Is a Career Exploration Getting In The Way of Your Job Search?
By Karen Schaffer, Career Coach
Mary Ellen was frustrated. After 10 years in tech PR and 3 years
of hating it, it was time for a career change when her contract
was up, but she had no clue of what her new career could be. Her
uncertainty meant that she didn’t connect in job interviews.
Yet, having chosen the wrong career path thus far, she felt a desperate
need for the next job to be the “right” one.
One of the greatest career change misconceptions is that that your
job search is the perfect time to find that “perfect”
job. You know, the one you’re not sure what it is yet, but
hopefully you’ll know it when you see it. The pressure mounts
as the wrong choice might land you in a similar situation to your
current dissatisfaction, but try as you might, you can’t see
the right one.
Take Mary Ellen. While she was trying to come up with the perfect
career plan to solve her job angst, the clock was ticking. If she
couldn’t come up with the right idea, she’d fail. But
with so much undue pressure on her search, she felt stuck in the
same dead end.
Here’s the misconception: the job search is by definition
an externally-oriented, action-driven event. You search for a job
by doing a variety of activities, all of which are predicated on
the assumption that you’ve already chosen and prepared a clear
direction. If you can’t clearly name what you’re looking
for in a sentence or two so that other people understand and buy
in, your job search is already severely hampered. And if you can’t
name it all, you’re actually not in a job search; you’re
in a career exploration.
What’s the difference? A career exploration is an open-ended,
non-linear, creative process by which you interact with different
ideas, concepts, passions, interests, daydreams and conversations,
without immediately pursuing these ideas into the tangible, practical
sphere. To uncover your next career path, you need to change your
mode of inquiry from external, action-driven, to a more internal,
contemplative one.
Now before you panic about spending the rest of your severance
package staring at your navel, rest assured that the exploration
has its time and place. The key is to separate the needs and expectations
of your job search from your career contemplation.
- Do A Self Assessment: If you’re currently in a job search
and you’ve been unclear thus far (two clues: people aren’t
helping you and you don’t have your resume clearly titled
with the role you’re targeting), it’s time to do an
assessment. How clear are you on your next role? What frustrations
are you encountering trying to articulate it? How big a leap are
you hoping to make? If you feel like your “window” is
closing, it may be time to work on the next best job, not the whole
career “Answer”.
- Separate Your “Soul” Work goals from your “Conditions
of Satisfaction”: Sit down and capture your needs and desires
but in two separate places. Let your brain do the talking with the
Conditions of Satisfaction - the basic deal-breakers you need to
feel comfortable in your next job. These could include your minimum
salary requirements, the ideal environment, and/or your need for
respect and acknowledgement. Then, on another sheet of paper, write
from your heart. What is your soul craving? What do you want to
do with your life? This exercise will help you distinguish which
needs must be satisfied in the next step, and which ones are the
deeper desires not yet connected to a specific career that you can
continue to explore regardless of your next job.
- Pursue the Job Search: Pick a clear, articulated goal for your
job search based on your conditions of satisfaction, something that
other people can understand easily in sentence or two. You may have
been confusing people with your own unanswered questions, so now
ensure you’re “on message”.
Commit Time and Space for your Career Exploration: The “soul”
career dream can stay alive if you commit to a continuation of your
exploration, especially by putting aside time. In some cases this
might be unstructured quiet time to journal, ask questions, read
and converse. For others who may need support to keep focused, now
is a great time to get a coach, join a course or find a friend or
group in the same space. Having a structure – a class time
or regular meeting – devoted to your career exploration keeps
the career exploration on the forefront.
In Mary Ellen’s case, she found a career coach who specialized
in transition, joined a course on exploration and found several
books that spoke to her issues in particular.
The new perspectives she gleaned have helped her to relax. Now
she sees a future for herself in the arts – undefined, but
very exciting. Her transition step is to use her PR and marketing
skills to get a job in this field, learning more as she deepens
her exploration. The biggest gain is the feeling of being on track
– that even without the “Answer” she can move
forward confidently in her job search.
Karen Schaffer is a career coach and author of “The Complete
Book of Resumes” and “The Job of Your Life”. If
career exploration interests you, you can check her TeleSeminar
“The Secrets of Successful Career Exploration” at www.lighttravels.com/careersecrets
Karen blogs regularly on Career Exploration, Job Searching and other
topics at www.karenschaffer.com
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