You know, it is the lack of career change
ideas that seems to keep many would-be career changers stuck.
One of the things that clients often say
to me is:
I know I want to change careers, to do
something different, but I just don't know what I want to do
instead.
The problem is they are stuck in a
habitual pattern of boxed-in thinking that prevents them from seeing the
wealth of possibilities that are out there.
Would you like some tips to help you
get out of that place and to help you to generate a range of new career
ideas to explore? Then read on.
Tip 1 - Forget job titles
Job titles really inhibit your thinking. If I asked you to list all the
jobs you could think of, you might come up with a couple of hundred
before you ran dry. In reality there are thousands of jobs out
there that you would never identify under your own steam, so forget the
job title and focus instead on the key themes that are important for you
in a job. What do you want your dream job to involve?
Tip 2 - List what you don't
want to do
This is often quite easy to do if you are in a job you hate and it can
be a very useful exercise. It helps you to focus on the aspects of a job
that really drive you nuts and then also identify those that are
annoying in your current job but actually you'd be prepared to put up
with to some degree in a different situation. When you identify
something as a no-no, ask if it would always be no under all
circumstances. This will help you to avoid rejecting jobs in a knee-jerk
way because they share similarities with your current role.
Tip 3 - List what you think you
should want to do
What do you think your career should look like? What pressure are
you putting on yourself to confirm to certain benchmarks (eg I must be
earning a certain salary, I should be in a professional role, it must be
something that other people will respect and admire me for). Just check
with yourself whose rules you are following here. Who exactly says that
your career must look like this? Is this really what you want or
what other people say you should aspire to?
Tip 4 - List what you would do if
anything were possible
Yes, you are allowed to take the brakes off here and create a big dream.
Forget the constraints you put on yourself, wherever they come from. If
your fairy godmother arrived to take you to the ball, what job or career
would you ask her to line up for you as part of the deal?
Tip 5 - List what you would do if
you gave yourself permission to say that you want it
So often, we limit the possibilities in our lives because we just don't
allow ourselves to want something. Maybe you want to earn lots of money
- but that seems too greedy. Maybe you want to have an easy, quiet job -
but that seems too lazy. Maybe you want to set up your own business -
but you can't because you have to think about so many other people in
your life first. What do you need to give yourself permission to want to
do?
Tip 6 - Reinvent yourself
If you could rewind the tape on your life and re-run it, what would you
do? If you could dump all the stuff, the rules, the history that you
have gathered on your journey through life to this point and travel
light without the baggage, where would your journey take you? What would
the new you look like and what work would this new person be doing? What
does this tell you about what would really inspire you?
Tip 7 - Think big and think small
Your new career does not have to be something world changing and grand.
If you want to change the world, great! Go ahead and build your new
career around this big vision. But if you feel drawn to operating on a
more local scale, that's fine too. Small changes can be just as
transforming for your career and your life as big ones, so don't be
fooled into thinking that bigger is necessarily better. Career change
success is about finding what feels right for you.
So take some time to think about your
career change with these 7 tips in mind - and by time I mean days,
weeks, maybe even months if necessary. Changing career is a big step, so
allow yourself the time and space to really think it through.
