Help! I Don't Know What I'm Looking For!

Time to read: 68 seconds

Welcome to week 6 of Job Seeking for Corporate Rebels. It's the last week of the series.

If you are a teacher looking for a teaching job, job hunting is straightforward. Some of you have no idea what you're looking for or want to pivot from your career path. You're a nurse who wants to work for a big company or lawyer who wants to go into teaching.

Obviously, some pivots require more education. If you want to become a therapist, you need a counseling degree. If you want to become a doctor, your next step is medical school.

Many pivots, though, require transferrable skills, an open view to what's possible, an understanding of the places your skills are needed, and the ability to tell the story about how your skills and experience meet the requirements for a job that's not an obvious fit.

The nurse who wants to work for a big company might consider medical devices or pharma, medical start-ups, perhaps various kinds education and training. A lawyer who wants to teach might consider law schools or private high schools looking for excellent writers.

Today's Hot Tip: The market is filled with jobs you've never heard of and as technology changes, the jobs of tomorrow look nothing like the jobs of yesterday. If you only look for jobs you can imagine, you are limiting what you might find. Open your lens. Talk to people about your skills and experience and see what jobs they suggest. You might just land an exciting new career.

I hope you've enjoyed this series on job hunting. Please email me with questions and comments. I always love to hear from you.

Want More Opportunity?

Time to read: 26 seconds

Toggle Back and Forth

Hello!

Here are things I regularly hear from new clients:

• "I've been promoted to a big new job and feel under water."
• "I feel stuck in the same old, same old and am not sure how to move forward."
• "I'm excited about my new role and am not sure what to do."

I see a predictable pattern in careers whether you are a vice-president, business analyst, academic, entrepreneur, or teacher. Your growth as a person and your career opportunities toggle back and forth.

• When you take on a new role, your development has to catch up.
• Once your capacity expands, new opportunities appear.

On an ideal career path, you know when your role has grown past your capacity (and it's time to build more) and when your capacity has grown beyond your role.

I'm sure you've worked with bosses whose growth stalled after a promotion and never grew effectively into leadership. These folks become ineffective and frustrating leaders.

You probably also know people who stayed too long in a role that was too small for their capacity. These folks complain a lot, become "over cooked," and burn out.

Self-awareness is key to avoiding either of these extreme and undesirable outcomes. Take a look at your career today. Are you in a capacity building phase in order to stretch into your role or are you starting to feel itchy to expand your opportunities?

Knowing where you are will help you invest your time and effort wisely to get the outcomes you want. Managing this toggle will keep your career in balance and keep you on a path of momentum and fulfillment.

Make sense?

Have a great week!

Do You Like Where You Are Heading?

Time to read: 55 seconds (So you can get out in your garden. It's spring!)

Frank's holiday cards

A hundred years ago, I worked with an amazing man. Frank worked hard during the school year then adventured all summer in his car and on his bike. Each Christmas, he mailed a card with a photo from his travels and the exact same quote. The quote was:

"If we don't change our direction, we are likely to end up where we are heading." ~ Chinese proverb

This quote has been rattling around in my head as I've talked to friends and clients this week.

Consider this: You're on a path in your career. Although that path is not controllable or predictable (e.g. layoffs, health issues, babies, and winning the lottery to name a few possible interruptions), you can visualize the path ahead of you. Look at the people who are 10 or 20 years older than you. Look at the leaders who are a few steps above you on the food chain.

Do you like what you see? Do you like the way they live? Do you share their personal and professional priorities and values?

Now, take a look at your own thoughts and choices. Do you feel in integrity with yourself? Are your work and life in balance in the way you want them to be? Are you taking care of your body, mind and spirit? Do you tell yourself, "When I retire, I'll ____(fill in the blank with your dream for the future)?

I offer you a slightly modified version of the quote I received every December for many years. "If you don't change your direction, you are likely to end up where you are heading."

How do you like where you are heading?

If you love it, great! Keeping going.

If you don't, now is the time to change your direction.

As always, I love to hear from you. If these thoughts struck a chord, email me and tell me all about it!

With all kinds of rebel love,

Christina

P.S. If one of your friends or colleagues needs a nudge to consider a change of direction, share this newsletter with them. They can join our merry band of rebels here.