a career change

Big or small career change?

January 1, 2017 By // by Rachel Brushfield

Happy New Year!

Career change can feel very daunting and ‘all or nothing’, which is especially challenging at times of uncertainty.

At a time of slow economic growth, combined with the rising cost of living, but salaries not keeping up, is making a career change a good idea or not?

There are many types of career change, from evolutionary to revolutionary, internal and external. It doesn’t have to be a big change e.g. completely changing career direction or leaving the security of a full time job.

Here are 30 different types of ‘career change’:

Changing your attitude to your current job
Job-redesign – staying with your current employer but doing a different role
Studying for a further qualification to increase your long-term career prospects (your employer funds or you fund yourself)
Taking on additional responsibility at work to build visibility, gain new experience and skills and pave the way for a future promotion internally or externally
Volunteering to be a mentor to develop new skills and help others
Getting involved in your employer’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme to make a difference, broaden your network and increase your own career fulfilment
Setting up a business
Evolving a current business in a different direction
A career breakthrough e.g. getting a pay rise, promotion or new job
Moving from full time employment to interim or freelance work
Changing from the private sector to work in the public sector
Moving from private practice to in-house
Creating a portfolio career – a career with multiple work strands
Changing career direction completely
Securing a more junior role for less stress and better work life balance, rather than a senior role
Creating an ‘encore’ career pre-retirement
Getting on the right career path as a graduate
Switching careers without training
Returning as a Returner post maternity leave back into employment
Returning into employment having taken a career break to travel
Evolving your career to have more meaning and fulfilment
Creating a business from a natural gift or hobby
Achieving a dream job
From redundancy/gardening leave into a new job
A career secondment internally
A career secondment externally
Taking a career sabbatical to take stock and rethink what next
Moving from full time employment to part time employment
Moving from full time employment to a part time job plus freelance work
Moving from a full-time job to a full-time job plus a non-executive director position

What other career changes can you think of? What’s your career goal in 2017 and how can we help?

Here are some examples of clients we have worked with and how a career change does not have to be big and scary.

TH negotiated to stay with their current employer but from a full time 5 day a week job to a permanent contract working 4 days a week, freeing them up to develop their future portfolio career.

DW decided to improve their career fulfilment by staying with their employer working 4 days a week and using the fifth working day each week being a trustee for a couple of charities that meant a lot to them.

NW achieved a full-time role working at a less senior level saying no the high level salary and bonus plus stresses and responsibilities of a director level position, and gaining better work life balance and doing the work they enjoyed at a more junior level role.

Having already made one successful career transition with our support from working as an engineer for British Gas to working on oil rigs, DM got in touch as they had to re-think their career direction as a result of the fall in oil prices and reduced use of contractors. Result? They have found a new engineering role on land near to their home with their employer funding a qualification which will enhance their career prospects and options longer term.

EM’s employer was merging with a much larger company giving them a forced career crossroads and a culture that did not appeal to them. They decided with our coaching support to accept a full-time job with a different employer, without the responsibility of managing a department, a new role at a reduced salary but with the stimulation of lots of learning, something that was very appealing to them.

What career change are you seeking and how can we help?

What next?

Why not download one of our free reports?

Pain free career change:

https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/talent-liberation/

Find out your transferrable skills

https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/what-is-a-portfolio-career/

Discover portfolio careers

https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/who-has-portfolio-careers/

Read what our clients think about our services:

https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/testimonials/

Career evolution or revolution?

March 15, 2015 By // by DigitalJenIPC

Work can start to get a bit repetitive after a while; a bit ‘same old same old’.

Some people find this comforting, others brain numbing. I am the latter. How about you?

Many many people have been sitting tight in the same job during the downturn years. Staying put for security. A wise strategy. Or is it?

If your career is starting to feel a little stale there are 5 strategies to explore:

• Portfolio career
• Job sculpting
• Sabbatical
• Attitude shift
• Secondment

An interesting book about the revolution of work shaped my thinking 4 years ago. It is by Lynda Gratton – ‘The Shift: the future of work is already here’.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Shift-Future-Work-Already/dp/0007427956

My decisions during the downturn years have been the opposite of most people. They have been shaped by Lynda Gratton’s predictions and other reading. 2020, about which the book focuses, is now just 5 years’ away and it really concerns me that most people don’t have a career strategy, they leave it to chance.

“The best way to predict the future is to invent it.” Abraham Lincoln and Peter Drucker. (both have been credited with this quote).

The rest of this blog gives an overview of portfolio careers, a major trend according to Lynda Gratton.

Portfolio careers have been growing for a while. Some people have them because they have to as a source of work is going out of fashion or cut-backs are being made, others because they want variety and stimulation. I am the latter – it fits my values.

What is a portfolio career?

A portfolio career is when your work is made up of different components which you flex, in response to changing market conditions and/or changes in your personal circumstances or life stage. This makes your career future-proof too.

Portfolio career components

The components of a portfolio career might be a part time job, volunteering, consultancy or freelance projects/contracts, travel, study or a non-exec directorship (s).

My portfolio career

My portfolio career is made up of career coaching, executive coaching, events, content creation, content curation, books, chapters and articles and consultancy work. It can be very full on but never a dull moment!

Employers and portfolio careers

Companies are starting to take note about portfolio careers for a number of reasons.
– Flexible resourcing – as needed
– Generation Y/Millennials demand flexibility
– Talent/skills shortage in business critical areas

I am writing an article on this topic next week and one recruitment agency I interviewed predicts that recruitment will not look the same in 4 years’ time. I agree. Why then are so many people carrying on as though nothing is changing?

Portfolio career example

Read about our client Jon’s portfolio career:
Part 1:

Portfolio careerist – Jonathan Green #1

Part 2:

Portfolio careerist – Jonathan Green #2

How do we help?

Here are 4 ways:

• We offer early bird and weekend Skype appointments.
• We help you create, edit, market and manage your portfolio career
• We define your personal brand
• We assist you in creating a career strategy

What next?

If you are interested in exploring a portfolio career, want to create or review your career strategy, or know someone we can help, get in touch.

Don’t wait until the General Election result in May 2015, start future proofing your career now. Get in touch.

Portfolio careerist – Jonathan Green #1

March 12, 2015 By // by DigitalJenIPC

This is part 1 of a 2 part blog by one of our clients. Jonathan Green. We coached Jon to create his second career – a portfolio career. The rest of this blog is in Jon’s own words.

My current portfolio career

I am a musician, a writer, a speaker and I also work for a national faith based organisation on a part-time basis. When I met Rachel in 2007, I described myself as a “songwriter trapped in a church planter’s body” and the songwriter in me didn’t know how to escape! Even then, I instinctively knew that a portfolio career would allow my various “vocations” to dance together rather than constantly fight for position, but I was stuck; I didn’t know how to move forward and make that dream a reality. Eight years later and I am finding my groove and learning how to flow with a portfolio of meaningful work.

Before my portfolio career

Back in 2007 I was working 65 hours a week doing the thing I had felt called to do for such a long time. However, I had a problem, I had many things I wanted to do and I didn’t want to wait until this work was over to begin all of the other things! My job, the thing that paid out money and provided a house in Central London was developing fast – some might say too fast – and although it provided some space for music and writing, it was all connected to that role and the role was all consuming.

How coaching helps

Coaching provided me with the space to reflect and think, it gave me time to articulate things that I didn’t even think I was allowed to say, to want, to desire. Coaching gave voice to the writer in me and helped me to formulate a plan to break the songwriter out of prison. Rachel helped me to focus upon my deepest values and to see myself from many different perspectives – all of which were valid and needed to find an expression if I was ever to feel whole. For instance, one of my core skills is knowing how to start with a blank sheet of paper and create something meaningful which has the potential to change the world for good. I had confused that gift with church planting and severely restricted myself in the process. ‘Church planting’ means starting a church in a new community by the way! As I have worked with and understood that specific talent, I have realised that it works brilliantly far beyond just starting churches and this insight has served me well in recent years and made me more flexible, versatile, dynamic and responsive.

Career transition

18 months of coaching sessions helped me to set some firm boundaries which allowed me to scale back my paying job in order to write more and record and release my songs – this involved some conflict with my boss which coaching also helped me to navigate successfully. The money that I was going to spend on a PhD – the obvious “next step” for me, which would “open doors” – was shelved and I set up a recording studio in a spare bedroom instead. I submitted a song to a national song writing competition and ended up winning it, which led to the song being played on the radio.

Keep an eye out for part 2 of Jon’s story.

You can listen to lots of my music over at www.soundcloud.com/recreativemedia for free and you can buy my first Single – Rest in My Love from every online store and streaming service in the world! I live on Twitter @recre8ivemedia

Mind the gap

June 30, 2013 By // by DigitalJenIPC

Do you find career change daunting?

Many people want to make a career change, but choose to stay put instead. With an uncertain economic situation and with perceived security, this is a common choice. But at what cost?

Sitting on a fence for too long gets a bit sore.

Many people will happily buy 2 coffees a day or eat out three times a week, or buy clothes and shoes, the money for which over a year would fund a career coaching programme or a course to further their skills. We call this unconscious eating, drinking, shopping habits; ‘filling a gap’. Sound familiar?

Better to mind the gap than fill it.

This week during a coaching session with a client their fear about career change was palpable. Our client was clear about where they wanted to go, they had an impactful CV, and are extremely marketable. But they were in the void.

What is the void?

It is a place of ‘not-knowing’ and not knowing is scary and unfamiliar.

You have gone beyond where you have been in your career but not yet reached where you are going to be, and you don’t know how you are going to get there. People who have only worked in one company or type of work feel this especially strongly.

At this point in the process, common questions and themes are:

– How do ask for introductions?

– How do I get on the radar of headhunters?

– My network is very narrow, how do I build it when I am busy at work?

– How will I make the right decision?

– There is so much competition, how can I stand out?

We help our clients with these topics and a lot more, including creating a career strategy and plan and being a ‘Sherpa’ to help them get to their summit.

For those of you reading this, what are you doing to do this week to move your career in the direction you want it to go?

One action would be to set up a savings account to invest in your career, skills and knowledge. Even a small amount e.g. £5/week adds up over time.

In future, people will need a higher level of skill to secure the job they want, take responsibility for their own career, rather than leave it to their employer and to market themselves.

Be one of the wise ones.

Don’t wait for the end of the downturn to start creating your future.

For insights and tips, follow us on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/talentliberator

To read our Career Strategies, Smart living and working and Self-Promotion bulletins with useful insights and tips/opt in to receive future ones, click on this link:

http://www.liberateyourtalent.com/cms/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=79&Itemid=106

20 career change tips from people who have

October 4, 2012 By // by DigitalJenIPC

Career change can feel daunting at the best of times, let alone in a downturn. What better way to get tips than from people who have already changed career. Here are 20 tips from people who have successfully made a career change.

Use your network to get a warm introduction to the decision maker
Anything is possible if you desire it enough but it takes planning and realistic expectations
Make time to do research and understand a new career and sector
Think about what you really want and if it is to do work you are passionate about or just have another job
Evaluate your short, medium and long term financial commitments
Evaluate your current finances for ‘survivability’
Think about what you would do in a ‘worst case’ situation
Don’t put yourself in ‘a box’ – open your eyes to new opportunities
Believe in yourself and stay determined
Research new career choices so you understand barriers to entry, competition and future career prospects
Check whether you are likely to face the same challenges and frustrations in your new career as your old career, so ‘jumping from the frying pan into the fire’
Unless you have money saved up and you can afford to take time off, don’t leave your job with nothing to go to until you have thought everything through
Be clear if you are running away from or towards something
Analyse your current position and why you want to leave it
Know your strengths and weaknesses and what type of environment, work schedule and activities you like to do
Think about what would make you happy, give you meaning and purpose and make you jump out of bed every day
Remember that career change is a process
Keep an open mind to what the future will hold and what unexpected opportunities may present themselves
Make sure your desire to change your career is not projection of frustration in another area of your life e.g. personal relationship
If you can, go indirectly to the decision maker and bypass HR who can have a ‘ruling out’ mentality, especially as they are overwhelmed by hundreds of CVs

With a busy job/life, all these things can be a lot to take in/make time for, especially as you are so close to yourself. That is why working with a career coach and strategist can help you to make it happen and give you support and practical advice in a safe setting and objective and confidential way. It is bit like having an event or wedding planner help you. They support you to create a great and positive result.

Itchy Feet? Need New Career Ideas?

July 5, 2011 By // by DigitalJenIPC

I adore those moments of blinding insight. An oxymoron if ever I heard one. Moments of utter clarity about what someone REALLY wants to do. Most people fall into their career by accident and plod along, leading a half empty working life. Shame.

A client came to me looking for new career ideas. They knew they wanted a career change, they just weren’t sure what. My favourite challenge! I asked what she really loved doing. She replied: “I don’t know if it is significant but, when I was a teenager I used to babysit and I would clear out and tidy the cupboards. I absolutely loved it.” As she talked about it, she glowed with enthusiasm and her energy completely changed from 60 to 240 watts. The seed of a new business was sown.

Bingo, or Bob’s your Uncle. Whoever Bob is. That wonderful moment that informs a new career. Utterly exciting. Hugely rewarding. New career ideas are hard to come up with on your own. You are too close to yourself. A career that fits you is like finding a partner with whom you are compatible. It has an unquantifiable large impact on your happiness and fulfilment.

Here is an example of a career change http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs042/1102862873131/archive/1106375841019.html

Do you like something for free? Thought so. If you have got itchy feet and could do with some new career ideas, why not download our free report, “Pain free career change“? Click on the link: http://www.careerstrategies.co.uk/