Shifting professions mid-career

Making a significant shift of professions mid-career has always been difficult. Becoming an expert in one field (eg as a doctor, engineer etc) requires a significant amount of learning, time and experience.

So what happens when you want a change?

There are two things you need to do: (1) gain experience; and (2) further education.

The first step is to start to build experience in the industry to which you want to transition. Taking the example of a doctor wanting to become an engineer, think through where the medical and engineering fields overlap (eg biomedical, design engineer, etc). Then find ways to build experiences such as through a secondment, special project, involvement in the industry association or volunteer work.

The second step is further education. The one profession which has pioneered mid-career professional transitions is Management. The origins of the MBA is from the need to equip technical experts in management skills as they move up vertical career ladders.

But, other professions have cottoned on. Today's Australian Financial Review reports on a new 2-year Master of Professional Engineering (from University of Sydney) designed to train engineers from non-traditional backgrounds or help existing engineers move into another discipline.

Shifting professions can be done. It is the road less travelled, but the road most enjoyed.

(Postscript: Don't forget Monday's AFR has a weekly liftout called "Education" with the latest trends and offerings from the education sector.)

What will motivate you: money or development?

A recent survey reported in the Financial Review again found that people are more interested in long-term career development than remuneration. In fact, with the economic woes, career development is even more important than a year ago. 45% of employees left their employer because of a lack of career development.

Interestingly, nearly half of the 3000 employees surveyed said they were seeking a new job.

This hints that people are resigned to their current situation but will move if a better opportunity comes along. I wonder though, how many people are being proactive about seeking opportunities? Are they just looking outside their organisation? Do they see the opportunities within their current workplace that are created during times of change?

Remember that 'career development' is your responsibility. Don't just rely on your organisation to come forward with opportunities - they may well be overly occupied just keeping the ship afloat. Be proactive, explore, have conversations. Something interesting might just turn up....

The grass isn't always greener

I was speaking last night with a good friend of mine who is currently living and working in Edinburgh. Well, at least has been working up until recently when her contract with a financial institution wasn't extended. The GFC and all that. Now she's looking for work in a tough labour market.

In reflection on our conversation I made the assumption that just because she is living overseas she must be having a fun, grand time. It wasn't until she told me her situation that it brought back memories for me of job hunting in London and Vancouver. Of the loneliness and guilt of not enjoying the daily grind, but, feeling that one "should" be enjoying it simply because you are living overseas.

The grass isn't greener in the other paddock.

It always looks amazing, but don't forget there is a day to day reality. Whether the paddock you see is another job, occupation, organisation, city or country. Be wary of the green-tinted glasses. Don't squash the emotion - that excitement is what life is about - but keep a balanced perspective.

Work experiences you need

Developing and growing your career requires experience. It is through our successes and failures that we learn the most.

We tend to think about work experience as one-dimensional, in other words, that it is about experience in general. There are, however, different experience sets that we need to go through in order to develop our career. This depends first and foremost on our preferred career direction. The aim is to gather experiences that lead us toward our future direction.

Lets take an example. Ellen Goldman interviewed 36 CEO's to identify different types of work experiences that were important to develop the ability to think strategically. She identified 9 types, including for example:

• General work experience: a wide ranging variety of experiences that are significant in scope and are autonomous.
  
• Being mentored: particularly early on in one‘s career with have frequent contact and immediate feedback on performance.
  
• Being challenged one-on-one by a key colleague about one‘s thinking.
  
• Dealing with the threat of organisational survival by an external entity: for example a takeover threat or the loss of a key customer.

Think outside the box when it comes to what sets of experiences you may need.
Then, write down one action you will take to get one of these experiences in the next 14 days. Experiences won't happen unless you start somewhere!

Further reading: Goldman, Ellen F. (2008). The power of work experience: Characteristics critical to developing expertise in strategic thinking. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 19 (3): 217-239.

Amazing story of unique skill to business

This is an amazing short video clip of how a unique skill can be turned into a lucrative business. I'm sure this artist didn't setup to make millions...but watch the end of the video.

You'll enjoy the 2 minutes, click here.

The take away message: a niche market can be worth a fortune. If you have a talent, there may well be a way to make a career out of it.

(Thanks to Tom Poland for sharing this via www.The8020Blog.com)

You are not your job

It's the second BBQ question: "So, what do you do?" Nine out of ten people will respond with their job title after which the questioner immediately makes implicit conclusions about that person based on a stereotypical understanding of their job.

Those people who define themselves by their work find it difficult to change careers and are more affected when one of life's curve balls are thrown at them.

This is particular true during periods of unemployment. according to Canadian career expert, Norman Amundson. His research showed that the closer a person’s identity is linked to their work, the greater will be their difficulty in coping with the unemployment period.

You are not your work. Your career is certainly an important part of you, but it's only that: a part.

It is far more effective for your identity to be based on personal capacities and attitudes rather than on a traditional working relationship.

How God will help your Career Decisions

The last four years has seen a blossoming of research on the role of spirituality and religion on individual's careers. The research does not differentiate between belief systems but rather focusses on whether people have a spiritual or religious framework.

There is a difference between spirituality and religion, but that's another blog post (or two) for the future.

So how will God help you?

Ryan Duffy and David Blustein conducted a study on the relationship between religiousness, spirituality, and career decision self-efficacy. They found that spiritual/religious frameworks play a significant role in an individual's confidence about making career decisions. Here's an extract from their findings:

"While the exact link between these variables and confidence in making career decisions is not clear, we propose that the stability and support granted by a strong base in religion and spirituality helps an individual have confidence about a host of decisions, including those concerning one
s career."