Volunteering for Career Change

If you’re considering a career change, your career counselor or coach may encourage you to take a volunteer position in your new industry. Alternatively, you may be encouraged to take up volunteer work when you’re between jobs, as a way to update your resume.

(1) Non-profit organizations often have a history of transitioning volunteers to full-time careers. For-profit organizations rarely do.

If you seek a job in a for-profit organization, be cautious about offering to work for free or for a deeply discounted salary. Instead, try to leverage your skills to a new position. For instance, an IT professional who wants to move to marketing could apply for tech jobs in marketing firms.

(2) Recognize that volunteer positions often differ dramatically from the paid positions.

This difference works in both directions. Once I met someone who volunteered for a social service job. She was horrified: heavy workload, depressing conditions, and ineffective supervision.

“Social work? No way!” she declared.

I suggested she talk to professionals with degrees who worked in the field. I also suggested she investigate different agencies.

At the other extreme, volunteer workers often miss the political hassles and informal job requirements that are critical to surviving in a paid position.

(3) Volunteer work may be a bridge when you are in transition.

Career change articles often urge workers to build up their resumes with volunteer work. Sometimes you can pick up skills that will be transferrable but don’t assume you’re building your resume. The gap between for-profit and non-profit can be enormous and career direction typically goes one way: from for-profit to non-profit.

If you are not working at all, I first recommend investigating some form of self-employment or freelance work, preferably in your field. I’d also be open to short-term jobs that bring in cash.

Volunteer work may give you some structure and introduce you to new people. It’s better than sitting on the couch at home. It’s usually better than working in a low-paying retail job (unless, of course, you seek a retail management career).

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Career Planning in A Troubled Economy: Working From Facts

Career planning can be especially scary during tough economic times. One of your greatest challenges will be separating fact from rumor. There’s always a small group of employees drinking coffee and complaining. Are they right? Or are they fear-mongers to be avoided?

(1) Learn to recognize the difference between good gossip and malicious rumors.

You know you are hearing gossip when someone presents a statement as a fact. For instance, you hear a comment like, “Our boss is interviewing for a new job.”

On the other hand, you will find that rumors are more like predictions for the future. “Our boss will be leaving the company soon.”

Most corporate workers find rumors are harder to deal with than gossip. The reason is that you may feel you need to plan a response to a new situation.

(2) Rather than wonder, “What if the rumor is true?” ask, “What will I be ready to do if it turns out to be true?”

You can’t control whether something will happen. However, you can control how you will plan for your response. If you look around your company and your group of friends, notice how some people seem to be immune from crisis. They tend to be those who have prepared for any contingency.

(3) Keep your game face. When you ask too many questions or show too much conern, you can come across as lacking in confidence and insecure. These qualities will not motivate others to trust you and give you new opportunities, thus creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Ironically, those who are best prepared for a crisis tend to be safest from the worst impact. They present a strong, confident image. They maintain perspective. They stay calm so they avoid stress-related mistakes.

(4) Avoid the temptation to concentrate your energies on work. Invest time in family, friends and recreation. You’ll maintain a healthier perpspective and keep your priorities straight.

(5) Maintain your mental and physical energy. If you’re not active, joining a gym or hiring a trainer should be your top priority. Consider taking classes or starting lessons in an area that’s challenging to you. Obviously, your choice will be individual. For some people, a cooking class will be challenging; for others, cooking feels like drudgery.

Most important, stay away from anyone who constantly expresses negative feelings. If you keep running into people who maintain a gloomy outlook, consider scheduling a call with a coach. You may need to make some modifications in your business and social life so you spend time with positive, upbeat colleagues who can boost your own enthusiasm.Care

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Career Change Book: Recommended

So far I’ve found two career books to recommend: Working Identity (Herminia Ibarra) and Finding Your Own North Star (Martha Beck). Now I’m adding this one to the list. Beck focuses mostly on choosing what you want; Ibarra talks about the search process. Now I recommend The 10 Laws of Career Reinvention by Pamela Mitchell.

Mitchell doesn’t have a lot of soul-searching exercises, like “What should be on my tombstone.” She invites readers to heed their intuition. Like Martha Beck, she believes the body knows more than the mind: if you find yourself feeling ill when you contemplate a type of work, it’s time for a move.

Nor does she spend a lot of time on the trappings of a career search, such as resumes. If you need to writea resume, she invites you to download samples from her company’s website.

Some useful points:

Career reinvention takes chronological time. She points out that many career-changers think “six weeks” when they should be thinking “six months.” I would agree more with Ibarra in Working Identity, who says three years is not unusual.

Besides chronological time, you need time during your week. One of my own clients said she could talk to me on Sunday evenings at 6 PM Eastern. Her weekdays were completely taken. She was too busy to change careers; she needed to take an interim job that would free up her hours.

Functional fear versus dysfunctional fear. Functional fear is based on realistic situations that you have to deal with.

Real qualifications versus negotiable qualifications. To be a doctor, you need an MD. For other careers, you may be able to substitute experience for academics.

My only quibble is that Mitchell can be a little too firm on some points. The term “laws” in the title sets the tone. For instance, on page 27, Mitchell suggests that “Patty” who dislikes a marketing job will not find happiness by moving to Google, which is after all an onlne advertising company. Yet in fact the culture of a high-tech company will be so different that a job with the same title might be transformed. I’ve seen people change their whole attitude to a career when they switched companies or even moved to a new geographic location. It’s not always easy to pinpoint the source of discomfort.

Similarly, researchers find that serendipity plays a key role in both career change and career success. By staying active and following the steps Mitchell lays out, you are more likely to experience the kind of serendipity that propels you forward. But I’ve met few people who logically chose a career and then took a linear path to get a job in that field. Mitchell undoubtedly understands the zig-zag pattern of career change, but she doesn’t highlight it the way Herminia Ibarra does in Working Identity.

Still, this book is one of the best career books I’ve seen in a long time. I’m surprised it hasn’t gotten more publicity. The long, awkward name and bland cover might have something to do with it. The blurbs on the back cover don’t really convey excitement and the subtitle is a yawn that doesn’t even describe the book.

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Considering self-employment? Find a new career with these 3 guides.

Several of my readers have asked about resources for moving from corporate life to self-employment. I just discovered one book, published about 7 months ago: Career Renegade by Jonathan Fields

This is one of the most realistic and up-to-date books I’ve found. You can get it from the library, your bookstore or Amazon. The link to Amazon is http://bit.ly/av7v6Z

Additional Recommendatiions to Supplement this Report

I also recommend two online ebooks you can download. Of course, no one can guarantee results, but in my opinion these are helpful and accurate. I’ve bought and learned from them myelf.

Reach Desperate Buyers

http://www.ReachDesperateBuyers.com

While Fields suggests you study a market, this report actually walks you through, step by step. It’s the single best guide to online marketing I’ve found.

20 ways to make $100 a day:
http://www.GrabOnlineIncome.com

This Report also supplements Career Renegade, with more details of how to implement such techniques as selling books on the Internet. It’s not a get rich quick scheme. Each technique requires a lot of work. I like the way the Report gives you a range of options so you can decide what you would like.

Almost all my recommendations, anywhere, are made through my affiliate links. I do get a commission when you buy through my links. However, you do not pay any more by going through a link rather than visiting the site directly.

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Job Search, Unemployment and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

The New York Times posted a sobering article on what happens when people finally find jobs after 6 to 12 months of unemployment. You can read the article here.

The bottom line is that the newly hired experience emotions that the Times stops short of calling “PTSD.” Before they can enjoy being back on the payroll, they have to pay off debts and maybe deal with a lower credit rating. The children may be in a new school. Their friends may have changed  or disappeared altogether. The word “job” even takes on new meaning. One woman said she’ll never throw herself into a job again. The rewards just aren’t there.

What can you do?

– Don’t wait to get some kind of income coming in, even if it’s lower and less prestigious than what you had. Often kids can get part-time jobs that include babysitting, simple dog walking, lawn moving and more. I once hired a high school student to shovel my steps when I lived in a snowy region. I made sure to ask the parentse if it was okay, but I paid something like $8-10 an hour.

– If you know your job is going away, use your health care benefits to find a licensed, qualified therapist. Consider getting this kind of help when you are back on a payroll. The stress you experience is as real as losing a loved one.

– If you can afford an hour or two with a career coach, you may find the investment worthwhile. Any investment in services will be a gamble; clients tell me they get frustrated even with licensed therapists. On the upside, sometimes a lot of decisions get made in a matter of minutes on a one-to-one call, saving days and weeks of frustration. Nobody can guarantee results, but if you spend $1000 with a coach and then get back on a payroll one week earlier, you are ahead of the game if you make $50,000 or more: you get benefits and start accuring vacation time in addition to the salary, plus you spend less money out of savings.

– Cut back on expenses before you have to and live below your means. I realize this is easier said than done, especially if you have children. However, today’s financial planners and money coaches often find creative ways to help you save money. It’s worth a try.

– Moving to a new location can be rewarding or can lead to even more challenges.

You’ll notice that I recommend investing in advice. I wouldn’t have made these suggestions ten years ago. However, the world has gotten much more complicated. Job loss is something most people have never experienced. I’m always amazed when people who think nothing of hiring a planner for weddings, parties, and bar mitzvahs balk at spending a few hundred dollars to get help with planning relocation or career change. Sure, some planners are completely worthless, but usually you get at least some benefit that justifies what you’ve invested and makes it easier to create a positive outcome.

What’s your view? How will you survive and thrive in today’s uncertain economy?

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Back to School as a Professor (Adjunct Style)

If you are involved in a mid-life career change or a long job search, you may be getting advice to expand your horizons and try new fields. Recently the New York Times suggested that career changers explore the possibility of adjunct teaching. Read the full article here.

The article makes some good points.

First, teaching won’t pay a lot but it can broaden your resume. You’ll have some answers to a prospective employer’s question, “And what are you doing now?” Almost any paid employment will be better than staying home.

Second, you don’t always need an advanced degree or teaching experience. Some departments will welcome you when you just bring successful experience and at least a BA degree. You get support in putting your course together. Some schools even assign you a mentor to help out when you are new.

Third, you may be able to find new contacts and even clients.

However, I would add a few points.

First, never assume anything. Go ahead and apply. Well-meaning friends will say, “They won’t hire you” or worse. Find out for yourself. Informal networking is less effective in academia than any place I know (except maybe government jobs).

Second, tailor your resume to emphasize related experience in the field as well as any teaching, training or even speaking experience. If you’ve got somespare cash, you can hire a coach for an hour or two to help you revise your resume.

Third, you may decide you like teaching and want to pursue a full-time job. It’s very rare to move from adjunct to full-time in the same school. Ask around to see if others have made this move at a particular place where you are teaching. If few people have made this move, build up a portfolio of good course evaluations and apply elsewhere.

Fourth, if you are interested in higher ed teaching, you can’t afford to assume that all degrees are created equal. Academics are selective about degrees and credentials. Some non-traditional degree will be helpful when you stay within your company or even change jobs in your field but will not be recognized by academic institutions.

Finally, I often recommend adjunct teaching as a helpful activity during a job search or career change. If nothing else, doing something new will bring a new perspective to your life and career. Many professionals are energized by novelty.

However, teaching can be exhausting, especially at first. My first days teaching at a junior college left me wiped! After years of experience, teaching a night course left me both tired and too “up” to go to sleep right away.

And yes, you can make contacts but I wouldn’t count on them. Some adjuncts have had great luck: students hire them as consultants and colleagues expand their professional network. Others have zero success: their students are too junior to do much good and colleagues can be aloof and clique-y.

All in all, though, adjunct teaching is a useful addition to your between-jobs activity and I’d recommend checking it out. I made a major career change this way.

For information about returning to school as a student, go here.

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How Your Job Search Gets Derailed When You’re a Great Candidate

Five ways a job search gets de-railed (and you may not know it), with some personal, politically incorrect humor.

(1) Make sure you haven’t posted inappropriate photos and information online, anywhere. Expect recruiters and employers to google your name. If you want to post personal photos of yourself, create a secret group and admit only your most trusted family members and close friends. Be sure to remove them from the group if you anticipate any conflict, as they can download your photos and post on their sites. They may be malicious or they may not realize the damage they are doing.

(2) Respect recruiters and their rules. A recruiter who invests many hours setting up a placement will be furious when, at the last minute, she realizes you are working with a competing recruiter so she doesn’t get commission. Accepting a position and changing your mind also hurts the recruiter, who could have spent the time with someone else. Unfortunately, they do not regard this lost income as just “cost of doing business.”

(3) Be professional and operate from strength. Sending out multiple resumes to managers in a single firm or calling back repeatedly to check on the status of your application can send out a signal that you are needy. Whether in business or corporate life, desperation sends a negative signal that actually drives away your most promising prospects.

(4) Falsifying information on a resume can backfire. Once I was talking to another career consultant. I pointed out that with advanced degrees, including a doctorate, I couldn’t get past the first screening for most jobs. She said seriously, “You can dumb down your resume.”

I’m opposed to “dumbing down.” First, you might get caught and you would be blacklisted or embarrassed. Second, you have to account for all those years. How do you transform “studying and teaching” to “working as a Starbucks barista?”

inally, if you do manage to fool a hiring manager, you’ll go crazy and so will they. One manager told me about hiring someone who had dumbed down his resume in desperation. She finally confronted him. “You’re not responding the way people in your position usually do. You know things people in your job usually don’t know. What’s up?”

Fortunately, she was a compassionate manager who also realized that this man could be a valuable employee. She found him a higher level job in the company, where he soon was recognized and rewarded. Everybody won. The manager has a lifetime ally. The employee has a good job. And the company gained some talent that would be hard to find in the open job market.

(5) Sadly, jokes can derail your job search. I just read about a candidate who made a joke about taking a drug test: “Sure, give me six days notice.” He was blacklisted. Ironically, only a non-user would even consider making a joke like that. (It’s also against the law to joke at airports. But would a real terrorist be making jokes about bombs? I suspect not.)

In my opinion, drug tests are degrading and useless. The closest I came was when I applied for a telecommute position and was asked to sign a statement that I would not use drugs. I was also asked to fill out a complex form that would take many hours, so I politely wrote back to say that I was about 1500 miles from the company and therefore was not likely to bring drugs (or anything else) to the location. However, I would take special precautions to keep catnip out of my work area when the cats were there. Of course, it was a fun way (for me) to say, “Thanks but no thanks” to the job.

What do you think? Please comment below on your own beliefs and experiences about job search. Your email will not be displayed and you can use a pseudonym or just a first name if you prefer.

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Why Gifted Adults Struggle With Career Planning

Gifted adults often face unique career career challenges. They’re often described with words that seem negative in the context of most corporate jobs. For instance, gifted adults can seem restless and undirected. They juggle several projects at the same time. They come across as intense and supremely focused.

When children are gifted, they often get into trouble at school because they are bored. They are not always the “A” students because their minds don’t work in conventional ways. Teachers often don’t know what to do with them.

However, being a gifted child can bring rewards because children are praised and rewarded for learning and scoring high on tests. Adults are rewarded for broader forms of success, which require social skills and personality traits that often conflict with the gifted adult’s nature.

Many gifted adults have felt “different” since childhood. Some understand that they don’t fit in because their mind works differently. But others think there’s something wrong with them.

When gifted children become adults, they face unique career challenges, especially if they don’t recognize themselves as gifted. They might try to fit into corporate life, only to get frustrated. Corporate life rewards qualities like frustration tolerance and conformity. Gifted adults tend to get bored easily and have trouble conforming, even when they want to.

Gifted adults tend to be rewarded when they find themselves in careers and environments that support their abilities. Examples include scientists, professors in research-oriented universities, authors, and many professionals. Some gifted adults know how to “play the game,” moving beyond unrewarding entry level jobs to reach positions where they can use their gifts.

Unfortunately, other gifted adults remain stuck in jobs where they are guaranteed to remain misfits. A manager who conceptualizes the company’s problems easily can get repressed by bosses who don’t encourage her to explore these directions. A worker in a dead-end job who lacked the education and social skills that would let him move to a more congenial environment can’t use his mind.

If you relate to these descriptions, you may encounter difficulties not only with career choice but with career guidance. Career counselors can be intimidated by gifted clients. They are trained to discourage career changers from moving in too many directions at once. They see gifted clients who seem to grasp ideas really quickly but sometimes have trouble translating these ideas into action.

In particular, gifted adults tend to catch on to things so quickly they face two dilemmas in choosing a new course. First, they seem to be good at so many things, they say it’s hard to choose. Second, they (and their advisors) often say, “You’re really good at this. Maybe it should be your career.” Aptitude turns out to be a small part of career satisfaction, so it is important to look at the total picture, including personality and style.Why Gift

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Is your career feeling sluggish and unmotivated?

Could your career use a 30 day “Wow it’s time to do something different and I want to get out there and start winning games….instead of sitting on the sidelines and watching others score the points?”

I just opened the doors to a totally awesome new un-program. Here’s the concept:

Who?: Any midlife, mid-career professional or executive who needs to add some cometitive edge to your career game…in the next 30 days.

What?: This is Get It Done for your career. . In this totally awesome un-program we will analyze everything that’s currently involved in the complex game called your caree. We identify and refine your goals and create a plan to reach those goals without taking unnecessary, time-consuming, expensive detours.

This is a structured program. We are not going to just get on the phone and shoot the breeze about your career. We will chat about what’s keeping your career change from happening and how you can get out there and kick some serious butt. .

Just as you’d work on drills to improve your game, you will have some things to do. You will get questions before each ONE-ON-ONE call, I will walk you through a process and we will come out at the other end with a model and a plan that will help you get a head start on your career change. J

Where?: From your office, living room, patio, coffee shop, bar…Anywhere! . All you need is a phone with long distance access. I’ll take care of the rest like telling you what number to call, recording it for you, and sending you worksheets so you say things like, “Good grief…I may make a 3-point shot after all.”

When?: Over the next 30 days. Well, any 30 days that you pick over the summer. We don’t have to start right now (but my schedule gets filled up so call when you decide go get started).

Why?: There are twol reasons I’m doing this:.

One: I’m getting messages from people saying they’ve just been frazzled by their careers and don’t know what to do next. Or they spent a chunk of change on career tests and feel like they’re chasing their own tail.

And I realize that some folks are nervous about investing the going rate for career consulting because they’re nervous about layoffs or they’ve been frustrated with career planning sessions that led nowhere.

How Much?:

Like I said, I like to see a game that’s played well. The current WNBA season has inspired me. That’s why you are going to get 2 one-hour sessions with me for just $1000 dollars. NO, NO, just kidding. . Seriously you are going to get 2 one-hour ONE-ON-ONE sessions with me for $275.

Sounds like a chance to elevate your game, right?

If you want to register, all you have to do is send a message to me:
midlifecareerstrategy (a) gmail.com with the subject: Career Special
Tell me a little about you and your situation and we’ll see if It’s in my scope. If it is, you can sign up.

Spaces are limited – I can only work with a few people each month at this rate. So go ahead and sign up. It’s cheap, it’s effective, and you’ll be glad you did.

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Time Management for Mid-Life Career Change

Mid-life career changers often feel totally overwhelmed when they contemplate all the things they have to do. In fact, the reason most career change fizzles is related to lack of time. If you’re working 40 to 50 hours a week, how will you squeeze in your search for a new career? And where do you start?

– Career change time doesn’t work the same as career success time.

When you have a job in a corporation, you often realize you need to focus. Your mission is to “get the job done.” But when you want to find a new career, openness is more important than focus. A distraction may turn out to hold the key to your next life.

Serendipity used to be considered woo-woo and even a little silly. But browse through serious academic journals of career research and you will find a surprising number of people find a new career by accident, not through a step-by-step careful process.

For some reason, though, working through a step-by- step process can trigger a serendipitous experience. You consider a career that combines your love of math and mechanics with your fascination with medical miracles. One day you meet someone who enrolled in a degree program for biomechanical engineering and you have an “aha” moment you could never have achieved by deliberate planning.

– Think of juggling several balls in the air, not pitching one of them at a time.

When you’re just getting started on a search for your next career, you need to explore multiple options simultaneously, not sequentially. For instance, you might be considering a return to school for an advanced degree, a temporary job to pay the bills while you start a business and a new role in your current company.

When you focus on just one option, you may need weeks or even months to sort out the possibilities. Any of these options could turn into a dead end. If you just focus on one thing at a time, you’ve lost weeks and months with little to show for your efforts.

– Make career planning your number one priority.

Recognize that you may have to give up some recreational activities and personal time. Remove nay-saying friends from your life. Get the family on board even if you have to hire a counselor or relationship coach.

Mid-Life Career Strategy can be especially challenging because the rules keep changing as you move in new directions. Now you can download a FREE gift, “3 Secrets of Successful Midlife Career Change,” at Mid-Life Career Choice. For a proven time management system visit Time Management For Careers. From Cathy Goodwin, Ph.D., an author, speaker and career consultant who specializes in helping mid-life mid-career professionals and executives navigate career journeys.

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