Career Transition, Career Choices

By Career Coach, Meredith Haberfeld

Whether you’re about to be dumped out of your current position or bored to screaming point by work that used to be gratifying, one way to stay ahead of the unsettling see-saw of a career transition is careful preparation.

Most people find life transitions intimidating, especially on the work front. But now is actually a prime time to lean toward the next fulfilling adventure in your career.

Here are 10 steps that will help get you where you want to be going:

1.    Stay in reality: You need a well thought-out financial plan for your transition, including the time frame by which you want to be in your next job, and how long you can freely explore without running low on funds.  Important: take the time to do the math up front.  If you have six months worth of financial padding then the plan has to accommodate being situated in a new job where your basic life needs are taken care of in that amount of time.  (That’s not to say you can’t pursue a parallel path if your savings are insufficient, of course, but you may have to stick with your current employer or find an interim position that pays the bills while continuing to work toward your goal.) Don’t be impatient, be strategic.

2.    Hone in: Do a brainstorming-around your ideal dream job to hone down career choices.

a. Write out the elements you like in your previous work (e.g. being with people, exercising leadership, doing email, etc).

b. What elements do you want in your career that you have not yet had in your day to day job or from your total experience of working?

c. What elements do you want to not have in your next career?

d. How much money are you committed to making?

e. What jobs have you loved? And for each one, write out:

1. what you loved about it

2. anything you didn’t love about it

f. What are all the careers you’ve thought of in the last 5 years?
(Don’t worry about whether or not you have a PhD.  People think insularly.  Your task here is to broaden your thinking.)

1. Then, go back and make a bulleted list of each of the career choices, defining what it is about each career choice that interests you.

Examples:  Veterinarian–the pleasure of healing, being with animals.
Interior Designer—tapping into my artistic side, creating beautiful things and settings, working with people.

Notice how this leads you to a list of your own VALUES in your work life.

Choose the top 5-8 of the career choices that are most important to you. Now you have your list of ‘deal-breaker’ VALUES that must be there for you in your next job.
Then you can brainstorm and begin a fact-hunting mission to develop a written list of the handful of jobs/career choices that are a match for your ‘deal-breaker’ list.

3.    Soak up information like a sponge: Talk to everyone appropriate (which will be more people than you first imagine) about your interest in transitioning your career.  Most people are chasing a mirage, and far too often they make career choices based on fantasy thinking or simply on poor information.  Also our relationship to work is inevitably altered as we grow and change—the average person often makes several career changes over the course of a lifetime.  So being informed about such an important next step is vital.

“Live research” allows you to hone in on the very real elements you want to move way from and gravitate to the ones that you find match your desires. Get the word out to the people you know about what you’re interested in pursuing and ask them specifically who they know that would be useful for you to speak with.  Find every opportunity you can to talk with people who are in the jobs or fields for career choices you’re considering.

This is one of the MOST CRITICAL elements of a successful career transition and to make the right career choices, yet it is the piece that is most often missing.  Not only does this process refine your decision making, but the ancillary benefit is that the very individuals you reach out to for your “live research” become a critical part of your network that ultimately parlays you into your next job and career.

4.    Talk to people:  Get away from the computer!  Through every phase of your entire transition, authentically cultivate relationships.  This is the single most powerful force leading to successful job transitions.  Nurture and expand your network of friends. Don’t come off like you’re only interested in selling yourself but be sincere, get on their radar screen by fostering a genuine connection.

Go to industry conferences, parties, cocktails, morning breakfasts; and create and develop relationships.  Ask not what others can do for you, but what you can do for them.  This reciprocity will have you be “top of mind” when the right opportunity presents itself.

5.    The art of re-positioning yourself: If some of your career choices are in a new industry, spend time getting extremely clear about your “portable value”.  Know and be able to concisely communicate your unique worth and just how your skills will benefit your future industry and new employer.   Practice succinctly articulating – in your ‘elevator pitch’, as well as your resume – how your distinctive talents, abilities, and accomplishments perfectly position you for what you’re seeking to do.  Every person’s experience can be re-packaged to meet the demands of a new industry.  Spending the time to do this right makes an enormous difference     between success and failure.

6.    Find your ROI:  When preparing to look for a job in a new industry, clarify and focus on the measurable contributions to the bottom-line result you’ve achieved for your former or current employers, and show how it can work anywhere. Present your significant skills and explain how you’re ready to out-compete even in another industry. Every time you are asked “What do you do or want to be doing?” answer this question instead, “Why should you pay my salary?”

7.    Action: Daily action is required. Create a strategic plan for your transition; with daily, weekly, and monthly goals.  Start with where you want to end up:  figure out what you need to know about your new career and each possible career choice, and what you need to do to get there. Build a pipeline of actions from there. Actions can be small; but be in motion.

8.    Build in accountability: Get a partner to hold you to your plan and keep your word, without regard for disappointments or your mood.  Ask people to champion you when you face set-backs, but to hold you accountable for sticking to your daily actions and driving yourself forward.  Too often people get bogged down by disappointments and then buy into in the belief that the work world is too tough right now.  Daily actions that stretch you, and maintaining accountability to your plan not only reduce overwhelm and anxiety, they’re a powerful impetus to get you to your ultimate goal.

9.    Momentum: There is an “effort equation” when starting something new; for example, for every 100 ‘units’ of effort you put in, you can expect 1 result.  As you gain momentum, this equation improves, to perhaps 1 result for only 50 ‘units’ of effort in.  This means…play…put the energy in.  If you’re impatient, you may get discouraged by not seeing the results as quickly as you want.  But it is mathematical.  Put the energy in, consistently, no matter what, and the results start flowing in.

10.    Courage: When setting out to do something different you may have a crisis of confidence; a feeling like “I am a charlatan” or “There’s no way I can pull this off!”  There is often a period of time when you are gaining credibility within yourself.  Have patience during this phase and know this period is finite.  In the mean time, fake it.  Don’t be wishy-washy: when introducing yourself – statements like “I’m trying to be an author” or “I’m sort of working on becoming a therapist” sabotage you.   Get in the habit of saying, “I’m a writer” or “I’m a chef”.  Hear yourself say the words–listen to what you are and be proud. Once you get your feet under you for long enough, your this turns to genuine confidence.

A final note: The days of linear careers are over.  Be pragmatic; take all your differing agendas into account, including how much you need to be making, what you love and hate doing, the legacy you want to leave, the transition time you have available for making a career move.  This will help you make the right career choices.

When you finally free up your thinking and accept that reality and desire can be accounted for – you discover so much more is possible – and you get to real actionable answers.  Now it becomes a matter of breaking up the transition into ‘Lego pieces’; individual manageable blocks that build on one other to get you out of your head and into action, and in the direction you want to take.  The horizon then becomes limitless.

To contact Meredith, click here on Contact Page or call 866-599-6535.

Shelly Schwartz
| 26 Feb 2009 | 05:01 PM ET

There you sit in your window office, embossed business cards and wall full of awards. An impressive career, by anyone’s measure. So why do your thoughts keep drifting to that bed and breakfast for sale in Cape Cod?

Whether driven by layoffs, the desire for more meaningful work or a general sense of, well, blah, about their careers, a growing number of US workers are making the midcareer switch, pushing their old professions aside (and the assurance of a steady paycheck) in favor of a new line of work that speaks to their talents and interests.

“There are a lot of people out there whose companies are downsizing significantly and they see it as an opportunity almost to do something they’ve always wanted to do but didn’t have the courage or were too involved in the realities of life to pursue,” says Judy Hoppin, a career counselor and president of the National Career Development Association. “People in my field are swamped with calls right now.”

Unfortunately, however, many embark on a second career with eyes wide shut, lacking clear direction and a realistic sense of the costs involved—sending them back to their boss six months later with hat in hand.
“You need a really well thought-out plan for your transition, including the time frame in which you want to be in your next job and how long you can freely explore without running low on funds,” says Meredith Haberfeld, a career coach for the New York-based Institute for Coaching.

How Much Will It Cost?
That starts with projecting the cost of changing careers, an exercise that will not only prepare you for what to expect, but help clarify whether walking away from your current profession is feasible for you and your family. “I am a pragmatist so I believe in having a solidly laid plan that fits your current financial situation,” says Haberfeld. “If you have six months worth of financial padding then the plan has to accommodate being situated [in a new job] where your basic life needs are taken care of in that amount of time.” That’s not to say you can’t pursue a second career if your savings are insufficient, of course, but you may have to stick with your current employer or find an interim position that pays the bills while continuing to work towards your goals.

When running the numbers, don’t just include the financial cushion you’ll need to support yourself during your job hunt—which should amount to six months to a year’s worth of living expenses. Factor in the loss of future earnings, since you may be calling it quits at the peak of your career, lost retirement contribution matches and the temporary loss of medical benefits.

There’s also the cost of classes or a new degree necessary to help you rewrite your career; vocational courses cost several hundred dollars, while a second degree can set you back tens of thousands.
“Any kind of schooling is expensive,” says Hoppin. “If someone is thinking about going back to school to get their master’s degree, for example, they would want to look at the cost-benefit ratio. Is it true that with this advanced degree you’ll be more marketable? And if you invest in this is it in the long run going to create enough of an income boost to pay you back for the money you’ll outlay.” You can help keep educational costs to a minimum by exploring community colleges or vocational schools, which are significantly less expensive.

There’s also the Lifetime Learning Credit for qualified tuition expenses, which may help defray the cost of higher education. You cannot claim an education credit, however, if your modified adjusted gross income (AGI) is $60,000 or more for singles and $120,000 or more if filing jointly.

The best bet, of course, is to complete any classes required before you bid farewell to your boss so you can hit the ground running when you leave.

If you’re leaving a job to start your own business, the cost of making a midcareer switch (and uncertainty of success) is greater still. There’s the interest you’ll owe on your business loan, monthly rent and utility expenses, the cost of supplies and foregone earnings while you build your customer base.

Hanging out your shingle
For Alison Greenberg, 37, who was 12 years into a successful career with a leading New Jersey law firm when staring out on her own, it was a small price to pay. “I walked away from a lot,” she says. “I was a partner. I had a good salary and opportunities for bonuses, but I wanted to be more of a community-based lawyer and to reinvent the practice of law for myself. I also lived in Manhattan so I wanted to work where I live and get more involved with community issues and politics.” She started her own business litigation and employment law practice in New York six months ago and hasn’t looked back since.

“I had two clients when I left and there was a lot of initial uncertainty of where the business was going to come from,” she says. “But I was always weighing the pros and cons of being part of a large firm and felt that to be true to myself and be able to represent more individuals and small business owners it would be better to go out on my own. It’s different now, and I’m living on a different budget but it’s very rewarding.”
According to Haberfeld, many working Americans suffer in silence at jobs they don’t like, but can’t put their finger on which occupation to pursue. If you count yourself among them, she suggests starting a list of all the elements you liked and disliked about your previous jobs, which elements you desire in your new career and which you do not.

Think, too, about all the careers you’ve considered in the last five years, making a list about what in each of them interested you. “Based on the lists you create, patterns will emerge,” Haberfeld says. “Identify those patterns and condense them into the most essential value that it represents for you.” That will help narrow down a list of career options, from which you can begin the research phase of your transition.

For its part, the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Outlook Handbook (2008-2009) provides information on hundreds of different jobs, including earnings data, job prospects, working conditions and a summary of what those workers do on the job.

The Small Business Administration also offers a small business planner, which walks you through how to write a business plan, secure financing, manage and market your business and handle legal matters.
You can always, of course, hire a career counselor to perform detailed aptitude tests and skills assessments to help direct you towards viable career opportunities within your areas of interest. Be prepared to pay anywhere from $60 to $120 an hour for their time.

If money’s tight, there are also free online assessment tools that perform some of the same functions. Careercruising.com and O*Net.com are two examples.

Get out and talk
No matter how committed you think you are to making a career change, Haberfeld says it’s critical to gain as realistic a picture as possible of what that job entails—before taking the plunge. After all, a career in forensics is not what it seems on the television drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.
“Devastatingly, most people focus career change efforts on submitting resumes to job postings and job boards,” says Haberfeld. “But the most important piece of this transition is getting out on the skinny branches and talking to real people about what you are looking for. It’s finding people in the field you are interested in and asking if they’d be willing to spend 15 minutes on the phone or having coffee.”
If so, come prepared with a list of questions.

For example, ask whether they are happy in their career, what they like and dislike about it, which companies are the best to work for, which you should stay away from and what recommendations they may have to help you land a job in the field.

“Not only do those conversations help clarify a person’s vision, but more importantly those contacts you make doing your investigating turn into the critical network that ends up parlaying you into that next job,” says Haberfeld. “My recipe for this phase is three new contacts every single day. Those are the keys to the kingdom to any successful career transition.”

© 2009 CNBC.com

May 4, 2008
By Matt Reeder

So, you’re one of the lucky ones. Name on your office door. Extra-glossy business cards. A bit of seniority.
Think again.

While recent MBA grads prowling for work face the unenviable task of breaking into the financial ranks for the first time (gasp!), the barrage of layoffs that’s spread into the upper ranks of the industry in recent months shows that title-toting execs face a formidable challenge of their own – protecting their hides. The recession’s official, more jobs will be cut and there’s no reason to assume your’s won’t be one of them.

With such rosy thoughts in mind, the folks over at BusinessWeek put together a helpful video detailing some of the practical steps you can take to protect your job. One suggestion, courtesy of executive coach Meredith Haberfeld, is to throw conventional wisdom out the window.

Keeping a low profile during tough times, she says, does nothing to secure your future. “Work your tail off,” she insists.”But make your successes and results visible. Not empty results.” She also suggests you find ways to show you care about the company’s bottom line, not just your own.

Elsewhere, the Harvard Business Review offers slightly less selfless advice. “Machiavellian as it may seem, holding on to your job when the economy softens is a matter of cool strategic planning,” write Janet Banks and Diane Coutu. And in addition to thinking like a survivor, they, too, encourage old-fashioned hard work. “If you’re not already wearing multiple hats, start imagining how you can support your company by leveraging experience your boss may know nothing about.”