Making a Career Change: Step 1 Get a Handy Dandy Notebook

I have a friend who works in real estate. He started his own business in New York City and just recently celebrated its 10th anniversary. Specifically, he handles corporate relocation (i.e. an employee gets money to move to a new city, the employee gives the money to my friend who helps the employee find an apartment). Obviously, this industry has fallen on some shaky times lately. Not only did the market crash but companies slowed down their employee relocation programs. Thus, my friend's business struggled and he decided that it was in his best interest to pursue something else. So he enrolled in a graduate program to become an elementary school teacher. During this program he realized that teaching wasn't for him and that he actually liked the freedom and exhilaration he got from being his own boss and working as hard as he could to help his business stay alive.

What my friend did was assess his career path in order to confirm that he was happy with where he was going, challenged on the job, utilizing his strengths, and emotionally and financially pleased with what he was doing. He found something amiss in his assessment (the crashing market and decreased business) and saw how that put his family at risk so he developed a plan to fix it. He spent time and money on a graduate program but ended up not using the degree right away.  That degree is certainly in his pocket in case something goes wrong down the road.  For now, though, his business is operating better than it ever has. (By the way, if you need NYC Real Estate services let me know. I'll connect you to him.)

When I was making the decision to leave the theatre and pursue a different career I was the complete opposite of my friend. I too assessed my situation and came up with something, many things actually, amiss. But it was difficult to make a plan. It was hard to get over the idea that I had spent so much time, energy and money earning a degree I wouldn't end up needing whereas he went out and got a degree just in case he needed it.  My long term goals always involved a lengthy and prosperous theatre career, first working professionally and then teaching. All of my training, my network, my application materials, and my career experiences were focused in theatre and I hadn't a clue as to how to use any of them to find a job in another industry. I was fairly certain that I could and would be successful doing other things, I just didn't know what those thing were nor how I was going to find them. It was intimidating, humbling and scary to say the least. 

Yet, here we both are on the other side and doing just fine. He stayed where he was and made it, realizing he was doing what he wanted to do. I executed a change because I was burnt out and defeated, and I made it. You will make it too.

If you find yourself with disillusionment about your career choice, if you flat out don't like what you are doing, if you are intimidated and scared about making a career change, if you feel like you need a change because something has happened in your industry, or if you just feel like it's time to move on but don't know how, then repeat after me "I can and will do this." Say it over and over. Believe it. Say it again! Once you believe it, you are ready to get started:

Step 1: Get a Handy Dandy Notebook (Yes my boys watch Blue's Clues!)
You need a place to write things down because there's going to be a lot of list making and brainstorming and being able to have it all in one organized place will make the process easier for you. It can be spiral bound, a three ring binder, a trapper keeper, a journal with rainbows and unicorns or even a computer file (although I recommend using actual pen and paper). Just make sure you get something. Down the road, when you are actually in the midst of making the change this notebook is going to be the best resource you could have because we're going to fill it with information about you which you'll then be able to utilize in networking, cover letters and interviews.

I Have The Power!!!!

Finally! Our electricity was restored last night at 7:00pm. It was a long 4 days to say the least. When it came back on I felt like He-Man! It was great! I was starting to see my breath inside my house last night and was getting a little nervous so thank goodness it's been restored and we can start getting life back to normal.

This week has been a living testament that we can overcome adversity when we set our minds to it by adapting to the circumstances with which we are faced and by putting faith in the notion that someone or something will step in to help when we need it most (just like here: Hitting the Wall).

I reworked my routine by showering at the gym at work and by taking up friends and neighbors on their offers to have me over for dinner. I added extra blankets to the bed and sent my wife and kids to my in-laws where they had a generator providing heat and electricity. I also kept a positive attitude, something I will readily admit is not always easy to do and sometimes down right impossible. I understood that every minute, hour, and day that passed brought me that much closer to the resolution of the crisis. Remember, every second we spend worrying and fretting about the situation in which we find ourselves is a second we are not spending devising a solution to get through it.

So what's your adversity? Feel like you are in a dead end at work? Conflict with your boss? Want to make a career change but afraid to get started? Trust me, you can overcome that and anything else that comes your way.

"The bamboo that bends is stronger than the oak that resists."
Japanese Proverb

"Seeds of faith are always within us; sometimes it takes a crisis to nourish and encourage their growth."
Susan Taylor

"In adversity, remember to keep an even mind."
Horace

When Your Responsibilities Conflict

How can you tell when the synergy between your two career management responsibilities (referred to here: Responsibility to Yourself and Your Employer) are in conflict with each other? (Hey wait a second! Did you see how I did that? I linked to myself!)

Right out of grad school I worked for a theatre company in the Midwest.  My closest colleague was a woman who was by any measure old. Not just at-the-end-of-her-career old, but actually elderly, much closer to being an octogenarian than anyone else I will ever work with. She had spent more than 30 years working a desk job for a major airline, retired, started drawing her pension, and then for reasons I don't think I will ever understand she went back to work fulltime in an environment fraught with temperamental artists and last minute scrambling to get the job done. Our desks actually touched. Our phones were inches apart. She wore a heap of makeup the likes of which clowns don't even know.

It was like working with my grandmother every day and was every bit the struggle you would imagine working with someone who was born before the Great Depression would be. Her status quo was complaining about everything. The job was fast paced, entailed a lot of night and weekend hours, and had a fair amount of crisis management involved. We'd go 2-3 weeks straight with no days off and were often on call at all hours. (Theatre sounds great doesn't it?!) By nature this person was cranky and when things got tough she was downright unbearable. 

The problem was her unbearableness was a secret to nobody. Actors, directors, stage managers, and other staff members all could see it plain as day. People would often pull me aside privately to talk about what could be done. The only one who didn't realize this, besides her that is, was our boss who was obviously the one who kept her around. It made no sense.

There was a conflict somewhere between her responsibility to herself and to the company. In some way she was not getting what she needed on a personal level from the job and she took it out on everyone from the company to her coworkers. Mind you, this is someone who had retired before and could do so again but she chose to work and thus chose to be seemingly miserable.

To answer the question above, you should be able to tell when there's a conflict between your responsibilities. You can probably look at some of your coworkers and see this happening, although hopefully it isn't as bad as I experienced. If you have to, ask someone how they and others perceive you. Ask yourself if you dread going to work every day, doing certain parts of your job or seeing and interacting with certain coworkers. If you do find a conflict then for the sake of your own happiness and the happpiness of those around you, seriously consider making a change.