Learn from those before you

16 January 2018

As this new career year unfolds what sorts of shifts, pivots, or leaps are you considering?

Before making any career change (a new job, study, promotion, volunteering, retiring…) one of the most useful things you can do is chat with someone who has gone before you.  Have an open, generous, curious conversation with someone who has taken the step(s) you are considering.  The information and insights to be gained are invaluable in helping you realistically prototype the change you are considering.

Being willing to really talk to someone about a potential career move means being willing to move beyond a romanticized, fairytale idea of a new job, where you only see how great it will be.

The insights and knowledge you get from having these conversations, are of course, only opinions, coloured by the worldview of the person you talk to.  So don’t take all they say as the final ‘truth’, but do know it is closer to reality than what you are able to imagine.

Here are some questions you might ask someone who has already trodden the path you are considering:

• What do you wish you knew before choosing this pathway as a career?
• What is the most rewarding thing about this pathway?
• What is the biggest challenge?
• What are the really boring bits of this career?
• What types of people do you spend the most time with, and what is it like spending time with them?
• What do you need to know that you don’t get taught in training to do this?
• What kinds of fun to get to experience in this career?
• How often do you feel a sense of progress in this role?
• How does the work you do in this role make a real difference?
• How easy is it to increase the challenge you have in this career as you skills develop?
• What are the core thing that make people good at this profession?
• How do you think this profession will evolve in the next 5-7 years?
• In what directions can a career in this area take someone?
• What is the reality of job opportunities in this area?
• What type of people succeed in this area?
• Practically, how does this rate in terms of being a well paid career option and what are the realities of the work conditions?
• What else do you think I need to know as I consider this pathway?

An added bonus is that often the person you have this conversation with gets new perspectives and insights on their own career.  In fact, I wonder who the people are who might want to interview you as you have already moved along a path they are considering?

This coming career year, take that dream you have about a career shift and test out some bold, exciting, and meaningful possibilities by having a few reality based conversations – who knows what might emerge… 

As always wishing you a flourishing career.

Katherine