CAREER REINVENTION: You Are Not Alone

Why is Career Reinvention so lonely?

Have you ever told someone that you are unhappy with your job and that you wanted to really do something with your life? Do you remember how they looked at you? Head tilted, slight smirk, and then a back slapping laugh--am I right? It isn't easy to change, but it's even harder to go through the process of change without losing a few friends along the way. But when it comes to Career Reinvention, I know that this is the right thing to do, many times over in your lifetime. So embrace it and if you can find others who are using the same treasure map along the way, it makes the process more empowering.

And how do I know that there are others who seek the same career reinvention?

Well, honestly two years ago I would have encouraged you to keep at it, but I would never have thought that there were so many professionals 'out there' who needed to find the same roadmap. Here is the story of an amazing experience that not only changed my perspective of Career Reinvention, but it also started one of the most amazing experiences in my own career and business. Three ladies came together to do a small training for a small group of alumni and what happened was not even close to small. It was HUGE and fun and it truly changed the lives of many of the professionals who participated. Here is their story:

Experts Needed

The first brainstorming meeting for the “Reinventing Your Career at 40+” UCLA Alumni event was held at The Corner Bakery Café in Redondo Beach, California. Two career coaches, Dr. Pearl Hilliard and Joyce Fernandez, who had worked together in USC’s Professional Development Department several years before, were now working on a new project for the UCLA Alumni Center. Their brainstorming meeting was intended to finalize the program curriculum that they were creating for the university. Joyce was introducing Maria Bereket, a marketing consultant whom she had met when coaching women at a local area non-profit, to see if she wanted to be involved. They needed a LinkedIn expert to round out the team for the program and although it wasn't intended to be a big training they did have hopes it would get people thinking about doing more career type of events in the future.

The event was organized as part of the UCLA Alumni fall events lineup to be held at the James West Alumni Center on campus. The room held 100 people comfortably but they were only expecting about 35 alumni to respond. Small groups were better anyway, right?

The Program sounded like a winner:

The three experts designed a workshop that was eagerly approved by the Alumni Events department. Along with the music programs and architecture lectures, this career-focused workshop would complement a nice fall event schedule that would continue to delight alumni of one of the major universities in the country. But as the event began to unfold, it would become very obvious that this "little" training on Reinvention would open a very important door to opportunity.

THE REINVENTION “EVENT”

On the day of the event, the three trainers arrived early to set up their PowerPoints and drop off their materials. As they were testing the microphones the room began to fill with a broad range of alumni, equally distributed between men and women. The “40+” target audience resulted in participants from 35-years of age all the way up to graduates who were now retired and delighted to see other 60+ graduates in the room. 

At about twenty minutes before show time, there was some kind of commotion at the check-in area. The room was already filled and the staff was still moving extra seating into the back and along the sides, of the room, but their concerned expressions were enough to get the three trainers out into the hallway to see what was going on. The check-in desk was situated about ten feet from the front door of the building. At 20-minutes before the 9 AM start time, the line was outside the front doorway and there were at least 30 additional people waiting to get inside the already packed room.

Volunteers were running around refilling empty coffee canisters. The breakfast foods were nearly all gone and someone was concerned they would not have enough snacks for the first break. “We cannot believe it,” said one millennial volunteer. “Who would believe that so many people would want to come to this kind of training.” It seems there was a disconnect in the communication process. Perhaps it was a false sense of security that graduates from one of the best schools in the country, filling some of the top CEO and business positions, would ever find themselves at a time in their careers where they would need to consider the idea of “reinvention.” Or perhaps, as the workplace is changing so quickly, so are the people who fill the roles--now wanting something more than what was offered 10, 15, or 25 years before.

The world of work had changed so much, so fast, and was so deeply divided by generation, that the idea of reinventing a career had become urgent!

For Dr. Hilliard, who had devoted her life to transitions, glanced at the overcrowded room with a confident smile: this was an expected situation. We still hadn't recovered from the crash of '08 and the workplace was filled with change. Joyce Fernandez, was all too familiar with the process of reinvention when both she and Pearl found themselves facing their own transition when their department (at USC) unexpectedly downsized along with the rest of the world. Instead of growing and advancing at the beginning of a tough economic time, the university did as most of corporate America did - cut back and hold onto a system that was changing faster than they could. The two ladies combined their talents and began developing programs to help people stay ahead of what would be a long and deeply painful period in America’s workplace history. And on this morning, faced with a room of professionals squeezed side-by-side, they were up for the challenge.

Maria Bereket was billed as a “social media expert” but her own personal career reinvention included a mission to help people caught in the widening digital divide. While teaching businesses to do their marketing through digital media, she began to work more closely with professionals who also needed to understand and update their personal digital marketing tools. LinkedIn became a primary program of importance and as the event was getting ready to start, Maria was doing what marketing people do—asking questions of the participants in the room about the reasons they had decided to attend. It was obvious that everyone in the room was anxious and enthusiastic about the days training event.

The Alumni staff began to divide and conquer.

The "small event" became 150 very tightly seated participants, and the check-in staff was still turning away a few disgruntled alumni who could not possibly fit. The energy among the participants was amazing: notebooks in hand, welcoming handshakes and introductions – everyone was ready!

The hours that followed included Q&A sessions during each break period. This highly qualified group of alumni did not want to waste a moment on cookie breaks. There were attorneys and financial consultants, engineers, teachers and project managers. Some of the highest level local Los Angeles business community mixed with new empty nesters who desired to return to their earlier high-powered careers as well as retirees who felt they were "failing at retirement" and were now compelled to find some kind of a second act. 

Get This Thing Started

From the first moment, the training became engaging and intense. The portion on skills and resume basics were surprisingly mind blowing to executives who hadn't put one together in years. Most people attend a career training hoping to gather a few tips on how to “transition” more easily with an edge on their competition. But the job hunting process had changed so much in recent years that our energized group was faced with all sorts of new concepts and questions. How does one write a resume after working at the same company for 20+ years? Or, How do “fonts and formatting” beat the ATS (applicant tracking system)? And, by the way, What the hell is an applicant tracking system? 

Everyone was so busy in their professions that no one really noticed how much of our work process had changed. And despite the shock and a little bit of confusion, most everyone was comforted to know that they were not alone in their surprise.

Does Luke Skywalker Have A LinkedIn Profile?

The LinkedIn training started with laughter and high energy as slides from the very first Star Wars movie was illustrating the world today. The analogy was not lost on the 40+ crowd who could identify with the awkward feeling that Luke Skywalker must have felt when entering into his first Galactic bar filled with strange looking aliens. Millennials are not only colorful in their dress and tattooing, but their constant use of mobile devices above and beyond actual conversation was a moment of unity (and laughter) in this room of professionals who oftentimes struggled to grasp their younger co-workers perspectives.

The digital divide was their common modern-day galactic sore spot. Why did they need to get rid of their AOL accounts? What is the use of connecting with people on LinkedIn that you do not know? And how in the world were they all supposed to learn how “keywords” were going to help them reinvent their careers without their employers knowing they were wanting to change jobs? With each new section, there were questions. From personal branding to digital networking, the participants were being forced to question everything they had relied upon to get where they were now. In the end, it all began to make sense to them.

The program did end on time, but the lingering afterward included lines of alumni with endless questions about the process and reality of making career changes that would meet their “UCLA Graduated” expectations. Who knew that so many of their classmates were thinking the same thoughts about doing work that mattered to them personally rather than just professionally! And by the time everyone had left and the projector was put away, the staff was exhilarated by what had just taken place. The head of the program had come down to meet the three trainers who had stacks of index cards with handwritten questions by participants still to be answered in their email follow-up. The energy and excitement were to be continued for many months afterward.

THE IMPACT OF REINVENTION

So what really happened that morning in August? Offering “career reinvention” training touched a nerve for many in the 40+ group. For everyone in that room, a large part of who they were was incorporated in their “work identity,” and reshaping that identity may mean that they had to shed much of what they had learned thus far about careers and work. 

Career “reinvention” is a process that starts with knowing oneself—our passions, our values, our core strengths—and in doing that work of deep self-assessment the outcomes can be quite dramatic. That is what makes it so hard to begin in the first place-

Didn't we already do this stuff when we were in college?

Stepping out of our known identity and toward something new and different can be daunting--especially when you are already comfortable in your career. But many people today are feeling stuck and that process of getting unstuck from a long time career takes some guidance and tools. 

What the workshop gave the participants was an anticipated list of updated tools, but it also gave them a newer definition of career success: it’s OK to embrace your shortcomings; it’s OK to talk about your immigrant roots; it’s OK to let go of your fear that your career or even a career path may make you feel stuck because today there are so many new ways to use all of your life experiences to get your career “unstuck.” 

Following the workshop, participants left glowing reviews of the material presented and many reached out to the three trainers for help, direction, and reassurance. Overwhelmingly the participants were thrilled to know that so many other classmates were feeling the same as they were: disconnected, unfulfilled, and overwhelmed by the systems of the “new” workplace. It was crystal clear to Pearl, Joyce, and Maria that they had hit a strong and painful nerve among their peers. For participants, navigating the process of reinvention was something they could continue to do with the new tools made available to them and with continued guidance and the comfort in knowing they were not alone, a group of people walked toward something different in their work lives. 

The light bulb had been turned on. It wasn’t just about the process of changing and reinventing - it was about the importance and mission of everyone to learn how to reinvent themselves at any age.

THE REALITY OF REINVENTION

What is apparent today is that workers are feeling overwhelmed and without support from their employers. The generational divide, although closing, is still a thorn in the workplace as young workers leave for no apparent reason, and older workers struggle to find positions that utilize their experience and offer an appropriate salary. Bridging the technology gap in the workplace is not just about learning how to set up a profile on LinkedIn. How we navigate these advances is what gives us the edge to compete with younger workers who have far less experience and ability, but much more technological comfort. And this is a very important distinction when you realize:

The ladder of success has been replaced by a series of scaffoldings where each of us is at a similar level despite our skills, education, or depth of understanding. 

We now live in a world where the person who speaks the loudest (via social networks) is the one who is deemed the “expert.” Our technology-fueled society is now being completely driven by information. How we participate in the creation of that information is becoming exceedingly more important in shining a light on our professional careers. How we navigate this change and figure out ways to incorporate it in our work is not as obvious as people might think. Just because Time magazine announced that we are living in a time of “personal brands” doesn’t explain how to create one, or even how to use it to build your career.

HOW THE REINVENTION PROCESS CHANGED THINGS

What changed at the UCLA Alumni center was the insight and urgency to listen and respond to professionals who were feeling overwhelmed or left out. For the participants who reached out to the three trainers on and off for almost two years, many have redirected their careers from 20-year law firms into consulting from home. Some of the empty nesters didn’t re-enter into their previously high powered corporate jobs but opted for positions in the more fulfilling non-profit world. One the oldest participants – who was retired at the time of the workshop - did, in fact, come back into the work world. He decided that all the “hooey” of smart phones and digital profiles was, in fact, a worthwhile challenge for a man who had sold his business for millions of dollars. “If I can learn all this social media mumbo jumbo,” he told Maria, “then perhaps there are more millions to be made!” 

Reinvention Success Story: This same participant who had sold his business implemented each section of the training, with serious intent. He realized that although it was his strong sales and marketing abilities that had grown the company he co-founded, what he really loved was crunching the numbers at the end of each day. He discovered that his “super-power” was not sales, but an ability to turn-things-around financially. This surprising insight gave him a new, exciting second act. He enlisted help to build a strong LinkedIn Profile highlighting his “turn-around” financial skills and then started a very successful consulting business working in the same industry in a new, more satisfying role.

For the three expert trainers, the overwhelming response and insights had them excitedly developing new programs that would help and respond to the uneasiness that people were feeling. But they too were faced with challenges of their own.

How do you help people who don’t even know they need to be helped? How do you tell a person who wants to find a better job that they need to start by identifying their own “personal brand” first? 

And unlike the young millennials who intuitively know that technology advances daily: How do you teach older generations that they must continue forging ahead with digital advances, learning something new every day?

The challenges for the 40+ group were universal.

Professionals had to learn to fight the desire to be private, and not to hold on to all of their workplace expertise. This world is about sharing. Success was now being defined by transparency and a willingness to share information. If they were to become thought leaders in their industry they needed to dig deeper in themselves and then learn how to embrace the tools that were defining a younger workforce. 

THE COMMON REINVENENTION THREAD

Henry Ford once said that if he had listened to the customers he would have found a way to make horses go faster. People didn’t know that they needed the automobile and when they got a new tool to go faster, farther, and with more power - what did they do? Much like today, the world became divided – between those who wanted to keep things as they were, and those who embraced the brave, new, faster world. The automobile, like the speed of information today, changed the fabric of our society. The old, knowledgeable voices were silenced and discounted as being outdated and foolish. Wisdom was not something that came with age, it came with acceptance and understanding of the newest technology. We are at this point again and the lessons are still the same. 

Your life, your career is your responsibility and if you have the tools at your disposal to embrace the new, and then combine them with your experience and expertise, well, what are you waiting for?  

YOUR OPPORTUNITY TO REINVENT

The most important question to ask yourself is:

“Am I doing what is right for me, or is it time to change direction?” 

If the answer is yes, then you are not alone. The number of career changers today is astounding, but the key difference between the person who longs for change but stays stuck and the person who takes the time to learn the way out and into a more fulfilling career is the process.

These three trainers have been combining their expertise and teaching together since that powerful workshop at UCLA and now have created a complete roadmap --that will not only give you the in-depth research and tools you need to update and redirect your expertise--but it will solve the problem of why many people are unable to successfully reinvent themselves:

A complete program that will remove the fear and difficulty to do what needs to be done in order to really change.

Together, the five sections of the program, when completed, will give the specific foundation, mindset, and tools necessary to get unstuck and into a new career direction.

YOUR ROADMAP TO REINVENTION    

PART 1: NAVIGATING CHANGE AND TRANSITION  

Humans are often fearful when encountering change. We fear the new and often become unwilling to make the sacrifices necessary to make changes. We can overcome fear by understanding and accepting what has changed—and in the work world today a lot has changed—and realizing the difference between change and transition. This section is where we explore this topic.

PART 2: SELF-ASSESSMENT

This is the deep dive into understanding who we really are: passions and values; strengths; skills and motivators; and finally your mission and vision for the new working identity you wish to create for yourself. We all know the story of the lawyer who gave up his 20-year career to become a fiction writer or the teacher who left to become a chef at her own restaurant. But along the way, we also know about many more people who said they were going to ditch their horrible job and become something else but never quite made it out the door. Why is that? Because real change means rolling up your sleeves and doing the work of figuring out not just what you are really good at, but also how you can put that super-power to work doing that something else that would make you happier. It is not just about “desire” but temperament, personality, and the core values that have guided you quietly behind the scenes your whole life. This portion of your Career Reinvention Journey cannot be avoided. Why? Because having a fulfilling career is about passion, skills, and personality. A successful chef must not only be able to prepare a perfect soufflé, he or she must also be comfortable working inside the chaos of the kitchen to be a success.

PART 3: PREPARING YOURSELF

Most people jump right into this section - the new and shiny part of career changes: personal branding, resumes, LinkedIn, networking and the interview process. The hard truth is that if you do not have a good, in-depth understanding of your talents and skills (Part II), you cannot possibly present a strong expertise and presence when changing jobs or career direction. You have to do the hard work first. Practice and prepare yourself for the basics before you can impress with all your knowledge. The main reason “sure-thing” interviews were unsuccessful is because of over confidence and lack of preparation. In this part, we address the essential fundamentals of career reinvention.

PART 4: JOB EXPLORATION IN TODAY’S JOB MARKET.

If you have followed through on each module and workbook assignment then this part is the easy portion of the journey. You are crystal clear and confident in the direction you want to take. Then you use all the knowledge gained about your authentic skills and abilities to begin to identify which jobs or fields you want to explore in this next phase of your career. And all that prep work for networking becomes an ah-ha moment when you start calling colleagues and friends who are in tune with the market you are about to enter. This is the stage when you are buzzing with ideas and activity.

PART 5: TAKING ACTION has been happening all along.

This is where you realize that you have been testing and retesting your abilities and resilience. You will see that the process may have taken six-months or six-weeks, but you were actually making the changes all along and now are wearing that changed “career identity” like your favorite pair of jeans. It is comfortable and natural. You are smiling more and feel stronger and happier than you have in, well, a very long time. This is where you see the big picture and pat yourself on the back for all the hard internal and external work you have completed in this process. This is the point when you realize that some people around you don’t want you to change. As well meaning as they are staying put is comfortable for them - but you did the hard work and are fully invested and confident in the new, reinvented you. Maybe you are only volunteering at a non-profit until you find that perfect fit for a full-time position. Maybe you are attending weekly meet-ups surrounded by your future colleagues who are already doing what it is that you hope to do too. There is no one size fits all when it comes to taking action.

THIS PROGRAM HAS OVER 16 HOURS OF TOOLS AND GUIDANCE. 

RELAX: There is no typical experience when starting the process of career reinvention because everyone has a different need and expectation. Like your original career path you will take two steps forward and one step back. You will breeze through the modules and workbook or you will take them one at a time, at your own pace. You will redo your resume a few times before the process of making it just right actually feels satisfactory. Reinventing your career is an ongoing work in progress but if you take the time to go through each portion, testing, and learning, you might just find that the one idea, or tool, or insight--that actually leads you to a more rewarding career.

Take Action. This is where you ask yourself if you are stuck and unhappy in your career. It’s also when you think about all the people you have known who complained away for years, but never really took career change seriously enough to do something about it. Here is your roadmap. Don’t put it in the glove compartment. Start up the engine and get going.

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For more information contact me: [email protected] or view the curriculum at https://bit.ly/CareerReinventionCourse