Neasa MacErlean
Embarking on an new career doesn’t have to be a harrowing experience. Here are a few pointers on making a smooth change:
* Understand that you can probably make a dramatic switch if you are completely determined – but few people are brave enough to try.
Most sacked executives end up in the same sector or using the same skills, such as poachers-turned-gamekeepers, or sports- players-turned-commentators. “I have never come across a medical practitioner who became a retail manager,” says one career consultant.
Overskilled and underskilled workers find change particularly difficult. Lawyers and accountants can rarely stomach the loss of income. Waitresses and barkeeps might have to get some qualifications.
* Analyse your motivation. A sacked aerobics instructor might, at first, want to leave the fitness industry forever. But when the anger wears off, the instructor could be happier just finding a better employer.
You may be tired of commuting from Midrand, but this doesn’t mean you can run a pub in Mpumalanga. Although more people are becoming self-employed, there are many who have unrealistic pipe dreams of driving cabs and making violins.
* Work out the specific trigger for your new outlook – normally one of three: lifestyle fatigue (for instance, you’re tired of commuting from Midrand); frustration with your role at work; or a general desire for change (perhaps because you haven’t kept up with information technology developments).
In the first two cases, you might simply need a change of scene; in the third, you might need to boost your confidence, by getting some training, for example, or finding a new role in life.
You may need to look for something new because you have been made redundant. Many people who are fired end up relishing a fresh start. Those who aren’t sacked can stay bored for years because they are too scared to leave.
* Don’t blame yourself for wanting or needing to change. People who don’t quite make it to the top often get angry with themselves. “They feel they have done something wrong,” says the consultant. You will find it hard to get another job with this outlook.
* Decide on half-a-dozen priorities, such as a job that involves no contact with the public, and is near your home. List your skills – qualities like report-writing or handling complaints as well as technical strengths. When you bring all this information together, you can probably come up with three or four possibilities.
Some gifted people build a new role from a hobby – the policeman-turned-photographer, for instance. With the growth of “lifetime learning”, many are going into part-time lecturing and writing.
* Resist the temptation to make your mark immediately once you start your new job, warns another consultant.
“Allow yourself a sponge-like settling-in period for perhaps three to six months. Don’t do things in a dramatic way because you’ll just drop the china.”