In the twenty years of working with career changers in Connecticut, I have never seen such an intense desire for career changing clients to change their careers, jobs, and lives. The Pandemic accelerated trends that were happening the previous decade:
(1) Younger workers wanted more control over their time than previous generations
(2) Older workers wanted more meaning from their work than previous generations
(3) Changing careers was becoming more common than at any time… maybe in history.
The 2020s have dramatically shifted those trends upward.
As we are help our career changing clients, we see three areas where most could benefit:
Exploratory Work:
Most would-be career seekers find themselves unhappy in a career/job; get fired up for a brief period of time about changing; and then when they fell less unhappy with their current career/job settle back in to their semi-unhappy career. Few put in the exploratory work required. This process has been outline in both of my last two books and is the missing ingredient for most career seekers.
Vision Creation:
Once our clients have their vision, they act.
Without the vision of the future, they stay put.
Creating a vision alone is very tough. That’s where we likely provide our clients with the greatest help.
Pay Your Dues
Yes… .there will be a price to pay when you shift careers.
The reason why Rocky was such a big hit was that it was one of the first movies that depicted the struggle.
The in-between stage from vision to reality will require “something.” For our clients, the range of that something is vast.
But I know with certainty that those that are willing to pay their dues for a desired vision are far happier than those who continue working in semi-misery.