I was writing something earlier in the day for Career Counseling Connecticut. I had actually started it a week ago after a meeting after a career counseling meeting with “Jim”, a young thirtysomething. The theme of the article just wasn’t coming together. He had too many outside activities which was one of the reason that in his words “his career wasn’t working out”. But I struggled writing the article. Something wasn’t right. I wasn’t really committed to the idea. I liked his outside activities. Those were his passions and cutting back on playing music and hiking were not the answers to his career problem. I then realized “my article is just not working out”. Why should I spend another second trying to edit it? Fortunately, it was just a career article with about 30 minutes invested in it, as opposed to a decade long career. But the principle remained the same: if something isn’t working, change it as soon as possible.
In Jim’s case, he never felt quite right in his career path. He got his job circumstantially – a friend of a friend said there were openings etc. – and then gladly hung onto the job when unemployment was raging for twentysomethings. He did not like his job. But not enough to dedicate himself to finding a new career path. He was not really successful in his job but in his words he was “average” and that was good enough to stay employed at his company.
Finally, he reached 30 and realized that he didn’t want to do his work for the rest of his life. That he was 32 when he met me tells us a lot about human nature.
If your career isn’t working, change it as soon as possible.