second careers

My clients are very unhappy with me

October 6, 2013 By // by DigitalJenIPC

Sometimes my clients are very unhappy with me. They question what we are doing, how we are doing it and whether it works. I don’t mind. It is the storm before the calm.

Usually it is because they are very frustrated with themselves and/or feeling stuck and scared.

Changing career can be a pretty scary decision. A big change evokes big emotion and natural fears that need to be worked through.

During the process, they can feel very stuck at times, having made the decision to change, mentally left behind where they have been but not yet sure what they are going to do next and how they are going to get there. They don’t know what to do with this uncomfortable emotion swishing about so they project it onto us.

They can be slightly aggressive, defensive, ‘arsy’ even, but I see it as a positive because I know it is normal and healthy. They can be how they are and express exactly how they feel with me. Their friends and family may be worrying about the change they are making and talking about their fears to them can make them feel more worried and anxious, when they are feeling quite anxious enough as it is.

The breakthrough, or ‘aha’ moment follows this stuck phase and they move forward, often quite fast. The calm after the storm.

If you are considering a career change, it won’t be all plain sailing, but you will get to calm waters and be glad that you set sail, even if there are some squally patches along the way.

The alternative is staying in stagnant water that becomes more putrid over time, feeling more and more fed up, stuck and unfulfilled.

So what choice are you making for you? Get in touch if you are ready for change.

Click on this link for some blog about fears:
http://liberateyourtalent.wordpress.com/?s=fears+

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11 career steps to a second career

August 5, 2013 By // by DigitalJenIPC

Fancy a second career different to your first? Many people fall into their first career, so it’s not surprising that more and more people are seeking a second career.

It can feel like a void when you change career, so it helps to have career steps to pave the way to your future.

Last week I did telephone coaching sessions to prepare two clients practically and mentally in their decision to negotiate a career step in their career change.

Client A is working full time and wants to change career direction and needs to be able to do an internship in the Autumn in their new area of work. They broached the subject of a sabbatical with their line manager with 3 options. It went really well and it is looking like a ‘yes’ to the sabbatical.’

Client B’s current role is being made redundant and they have been offered alternative roles but are concerned that this is not the right choice for them and they want to take the opportunity to do something different. Result – they successfully negotiated redundancy.

Coaching is really useful to help people to prepare and think through different options, make the right decision for you and communicate this in the best way to the target audience to achieve your desired outcome.

What could your stepping stone be to a different career? In future, work will become much less guaranteed and more transient with temporary assignments the norm for many of us, so this is an important thing to start thinking about.

Here are 11 possible stepping stones to pave the way for your new career:

1. Get made redundant and get a lump sum
2. Take voluntary redundancy and get a lump sum
3. Take a sabbatical
4. Take a career break
5. Switch from working full time to part time with your current employer
6. Leave your current employer and do contracting/interim work in the same industry/profession
7. Switch from full time employment to freelance project work in the same sector
8. Help out a friend in their business to gain new experience
9. Save up a cushion to dedicate to creating your career change
10. Do some volunteering
11. Fund your own retraining while still self-employed to broaden your skills, qualifications and choices

What other career steps would you add?

If you are thinking about career change, start the career steps to your new career this August.

For more insights and tips, follow us on Twitter:
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Have you downloaded our free PDF to identify what your transferable skills are? Click on this link: http://careerstrategies.co.uk/changingcareersreport/

Fancy being a content curator?

July 6, 2013 By // by DigitalJenIPC

Content curation is one of two phrases I heard this week for the first time.

The other one was ‘Digital shadow’. I love new things. It can be a bit tiring but it makes me happy!

“Content curation is the gathering, organizing and on-line presentation of content related to a particular theme or topic”.

Content curation is a skill and an art – what to include, what to leave out and how to express/present it.

Portfolio careers used to be new – the perfect second career for people like me who love variety and who would rather have work like tapas or dim sum than just 1 main dish.

Apparently 90% of the information on the web has appeared in the last 2 years. That is enough to make your head explode, hence the need for content curators to manage and make sense of it.

A museum like the V&A, for example, only has a small proportion of items on display. They have been careful selected and displayed. The rest are archived.

The world needs content curators with people becoming information grazers and a shorter attention span. I am even worrying about this blog being too long. … Bear with me though.

A common worry for people who come to me wanting a second career is that they don’t like what they are doing, but they don’t know what else they could do instead. They can go round and round in circles feeling stuck and frustrated. Another block to career change is that people cannot see how their skills are transferable to do something else, as they have been doing one thing all their lives, sometimes for the same employer.

Luckily I am the mistress of reinvention and have a broad network and constantly connecting mind – (wish it had an ‘off’ button), so am good at helping people to see their skills, how they are transferable and new careers where they can be applied.

New careers like content curation are appearing all the time and sometimes, a bit like with new product development, needs can be created when people did not know that they had them. Imagine creating your own career playing to a strength, hobby or passion!

Many moons ago, I worked as an account planner in the advertising and communication industry for JWT, little did I know it, but I ‘content curated’ all the time, synthesising research into a creative brief, a white paper, useful insights & ideas or a brand positioning. I remember to this day, my first freelance project for what became a regular client. This gruff Yorkshireman (I love Northerners) dumped a huge stack of research reports on my desk and said: “Right then, let’s see what you can do with that little lot by 5pm today.” It felt like an exam! I delivered. Phew!

It was the beginning of my content curator career, although I did not know it at the time.

Good content curation is a bit like an iceberg – there is only a small bit visible compared to the amount of work that was put into it.
So if you are at career crossroads, don’t worry. Your perfect second career might be emerging as we speak.

What new careers have you heard about recently?

PS By the way, if anyone knows what ‘digital shadow’ is, do let me know, as I haven’t discovered the answer yet.

To read our bulletin about Portfolio careers, click on this link:
http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs042/1102862873131/archive/1103260139794.html
To read about Anne’s career change from market research to facial workouts, click on this link:
http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs042/1102862873131/archive/1108092201346.html

For more useful insights and tips, follow us on Twitter:
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Second careers for lawyers

June 16, 2013 By // by DigitalJenIPC

We help many different professionals and executives to change career, and especially we work with a lot of lawyers. Can you imagine a job where you have to account for every minute of your time? Stressful!

In her book. ‘The Shift – the future of work is already here’, Lynda Gratton writes that is important to have deep mastery of a sector and we have written 2 books and over 18 articles in the legal profession.

Lawyers are bright, challenging, independent critical thinkers and keep us on our toes! Their profession is going through huge challenge and change – it is becoming a market.

Lawyers’ training and job mean that they can find career change hard and are risk averse by nature, so change is especially daunting.

Here is a list of 19 reasons why lawyers can find career change hard:

1. Conformist by nature;
2. Trained to follow precedent, not go the opposite way;
3. Risk averse in character;
4. Parental pride in offspring being a lawyer;
5. Fear of people thinking failed in second career;
6. Avoidance of showing weakness;
7. Difficulty of letting go of perceived status ‘”Oh, you are a lawyer!”;
8. Linear thinking does not help to identify new career options/jobs;
9. Picking holes/reductive thinking & identifying counter arguments is likely to magnify the possible barriers to change out of proportion; and
10. Leaving clear career milestones of legal profession for no milestones can feel like stepping off into a void;
11. Anxiety – worry that you will make a mistake/make the wrong decision;
12. Deep specialism of law makes it feel like you have more to lose by giving it up;
13. High cost of training to be a lawyer feels like wasted investment/money down the drain;
14. Black and white thinking – ‘no going back’ if new career doesn’t work and with so many lawyers seeking work, will never get a job again;
15. Lawyers pride themselves on knowledge and being an expert, so leaving this for no knowledge and starting at the bottom of the ladder feels very risky;
16. Trained to look for downsides, so a career change can feel dangerous;
17. Dislike of marketing yourself/negative associations with self-promotion;
18. Having to convince others of your expertise in a new area with little/no experience can make you feel like a ‘fraudster’; and
19. Lawyers learn by experience, and so embarking on a new career can make you feel very uncomfortable, inauthentic and exposed.

What points would you add?

Second careers for lawyers are important. There are less partner places to go around, they are used to a career with clear milestones, it is an ‘up or out’ career model, inflexible for working mothers and it is a profession where success is very much public, published tables in Chambers and Legal 500.

As a career expert and someone with in-depth knowledge of the legal profession, we are in a great position to help lawyers find a second career that suits them. We were the career coach to the managing partner of Clifford Chance, now on their second career after law. Another client is now lecturing, another is a company secretary.

Next week – 14 reasons why lawyers are well equipped to make a career change a success.

Our web site for the legal profession is www.energiselegal.com

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Careers:

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As clear as mud?

November 30, 2012 By // by DigitalJenIPC

My clients inspire me so much and a coaching session this week inspired me to write this blog, as this blog’s theme is a common one to arise.

A new career involves a lot of new and, for many, challenging aspects:

Learning the language of a new market
Having to market yourself
Creating a different network
Asking for help, advice and introductions

This can be overwhelming and daunting; you can only know what and who you know. So why are career choices so overwhelming?

Where to look?
Who to ask?
What to ask?
When and how to tackle?
How to find the time?
Which to choose?

When people feel overwhelmed and daunted, the easiest thing to do is nothing because of lack of time and avoiding stress.

So what is the best way to tackle finding out about potential careers which suit your experience and skills?

I remember in the early days of my business, over 14 years’ ago, I used to put ‘call contacts’ on my ‘to do’ list. However, I seemed to never get around to doing it.

I worked out that there were various reasons why I wasn’t phoning my contacts;

I would rather write an article or blog
I felt like I had too many so didn’t know where to start
I wasn’t clear about who to phone or why
I was worried about disturbing and annoying busy people at work
I like peace in my office so was projecting my preference onto them
I am better at phoning my contacts to help other people than for my own benefit

Having established this, I felt a bit clearer, but what next?

I spent some time focusing on what my objectives were i.e. my purpose for phoning my contacts:

To see how they were
To keep top of mind
To get an update on their needs
To arrange to meet
To share what I had been doing
To find out specific information e.g. when their financial year was, who was responsible for a specific area

Once I had broken down the task, it felt like the mud was starting to clear a bit.

For people who are considering a different career or to set up a business, getting really specific and explicit can reduce the overwhelm so the brakes are taken off taking action.

A list of questions are a good starting point and asking just one of each person can feel more comfortable:

Questions to start exploring with might be:

Who are the experts in this field?
What are relevant networks?
What web sites should I look at that have useful information?
What is their advice from their own experience?
Who do they know who they can introduce me to?

Analysing and breaking down what can feel like a huge undertaking into small, simple, clear bite size questions and tasks can make it feel do-able rather than impossible.

Getting some insights and information gives a sense of progress and reward and helps the mud start to clear as well as creating motivation and energy to take more action.

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