A quarterly Newsletter designed to give you
information to enhance your career
and life satisfaction.
Volume
4, September 2004 | » In this issue: |
Anne Gottlieb Angerman, MS
Change
The days are getting shorter, and summer seems to be coming to an end. Halloween candy is in the stores. We are getting closer to fall and new beginnings. It's time to think about what else we can do before fall is totally upon us: Go to an amusement or water park, more camping, hiking, eating more peaches and watermelon.
For me, this fall will also be a change. My youngest son will be going off to college. My husband and I will be officially, "empty nesters". Change for him, change for us, change. New beginnings, risk, excitement, fear.
Is he making the right decision? Did we do enough research? What if it doesn't work out? These are questions we all ask ourselves when we are going through change.
We first know that change is going to be easier when we initiate it vs. when it happens to us. We have all been victims of change - when it happens to us. It can be from a layoff, a divorce, death, or newly diagnosed illness. Change has certainly become a way of life in the New Millennium.
As we look at career change, sometimes it is our choice and other times it is brought upon us by downsizing. Often, when people come to my office to discuss career change and take assessments, they are quite sure they want to make a change and they have to get out of a current job. However, as time progresses in the coaching process, many people lose their inertia or realize how difficult it can be to bring about change. Here are some suggestions to consider when making a career change:
- Accept my situation - Acceptance is surrendering to what is: our work or lack of it, our circumstances, or the delay of our dreams.
- Do I want a job or career?
- Do I want to go back to school?
- How much time and
energy do I want to put forward?
Often, I see people in their 20's are less patient and do not want to start at the bottom. - What are my most important values? Will the field I am choosing have people with similar values? People often joke about checking out an organization's parking lot to see what cars and bumper stickers are there.
- Know myself - What are my abilities? Skills? Interests? I find the more research and self exploration a person does, the easier it is to make a decision. Participants of The Highlands Ability Battery often find the test gives them very specific knowledge to describe themselves.
- Who is my support system? It is imperative to have a support system when going through any kind of change.
- Set reasonable goals - How much can I accomplish in the next month or the next year?
What's New with Career Matters?
It has been a busy time for Career Matters. We are seeing a lot of young adults 20-30 years old who are trying to figure out what they want to do when they grow up. August seemed to be a bit of a panic time especially for college students going back to school and having to choose a major.
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39 year old recently divorced woman: "I want to thank you for all the work we did together. Initially, I was skeptical of what all the information would tell me. What I was not prepared for was how all that information put together could change my life. Instead of feeling like a failure in my past career; through the testing, I now realize I was a huge success in some aspects even if it was the wrong career for me. Through your testing, and input, I feel like I am on the right path to success." |
Career Matters now offers 3 assessments for people in career transition. They are The Highlands Ability Battery, The Strong Interest Inventory, and Myers Briggs.
The
biggest change is that all three assessments are available
online so it really simplifies everything. Participants receive a password
to a website and go in to do the assessments. We don't
have to deal with lost assessments, snail mail, or
anything else.
If
you know of anyone who is wanting to make a career change, please have
them contact us. We are also available for teams
or organizations to help people maximize their abilities and learn ways
to go forward with their careers.
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In the Harvard Business Review from February, 2004, there is a study interviewing high achievers who experience success daily. It identifies four components of enduring success: happiness (feelings of pleasure and contentment about your life); achievement (accomplishments that compare favorably against what others have strived for); significance (the sense that you've made a positive impact on people you care about) and legacy (a way to establish your values so as to help others find future success). It finds that if someone has focused only on achievement, they will not feel successful, instead, they need to focus on some other lens of this four part model. |
Book
Review
Working Identity-Unconventional Strategies for Reinventing Your Career
by Herminia Ibarra; Harvard Business School Press, 2003.
In
many ways, this book slightly resembles Po Bronson's bestseller book,
What Should I do with
my Life? However, many personal stories are
outlined with suggestions and tips as to what individuals did to make
the changes. She identifies three ways of having a working identity: experimenting
with new professional activities, interacting in new social networks,
and making sense of what is happening in light of emerging possibilities.
Unlike many other career books that emphasize to go inside of yourself,
this book emphasizes that we discover the true possibilities by doing—trying
out new activities, reaching out to new groups, finding new role models
and reworking our story as we tell it to those around us. To launch ourselves,
we need to get out of our heads. We need to act.
-Mark Twain