Career Ideas

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I just read a fascinating if a bit utopian essay in New Scientist magazine about the possibility of creating virtual twins for each of us.  Our online twin would be programmed with all of our medical characteristics so that we would have a much better idea of what specific health care treatments will work for us as individuals, and what the long and short term effects would be.   It would be like giving different treatments a test ride before deciding on them.

Wouldn’t it be cool if we could have our virtual twin also test out different careers or jobs for us?  OK, no one’s working on this one just yet.  But for now, maybe we can take some steps that will help us decide what careers are best for us without having to invest in years of training and coursework as well as months or years in jobs and careers that don’t really engage us or feel meaningful to us.  Maybe we can give our careers a test drive first.

How to test out a career

1.  Information interviews—the classic best way to network and find out about jobs can also give you a sense of whether you would like a career path.  Not only do you learn about a job and career from someone in the field, you can also check out exactly what the interviewee loves and hates about the work.   If you do a good interview, you’ll be able to find out how similar that person is to you in their work preferences, passions, and dreams.  They don’t have to be just like you.   But wherever they are similar to you, that’s where to find out how well they love or hate their work and decide if that might be your response.

2.  Shadow (in a good way).  This technique might be a good follow-up to an informational interview that went well with someone you feel an affinity with.  Or it could be with someone else entirely.  Ask if you can shadow or literally follow them for a day or half day just to see what their job is actually like in the trenches.  This might be easier to pull off if you can do this as part of a school project.

3.  Volunteer or intern for work in a field you might be interested in.  You can find out what people actually do all day at their jobs and what the organization is like.  That can be quite eye opening.   You might find yourself very disillusioned about what goes on behind the scenes or you might find it thrilling.

4.  Pilot and prototype.  Ever thought you might like to be a travel agent?  Interior designer? Caterer?  For many consumer fields, you can test out your skills and interests with friends and family before launching into an actual job or your own business.

Learn about the field as much as you can (including perhaps being a client for someone else first) and then when you feel you can pilot your work, ask friends or family if they’ll be your guinea pigs.  You can play travel agent by helping to plan a complex trip or try interior decorating on a room in a friend’s house, etc.    

This isn’t like having a virtual twin test out the work, but it is a way to find out experientially how well the career or job will suit you.  It offers you a bit more of the nitty-gritty about a career than reviewing course descriptions about a field or reviewing your skills and seeing how they match with what’s needed.

–Career changers, jobseekers–Be sure to sign up for free career and creativity ezine and get your career info bonus

© 2009 Leonard Lang. Feel free to reprint or pass on this article as long as you include the copyright notice and the link to http://choosingacareerblog.com

Technorati Tags: career_ideas, choosing_a_career

You might have heard some statement or seen a quote like this. 

       If you can imagine it–you can do it.

This concept is good for helping people open up their thinking to new goals or careers.  On the other hand, the fact that you can imagine yourself as president of the US or the first astronaut to Mars or the winner of American Idol, doesn’t mean that you will succeed or even that you are best off pursuing those goals.

But the other side of this statement is something everyone needs to remember

     If you can’t imagine it, you’ll never do it. 

That’s much more reliably true.  If you can’t imagine yourself owning your own business or becoming an engineer–then you almost certainly will not pursue these careers at all.

With both of these statements in mind, I have my classes and career coaching clients imagine as specifically and concretely as possible what their ideal careers might look like.  This exercise is great as a thought experiment (if thought experiments were good enough for Einstein, why not you and me?), so that you can actually try out a number of career scenarios.  Not only does it help you imagine something so it can become real.  It also allows you to safely “test” how much you really want to pursue each career you test.

Here’s what you do:

• Choose any new, great career or work situation you might like to consider
• Imagine you just completed a typical work day 
• Go through what you did and jot it down in detail as if recording a day log at the end of your day, hour by hour (or more frequently).
• Be specific–9–945 am, had meeting with my business partner about how to approach a new client’s problem of xxx (whatever problem a client of yours might have).
• Go through the entire day in this kind of detail. 

If you’re not sure what a person might do in your imagined new career, go do some informational interviews first with people in the field or read about the career.  Find out what the daily work life is like because some careers sound glamorous but be filled with activities you don’t want to do.

Write a few such days for each imagined career and maybe some days for alternative careers or jobs to see what each looks and feels like.

Very important–it does not have to be your ideal day, only a typical day in a potentially idea career.

Then, the most important step–reread what you wrote and ask yourself: If this was an actual typical day in my life, how would I feel about it, about my career, about myself?  This gut-check portion is a great test.  Very often, my clients or class members will come up with a day that makes them smile, but when asked if the day would be something they were happy with if it became real right now–they start coming up with fears, doubts, and changes.

That’s a GOOD thing.  That’s how you can then reshape the day to be more perfect. 

If a fear comes up, identify it.  That may tell you what’s been holding you back in pursuing this imagined career or job. 

As simple as this exercise is, it can be one of the most powerful as it so fully engages all of your senses and thoughts and desires if you let yourself really do it without holding back because it’s not realistic or what others think you could do. 

It’s fast, fun, and can offer fantastic insights.  Why not give it a try or two?

• Career changers, jobseekers–Be sure to sign up for free career and creativity ezine and get your career info bonus 

© 2009 Leonard Lang. Feel free to reprint or pass on this article as long as you include the copyright notice and the link to http://choosingacareerblog.com

Technorati Tags: career_change, career_ideas, choosing_a_career

It may seem like a no-brainer, but I’ve seen it many times–people who are certain they hate their career, everything about the line of work they are in.  They come to class or to coaching looking for a new passionate career.  And then find out their passion leads them to the same career.

I’ve seen people ranging from nurses to construction workers start fighting their own conclusions as they realize that what they really want to do is exactly what they’ve been doing.  After all, they know they are unhappy at work.  What’s going on?

Usually, it’s because they are stressed over a bad boss or being overworked or not challenged in new ways.  The career is fine, the particular job or work enviornment is not.

So how can you distinguish between needing a new career or a new job?  Here are 3 quick, basic questions that can help.

1.    When you think of staying in your current job, but in ideal circumstance in terms of bosses and pay and appreciation (the work environment and culture), how do you feel on a scale of 1—10?

2.    What are the 3 best things about your current job? 

3.    What’s the 3 worst things about your current job?

Review your results and

1.    If your ideal version of your current job is less than a 7, then your career and not just the job may be the problem. 

2.    If the best thing about your current job has nothing to do with the actual work and results but with things like “the coffee breaks” or “the person in the next cubicle” or “the benefits” 

3.    AND if the worst things are all about what you actually are supposed to be spending your time doing, then your career may be the deeper problem.

By contrast, if your ideal version of the current job is 8, 9, or 10, the best thing about the job are job activities themselves, and the worst things are all about how your boss treats you or the pay or hours—then it’s probably not about your career.  It’s about your current work environment, so don’t rush off into another field, at least not until you first try to do something about your environment.  If that fails, look to another job, but not another career.

A career coach can help with career or job issues, but whether you work on your own to figure this out or with a coach, you need to identify the specific, ongoing things that are making you feel like you need to leave—your job or your career.

–Career changers, jobseekers–Be sure to sign up for free career and creativity ezine and get your career info bonus

Technorati Tags: career_change, career_coaching, choosing_a_career, job_change

7 things I hear Career Changers tell themselves and what they could be saying:

This week I saw a great bumper sticker: Don’t believe everything you think.  So true.  We tend to accept our thoughts the way we’d never accept the same ideas from someone else.  It led me to jot down 7 bad thoughts I hear from people considering a career change that all ring very loud alarm bells in my head…and after a coaching session, in the heads of my clients too!

1. I don’t know how

• OK, you may not know how.  That’s why people invented the word and concept of LEARNING.
• Better Thought – I need to find some way to do this and will start finding out by…(seaching Google, asking my network, talking to a librarian or someone already in the field…)

2. I don’t think anyone would hire me to do this (or would buy this or be my client).

• Good line for giving up completely.  If you don’t want to give up about your career dream or goal or job search or…anything, stop recycling the past experience of no one being interested, check if YOU care, and then try this thought:
• Better Thought — I just have to find the right people with the right needs/interests

3. Why try that?  I’m just not good at it.

• As in number 1–there’s this thing called learning.   Also another cool concept called PRACTICE (check out the Outliers book on the side of this page.  It’s all about how practice and not talent makes the difference in success).  Finally, there’s the fact that you may not be the best judge of how good you are, so go find out if your thought is even true.
• Better Thought — I haven’t been too great at that so far, but if it’s important for me to do, I can certainly learn how to do at least an OK job at it. 

4. I screwed up. What an idiot I am!

• Join the club.  Who hasn’t screwed up?  The bigger success the bigger the past screw ups in most cases.  Just don’t go from a screw up to judging your entire self or personality (idiot, fool, etc.)
• Better Thought — How can I make sure I do that better so I don’t screw up next time?

5. I’d love to do….but

• When clients say these magic words, I always have them put on the brakes.  I don’t even want to hear what the “but” is about until we confirm that they’d really love to do whatever they’re talking about (design buildings or teach skiing or open a floral shop or be an accountant, doesn’t matter what as long as it’s legal). If they really love doing it, then the better thing to say is
• Better Thought — I’d love to do X, so I need to figure out some way to do it.  OK, so what would be a way to at least get started. 

6. I’m too old to change careers

• Really?  What does that mean?  Usually, I find it doesn’t mean the person can’t get on their toes any more to become a prima ballerina, but that they’re afraid of having to go to school or face younger bosses in a new field or face (illegal) age discrimination.  So those are real issues, but they don’t make you too old to change careers.  Many of my clients are in their 40s, 50s and older.   They can change.  In fact I changed midlife too.  So can you.
• Better Thought – Because I’m really experienced, I know how to learn and can move quickly through a career change.

7. I’m too inexperienced to get the job/career I want

• Now we’re on to a common variation of the I don’t know how to thought (number 1).  Again, there’s learning, practice and often lots of places to get that experience–classes, internships, volunteering (great one for many jobs), jobs that will train you.

• Better Thought – I’m going to brainstorm 100 ways I can get the experience I need (or brainstorm how I can get the job I want without that experience).

We all run some form of thoughts through our head that help get us or hold us stuck, whether in careers we don’t want or in some other parts of our lives.  No need to be too harsh on yourself for that (See no. 4.  What an idiot…).  But, as the bumper sticker says, “Don’t believe everything you think.”

–Career changers, jobseekers–Be sure to sign up for free career and creativity ezine and get your career info bonus

© 2009 Leonard Lang. Feel free to reprint or pass on this article as long as you include the copyright notice and the link to http://choosingacareerblog.com

Technorati Tags: career_change, career_do's_don'ts, career_ideas

Henry Ford is often quoted as having said, “If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they’d have said a faster horse!,” indicating that customers only know about incremental, not breakthrough solutions. 

Both kinds of solutions are actually valuable--the question is which degree of change do you need when seeking a solution.  Both kinds of change are relevant in terms of careers as well.  The question is, what kind of career change are you looking for?  How big?  Incremental or breakthrough?  A next step or a shift in directions?

When choosing a career some people think they want something new but really would be very happy to take a slight step sideways.  They may think they need to make a big change, when a small one might be enough.

For instance, a clinic nurse might want to switch to a hospital setting — a small, incremental career change (some might say merely a job change).  Or the nurse might seek management responsibilities for nursing staff in a hospital department.  That would be a much bigger change still within nursing, and not as radical as, for example, switching to becoming a high school math teacher or opening a bakery or going back to school to become a computer programmer.

I bring this up because in my career classes, there are often people who tell me they are so angry with their careers, their jobs, their bosses or so burnt out, stressed, or so unchallenged that they need a new career.  All of these are certainly signs something needs to change.  But sometimes in the course of going through my program, they realize that the change they need does not have to be as radical as they had imagined.

So how can you tell which kind of change or solution is right for your career? 

One quick way is to ask yourself:  What’s actually making you unhappy about your current position?

If it’s your boss or your pay or not being appreciated or not learning anything new — then you most likely just need a change of job or need to make changes in your current job, but not a new career. 

If on the other hand, what you are unhappy about is that your career isn’t allowing you to use your artiistic abilities or requires you to work alone on a computer all day–then a more radical solution is needed, perhaps a new career.

On the other side of that coin, you can ask what would make you really happy? 

You can also look at your career or lifework mission statement if you have one and see if that needs changing.  If so, that might indicate a breakthrough is needed.  If that statement is still great, but you hate your work life, it’s more about the particulars of your job.

–Career changers, jobseekers–Be sure to sign up for free career and creativity ezine and bonus

Career coaching help also available — just email me for info.

© 2009 Leonard Lang. Feel free to reprint or pass on this article as long as you include the copyright notice and the link to http://choosingacareerblog.com

Technorati Tags: career_ideas choosing_a_career career_change

I say this is the big secret because in my dozen years teaching thousands of people about how to rethink changing or choosing their careers and work lives, I’ve found that so few people know this that it might as well be a secret.  But it’s not a secret in that you should hide it—quite the opposite.  In fact, I’d like you to spread the word. 

So what’s the secret?

If you are looking for new career ideas or planning a career — start fresh. 

Am I kidding?  Is that it?  It sounds so simple and trite.  After all most people looking for a career change are looking for a fresh start. Nothing secret there, right?

As usual, the details are what counts.  Most people think they are starting fresh when they are actually carrying a lot of baggage about who they are and what they can’t do. 

Here’s what starting fresh means:

For the first steps of your career search process, forget:
•    Forget about whether you’ve demonstrated the skills you need for a job
•    Forget about what everyone has ever told you about what work suits you best.
•    Forget about what you’ve been good at doing at work
•    Forget about what you haven’t been good at doing
•    Forget about whether you’ve heard a career is on the upswing or downswing. 
•    Forget about dollars, euros, or other compensation or benefit issues 

These are all important factors, so why should you forget about them until much later in your career planning? 

Because you probably have thought about all these things a lot and are still not in the career you want.  That thinking isn’t getting you to your lifework or the best career for you.  You need a fresh way of thinking about yourself. 

To get out of that same way of thinking, it’s necessary to lift the blinders (which we all have)—namely the assumptions we make about ourselves and the job market.  That way you can see new opportunities and possibilities.  Only then can you truly start fresh.

You’re probably wondering what you do think about if you’re forgetting about all those other things at first.  The answer is—start with your passions.  What do you love doing?  Don’t just think of work things and don’t include things you don’t mind so much.  Just think about and list or mindmap work and nonwork things you love to do.  Look at those passions in detail—not just travel, but also the elements of travel you love such as researching places to go or learning new languages.

The reason we start with passions in detail is to make sure you have at the core of your work life something that can sustain you, something that can motivate you and energize you.  If you have that, it becomes so much easier to
•    Learn new skills to do a new job
•    Enjoy what you are doing even during stressful periods
•    Stick with a career path
•    Be creative about finding work or clients
•    Be creative and appreciated at work
•    Inspire confidence in yourself at a job interview

Often my clients are confused about what to do and it turns out that it’s because they’ve given up on their passions and are wading through a lot of unsatisfying choices based on pay, and education and current skill levels.   After some coaching questions, they discover they’ve often given up on dreams and that’s what’s leaving them unhappy and confused. 

For instance, when asked one client almost mumbled what she’d like to do—be a chef—and immediately in a louder voice went to say but what she’d probably wind up doing might be, and listed some careers that she was lukewarm about.    We went back and examined what was holding her back from her real passion and wound up with solutions to all the limits she had assumed were there.  She got a partner, shifted from chef to catering service and everything started to get clear. 

Of course, looking at your passions is just the start.  But if you start somewhere else—such as what jobs pay well that need the skills I currently have—you may find a job.  You may even need to take that job as a temporary measure.  But you’re not likely to find a career that will get you up every day excited to go to work.

–Career changers, jobseekers–Be sure to sign up for free career and creativity ezine and bonus

© 2009 Leonard Lang. Feel free to reprint or pass on this article as long as you include the copyright notice and the link to http://choosingacareerblog.com

Technorati Tags: Career_coach career_decision career_secret, career_ideas career_choice

There are lots of things to say about how to succeed with any long-term goals—whether starting a business, choosing careers, changing careers, changing your department’s culture, becoming a lawyer, earning a degree, or even becoming a better skier or dancer. But one thing is particularly vital, relatively easy, and certainly important to keep in mind.

The advice is:

Keep up the momentum. The big MO. Simple really.

That means take steps regularly. Any positive steps.

I’ve seen it with coaching clients, class participants, and yeh, myself too lots of times. Once you start feeling stuck, you tend to keep getting more stuck, feeling more and more overwhelmed and discouraged. It becomes harder and harder to get moving again.

With apologies to Newton and his laws of motion—it’s true that objects (or people) at rest tend to stay at rest.

Fortunately, the opposite is true too: Objects (or people) in motion tend to stay in motion.

My coaching clients make their greatest progress in finding new career ideas or making great plans when they simply complete small steps each week and are held accountable for them. They stay motivated, see at least a little progress all the time, and over time realize they are getting to their career goals.

Even very small steps qualify to keep you moving ahead like meeting with a career Success Partner for 15 minutes for a check in. Or brainstorming with someone about new ways to approach your project. Or reading something inspiring that gets you moving. Or….well, it really can be almost anything as long as it moves you along.

You’ll know if it’s working because you feel relief and energized again.

Even more important, these very small steps can accomplish very big things. Even big, challenging goals must be broken down into smaller ones anyhow. Don’t get overwhelmed by how many steps there are. Just do one of them and keep on moving ahead. Focus on that, and enjoy what you are doing now.

Don’t know what the next step should be? Just follow Lang’s First Principle of Action: You may not know THE next step you must take, but you can (almost) always come up with A next step that will move you forward—physically, emotionally, financially, etc. Each time you move ahead, any remaining stuck point can be seen from a new perspective.

Make sure you don’t wait for some wide open period of time to really move ahead.

Keep on moving and you will keep feeling energized and motivated and open to opportunities that will come your way.

© 2007-2009 by Leonard Lang

Technorati Tags: career coach help, career ideas, career momentum, career success, feeling stuck

THINKING OF CAREER COACHING?  Here’s what you need before the first session to assure success.

In my coaching practice (including leadership as well as career coaching), I find the greatest success comes when clients come to coaching prepared in three ways. 

The 3 factors for success:

1.  Commitment to action and change
2.  Time to do the work
3.  Clarity about what you want from coaching

COMMITMENT
You can be doubtful or frustrated.  You can be fearful of change.  But if you are committed, you will typically be able to get through all these obstacles either alone or with the support of a good coach.

TIME
I don’t have a set number of hours someone needs to work each week between sessions to succeed.  Everyone is different.  Every situation unique.  That’s what’s so fascinating and useful about coaching–it’s not a cookie cutter approach.  But you are probably wasting a lot of good money if you don’t do some homework between sessions, enough to make noticeable progress and generate new questions for your sessions. 

CLARITY
If you don’t know what you want how will you get it?  You can use early coaching sessions to refine, clarify or reshape your goals.  But do as much prework on this as possible.

How ready are you?  Answer the 3 questions now:

1. On a scale of 1–10 how would you rate your commitment to succeeding with your career goals?
2. How much time would you devote each week to achieving those goals?
3. What is your primary goal right now?

If you had an 8, 9 or 10 for the first question, at least a few hours per week for the second (more if it’s working on a complex career plan), and you have a specific goal you want to accomplish, you are a great candidate for success with coaching if that’s what you decide to do. 

If not, and you feel you’d like to move ahead, try asking yourself these questions:

1. What’s holding you back on your commitment?
2. How you can find more time or prioritize career matters higher
3. What do you really want with your career/job? What help do you need to get there?

Answering those you will be ready to move ahead solo or with professional support.

© 2009 Leonard Lang

Technorati Tags: career_coaching career_ideas coaching_success

In most cases, when I hear people talk about networking they mean connecting with people who can get them to the right people, companies or information they need.  That’s useful. (You might also want to check out this career ideas post about how to network at events )

But these connectors are only part of what you need to really succeed in your career, job, or job search.   You need a full-scale community of support.  People who do more than just connect you. 

At the heart of that community are your VIPs for your career.  You might think of them as your unofficial career coaching team because they are performing some of the key roles of any quality career coach. 

Your career coaching team should include people who fill 5 of these career coaching roles:
1.    Connectors—People who can get you to others you need to meet to get moving, get ahead or get a job.  What most people see as their main career building community.

2.    Advisors—People who are good sounding boards and can help you with big picture thinking and with thought-out opinions about what you want to do.  These people are not afraid to disagree with you, but are still strongly supportive.

3.    Idea people—Creatives with great new ways of looking at things to get you out of your rut—not necessarily advice, but new frameworks and perspectives.

4.    Emotional Connectors—People who help you reconnect with your own passions, motivation, and optimism.  After you talk with these people you are charged and ready to act.

5.    Success Partners—Another name for a success partner is an accountability partner.  You typically need only one.  I’ll be writing more about how to have success with a success partner in an upcoming post (or if you have Guide to Lifework you can read about them in detail there).

Can one person play more than one role at different times?  Definitely.  But it’s best to have a number of people who you can call on for each role (except the Success Partner).

To get going, look carefully through your list of contacts and note in one central place the names of at least one key person who can serve in each of these roles. 

Having this list will remind you of the community you have to help you no matter what happens.  It will also make it easy to remember who you can contact, which mamkes it a lot more likely you will benefit from other peoples help. 

For instance, when you’re feeling discouraged, you may not think of some of the people you listed as emotional supporters, but if you have a list, that will prod you to call one of them.  Or if you are stuck for new ideas, you may keep banging away on your own, but you can look at your list and realize you can contact one or more of your idea people. 

Once you have this list of career VIPs, you can expand your list well beyond them.  You can also work with social media friends for a range of advice or ideas or connections too.  But don’t assume the “wisdom of crowds” as good as that can be, can replace that one-on-one support that these key people of your community can provide.

© 2009 by Leonard Lang.  Feel free to reprint this article by including this entire copyright notice, including a link to this site (http://choosingacareerblog.com).

Technorati Tags: career_ideas networking career_coaching