How to reinvent your career - at any stage to future-proof yourself
‘What’s next?’
‘To pivot or wait it out?’
‘To stick with the tried and tested or go all in and start something new?’
These are the questions on everyone’s mind at the moment and this isn’t surprising in the current climate.
To the point - the last few weeks have been a challenge for us all for different reasons:
📍Jobs have been made redundant.
📍 professionals have been stood down.
📍 businesses shut.
📍 isolated with family
📍 and they closed my gym ....
We have been fortunate to prosper with Australia in a period of consistency and growth and haven’t had to face this kind of extreme event that shakes a nations economy at its foundation, its people!
This why it has never been more important to reinvent yourself.
You will see endless predictions over the next few weeks/months and years on how we will recover from this and how we will move forward and how the world will change.
The truth is that no one really knows for sure so it is important in a time of uncertainty that you are best positioned for the future you and the future of work. This requires decision now and action soon after to ensure any opportunities available are captured.
There is no ‘one size fits all solution’ or a single formula for the masses, whilst I wish I had it as it would make this whole coaching thing so much easier.
What I do have is experience in helping hundreds of corporate professionals navigate through their individual careers and breaking points, in good, bad and ugly times. I too have been where many of you are now so I know how hard yet rewarding the process can be and why I have seen the need to pivot on three occasions myself.
I want to share a proven step by step system that I have followed myself and have used with clients to prepare to pivot, make a career change and in some cases a complete reinvention.
1) AUDIT
Before you hit the job boards and panic because you don’t know what’s next - it’s time to slow down to speed things up:
Take a step back and get clear about your positioning:
Who are you on a personal level?
What drives you, what motivates you, what sets you on fire?
Where you are now professionally?
What do you have in terms of experience, expertise and education?
Who do you know?
A successful career is the intersection of your personality/interests and DNA, your area of expertise/experience and education as well as what the market is willing to pay.
How to get clear on each of the areas:
1.) Values:
What’s important to you?
What’s happening in your environment,?
How you treat people and want to be treated?
How you operate personally and professionally?
You can be the best fit for a role and love your co-workers but if the industry is absolutely against your beliefs, you won’t last for long (and neither will you be able to perform at your peak).
2.) Education:
List every single certification, education and qualification that you have ever done in your life. It may be 10 years ago but often these acquired skills can come in handy now because it’s not top of mind due to the career you have had recently.
Maybe you forgot about the TAE you did a while ago which can come in handy now when the education space is growing.
3.) Experience:
Which industries have you worked in?
What roles have you had?
What projects have you been involved?
Identify the common nominator (from fast paced environments to very competitive industries to highly regulated professions … find the overarching theme there that you can use to your advantage when looking into areas that have similar traits and you can use your transferable skills.
4.) Expertise:
List all projects that come to your mind, from a commercial as well as a personal project sand list the biggest results you could achieve and the skill sets you have applied.
You may not have been organising finances in any of your paid roles but you may have established yourself as the go to person for getting finances on track in your circle.
Think about the skill you have used and how those could come in handy now.
5.) Network:
Looking at all areas of your life:
Who do you know?
Which network do you have access to?
And how can you (re)active the connection?
It also helps to get clear about the environments you enjoy being in as well as the people you enjoy being around (or not).
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Let’s say you are a data expert, have 2 kids under 10 years and are a passionate runner. One of the things you enjoy in your role is to do speaking engagements or sharing your knowledge for a very unsexy and perceive complex area through social media posts.
This means, you have access to schools, teachers, parents, running groups as well as the company you are working at. These are 5 distinct network groups that you can explore further how you can leverage this and what it is that excites you about each.
2) GENERATE options
It is very likely that your next role comes from someone in your network, so building and managing an active circle of people is key to staying competitive and getting in or ahead in your career of choice.
We may not be able to network in person but that also means no excuses- we can network digitally from anywhere, at anytime without the hustle of getting dressed up.
Have a look at (and join)
local MeetUp groups that share your interests, profession and expertise (most of them offer virtual events now)
relevant hashtags on LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram to broaden your horizon and stay on top of what’s happening in the market
Facebook and LinkedIn groups for social listening as well as being able to expand your network
Forums like Quora and Reddit to see what people are interested in and want answers for. It gives you a good insight in what is on people’s mind and also a good idea what you already know that you can share
Check out our 20 tips to network here
3.) IMPLEMENT
Knowledge without implementation is just a plan so now we have done the ground work, it’s time to get in motion.
Now it’s time to get active by applying step 1 and 2.
Example:
You have been getting results from making the complex simple to understand.
Friends, family and colleagues come to you because they can rely on you giving them a step by step process for them to get results. You realise that this is something that is easy to you and also energises you.
Looking at the bigger picture- this is exactly what teaching is all about. You don’t have a TAE?
No worries? People are looking for answers more than ever. Have you considered an online course? Writing an e-Book? Organising a MeetUp group for a group training on it?
4.) LEARN
The rise of super jobs with professions are becoming more complex due to technology, more information and more connected systems as well as the outlook that 85% of jobs in 2030 don’t exist yet accelerate the need to lifelong learning, but not the traditional way.
Studying at uni for 4 years, climbing the corporate career ladder and going through traditional learning paths are not efficient for this fast changing world of work.
On the go, on the job and on demand learning are the answer to fitting in the additional 101 (!) days of learning that are required by 2022 according to the World Economic Forum,
Podcasts and ebooks that can be consumed on the go, coupled with mentors in and outside the workplace and supplemented by on demand learning via Youtube videos, short online courses and micro credentials via learning institutes are the answer.
Whilst it can be overwhelming by the sheer amount of content available, it is about being smart with which sources to tune in, how to store and utilise the newly acquired knowledge as well as having the accountability to putting theory into practise is the key here.
5.) EVALUATE
Reinventing yourself is not a one off project; it is an ongoing process since the market, the conditions and the expectations constantly change and evolve.
In each reinvention stage, key is to go through this process and learn more about yourself, the market, common trends as well as refine where and how you can provide the biggest value.
Ready to stop wondering and reinvent your career together?
Our next AGILE CAREER course intake is on the 21st April, 6pm.
Over 5 weeks, you can join our live 90min training/group coaching, followed by individual coaching support and backed by worksheets, independent tests, resources and quizzes to put your newly acquired knowledge into practise.