Your level of clarity will make or break your career pivot. That’s why I’m sharing five things you need to know and clarify before you even consider pivoting into a more fulfilling career path. Today, I'm sharing 5 things you need to know to find a fulfilling career and what are foundational to uncovering the clarity you seek.
A lot of women I know often transition without a plan when they are trying to pivot to do something more fulfilling in their careers. They realize they hate their job, so they immediately go online to find a new one. They go to LinkedIn, Indeed, etc. and just start applying so they can find something else ASAP. But when you jump into a new role in desperation and without a plan, you find yourself in a cycle of being stuck. You jump to a new job, and three months later, you realize you don’t like the new job either.
So, now you do it all over again, and then you jump to another new job in eight months. You become stuck in this cycle because you are pivoting without a plan.
You can’t just look up and say, I hate this job. Boom. I’m going to jump into something new. There has to be a bit of scanning to figure out why you hate the job and what direction you need to pivot to. What step are you going to make to pivot your career to ensure that it's going to be more fulfilling and more enjoyable?
These five things I am going to share are your way of scanning to get a better sense of what direction you need to go before you make your career pivot.
The first thing you need to know to find a fulfilling career is your belief system.
Too many of us are walking around being driven and guided by belief systems that are not based on evidence or fact. But we’ve believed them for so long, we’ve assumed them to be true and, therefore, let them drive our actions.
When you believe something, especially when it comes to the workplace and what you believe is possible for you at work, what kind of jobs can you get into? What kind of opportunities do you have access to? Oftentimes those beliefs then drive the actions you take. What you believe about yourself will determine if you apply for a job, if you leave a job you hate, or if you even try and transition to another industry.
But we often don’t pause to think about this. What are you telling yourself about yourself? Are you telling yourself, “I can’t do this, or I’m not that?” We get messages from society, from our workplaces, from the media, and even from our negative thoughts that try to tell us who we are, and what we can do. We internalize those messages. Sometimes without even realizing it. And when it comes time to look for a fulfilling career path, those messages start playing, but we’re so accustomed to them, we don’t even notice it.
But what if we paused to question the stories and beliefs that we have been telling ourselves for years? Do they help lead us to career choices that we desire and find fulfilling and satisfying? Or are they holding us back? We need to catch any belief system that might keep us from a fulfilling career and question why it's there.
The second thing you need to know to find a fulfilling career is your ideal work environment.
What don’t you like about your current work environment? Is it the hours that you are getting? The people you’re talking to? The relationship with your manager? Or your compensation? The work environment is not just physical, this applies to remote work too. Maybe it's the way people communicate, or the way meetings are run.
Take time to scan your work environment. Ask yourself, based on what you know about yourself, how you interact with people in your personal life, and how you interact with people in your professional life, what kind of environment you want to be in. Once you clarify those things, you can determine what your ideal work environment is. Do you want an environment that fosters creativity? Diversity? Is compensation most important to you? Independence? Or autonomy? Take the time to clarify what your workplace values.
The third thing you need to know to find a fulfilling career is your ideal industry.
When we think about the world of work right now, there are so many different industries. There’s healthcare, entertainment, education, and finance…every industry has its own personality. Not every industry will allow you to be impactful in the way that you want to be.
One of the major keys to finding a fulfilling career is that you’re doing impactful and meaningful work. We all have a deep desire to feel like we are making a difference in the world. If you are someone who wants to impact children and change their lives, then you may want to go into education or a nonprofit. Or if you want to make an impact in the area of physical health or wellness, you may want to go into a healthcare, fitness, or medical career. If you are someone who wants to impact the world by creating products that make life easier for people, maybe technology is the right industry for you.
It's important to understand who you are and what’s important to you. When you start clarifying your values and your ideal work environment, you will start to notice what is important to you. Once you do that, you can look at the different industries out there and see which industries will allow you to make the kind of impact you desire.
The fourth thing you need to know to find a fulfilling career is your day-to-day.
What do you want your day-to-day to look like? What does your day-to-day at work as well as outside of work look like, from the time you wake up until the time you go to sleep? When you are at work, what kind of activities are you doing? Do you spend more time in front of a computer? Are you spending more time coming up with ideas? Do you participate in a lot of meetings? Doing presentations?
This step can be hard because it is easy to get stuck in the bubble of a specific type of work or job title. It's important to not focus on a specific job, but on how you are expending your energy in your day-to-day.
Ask yourself what energizes you. Not just your work past, but your personal past too. Use that information to start shaping how you want to spend your days in the future.
I think oftentimes when women are trying to figure out their next career move, they forget that ideally, their career should not be their life. Your career should fit into your life. But if you don’t know what you want your life to look like outside of work, you can’t do that.
When you figure out what you want life to look like outside of work, it helps you figure out what kind of work you’re going to do. It’s driven by your interest and your skills. When you sit and think, “What do I want my life to look like?”, you’ll start to see what is important to you. When you look at your next career move, you’ll be able to consider what kind of life you want first.
The fifth thing you need to know before finding a fulfilling career is your timeline.
Your timeline is the last thing you want to know before finding a fulfilling career. I’m talking about the personal timeline you have to make this transition. Are you looking to pivot in four months? Six months? 12 months?
There are four types of career changes you can make. You can change companies but stay in the same role and industry. For example, you could leave a consulting job with one company, to work with another company as a consultant again.
Second, you can change industries but stay in the same role. An example of this would be if you were a project manager in education, but decided to be a project manager in healthcare.
Third, you can change your role but stay within the same industry. Instead of being a project manager in education, you switch to an instructional designer.
The fourth transition, which is by far the hardest, is to transition both your role and your industry. The reason why this is the hardest is that you have to learn new industry jargon and a new skill set at the same time. Knowing what type of transition you are going to make will help you determine your timeline. If you’re keeping the same role in the same industry, that transition can be done in two to four months. But if you are changing roles and changing industries, you might need time to build your network and fill in any skill gaps that exist. You may need to research the roles that are available to you or even take a longer time to job search.
When you go in with the wrong timeline expectation, it can make the process even harder for you. Knowing your timeline helps you to understand how long the pivot is going to take and what you need to have in place to make it. You can take the time to pause, reflect, and look around for the right next move.
Resources:
If you are looking to change your career, but aren’t quite sure what that change is going to be yet, then my program, Find Your Fulfilling Career, is perfect for you. Inside my course, I help you find the clarity you need to find the work that fulfills you most. If you want to learn more, visit Find Your Fulfilling Career to see how this signature coaching program for women can help you exit your soul-sucking job and transition into a more fulfilling career without getting another degree!
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