4 Powerful Ways To Figure Out What You Should Be Doing With Your Career In 2016
Part of the series “Living and Working Better”
As a career success coach, writer, and researcher, I’ve had the opportunity to observe key trends among thousands of professionals around the world, particularly about how they get stuck and stay stuck in careers they dislike, and how they effectively change directions to a new path that’s rewarding and successful.
One challenge I hear literally every day goes something like this:
“Kathy, I don’t like my career and I know that I want to change it, but I simply can’t figure out what to do next. What will make me happy, give me the money I need and want, and offer more meaning and purpose. And what do I need to change?
If you’ve read anything of work or background, you know that I lived the pain of this experience – being stuck for years in a corporate identity that simply didn’t fit me and that was filled with toxicity. After a brutal layoff in the days following 9/11, I finally decided I had to reclaim my life, but to do it, I wanted to learn more about how women overcome professional crisis. I conducted my own yearlong research study and the findings were so powerful and helpful to me, I wrote a book about their stories and strategies (for more on that, see Breakdown, Breakthrough). After 10 years of career coaching now, I’ve seen that there are four critical steps that help people overcome their internal and external career challenges, and transform their lives.
The four key steps to transforming your career to something you’ll love are:
1. Dig deep to figure out what you want to keep or leave behind
Just today in a call in my Amazing Career Project course, a participant asked for help determining if it’s her career that’s making her miserable or the environment (employer). She just couldn’t identify what needed to change, and she’s not alone.
Here’s what to do: Conduct a thorough assessment of what you would like to preserve and maintain in your current career and job function, and what needs to be shed. To learn more about your current line of work, think about this: If you were to interview 100 people in your job, what elements would be consistent – what tasks, functions and outcomes do the majority of people in your career engage in, regardless of the employer or environment? What challenges and rewards are consistent among these professionals, regardless of where they work?
If you have no clue, go out and starting connecting with and talking to people in your line of work and then ask yourself:
“Are these tasks and functions in my job (that are consistent across employers) enjoyable and rewarding to me?” If not, it’s a sign that your career has to change.
As an example, I spent my first professional years as a copywriter in publishing. Truthfully, I always liked to write but not as a copywriter selling books and journals. I realized years later that I don’t like writing for marketing purposes, especially pushing other people’s products. I like writing that’s more about ideas, trends, society, and solutions, rather than promotion. Writing, then, is a rewarding endeavor for me only when it’s for a purpose I care about.
On the other hand, if it’s the job environment that’s killing you, tease out exactly what you dislike about it. (Here’s why most people hate their jobs.) Is it the leadership, the people, the focus, the crushing schedule, the values of the organization, the outcomes they care about, the way they manage, etc.? Brainstorm a list of other organizations you might want to work for who have traits you admire, and start your interviewing process this month. Tailor your resume to what these employers need and want, and speak powerfully about your capabilities and accomplishments. Trust me, your eyes will be opened throughout this process.
2. Uncover the hidden beliefs, mindsets and assumptions that keep your feet planted in stone.
Everyone on the planet carries with them thousands of embedded beliefs, mindsets and assumptions – about themselves, the world, work, and the people around them. And people who are stuck have often made some costly or rigid assumptions about what they’re capable of creating , their worthiness, and what they need to be happy.