“I’m just not happy.” Danielle said. In a stable marriage with two soon to be college bound children, Danielle was not talking about the home front. She also lived in a wonderful shoreline town in Connecticut and enjoyed her community. She did yoga, exercised regularly, was in good health. Essentially, she had no overt reason to be unhappy, except she did not like her work. And, as countless clients of Career Counseling Connecticut have expressed, her career took up a lot of life.
“I start getting bummed out on Sunday afternoon. I feel dread by Sunday evening and I’m depressed as I leave to work on Monday and deal with the drive to New Haven.”
The problem was that Danielle didn’t know “what else she was qualified for”. I explained to her that this is not the way to address the mid career change question. Unfortunately, she was “qualified” for the work that she currently did and not much more. At 48 and with the likely need to work into her mid-late 60s, at least, she grimaced when she said, “I can’t imagine working 2 more years in this job, let alone 20.”
I explained that the real questions were “what did she want to do for work” and “how could we chart a course to get there.” Then we go to work.