Posts | - Part 2

Shame and Job Change

Shame. That’s what a recent client told me he felt about his current situation. His employer was not satisfied with his performance on the job. They gave him an ultimatum: submit to a performance appraisal with strict KPIs or face termination.

My client had been hired by this company for a corporate finance role but after undergoing some restructuring a few years ago, they changed the terms and conditions of his employment by assigning him as Senior Product Manager, even though he had no experience for such a role.

His employer provided no training, so my client did the best he could to bring himself up to speed by learning relevant skills and knowledge on his own. But, according to his employer, that was not good enough.

My client wants to go back to his previous work in corporate finance but do so with another company. He feels shame that he couldn’t master the Senior Product Manager role. His confidence has been undermined by this negative experience. He asked me to help him navigate this difficult situation and find suitable employment.

Legal help

How to make an exit from his current employer? There are pros and cons to being terminated vs resigning–in terms of risks and benefits related to unemployment insurance, severance, reputation, and so on.

I am not an employment lawyer so I recommended my client engage one to help him sort through the repercussions of an exit.

Help from friends

In terms of finding suitable employment, we focused on the aspects of his corporate finance jobs that were consistently enjoyable and particularly satisfying. We identified former colleagues and contacts who appreciated his work in the past.

However, he still felt cobbled by feelings of shame due to his “failing” and didn’t want to disclose the reasons that he was looking for work. As a test run, we developed a script that he could use when conversing with family and friends about his situation. We revised it according to their feedback and his comfort level.

When he was ready, he reached out to a few contacts and was very surprised and happy how receptive they were to re-connect with him, which bolstered his confidence. One of them was ready to hire him on the spot but couldn’t do so due to budget constraints.

However, this contact referred him to a large employment agency that specialized in corporate finance roles. After some research, my client signed an agreement with that agency and was soon working in his field. His long-term goal is to move from a contract position to a permanent job with one of the clients he serves.

Overcoming highly charged emotions, like shame, requires time and attention…and a little help from our friends and career coach.

This is your best workplace

Now that pandemic restrictions have been lifted and most people are returning to their workplaces, I am seeing an increasing number of clients who don’t want to go back.

Most of them have been on some kind of mental health leave and the prospect of returning to work is causing a lot of anxiety and depression. Very often these are single mothers with good jobs but they feel trapped in golden handcuffs.

Each situation is unique, of course, and often complicated. But we have to start somewhere, so I usually start with looking at two key elements of a good job fit: (1) their core job duties, and (2) the work environment in which they perform those duties.

Core Job Duties

First, let’s be honest, there is no such thing as a perfect job where you are 100% happy and satisfied all the time. The world is just not organized that way! One key to job satisfaction is to spend 60% of your day or more performing job duties that energize you.

Because, let’s face it, many job duties are just grunt work, things you can do but don’t really enjoy doing—in fact, these job duties drain you. Think of your energy level like a bank account; if you keep withdrawing money from it 60% of the time and only putting money in 40% of the time, then you are on the path to financial stress, even bankruptcy. It might take 10-20 years, but you will crash!

List the job duties that you regularly perform day in and day out. Then, ask yourself, what percentage of an average workday do I spend performing job duties that drain or bore me? If it’s greater than 50%, you’re in trouble with your health and well-being.

Work Environment

You could have the best job duties in the world but if you work in a toxic work environment with a bad boss or mean-spirited colleagues, your stress levels will skyrocket. Working each day in circumstances that don’t align with your values, priorities, and preferences will aggravate you at best and drain you at worst.

For example, who controls the pace of work is critical…tight deadlines and high-speed is a source of stress if you are not motivated by pressure. If you have no say over what you do, the way you do it, and who you do it with, then your mental health will suffer serious consequences.

Job fit and satisfaction are influenced by many factors related to what energizes you in terms of core job duties and what brings out the best in you in terms of a work environment.

If you feel confused or sick about your current work situation, let’s meet to discuss your unique situation.

When your job makes you sick

The founder of the Ford Motor Company, Henry Ford, once said, “Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t—you’re right.”

What we think, what we believe, reveals our deepest values. When somebody tells me they really want to change careers but don’t think they can, what they often mean is that they can’t afford to… because they believe that changing careers means trading their current income for something much less.

Fair enough, I get it, money makes the world go round, so their current income is more important to them than anything else…until it isn’t.

For example, the one situation where money becomes much less important is when a person’s health is jeopardized by their job, i.e. when they become too sick, physically or mentally, to keep doing a job, especially if the job itself is making them sick.

After 30 years as a career counsellor, I have seen this scenario play out hundreds of times. Many of my clients were forced to change careers due to severe back pain, neck and shoulder pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, cancer, heart conditions, depression, crippling anxiety, addiction, and other common conditions.

Those with health benefits often go on long term disability which often only delays the inevitable eventuality of having to find other work. But serious pain usually forces many of these unlucky individuals into a career change.

Either way, hard choices are involved because lifestyles will change one way or another; maybe for better, maybe for worse.

Henry Ford filed for bankruptcy twice before he was able to succeed with his Ford Motor Company. Clearly, thinking positively is not enough to guarantee success.

Ford had to make a plan, take effective actions, make corrections when things didn’t work out, recruit help from others when necessary, and keep going with a clear goal in mind. But, surely, thinking that he could do it must have helped him through some difficulties!

Making a career change means making changes in your life. That’s a simple fact.

Getting sick only forces you to make them.

If you’re healthy now, use your time wisely to create the changes you want!

To be or not to be…who you are!

I had a client recently who is passionate about animal care…always has been, since childhood.

At least once a year, for the past 30 years, someone like her enters my practice. Sometimes young, or middle age, male or female—what they all have in common is this inner longing to take care of animals…for them a stronger desire than taking care of people.

And yet, none of them had been able to move beyond the care of their own pets. Most of them tried pet-sitting or dog-walking or some related low skill, low pay job but couldn’t make enough money to make ends meet.

Finding the right path

Like my client this week, they go into other careers, usually because they had no desire or inclination to be a vet or a vet’s assistant. As my client said, “I want to care for them, not kill them!” This is a typical rationale for such clients: when the most obvious option that society offers (e.g., be a vet) is not one that interests them, they give up on their heartfelt aspiration.

In her case, she worked as a cashier, custodian, martial arts instructor, and finally trained and worked as a Rehab Assistant, caring for individuals recovering from accidents…but she quit after two years because it didn’t meet her expectations.

She’s determined now to find a career working with animals, which is the only thing she really wants to do. I assured her that there were dozens of animal care jobs, including many she’d never of heard of, and many that don’t require a lot of education or training.

Choosing the right path

In general, jobs with animals fall into three categories: service (care & feeding), resource development and conservation.

I gave her a list of all the jobs related to animal care, everything from animal trainer to bison farmer to wildlife photographer. I gave her a list of education programs for Resource Development and Animal Conservation.
She loved the idea of wildlife rehabilitation but didn’t want to go back to school.

In the end, she decided to start with Kennel Attendant and work towards owning and operating her own kennel someday. She may even return to Rehab Assistant part-time, or on contract, to save money to buy some property for a kennel near Winnipeg.

She is finally accepting who she is in terms of her right work and taking responsibility for what she wants in life.

Living the right path

Very often our right work shows up early in life, but other values, priorities, advice, or circumstances get in the way of us following our instincts, intuition, or heartfelt desires.

We often get knocked off our right path early in life and end up surviving on another one…but not thriving.

It’s never too late to get back on it. Sure, it might not be ideal, but it will certainly be deeply satisfying and rewarding in ways that are often hard to explain to others who have different values or priorities.

Be who you are…you won’t regret it.

JobJoy Smile – Animal Puns

Q: What do you call a sleeping bull?
A: A bull-dozer.

Q: How do you fit more pigs on your farm?
A: Build a sty-scraper!

Q: What did the farmer call the cow that had no milk?
A: An udder failure.

Q: Why do gorillas have big nostrils?
A: Because they have big fingers!

Q: Why are teddy bears never hungry?
A: They are always stuffed!

Q: Why do fish live in salt water?
A: Because pepper makes them sneeze!

Q: What do you get from a pampered cow?
A: Spoiled milk.

Q: Where do polar bears vote?
A: The North Poll

Time to celebrate, time to plan

It’s the end of another calendar year and a new one is right around the corner.

For the past 10 years, I’ve developed the habit reviewing my Daytimer (yes, I still prefer the paper version), starting day by day in last January and writing down all my accomplishments and activities that I most enjoyed right up to mid-December.

Why Plan

Human nature is such that we focus on the negative events in our lives. For example, my mother passed away last June. But, by reviewing, the good things that I achieved in my work and life for the past year puts her death in a more positive perspective for me.

When you break it down, life is such a gift, and I’m grateful to my mother for giving me a chance at a life brimming with wonderful experiences, both professional and personal. Sure, we’re all going to die, but my annual review reminds me that there’s a lot of living to do before then. And, by living, I mean doing what I find to be important and satisfying.

That is why I usually spend some time early in the New Year to reflect on my annual list of enjoyable experiences and think about my priorities for the coming year.

What to Plan

For example, I just picked up a piece of paper and created columns with the following headings: Social, Family/Household, Mental, Physical/Health, Financial, Professional, Spiritual. I wrote Jan-June 2023 at the bottom of the paper.

During the next month, I will write down the things I plan to do in each of those categories for the first 6 months of the year. I plan to do SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, timely) things. I will write some actions in the Jan & Feb pages of my new Daytimer to move me closer to achieving those things.

When to Act

Every two months or so, I go back to my piece of paper to review my priorities and plans and ask myself: “Do I still really want to do that?” If, yes, I take another action. If not, I leave it for the time being. Sometimes I add or delete certain activities.

What matters most to you in your professional and personal life? Do you invest time and energy to achieve those things?

The Payoff

Having done this now for the past decade, I am delighted with how much I accomplish each year. It is so easy to get caught up in the daily grind of life and forget about what really matters to us. But the things that matter don’t happen by themselves; instead, they require our attention and action.

Plug them into your schedule and enjoy an annual review of your personal and professional achievements. End each year in celebration…then plan for the next!

3 Tips for making a career change without a pay cut

The biggest fear most people express is their belief that a career change means a big pay cut and, therefore, a poorer lifestyle. This belief is based on an assumption that a career change means starting over from scratch. Not so.

Fear of pay cut is a feeling not a fact.

The fact is that there are so many job opportunities in our current economy, up to 90,000 job titles and more being added each day with new and expanding industries. Plus, there is a shortage of workers in most sectors. Workers with skills and experience are in high demand, which means they are commanding higher salaries. It’s important to investigate a career change target for facts. Then develop a plan to optimize your chances of achieving a career change that results in no pay cut.

Focus on assets not liabilities.

Nobody is starting over. There is no substitute for work or life experience. In my 30 years as a career professional, I’ve found that most individuals underestimate their true market value, especially when it comes to the soft skills that they’ve acquired, such as problem-solving, creativity, adaptability, communication, and teamwork. Many of them have also acquired other transferable skills, such as knowledge or experience in administration, management, marketing, accounting, training, or finance. In most cases, any deficit they have in terms of subject matter expertise or technical skill can usually be overcome in relatively short order with on-the-job experience or a micro-credential because most career changers have learned how to learn, often quickly and easily.

Get support.

A career change requires a plan and support to execute that plan. Career changers need encouragement and emotional support, especially from family and friends. But they also benefit from professional help to guide them through the different stages of change:

how to reposition and repackage their value proposition;
how to navigate the job market;
how to communicate their value proposition in an interview with a hiring manager;
and, how to negotiate a better compensation package.

Top 3 factors to a successful career change in midlife

In the last few years, even during the pandemic, I’ve helped a significant number of individuals make real career changes into a new field or into self-employment. Based on this experience, here’s the top 3 reasons they did so:

1. Know where to look

There are lots of opportunities in today’s job market but only in specific sectors. By doing a deep analysis of their transferable skills, we identified which sectors will recognize, reward, and motivate them. We start with the sectors where there is high demand and high growth.

2. Know how to look

We position and package them for specific jobs in those sectors. We master the online application process and identify a few very specific people to approach offline for leads and referrals. Then we prep for interviews by developing compelling stories that demonstrate in very clear and concise terms how they can help these employers make money, save money, improve productivity, attain efficiencies, meet difficult deadlines—all the bottom-line stuff that adds value to an organization.

3. Stick to it.

Most of these people had some financial security because, by a combination of their age and covid circumstances, the value of their assets (especially their house) had gone up a lot, so they did not feel desperate. This allowed them to really focus on attaining the kind of work that energized them, work that gave them purpose or meaning, rather than settling on something just to pay bills. They felt liberated, empowered! This positive attitude enabled their job search.
In addition, they found it quicker and easier to acquire a new credential, or skill, or subject matter expertise with all the micro-credentials available online. Succeeding with a credential boosted their confidence in interviews and helped them make their case for employment in a new field. They could speak with authority and authenticity on how they would handle certain situations in a job.

Conclusion

Making a successful career change in mid-life is really about understanding and communicating your past accomplishments at work and in life, and how they fit the needs and priorities of a potential employer. By mid-life, you’ve succeeded in many things that support you to succeed in a career change!

Starting over is not starting from scratch

A local client came to me recently seeking a career transition after 23 years in the same job. Like many others before her, she asked, “Is it even possible?”

In their minds or, to be more accurate, in their emotions, it feels like a career change means “starting over” from the point of departure 23 years ago when they started their career from scratch.

No, a career change doesn’t mean you are starting from the beginning. Having been in the world of work for 23 years, this client has many transferable skills and knowledge because there is no substitute for experience.

To transition to certain jobs that require a specific license to practice—such as medicine or law—then a career change might involve much more education.

But for many individuals, including this client, there are dozens of jobs that match her work experience. I provided her a list of such jobs that she can easily transition to without further education.

And, today, there over 1500 micro-credentials that she can acquire in the space of a few weeks or months that will qualify her for dozens of other jobs that are in demand.

With just a little career exploration and a few hours of simple research or assessment exercises, most individuals can identify a handful of job targets.

Then it’s a question of hitting those targets with proven job search strategies and tactics.

Remember, it only takes one employer to recognize your value in this very dynamic job market in which employers a desperate to meet with experienced candidates.

Some individuals prefer to go all in with a job search. They quit their current job and dedicate themselves to finding a better job fit.

Others, like my recent client with 23 years’ experience, prefer to keep their current job while taking small steps to reposition themselves for jobs that they are targeting as a better fit.

Return To Work

A client in Calgary is looking to return to work after 12 years of childcare, eldercare and pandemic isolation.

Like many individuals in her situation, she does not like the idea of jumping into job hunting after an extended absence.

In her case, we are undertaking an assessment of her natural talents and previous work and education to match with sectors of the economy where there is a high demand for new employees.

Then we will identify the micro-credential that she can acquire in the shortest time that she can leverage into a targeted sector where there is a significant shortage of workers.

This is the quickest way to re-enter the workforce—to acquire a technical skill that is in high demand by employers. Here is a link to the Massive Open Online Courses.

The great advantage for workers nowadays is that the preponderance of remote work expands options for individuals with a technical skill, especially a computer-related technical skill, because computer skills are now core skills required in traditional sectors—such as transportation, healthcare, manufacturing, education, public administration—as well as new sectors, such as IT, SaaS, cybersecurity, data science…so workers are not restricted to jobs only in their geographic area. Instead, they can work remotely from anywhere in the country for employers located anywhere.

The key is to identify the sector and skill that best suits you for a return to work sooner rather than later.

If you would like to discuss your situation, please contact me.

Hiring Trends for 2022

This year is shaping up as an excellent time for many workers to grab better job opportunities, secure better pay packages, ask for additional benefits and perks, and ride out this wave before it fizzles out.

If you’re going to look for a job in 2022, adjusting your actions with these trends in mind might give you a quicker and easier result:

1. Online job search is now dominated by Artificial Intelligence. All recruiters and most companies now screen candidates into a competition with algorithms searching for keywords and other data on your application or resume. This means it is not a human being but a machine that is deciding if you are worth time and effort to interview. You may be a perfect candidate in terms of your experience and skills but if you don’t know how to get through the AI portals with a green light, then you will not make it to the next step.

2. There is an acute labour shortage in many sectors. The pandemic has produced a lot of job churn in some organizations, e.g., when older workers take early retirement or get recruited into better jobs, or when younger workers leave for family reasons or to find better jobs. This means that you can look for opportunities with your current employer, even a lateral move but ask for higher pay. It also means that new graduates should target preferred employers and ask for higher pay and perks than they could expect previously in a tighter job market.

3. Negotiating higher salaries and benefits is becoming normal for workers with significant experience as employers are more willing to negotiate to retain talent and experience. Perks and benefits have expanded to include not only health care but parenting leave, family planning, childcare support, and flexibility in terms of hybrid office/home employment.

4. Remote work has its pros and cons. Some organizations are indeed offering competitive salaries to workers who live in different geographic locations than head office. However, once this war for talent calms down, workers may find their employers reducing pay scales to level the pay gap between geographic locations or lower salaries in general by hiring more global talent working from developing countries.

Career professionals: whadda dey know?

The rate of people changing jobs has been growing month-to-month as the economy slowly recovers from its pandemic lows of 2021.

Information about work and skills is in high demand. But a labour market study published during November 2021 shows that only 1 out of 5 adults (of about 15 million adults aged 25-64 in Canada) make use of career services to help with their career decisions. The other 80% tend to rely on family and friends for career advice.

Not surprising, since most career decisions are private matters, and most adults turn to people they trust for advice during different stages of their lives:

– What to study while in high school.

– What to do with a diploma or degree after graduating from college or university.

– How to get out of the educated-but-under-employed rut.

– How to deal with job loss or long-term unemployment.

– How to advance in career once one is employed.

– How to change jobs or careers without a major loss of income.

– How to find a job as a newcomer to Canada.

– How to retire but keep working.

As a career professional for 30 years, I’ve encountered all these situations and continue to do so as many of my past clients refer their family and friends to me ( thank you! ) to advise them on these important transitions.

Help is available

Studies also show that people who use career professionals to assist with these decisions have better outcomes more often than people who rely only on family and friends for advice.

I get it…it can be confusing to navigate the career services ecosystem to find what you need at any stage in your life because there exists a complex set of services—some provided by schools, some by government departments or third-party agencies (funded by government), or non-profit agencies, or private sector companies, or independent practitioners (like me). The different career terms, supports and capacity used by these service providers adds to the confusion.

I am not the career professional suited for everyone. It is important for me to know if or how I can best help you. And to steer you in the right direction. I need to earn your trust.

That is why I do my best to read these studies, to engage in continuous learning, to update my credentials, so that I can provide you with reliable and accurate guidance about work and skills in this country and elsewhere. You deserve it!