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Sometimes we feel a strong desire to give up everything and start a new life. But is it worth the risk and leave the usual place? What to do if you have devoted half of your life to a certain area, but suddenly realized that all this time you have been doing “the wrong thing”? Or maybe it’s fatigue that speaks in us, and it’s just time to go on vacation? Questions are answered by Olga Lavrinenko, career management coach.
Changing the direction of activity after 35-40 years is not only possible, but also necessary. Especially if the previous 15-20 years of work experience you worked in one area. A person evolves all his life: he discovers new interests, outgrows his knowledge, changes his habits. At 20 and at 40, the same person is a completely different person.
The world around us also does not stand still. Reality is changing much faster now than it did a couple of decades ago. Think about how many professions have appeared in the last 5 years. Every 2-3 years there are new specialties. At the same time, some professions are modified or disappear altogether, giving way to robots. Even if your field of activity is still in demand, I advise you to think and analyze whether it will remain so in 5 years. And if there are suspicions that the business of life is becoming an anachronism, it is worth preparing in advance and learning something else.
Sometimes the desire for change is a manifestation of fatigue. Checking whether you are really ready to change jobs or want it because of a lack of strength is easy: you need to have a good rest. Allow yourself a couple of weeks of passive rest on the beach or in a sanatorium, get yourself in good physical shape, and only then decide: you are full of energy to return to your previous duties, or it is better to direct your energy to something new.
Causes
If you have made up your mind and are serious about it, then you have to take action. First, state the reason why you want to change. Based on this, determine your next strategy.
1. Focus shift: you discover a new exciting activity that you want to devote most of your life to. In this case, it is approximately clear what to do next: to make efforts to realize yourself in a new favorite business.
2. Things are not going well at work, you do not achieve results and do not get satisfaction.. Sometimes non-realization does not depend on the employee himself, but on the circumstances. Perhaps your position is no longer relevant and in demand. In the market, the demand for a vacancy exceeds the supply, and employers take advantage of this by not offering career advancement. In this case, it is worth thinking about raising qualifications and mastering related professions. This will make you competitive and help you meet the demands of the market.
3. Everything you could do in your field has already been done.. The results are obtained, the peaks are conquered, you feel that the ceiling is further, but you want to continue growing. This is the most interesting option. Career coaches and consultants will help with the problem of growth. The specialist will outline new goals, help to look into the future. Together with him, you will plan a further career development strategy, designate a new peak, which you will move to for more than a dozen years, without fear of another “ceiling”.
Where to start?
First of all, find a few people who have been successful in the field that interests you. Let their stories delight you, you must want to look up to them. Study their life path: what did they do before, where did they study, how did they move up the career ladder? If possible, get to know them personally and ask questions. Don’t be shy, most of those who have been successful will gladly share their experience.
Ask about how their everyday life is going now, whether they are satisfied with their profession, what goals they set for themselves. And then, based on the feedback received, draw conclusions: is this really what you dream of?
Airbag
It happens that it boils so much that you want to immediately write a letter of resignation and run to master a new field. I do not recommend succumbing to emotions if you are not sure of financial independence. Shake the piggy bank and study the bank statement: savings and dividends should be enough for an unemployed life for 1-2 years. Are there funds? Feel free to leave and try something new. It is possible that you will have to change 2-3 activities to find something to your liking. And one such “test” will take at least several months. Therefore, if funds are not enough, continue to work, gradually preparing to retrain.
Precious experience
Often we are afraid to change our profession, worrying about the invaluable experience that we have accumulated in our field. You will be surprised, but many skills will be useful to you, even if it seems that you are starting to do something completely new. After working 8-10 years in one profession, a person most often becomes a leader, can train others, manage processes, projects. Communication, negotiation, employee management, reporting skills will be useful in many professions.
The first coaches appeared in sports, and later in business and other areas. One of the founders of coaching, Timothy Galwey, started out as a tennis coach. His students were businessmen, whom he helped to solve business problems in between classes. The fact is that the techniques and tools that he taught could be used in different areas, both in tennis and in business. The same thing I recommend to those who change specialization: apply your skills from one area to another if possible.
Apparatus employed
At the interview, the employer may ask a reasonable question: “Why did you spend so many years in one area of uXNUMXbuXNUMXbactivity and now want to move to another?” First, be honest with yourself. No need to memorize phrases that you think HR or a future leader wants to hear from you. You must have a serious justification for your motivation: why did you choose this particular profession, what have you already done in order to make it your life’s work, how long ago did you make this decision, what results did you get.
The employer is asking the question because they want to know how serious you are about this change. Is this really an old idea, or are you just trying to get away from a boring job? Suddenly after a few months you want to run away again?
New team
Plunging into a new sphere, be prepared for the fact that the team will be unusual: in character, age, lifestyle, attitude to work. Be open to new people, communication, try to trust colleagues. Bet on your personality, not professionalism. Before showing what an excellent employee you are, show what a good, kind person you are. During breaks, talk heart to heart: talk about children, pets, do not forget to ask about the hobbies of colleagues. Establish live, human connections — people will be more willing to work with someone who is pleasant to them than with the best expert, who is also arrogant and callous.
“I quit my old job when my hobby started making money”
Julia Dyubenko, 37, lampwork master (ex-accountant)
Julia is an accountant-economist, she worked in her specialty for a long time, experiencing an acute lack of creativity in her life. Once I saw glass jewelry. They literally blew her away. Julia studied lampwork manuals and realized that she could make such products even at home, having bought the necessary equipment.
She completed a two-day glasswork course in Moscow, and then went to Italy, to the famous island of Murano, to delve into technology. The equipment is quite expensive, so the future master had to invest all his savings in installing basic tools in the apartment. Later, already from the income from the sale of jewelry, she bought additional necessary items to equip the workshop.
Yulia was in no hurry to leave her main profession, going part-time and asking for the possibility of remote work. Without wasting time on the road, I was able to work out the technique of working with glass. Her work was appreciated not only by colleagues and friends, but also by experts from Italy. Having received recognition, she left the position of an accountant and moved on to full-time work on glass jewelry. Now she has her own customer base who regularly order glass jewelry.
Olga Lavrinenko: “For the further development of my own business, I would give Yulia two recommendations:
1. Find partners. Conclude an agreement with various brands, such as clothing, shoes, accessories. And create glass jewelry, inspired by new collections, complementing them.
2. Create your own brand: name, recognizable logo, online store, website. Julia will be able to promote the brand through social networks, and this will bring fame to the products, and new customers to the master.”
“I turned down a high salary because I wanted to paint”
Olga Khalaydzhi, 27 years old, artist (former TV employee)
Olga has been drawing all her adult life. Even before she was a year old, colored pencils were her favorite toy. Having grown older, she was engaged in circles and art school, but did not seriously consider drawing as a future profession.
Olga worked for several years on television, in a nervous and difficult position. Office work took almost my entire life: schedule 5/2, the road to the office and back — 3 hours a day. One day, she saw the “One day — one drawing” challenge on social networks and decided to take part in it. To do this, she even started a separate page on Instagram (an extremist organization banned in Russia). One of the portraits turned out so successful that the number of subscribers doubled in a day. Then she realized that drawing is really what she does well.
She refused a prestigious high-paying position and switched to another rate, where there was more free time and a convenient schedule. Now during the lunch break she can afford to go out into nature and paint, and spends one of the few days off a week entirely on painting. At first I took orders for portraits from friends and acquaintances, then gradually new customers appeared from social networks. So now she can make a living doing what she loves.
Olga Lavrinenko: “I would recommend Olga to teach others. I’m sure she can help people discover their abilities. To get started, you can conduct an online course: easy, interesting and not very expensive. Then it would be nice to connect offline meetings, city plein airs with students, joint walks around the city in search of picturesque places. In parallel, I would advise Olga to make an exhibition of works. With her help, she could find the agent. Olga is creative, but not at all a commercial person, so she needs an assistant who would promote her work as a business project.”