This Is Your Life
Most everyone – except young twentysomethings – who leaves a career counseling meeting with Career Counseling Connecticut – says: “I should have come here earlier.”
Why do people wait?
They are not trained to make things happen.
School – the magical K to first grade to second grade… through twelfth grade and even after the college transition – creates a conditioned loop: big change happens to me. I don’t have to make it happen.
False hope – maybe it will get better. Trust me on this one… if you have been in a job for more than a year (6 months even), it won’t.
Uncertainty – that’s the killer. But career exploration is diffent than career change.
Trish Sie, who directed films in both the Pitch Perfect and Step Up franchises, is a friend of mine from our days at the University of Pennsylvania.
Her career path after leaving Penn was anything but conventional.
She became a world-class competitive ballroom dancer and opened her own dance studio. From there, she went on to become the creative force behind the viral music videos of the pop-rock band OK Go. One of those videos — the famous treadmill choreography for the song Here It Goes Again — was later named one of the most influential music videos of all time.
Several years ago, I was vacationing in California when one of my closest Penn friends — I will call him John — happened to be in Los Angeles for a business trip. John also knew Trish, so the three of us met for dinner.
John has been unhappy in his legal career for many years. Ironically, he is one of the most creative, interesting, and entertaining people I have ever known.
Because he is a close friend rather than a client, I have always been careful not to lecture him about career choices. Offering unsolicited career counseling to friends can strain a relationship — particularly when the advice comes from someone whose own work life is fulfilling.
Trish had no such hesitation.
At one point she leaned forward and said directly:
“This is your life. What are you waiting for? Why would you spend your time miserable in a career when there are so many other things you could do that would make you happy?”
She then began offering practical suggestions about how creative people can enter new fields.
One comment in particular stayed with me.
“Find your unique point of entry,” she said. “How could you contribute to a field in a way that only you can?”
I have known John for more than twenty-five years, and I had never seen him so energized about making a career change.
Sometimes what people need most is not more analysis.
Sometimes they need a call to action.
This is your life.
And sometimes the right conversation — with the right person — can help you take the first step toward a more meaningful career.
At Career Counseling Connecticut, helping people find that direction is exactly what we do.