Lifelong careers are rapidly becoming a thing of the past, at least in western Europe and North America. People now have more than three career changes during their working life, according to statistics. But what does that mean exactly?
The University of Nebraska defines career change as moving to a new “job family” — a grouping of jobs that have a continuum of similar knowledge, skills and abilities and related key behaviors.
In other words, in professions such as medicine or accountancy, you can move up through jobs at the lowest levels of the family to the highest by continually building on a common base of knowledge, skill and abilities.
Moving to a different job family may require different knowledge, skills and abilities. Career changes of this magnitude are not easy. It can take upwards of three years to make a career move of this type successfully, according to research, and the process may be far from smooth. A major career change is a life change akin to getting married or having children.
Here are questions to ask yourself:
What transferable skills do you possess? What do you already know and what skills and abilities do you possess that can be applied to the new job? In Monty Python’s lion tamer sketch, a lifelong accountant wants to become a lion tamer, but the only thing associated with lion taming that he brings to the new job is a hat with the words “Lion Tamer” on it.
What do you enjoy? The key thing to a career change is simply to identify what you enjoy doing, according to Richard Bolles, the author of “What Colour is Your Parachute?” One of the traps that people fall into is making decisions based on what the market wants rather than what they want. It is critical to put yourself and your needs and wishes first. Success comes from passion.
What do you want to keep doing? Professor Ed Schein at MIT talks about “career anchors”, which he defines as “a combination of perceived areas of competence, motives, and values that you would not give up”. His point is the flipside of Bolles’s: as well as thinking about what you want, you need to think about what you currently have that you don’t want to leave behind. New opportunities appear seductive — the lure of the C suite, the opportunity to work for yourself. But there is great truth in the old saw about the grass looking greener on the other side of the fence.
Who can help you? A critical element of success is your network, and moving to a new career means building a new network of people and groups that can and will provide advice, help, support and necessary skills and knowledge. Work on building the network you will need before making the change.
Can you sell it? Last, spend time developing your arguments and rationale for the new career — your selling pitch. At some point you will have to sell the idea to someone — your spouse, a new employer, the bank. No matter who it is, if you want to get their support you will need more than a customised hat.
