Category Archives for "Career change"

Networking for career success

By Felicity Dwyer | Career change , Career development , Networking , Small Business

Meeting people face to face is one of the best ways to extend your network of professional relationships, and to find career and business opportunities. This is true even in this online era, and you will find online and offline networking complement each other powerfully.

Where to go to expand your network

There are lots of places where you can meet professional contacts. Try formal networking groups, informal events which combine socialising with opportunities to meet new people, conferences in areas of professional interest, training courses and seminars.

Set targets to help build networking confidence

If you are new to networking, it can be a bit daunting at first, to put it mildly. When I was first asked to attend events and conferences on behalf of my organisation, I didn’t find it particularly easy.  To help, I would set myself targets such as having two conversations with people I hadn’t met before, or making sure that I found and spoke to at least one person whom I’d identified in advance as being a good contact.  Then once I’d achieved my target I would tend to head for the door, usually quite exhilarated and glad I’d done it, but also somewhat relieved that it was over.

It gets easier with practice

Fast forward 15 years or so, and I feel quite differently about going to networking events. I get excited about the idea of meeting new people, look forward to the connections, insights and opportunities that might come up, and am happy to go up to people and initiate a conversation.  In fact I enjoy it so much that I now lead a networking group. So what changed?  Essentially a combination of practice, of reflection afterwards, and of coming up with strategies to make the process easier, more enjoyable and also more effective in terms of following up.

Stay in touch

Because meeting people is just the starting point, and the way you stay in touch and build connections and relationships is what will develop your network into something of real value. If you join a network with the attitude of “how can I help other people”, you will find it far more effective than if you only focus on what you want. So it’s good idea to get into the networking habit, even if you are not actively looking for a new job or career. It will allow you to approach the whole thing in a more relaxed way, gain confidence and connections, and then when you do need some help, you will have plenty of people to ask.

Networking tips video

Here are five of my top networking tips for small businesses and career changes.  I hope you enjoy this short video, and would love to hear your networking tips in the comments box below.

Since writing this article I was asked to contribute to a piece on networking for lawyers – this is an interesting article with great tips from a range of expert contributors: http://www.lawabsolute.com/recruitment-news/article/networking-dos-and-donts-for-aspiring-lawyers

“But I’m not creative” – think again!

By Felicity Dwyer | Career change , Career development , Creativity

Career change and development is a creative process. It draws on your ability to take your experience, skills, strengths, interests and achievements and use them to forge a new way forward.

You may already be comfortable with thinking of yourself as creative. Or you may be thinking “but I’m not a creative person”. In which case, my message would be “think again”. Imagination and innovation is our birthright, and is what has made us so successful as a species.

Sometimes we confuse being creative with being artistic. Artists use their skill in a particular art-form to express their original ideas, often in a very visible way, but creativity is found in many fields of work: science and business, to name but two.

Imagine yourself as creative

The very act of thinking of yourself as a creative person can help free you to come up with ideas. According to Jack Foster, author of How to Get Ideas: “You act like the kind of person you imagine yourself to be. It’s as simple as that.”

Once you accept that you have the potential for creativity, then it can be helpful to think of it as a three-stage process.  You may find that one part of process comes more easily to you than others, and by separating them out you can make sure to spend time on each stage.

But before you start, you need to know what you are trying to achieve. It may be to come up with some ideas for a new career path, or design a winning presentation for an interview. You may want to identify options for starting a business  or find ways to spend more time with your friends and family. You may want ideas for making money… or spending less money… or for housing yourself without a big mortgage…

Stage 1 Generate creative ideas

The first stage is come up with ideas. The trick here is to come up with as many ideas as you can and not to evaluate them too early on. There are many ways that you can solve a problem and ideas often come from cross fertilization, from applying knowledge in one sphere to a challenge in another. For example the University of Surrey is working on medical robots, drawing on ideas from nature. The way an octopus can squeeze its body through a tiny space is providing inspiration for robots that can access hard to reach parts of the human body and perform operations that would be difficult for a surgeon to do directly.

Idea generation works well if you do it in a focused way, generating as many ideas as you can, and then take a break – work on something else, go for a walk, or sleep on it.  This allows the subconscious mind to continue working.

Idea generation is great done with a partner or in a group and there are many techniques that can help, for example:

What would they do?

Put yourself into the shoes of another person, it may your hero or mentor, someone successful in a particular field, or someone with strong views and opinions, maybe even ones you disagree with.

Metaphor

Ask, “When my career (finances/family life etc.) is how I would like it to be, that’s  like what?” This question can help you to find a metaphor for what you want, and that in turn can help you generate ideas. If you would like your career to be like a pleasant river cruise, that will lead you to very different ideas than an exciting white water ride? If you can find a metaphor that fits, then this can spark a lot of associations and ideas, out of which you may find a nugget of gold.

Stage 2 Evaluate your creative ideas

The next stage is to analyse and evaluate your ideas.  Only a small number may be workable, and so you will need to be selective.  Creativity consists of a process of expanding and then contracting options. First you expand and come up with as many ideas as you can.  You then go through the pros and cons, narrowing them down, considering which ideas are feasible and which are likely to have the most impact.  As part of this process, you may need to undertake research to help you make informed decisions, or you may decide to loop back and generate more ideas at this point, building on the thinking that you have done before.

Then choose the best idea (s) to take forward.

Stage 3 Take action to move forward in your career and life

The third stage is implementation.  The most fantastic ideas in the world will come to nothing if you don’t do something with them.  Once you’ve made a decision you need to apply some solid planning techniques so that you can effect real change in your life and work. Decide what you want to achieve, by when, and plan the specific actions you need to take to get there. Then decide on your first action. Now DO IT.

What helps you to be creative?  I’d love to hear your ideas in the comments box below.

Need some help with moving your career forward? I can offer you a creative career coaching programme, and an initial conversation with me is always free of charge. Find out more about how I can help.

Triggers for career change

By Felicity Dwyer | Career change , Motivation

Many people who make a significant career change can trace this back to a trigger point, something that pushed them to re-evaluate where they were, and what they wanted to do and be. Sometimes this flash point can be quite dramatic, as was the case for Jane Hardy.

Health crisis

Jane had a high-powered job in sales in the financial sector, on the road, spending weekday nights in hotels, always looking for the next deal, the “kill.” Then her life changed dramatically when at the age of 42 she suffered a cardiac arrest. Only 5% of people survive this experience, and Jane was one of the lucky ones. As a result of this experience, she took at good hard look at her life. “I felt like she had been given a second chance and I wanted to make a difference.”

Jane retrained as a debt counsellor, working for different charities and starting her own debt counselling service. This led her to discover networking and eventually the Fabulous Women network where she said “I felt like I’d come home. It was all about collaboration, support, and supporting others to be successful.” Jane’s involvement in networking led to her third career. She joined Fabulous Women as a regional manager, and 18 months down the line, she now owns the company!

Fortunately for most people, the trigger will be a less dramatic but can still be life-changing. Events such as a significant birthday, starting a family, redundancy, or seeing children off to college, can push us to re-evaluate what matters in our working lives, and find a more satisfying future.

Milestone birthday

For Laura Geaves, hitting her 30th birthday was the trigger for a career change. Laura had been working as a PA. When she turned 30, she looked at where she was in her career and realised that there was no way up in the company and role she was in. This led her to asking herself some searching questions: “What am I actually achieving in life? What do I really enjoy?”

For Laura, marketing had always been something she thought was interesting and she decided to make it her career. She took her Chartered Institute of Marketing qualification and is now a Marketing Executive at KPC Creative Communications, a consultancy in Farnham, Surrey. Unlike her previous job, this business offers career progression, and Laura is working towards becoming an account manager. Laura’s advice for career changers is to “Look at what you are interested in, be committed, and believe in yourself.”

Time for a change?

However uncomfortable the trigger point, people commonly look back and see it as a step towards more positive and satisfying work. And you can sometimes avoid reaching a crisis point in the first place by picking up earlier on signs that you need a change, such as ongoing feelings of stress or boredom, or just a niggling feeling that something isn’t quite right.

If something is in your life, or inside yourself, is telling you that it’s time for a change, then it’s wise to take notice and spend some reviewing where you are, and where you want to be.

The joy of a portfolio career

By Felicity Dwyer | Career change , Career development

Sometimes, looking for that dream job can feel all or nothing. What can I do that ticks all the boxes, gives me satisfaction, uses my skills, brings in the money that I need? The answer may not be found in one job at all. Instead the key to job satisfaction may be found by doing more than one job. This way of working is sometimes known as a portfolio career.

Benefits of portfolio working

At its best a portfolio career is about choosing to do more than one job, as a way of providing interest, using a wide range of skills. It can provide more satisfaction than one job, and in the current climate can even provide more security, as you are not dependent on just one employer. In the 1980s, Charles Handy advanced the idea of “portfolio workers”, who performed a variety of jobs for different employers. Over thirty years on, this way of working has become much more prevalent, and a preferred way of working for many. Particularly so as many of the benefits of full time employment, such as pension rights, have been eroded.

Mixing employment with self-employment

You might have a mix of part-time employment and freelance work in your portfolio. Or you might be self employed, with a variety of different income streams. According to Karen Gaskell, one of the reasons for having a portfolio career is variety: “It’s like a beautiful garden, with lots of different flowers growing”. Karen’s portfolio “garden” includes her work as a distributor for Utility Warehouse, a FTSE 100 supplier of energy, telecoms and discounts on groceries. She is passionate about this job which involves building relationships with customers, and also managing a team of distributors. Karen also spends two days a week running a daycare centre for elderly people. This gives her satisfaction in organising events that she can see make an immediate difference to people’s lives.

An advantage of running a business and having a salaried job is that you have a baseline income to smooth out the ups and downs that can come with self-employment, but allow you to also run your own business, which potentially can offer much greater financial rewards. Whereas some people’s portfolio will include employment, other people will be self employed, but with more than one way of earning a living.

Complementary strands of work

Dr Mike Clayton is a prolific author, with 12 business books under his belt. Mike loves writing, but it’s only part of his working life. He balances writing with a career as a seminar presenter and speaker. He also delivers project management training as an associate for other companies. Although Mike has a varied portfolio, all his activities are linked in that they are about supporting people and organisations to work more effectively. As someone with a keen intellectual interest in research, the work he does for his writing feeds into his seminars and training, and the activities complement each other. As Mike says: “If I only did one thing, then I would regret not doing the others. It means that I can do different things, all of which I enjoy. I don’t mean that you can do everything you might like to, as I think it’s important to keep focused. But it does mean that you don’t need to limit yourself to doing the same thing every day.”

Is this right for you?

This working style may not interest you so much if you are motivated by the idea of climbing a corporate ladder. Having said that, people who have had a successful corporate career sometimes move into portfolio work in the final phase of working life, offering consultancy, serving as non-executive directors, and often combining this with some unpaid or voluntary work, perhaps as a charity trustee or by mentoring others.

Is a portfolio career right for you? It may be if you have a wide skill-set combined with specialist knowledge, and are self-motivated and confident enough to get out and sell yourself. It requires a certain degree of independence and self-reliance, and in return can offer variety and interest.

 

How much time do you spend doing work you love?

By Felicity Dwyer | Career change , Motivation

Doing anything worthwhile takes hard work, there is no way around that. But what a difference there is between the soul-sapping grind of work, when you are in the wrong career or job, and the heart-lifting joy of work that plays to your strengths and skills and feels worthwhile. It may not even feel like work, hence the famous words from Chinese sage Confucius: “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”

In my own working life, I enjoy coaching and training so much that it doesn’t feel like work now. It also gives me an opportunity to do what I’m good at. But of course developing the skills and gaining the experience to make it feel easy has taken time and energy. And I like the fact that this is a line of work where there is always more to learn and master, so it never gets dull. But in order to have a business doing what I love, I also need to do things that I don’t enjoy such as keeping accounts, cross-referencing, proofreading.  To some extent these tasks can be outsourced, but the reality is that most of them are done by me, as part of what needs to be done to keep myself in business.

The 80/20 rule offers us a useful rule of thumb. Is more than 20 % of your time, one day out of five if you work full time, spent on work that you really dislike, or which you are not good at? If the answer is yes, then perhaps it is time to consider a change. This may be to a different career, a different organisation, or a different role.  And if you’re not sure what to do next in your working life, you might find career coaching helpful.

by Felicity Dwyer