Last week I met with a friend who has been working as a consultant for a respectable two years now. Despite the salary, the prestige and a recent promotion, she has been feeling unfulfilled and somewhat stumped for sometime:
“I know that there’s more to life than this. There has to be. I’m just not sure what it looks like.”
Last year I cut my grad scheme short and left finance to explore opportunities in tech. My friend asked me if I had any practical advice about executing a career pivot. This is what I told her.
1. Look before you leap
Before your Big Exit it is important to conduct as much research as possible. Your ability to negotiate with a new employer regarding salary evaporates as soon as you hand in your resignation. Obvious – but easy to forget when at the end of your tether. Schedule drinks with people working in industries that you think could suit you. Get them squiffy and discover what their company is really like. Better yet – go see for yourself. Take a day’s holiday and spend it shadowing your contact. Find out what skills you are going to need to polish/ garner in order to move into a role that will stretch you. If you are unsure about what to ‘switch’ into The Professionelles is an awesome careers resource that provides great insight into a multitude of alternatives.
2. Spend some time thinking about what success means to you
Not to your friends. Or to your parents.
One place to ponder this in good company is at the School of Life in Bloomsbury. Here you can attend sessions on anything from ‘ How To Be Cool’ to ‘How To Make Love Last’. A group workshop called ‘How To Find A Job You Love’ helps participants to explore what a meaningful job would look like to them. In-depth 120 minute 1-to-1 Career MOTs are also available:
‘ Your starting point will be clarifying who you are, what you want and what you have to offer. From this point the [psychotherapist] can help you define your career priorities and think through practical next steps, whether it’s a change of job, a longer term plan or a change of approach…’
3. Don’t just sit there…
Unfortunately there are always going to be bills to pay but this doesn’t mean that you’re trapped doing what you’re doing…
“You don’t need to dramatically resign from your job on Monday morning and step out into the unknown. Instead you can pursue branching projects or temporary assignments on the side of your existing job. Disenchanted with marketing or banking? Then try teaching yoga or doing freelance web design on the weekends. If you enjoy it, keep doing more until you have the courage to leave your old job behind you. If it doesn’t provide a spark try something else.”
Roman Kznmeric, Author of ‘How to Find Fulfilling Work’
4. Be proactive!
A lot of advice exists for those looking to tread the corporate path but if you think that you may be more fulfilled doing something a little different then check out Escape the City. Here you can browse opportunities at businesses, start-ups, charities and social enterprises. The Escape Stories Section contains detailed accounts of how other people went about moving into work they love doing.
My personal ‘Esc Heros’ include:
Alexia Pinchbeck – Resigned from marketing to start Biknifling.com
Guido Molinari – Quit finance to found his own gelato Company
Stephen Ridley– Left Investment Banking to become a musician.
‘24 hours after quitting his job, he rolled an upright piano into the middle of one of London’s busiest streets and started playing…’
5.YOLO
This isn’t a rehearsal.
What are you waiting for?
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