Considering a Career Transition?

Friends, I am gobbling up the election results, so my offering tonight will be abridged. I’ll add more detail in the days and weeks to come…

So you’ve decided you need a job change—you hate your current job, or you have a ton of interests, or you’ve maxed out where you are and need to figure out your next move.

What should you be considering and prioritizing when you’re thinking about a career transition?

Well, let me start with a reality check: there’s no “truth” out there, waiting for you to shine your flashlight at it. It’s not the case that if you introspect enough, the answer will  spontaneously emerge.

It doesn’t work like that. The way it works, mostly, is that we get curious about what we’re drawn to. And that’s the starting point for discovering what we can do with what we’re drawn to.

And here are things that you can be doing to move your process along:

• Observe and track your dependable strengths, which serve as a compass for you. Here are a few ways to do that:
  • Dependable Strengths Articulation Process
  • StrengthsFinder
  • Johnson O’Connor Aptitude Testing
• Observe and track all the components of your work environment that matter:
  • What Color Is Your Parachute
  • How to Find Your Life Purpose
• And finally, in parallel (not in series) with the above, talk to people:
  • Informational interviews are to jobs what location is to real estate—pure gold
  • Can’t remember: have I mentioned informational interviews?
  • And lastly, and perhaps most importantly: informational interviews

I imagine this all seems super abstract. However…If you do all of the above, then I promise you (and I do not say these words lightly): you will gradually yet unfailingly discern an initially blurry but over time increasingly sharp image outlining your profession—the stuff that earns you money to pay the bills—how you should be spending most of your waking hours. There is no question about this. It’s not up for debate. It will happen.