Adaptation—the Key to Survival
“61.8% of workers are considering a major career change in the coming year.”
That’s the conclusion of a recent iHire survey, as reported in the October 13 edition of BLR’s HR Daily Advisor. Nearly half of those considering a change said it was “very likely,”
Seismic shifts in jobs impacted by the pandemic (hospitality, culinary, travel, medicine, logistics, real estate, to name a few) have combined with growing employee disengagement and a general unrest in the American society to prod people to look around: “Is this what I want to be doing with my life?” has become a strong undercurrent across many sectors of our society. Decisions about career changes, while still weighty, have been influenced by a “If not now, when?” set of questions.
Personally, as someone who has had at least 7 real careers over a 50+ year period, I have a simple rule as to whether it’s time-not to consider a career change—but to make one: If I find myself lying in bed on a workday, wondering if I feel good enough to get up and go to work, it’s time!
Once you’ve made that fundamental decision, however you come to it, it’s time to consider the next, critical question: “What should I do next?” The wording of that question is very intentional; it’s not “What should I do with the rest of my life?”, as that’s a path to indecision…and we never really know, anyway. Along with my 7 career changes, I’ve had about 50 “5-year plans”! Things change, society evolves, we learn new things…it’s a world in flux.
So, the real question (“what should I do next?”) becomes several subquestions: What kind of career would I like, and be passionate about, and be likely to succeed in? Where do you find answers to those questions? It’s a complex riddle, and real, concrete information can be elusive.
Enter the world of scientific, validated Job Fit assessments: Research at Harvard and other institutions has produced a fertile source of information about jobs you’re likely to enjoy, engage with, and be successful in. They don’t pretend to make your decision, but they can help you narrow the fields, with real and concrete information to inform your decisions.
With an hour’s investment of your time and less money than you probably spent on Christmas, you can obtain a rank-ordered list of the careers that are most likely to work for you. Once you identify those you are interested in and willing to invest the necessary time, or money, or training (or all three), the same data can help you understand exactly where your biggest challenges will lie, where your basic strengths for that career may reside, and how you can address the challenges.
If you’re somewhere in this process, thinking about, considering, or planning a major career change, click on the link here, and we’ll send you a sample of the kind of information that’s available from this source. Yes, we’ll need your email, but we promise not to keep it, once we send you the sample reports. You won’t hear from us again, unless you request it.
We’re not career counselors, we don’t charge for our time, and we don’t give advice…but we can give you valid, unbiased information to help you with your decisions. Click the link…you have nothing to lose, and much to gain.