“Stages are getting higher and higher, and I’m getting older and older.” – Iggy Pop
In Career ToolBox #58 we covered your what happens in the six-nine month stage of your career transition. Finally, we move to Stage 3: Later, which focuses on the process twelve months out into the near future.
Later: 12+ Months — Lessons Learned. Adjustments Made.
After taking a full year to research, get training in and then apply into a new and desired industry, you can gain greater insight into whether or not that professional step was the right step. Is it time to dive deep? Or was it an interesting experiment that didn’t necessarily lead to a desired outcome?
Hopefully you’ve gained hands-on experience via new skills, an internship, project or part-time job. Perhaps you even managed a full career transition and are earning a living in the new field, either via direct employment or by starting your own biz and having enough clients to keep going.
Things to consider at this critical one-year stage, as you give yourself your own annual job review:
1. Are you getting paid?
2. Is your paycheck enough for you to pursue your new field full time or do you need to straddle it with other sources of income? The gig economy is here to stay. Multiple sources of income are a good thing.
3. Have you met one of your early objectives, such as job satisfaction or reaching your long-term fiscal goals?
4. Are your skills as current as the industry or is it time to take another seminar/class/workshop?
5. Is your resume/LinkedIn profile updated to reflect your new experience?
6. Are you becoming the online content curator of your industry?
7. Are you attending industry-related events, biz card in hand, and making new connections?
8. If working for a company are you and your boss developing your growth plan?
9. Have you embraced your new role enough to help someone else who is in the same place you were a year ago get to where you are now?
10. Are you itching for something new? Is it time to pivot again?
A career transition, which can happen for many reasons, is never a simple or immediate process. As I often share with my clients, staying motivated, organized and having the right people in your corner all go a long way. Asking yourself the right questions and being honest with yourself at every single step will bring you closer to where you will perform best.
image: Depeche Mode concert stage, by a. sukhoy
Alexsandra (Alex) Sukhoy. I’m a writer, marketer and career coach at Creative Cadence LLC, and teach business students at CSU. You can find my first business book, Date Your Career: The Longest Relationship of Your Life, on Amazon. I’m currently writing a film noir screenplay called Cleveland City.
Twitter: @creativecadence. #letstalk