A previous client and MD of a fortune 500 Company explained that there were only two times that you should review your business – when it is going badly, because you have to, and when it is going well, because you have the time.
Having met and interviewed in excess of a thousand people at various stages in their careers and reviewed their career history, when it comes to making career choices a similar pattern can be seen. Most people move from one role to another in a way that suggests a reactive approach in response to a specific situation or window of opportunity that has been presented to them. The number of times I hear ”it was almost by accident”, “it kind of just happened” or a “recruiter approached me” initially surprised me, now it doesn’t. In many cases these moves are addressing a symptom rather than the root cause.
There are also times when people re-evaluate in a more proactive way, often when the role is okay, but for whatever reason they are not fully engaged in it. At the same time, they hit a key milestone which might be time in the role but more often than not when they are approaching late 20’s, 30’s and 40’s; they visualise the next decade and decide that now would be a good time to explore options.
Most are not in the fortunate position to give up everything and start something completely new for two reasons (a) they don’t have the technical or creative skills to build a new career (b) they do not have the finances to see their salary drop.
So how do they handle it? They recognise their skills and what they want to leverage from their career to date. They understand their key drivers and start making small tactical changes that act as building blocks to allow them to reposition themselves over time in a new direction. They don’t significantly change their career straight away, but they do significantly change their perspective about their career and what they want from it.
If you are facing a milestone in your career, start by analysing what you have gained from your career to date, be that experience, skills or knowledge that can be used and transferred into other roles. People who make successful career changes, manage their expectations and recognise it will take time.
For practical advice on how to change your career, contact us to discuss how we can help contact using the form below.