ideas, precision and complexity and prefer to think carefully before acting? Do you prefer to deal with facts and reality; are you objective and analytical in your decision-making and do you find it hard to relax until your work is completed? Or are you imaginative and sensitive to the needs and motivations of other people, and flexible, adaptable, research-oriented and tolerate ambiguity and uncertainty well?

Your personal and work values

A personal value is a belief, a mission, or a philosophy that is really meaningful to you. When you are engaged in activities that support your values, you will feel most like yourself. If your job does not allow you to do this, the outcome for you will be significant stress and frustration. In addition, studies of successful individuals have found that there tends to be one or two professional values that guide their career and job choices, and make working an enjoyable and ultimately successful experience.

Ways & Means Number Three: Your ideal work/life balance
Work is of course only one aspect of your life, but there is often confusion when mentioning work/life balance. People seem to think it means there should be an equal balance between the two. This is not necessarily the case – having an effective work/life balance is about what works for you, perhaps there will be periods of time where your focus will be more on work than on your personal life, and vice versa.

This is why you need to know how your ideal job will fit in with your other priorities in life. You need to be clear on what else you want to focus on in your life, and what financial and time commitment you are prepared to give to them. Whatever is important to you, for example your health, family, friends, personal relationships or hobbies, your ideal job will need to take these factors into account.

Ways & Means Number Four: Understand your options
Knowing what you need from a job to make it ideal is only one half of the answer. The other half involves understanding what, realistically, your job options are.

Transferable skills

You must identify the skills and experiences you have that potential future employers will be prepared to pay you for. After all, they will only hire you if they have a need for the skills you can bring to them. These aren’t only the jobs that you have done, but are the activities and behaviors that you demonstrated to make you successful in your previous roles.

Strategic career choices

Rather than just look in the newspaper or online to see what jobs are available, it is useful to think strategically about your career options. Inevitably, your ideal job will entail making use of your existing or newly developed skills within existing or new industry sectors.

For example, you could continue with a career within your existing areas of knowledge and competence, stay where you are in terms of industry sector and organization and look for a shift in the type of job that you do, carry on with the job you do in a different sector or environment or throw caution to the wind and follow a long-held dream or passion!

Ways & Means Number Five: Find that Ideal Job
Once you have done all the above, you now need to distill the information into a great CV. A CV that crisply and concisely articulates your skills and experiences to your future employers in a way that demonstrates that you understand the job that needs to be done, that you fit in with their company culture and that you have the experience and the skills to succeed in the new role.

To do this you will also create a personal positioning statement. This is, in effect, a personal "elevator pitch" in which you can start to tell your friends, your network, recruiters and potential employers exactly what job you're looking for, give them a relevant overview of your skills & experiences and tell them why you want to do the job you're looking for. The secret here is to create several different CVs and personal positioning statements, each one consistent with what would be an ideal job for you, but each one subtly different in its job focus.