146:  How to Make a Proactive and Personalized Career Change with Jenn Smith

How do you know when it’s time to make another change? This is the topic we’ll be discussing today on Welcome back to the Career Clarity Show! Today’s host is Career Clarity Coach Jenn Smith. We are breaking down the fundamental framework for initiating a personalized and proactive job search. If you are someone who was feeling the nudge to make a career change, but you don’t know where to start, then this episode is for you. 

Show Notes:

• Believing in Yourself: A Critical Step on the Path to Success
• 12 New Job Hunt Strategies That’ll Re-Energize Your Search
• Career Clarity Show podcast episode 141: Professional Branding in a Career Change
• LinkedIn 
• IG: @flourish.careers
• Roadmap to a Fulfilling Career eBook

Subscribe to The Career Clarity Show on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, and Google Play.

And, follow The Career Clarity Show on Facebook and Instagram — and sign up below to receive emails when new episodes come out!

Transcript

Lisa Lewis Miller  0:04   

Welcome to the Career Clarity Show. If you want to create a career path you’ll love you’re in the right place. I’m Lisa Lewis Miller, career change coach, published author and your host, and each week, we’ll bring you personal transformation stories, advice and insights from experts about how you can find a more fulfilling, soulful and joyful career.

Jenn Smith  0:30  

Hello, and welcome back to the Career Clarity Show. I’m your host Career Clarity coach Jenn Smith. And on today’s episode of the podcast, I am going to talk you through the fundamental framework for initiating a personalized and proactive job search. So if you are someone who was feeling the nudge to make a career change, but you don’t know where to start, then this episode is for you. A lot of times, job seekers think the first step in conducting a search is updating their resume, when really that should be one of the last steps or job seekers are spending all of their time Doom scrolling the big job boards and end up just feeling depleted and overwhelmed. And in this kind of vicious circle of not knowing where to start. So today we’re going to talk through the four steps in executing a proactive and personalized search. So step one is to reset your mindset in order to make room and invite in a new change. Step two is determining what’s next. Here at Career Clarity Show we do this by reflecting on the four pillars of career fulfillment, which I’m going to walk you through. Step three is crafting your career hypotheses in terms of what’s next and then developing a plan to test the waters. The last thing we want is for you to land a new role. And then three months later, realize it’s not a fit. So we have ideas on how to help you mitigate that risk. And then finally, step four in the process. Once you know where you’re going, it’s time to refresh your professional brand. articulate your value, differentiate yourself and land your next best role. So before we get into the meaty content, I wanted to start with a bit of reflection. So think about your current or your most recent job. How do you feel at the beginning of each day? Are you excited to drive into work or to log into your computer before you start your day? At the end of the day? Are you feeling completely drained and depleted? Or are you feeling accomplished. So I’m a big fan of the idea that work should cultivate your energy, not drain your energy. And when you’re in a job, that’s a good fit for you. You should feel energy when starting your day, you should feel excited, you should feel ready to you know, conquer, conquer your day, you should feel accomplished. When you’re completing your workday. You should feel light and free as you navigate your day. You might even lose track of time because you love the work that you’re doing. You’re working with people who are your people they get you. It’s almost like somebody put you into a slingshot and let you go into the land of opportunity and possibility. That’s what work should feel like we spend 90,000 hours at work in a lifetime that’s 1/3 of our lifetime at work. It should cultivate your energy.

Jenn Smith  4:05  

And most of the time when we’re searching for a new job, or we’re thinking about making a career change. We are reactive. As I mentioned, a lot of people talk about Doom scrolling the big job boards just to see what’s out there. But we don’t really put the time and thought and energy into figuring out exactly what we want and the kinds of jobs that would bring us energy each day. So to me working in a job that doesn’t fit is like a princess working on Wall Street. So can you picture Cinderella and her poofy blue gown and perfectly applied makeup and glowy skin working on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. The energy that is burned or trying to fit in or pretend is so much greater than when you’re working in a place that is different for you. Now, I’m not saying that jobs are all about going from, you know, magically scrubbing floors to dancing and fancy corporate ballrooms. Although I do believe there are practical ways to move toward a career path that fits much more perfectly like Cinderella’s glass slipper. So let’s talk about the framework. Step one, in preparing for a career change is your mindset. The biggest piece of making a change is your mindset, you must believe that you can do it. I know it’s so easy to get caught up in the excuses. But I would challenge you to cultivate growth, be the exception, ask questions, get curious, be future driven, and really challenge yourself to have the growth mindset that you need to make a change. And the one thing I would I would ask that you think about here is think about getting different outcomes. In order to make a change and get something different out of your work, you’re going to have to shift your activities, your mindset and your behaviors. Now I’m going to share a couple ideas on how to do this. So the first is routine, and rituals. So creating habits that are going to lead you to have that growth mindset. One example might be starting or adjusting your morning routine, you know, figuring out how you want to set the intention for your day. So for me, I love to get outside every single morning, get some fresh air, listen to music or a podcast. And that’s really going to set the stage for the day. Some people really enjoy journaling. I like gratitude journals, spending just a few minutes writing what you’re grateful for, to start your day or end your day is a great ritual or habit to get into. Then you want to think about dedicated time for your job search. It is not healthy to job search all day, every single day. It’s more about quality over quantity. And knowing that your schedule is already full, you want to think about what do you need to stop doing or what do you need to start doing in order to dedicate quality time for your job search. This could be something just as easy as 15 to 20 to 30 minutes, every other day. So just something that you can fit in to your calendar. And then finally, Spark momentum. So do something good for yourself. And to me, it only takes just a couple minutes. So the more healthier, the more well rounded, the more happier you feel, the better you’re going to come across to contacts and potential employers as you get into your search. So that’s step one is resetting your mindset. Step two is to reflect on your unique characteristics. So what makes you you, and this is really a chance to take inventory of your values, your knowledge, your traits, your interests, and your strengths. And so at here at Career Clarity Show, we talk about this as the four pillars of career fulfillment. So the first is the foundation. And it’s not necessarily one of the four pillars, but it’s really important to understand your core values. We call them your Northstar values or your meaning makers. And the main benefit of knowing your values is that you will gain tremendous clarity and focus once you know your values. And you can use them to make consistent decisions and take committed action. So when you start to come up with some ideas around what’s next, or make decisions around what’s next, you can rate them to your core values. And that will help you make a decision.

Jenn Smith  9:06  

So the whole point of discovering your core values is to improve the results you get in determining what’s truly most important to you, and to help you make those decisions to move forward. So when you think about your values, you can start to think about things that are most important to you. You can think about what you stand for or how you want to leave a legacy in your career. So thinking about these questions not only supports you in thinking about your potential career, it will help you make decisions and it will also help you start to frame your professional brand and understanding who you are, what you do and what you stand for. This is what helps you stand out in a job search. Now we get into the four pillars of career fulfillment. So first I’m going to talk about your strengths and gifts. So your strengths and get ifs are built up over time, they are things that you actually enjoy doing. So a lot of times we talk to folks, and they just keep doing the same things because they’re told they’re good at it, but they don’t like it. To me, what’s the point? Yeah, it feels good to, you know, get complimented on things that you’re good at doing. But if you don’t actually enjoy doing them, then you don’t want to continue doing them. So your strengths and gifts should relate to your responsibilities in a job, don’t get me wrong, there is probably not, you know, a job out there, that’s going to be 110%. You know, leveraging your strengths and gifts. But it should be the majority of your day to day work. And a good way to think about what you’re good at, is to conduct an energy audit. So this is both thinking about what you’re good at, and what you actually enjoy doing. So an energy audit is one of my favorite things to do with clients. And it’s super simple. All you do is think through your work history, which jobs or tasks really ignited your energy. And, and this isn’t surface level. So you want to go deep here and really start to see if there are themes or responsibilities that you think about that you reflect on that you really love to doing. And you want to do more of that. You can pay attention to your body as you’re thinking about this. So when you think about your different roles and responsibilities, if you get that get those butterflies in your stomach, like you want to do more of that, that is a sure sign that that’s a strength and a gift of yours that you enjoy doing that you want to do more of in your next best role.

Jenn Smith  11:45  

Then we talk about your magnetic interest. So aligning your interests to the industry you work in, can really help with career fulfillment. So this is a kind of a harsh example. But I had a client who was working for a government agency that supported the tobacco industry. Meanwhile, his father had lung cancer from smoking. So every single day, he’s getting up and going into work and supporting an industry that literally is harming his father. So you can imagine the contrast of working in an industry that doesn’t align with your magnetic interests. Now, their example I had a recent client who was working in the news media industry, and was just feeling really burnt out from the the intensity of that industry. And so we started exploring their interests and found out I found out that they spend majority of their free time playing games, so board games, video games, card games, they’re doing game nights and organizing, you know, with their friends and family all the time. And so making a shift into the gaming industry, specifically the video game industry, which by the way, is a $175 $175 billion industry. So making a shift from working in this kind of like news and media cycle that was a constant turn and burn out for them into something that they truly enjoyed was a game changer. And a lot of times people think making an industry shift can never happen because they don’t quote unquote, understand the industry. But I personally think that making an industry change is one of the most fulfilling and best ways. And I hate to use the word easy because none of this is easy. But it’s actually a lot easier to make an industry change than it is to make a role change. So just something to think about there. And then the third component to career fulfillment, or the third pillar to career fulfillment, is your personality. So your personality should be aligned to the company, your team and your manager. So you want to make sure it’s a comfortable fit. When I was thinking about this, it brought me to a time in my own career where I felt like a complete outsider. So I was working with a team that just literally was the complete opposite of me. It was so uncomfortable going to work every day. And I remember the situation where we actually did a DISC assessment as a team, if you’re not familiar disc is an assessment tool that’s used in a lot of workplaces to improve teamwork and communication at work. And each of the letters d i s c stands for a particular type of personality. So DS tend to be very competent and placed an emphasis on accomplishing bottom line results. Eyes are much more open and enjoy relationships and enjoy Seeing or persuading others, SS tend to be more dependable, and cooperative. And then C’s are very focused on quality or accuracy of work. So we all took these took this assessment, and then we mapped everybody. And there was about 70 people in this group. So as multilayer team, and I remember this big map up on the wall, and I was the only one in the s and d quadrant, everybody else was very high i and d. And I remember just thinking about myself thinking to myself, Wow, if this isn’t an indication that I am not a fit here, I don’t know what is. So you really want to make sure ahead of time that your team that you’re joining is going to feel very comfortable for you. And then finally, the fourth pillar that we dig into is lifestyle needs. So this is a big one. So many people are demanding flexibility in their schedules, or their location of work or their hours. So it’s really important to understand what you need in this bucket. And then make sure your organization or your role or your industry is going to allow for that prior to making a change.

Jenn Smith  16:19  

So after you’ve done some reflection on your four pillars, as well as your values, it’s time to proactively come up with some different hypotheses that are going to be a fit for you. So we no longer are you feeling like you have to contort yourself to fit into a job description or an organization, it’s much more proactive. And at Career Clarity Show we call this designing your strategic career hypotheses. So essentially taking all of this information after this deep dive into what makes you you, and mapping that to a new path. And the way that I like to think about this is thinking about different ideas in terms of the role that’s related to your strengths that you actually enjoy using the industry that’s related to interest of yours, and then the company that in the team, that’s going to be a really good fit for you. And so when you think about that, when you start kind of getting out there and doing the research, you have to start with a goal. And I really think about shifting our mindset from smart goals, the traditional, Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and time bound goals, more to heart based goals, to really make sure they’re aligned with you, your values and your core pillars of career fulfillment. So to me, I want to shift the SMART goals to heart based goals. And what that acronym stands for is the H is heart centered. So you’re making choices that are in alignment with your core values, that he is for energizing. So does this goal or does this hypotheses fire you up? Does it motivate you and tap into your strengths? If it doesn’t go back to the drawing board? Is this career hypotheses agile for a so things are moving at a rapid pace, this day and age, you have to be able to iterate and be nimble, the R stands for realistic. So we want to make sure that things are going to feel really doable for you. So breaking it down into small chunks, and testing the waters which we’re going to talk about next. And then the T is for thorough and tactical. And this is where all the details come in. So, you know, I’m a big fan of translating goals into or hypotheses into action. And so what does it look like? When are you going to do it, get it on the calendar, something happens when you give yourself a deadline and put it on the calendar. So really, these goals or these career hypotheses are authentic and they tie back to you, your core and your why they should reconnect you to what matters most and give you the energy to move forward with purpose. So once you have some ideas of what’s next, it’s time to test the waters. And I like to break this down into three key areas experience, exposure, and education. So it’s a fact that 70% of development comes from experiences, getting out there and doing it. So what are some stretch assignments that you could take on at work to start moving into a different role or learn about a new industry? Maybe there’s a volunteer opportunity you could take on. I love when I work with clients who are super excited about breaking into a new industry. And they take on volunteer assignments that usually end up turning into a actual paid role. Maybe you could freelance. That’s how I started career coaching, I started freelancing, or a side hustle actually getting paid for, for the new industry or the new work that you want to be doing. But experience and trying it out before you do it is the most important piece of creating a plan.

Jenn Smith  20:35  

The second bucket exposure is another big one. So 70 plus 70%. plus percent of jobs come from networking. And 20% of learning comes from learning from others. So this comes in the form of mentorship, feedback, coaching, visibility, and meeting other people that are doing the work you want to do, or at the companies you want to work at. And then the third bucket in your plan is education. So there’s a big Watch out here, because tons of people I talked to talk themselves out of exploring a new path, because they think they have to go back to school and get another degree. So I’m a big fan of learning. Online, there are so many online courses, so many ways to get certifications, so many blogs that you can read so many podcasts that you can listen to so many conferences, you can attend even just online, and learn what you need to learn before going into a new role. And it’s also a fact that only 10% of learning comes from actual education. So online courses, getting a degree a certification, reading a book. So it’s really in your best interest to spend your time doing experiences, and gaining exposure to people that are going to help you in your career change. So try not to get caught up in education, it is a big piece of it. But there are shorter term ways that you can get gain information and learn versus feeling like you have to go back to school. So bottom line action is the number one way to start to make your career change happen. So get out there and do the thing, build the skills, it is going to be messy, trust me, but you will get better. And once you start taking that action, it’ll turn into your career change. So I’m going to give you a quick example here of a career hypotheses and development plan are testing the waters. So for example, Jacob had eight years in food manufacturing, he has a background in quality and machine operation, and started to feel the need to make a change. So he did an energy audit and determined that he gained the most energy from decision making and leading others. And so he wanted to his next best role to be some sort of a leadership role. He’s also super passionate about children spending more time outdoors, versus spending time in front of a computer screen. So he decided that he wanted to make a pivot into the outdoor recreation industry. So he did all of his reflection and came up with this hypotheses. He did a little bit more work and narrowed down his top three companies that were that he felt like were going to be a good fit for him. And so then from there, he built his career development plan around the three key areas that I mentioned, experience, exposure and education. So in terms of experience, he decided to take on an informal leadership position in his current job, leading the safety team, and that is something he knew he could do right away because he knew that they were looking for new safety team captains. So we started there. Then he decided he would volunteer at the local Boat Show event to learn more about the boating industry since obviously, that’s outdoor recreation, and it was an area that he wanted to explore.

Jenn Smith  24:52  

And then his third action or under the experience bucket was to join a hiking group organized by art He is to learn more about Rei, and how they lead outdoor events. So these were three things that he wanted to do actual experience that he wanted to gain, to learn more about what was going on in the outdoor recreation industry. Then from there, he thought about the exposure or the people bucket. And he decided to schedule an informational interview with the manager of North Marine, to learn about that person’s career path and how they broke into the industry. Find out what they love about it, what they don’t love about it, what the challenges are, and really just learn for some from somebody that’s doing it. Then he decided he was going to join the local slow roll bike team to meet more people who enjoy outdoor recreation. So this is an opportunity to surround himself with like minded people and really get a feel for what’s going on in the industry. And then he also decided to search LinkedIn for others who work at REI and connect with them and set up a couple of different informational interviews again, to learn more, and to start building his network at an organization that he was really excited about working at. And then finally, in the education bucket, he decided that he was going to register for some online leadership courses, specifically about giving and receiving feedback. Then he wanted to read the book, Good to Great by Jim Collins, which is an excellent book. And then he wanted to seek out and subscribe to the top progressive leadership podcasts. And so you can see this is a pretty robust development plan or pretty, pretty robust plan to test his hypotheses around making a shift into the outdoor recreation industry and building his leadership skills. So then from there, and the other thing, too, is that it’s not too many things. So you had three ideas in each of those buckets to go out and test the water. So it wasn’t super overwhelming, getting it on the calendar, putting dates to each of these. So it didn’t feel like you had to do it, or he had to do it all in one week or anything like that. It takes a little bit of time, you know, to build these experiences and build the network and gain the education. And then from there, you can easily hopefully, start making decisions on whether or not this is going to be a good step for you. So either you do these experiences, meet the people and learn and decide, yes, I definitely want to go down this route. Or no, this doesn’t feel quite right yet. Let me go back to the drawing board and reevaluate what needs to change in order to make this shift.

Jenn Smith  27:58  

So now that we’ve reset our mindsets, we have taken inventory of all of our unique characteristics and determined what we’re looking for in our next best role or company or industry. We’ve created our hypotheses and tested the waters. Now it’s time to jump into the job search and make the transition happen. And this is where you start thinking about refreshing your professional brand in terms of your resume, your LinkedIn profile, and your conversations. So you really want to think about being memorable. And you want to make this a balance of where you’ve been, as well as where you want to go. So I recently shared a solo episode, I’m building your brand. I’ll put that in the show notes. And you can go deep if this is an area that you need more help on. This is also about building your network and your resume very strategically. So this isn’t about just regurgitating your entire history. It’s It’s again, that balance of where you’ve been translated to where you want to go. It is up to you to translate your previous experience and relate it accordingly to your next best role, industry or company. You can use LinkedIn to share your ideas. So I love when clients are interested in coming up with a content strategy and really elevating their brand to let people know who they are and what they stand for. You could write blog posts or share industry trends. This is really going to elevate you having an opinion about your new role or your new industry or your new company is going to elevate you in your job search. You also want to practice talking about who you are, what you do and what you’re looking for. So when you’re making a shift or a change in your career, it’s hard, because you’ve always been, you know this previous identity. And you have to let that go and start practice. Practice talking about, you know you in this new in this new light. So talking about what guides and fuels your work, sharing personal anecdotes or stories about why you do the work you do, or why you want to do the work that you do is going to be really important. And then letting people know what you’re looking for. It sounds so simple, but people just don’t do it. And trust me, people genuinely want to help other people, they just need to know how. So if you tell someone what you’re looking for, they will be able to help you in the best way possible. And then finally, differentiating yourself by adding value. So this is really important. I think a lot of people think about networking, and it’s this slimy thing. And it’s asking for something, and it’s asking for a job. And it’s just icky. But when you think about it in ways that you can add value, and helping others or sharing useful information with your network, or connecting people to each other, or helping somebody with their interview prep or talking about themselves. So when you do this, and you kind of open up and lead with your heart and add value, it’s going to make you memorable, it will help differentiate you in the job search and make you memorable. So this concludes the overview of the framework. And as a recap, the fundamental elements to making your career change happen include resetting your mindset, inviting the change, believing in yourself, pausing to reflect on your unique characteristics. At Career Clarity . we like to break it down into the four pillars of career fulfillment, your strengths, your magnetic interests, your personality, and your lifestyle needs along with your foundational core values. From there, you’re going to craft your career hypotheses, and test the waters. And you can do this by creating a plan with the essential elements of learning, including experience, exposure, and education. And then finally, you want to refresh your brand, build new relationships and make your change happen. I know that this is easier said than done, I will pull together a handful of resources and include them in the show notes if you found this helpful. So that’s a wrap for today’s episode. Thank you again for joining us on The Career Clarity Show. As always, you can find the notes from today’s episode at GetCareerClarity.com/podcast. Talk to you next time.

Lisa Lewis Miller  33:05  

And that’s a wrap. Let us know what you thought about today’s episode. Leave us a review on Apple podcasts. Because not only can your stars and word to help us find great guests and topics to feature on future episodes. Your input also helps other people find the resources they need to discover the work that lights them up. And make sure to check out my book Career Clarity: Finally Find the Work that Fits Your Values and Lifestyle. For the link to order it go to GetCareerClarity.com/book And don’t forget to get your other tools resources and helpful goodies at GetCareerClarity.com/podcast. Thanks again for joining us for the Career Clarity Show today. And remember, if you don’t love your work, we should talk because life is too short to be doing work that doesn’t light you up. Talk to you next time.