Engaging: Choosing Your Next Step
Colorful windsock options; Credit: Emily Giacomini
In March I proposed a path through a career transition, where seekers are FREE to Finish Well, Rest, Explore and then Engage in a new endeavor. Each month since, we’ve looked at one element of the transition and now we’ll wrap up with Engaging, which is about choosing an option and stepping into it.
Through your research and informational interviews you may have uncovered various routes you could pursue. Maybe you’d like to start your own business. Or perhaps you want to stay in the same function and industry you know and shift to a different firm. Or maybe you’re ready for a bigger change and you’d like to learn some new skills and rebrand yourself to do a different role entirely.
Prototype
If you have the freedom of time and resources to experiment with a potential option before committing, that will enable you to see if it’s really a good fit. Designing Your Life authors Bill Burnett and Dave Evans advocate for prototyping an aspect of your choice to see how it goes. For example if you want to shift your focus to marketing, how could you do a mini-marketing campaign to see what it’s all about? After refreshing yourself on the basics you may have learned in college or online, how about volunteering with a local nonprofit, library or professional association to get the word out about an upcoming event?
Reassess
As you’re doing the prototype, check in with yourself along the way. Are you enjoying it? Feeling energized by the project? At the end, what kind of feedback did you get from others and how did it all pan out?
Choose
As the prototype winds down, determine whether to continue with that option or prototype another. If you’re someone who’s liable to get stuck in “analysis paralysis” it’s key to lower the stakes for yourself. Reduce your list of options to two or three and if it’s not evident to you through pros and cons lists or using friends as a sounding board, just go ahead and choose one! As they say, it’s easier to shift a moving ship than one stuck in port.
Team
Consider who’s on your support team as you advance. Who in your circle will be supportive as you go through the steps necessary to land that next position or launch your business? This may be friends or family members. Be open to inviting others you know less well to join the team as well. For example, if you hit it off with someone in a professional association, you could agree to be “job search buddies” and check in regularly to hold each other accountable. Let your team know what you need. Down the road, you may have a chance to support them on a project they’re pursuing.
Perhaps a professional coach would be useful to have on your team as you step into something new. This could be a career coach, business coach, or another specialist, depending on the direction you choose to pursue.
Above all, have fun! Stay in touch with the brilliant opportunity you have to make a new start and give yourself permission to enjoy it.