14 April 2008
How to Manage Your Time During a Midlife Career Change
Posted by Nina under: Career Change; Career Planning; Job Search .
By Cathy Goodwin, Ph.D.
You’re considering a whole new career change. Maybe you’d like to return to school or even start a business. You’re feeling overwhelmed. What should you do first?
Most of us want a linear, step-by-step guide to our next career. We want to begin with introspection, filling out forms that list our values. We want to take tests. Occasionally a client even asks, “Do you have a test that will tell me what to do for the rest of my life?”
These questions make sense if you’re coming from ten or twenty years in a corporate setting. I like to compare corporate life to pro football: team members get rewarded for following a game plan and being in the right place at the right time. Your teammates don’t want surprises.
But when you enter your transition zone, your game begins to resemble playground basketball. No rules. No referee. Fight for your playing time.
The first thing that goes is your step-by-step, one-thing-at-a-time approach that served you so well in the corporate world. Now you learn to juggle several balls in the air. You have to risk distraction because you need to be open to new and innovative ideas.
(1) Get ready to be surprised.
During the exploration phase of a job search, I recommend keeping several irons in the fire. You might be considering careers in marketing or consulting - and wondering if you should return to school to become a lawyer or librarian.
Following one trail to the end may take weeks, even months. If you arrive at a dead end, you’ll have nothing to show for your efforts.
So make career search your priority and focus your efforts in this direction. But you’ll probably have to juggle two or three specific searches.
And believe it or not, research shows that most career-changers find their next niche by serendipity. They’re interviewing for information, surfing the Internet and attending workshops.
And then a neighbor says, “My sister just finished her degree in biomedical engineering” and you say, “Wow! That sounds perfect for me.”
(2) Recognize your working style.
Some people need to jump back and forth between activities to keep from getting bored and restless. Often gifted and creative clients report this pattern.
If you’re getting things done, you may have found your natural work style. But if you have half a dozen half-finished projects, you need to raise a red flag. Once again, think priorities. Are you spending most of your time on your most important projects? Or do you get distracted by non-essentials?
For instance, if you’re just starting a new business, you may work on multiple projects, but all serve your main goal of getting yourself established in the market.
(3) Choose a career that matches your working style.
Some careers require multi-tasking. Within one week, a college professor might (a) teach an introductory overview course, (b) lead a graduate seminar on a narrow topic, (c) design a research experiment, (d) revise a paper for a journal, (e) give a talk to a community group and (f) participate in committees to recommend procedural changes. And they’re also advising students, planning next semester’s class and a whole lot more.
Similarly, a trial lawyer may supervise interns, teach a class, appear in court, take a deposition and conduct research. If you thrive on variety and can keep a dozen balls in the air, you’ll love these careers.
But often you can customize your schedule to meet your unique needs to balance focus and multi-tasking.
* When “Samantha” consults with live clients, she has a hard time returning to her research and writing projects. So she decides to schedule all her clients, back-to-back, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, leaving her other workdays free to commune with her computer.
* “Vincent” needs variety. After giving a presentation, he’s eager to return to quieter tasks. He schedules presentations for morning and writes in the afternoon. He may even break up his day with client consultations.
* “Ken” prefers to focus, but realizes he can’t follow a rigid schedule while job hunting. He decides to focus on the most urgent activities for two hours each day. And he hires a coach to be sure he stays focused.
Bottom Line: Choose a career that supports your preferred working style. Look up every so often to see if your style is working - based on what you’re accomplishing, not on what “everyone else” is doing.
This article is based on Your 21-Day Time Management Makeover: http://www.cathygoodwin.com/timebook.html
About the Author
Cathy Goodwin, Ph.D., works with corporate executives, business-owners and professionals who want to win the First Inning of their Second Career. Cathy has created the 21-Day Extreme Career Makeover and authored Making the Big Move: Transforming Relocation into a Creative Life Transition.
Free Download: Why most career change fails (and how you can write your own success story). http://www.cathygoodwin.com/subscribe.
http://www.cathygoodwin.com/21days.html
goodwincathy@yahoo.com or (206) 819-0989