How to recognize when it's time to pivot in your career

I have called this newsletter Soul-Led Career because I truly believe that we all have a path we can follow that completely aligns with who we are and what we are here to do.

It’s been 8 years since I started working in recruitment (phew). My favorite part has always been getting to know people’s stories. As a recruiter, you have a limited amount of time to get to know someone, giving you a bird's-eye perspective on their journey, making everything even more potent.

When I began this journey, I did not realize how this exact experience would help me navigate my own life.

I've conducted probably hundreds of job interviews and realized that there's one group of people who, over time, become less happy the longer they stay in their career path. When I tell you what group of people it is, it will really surprise you.

It's the type of people who are pretty good at what they do, at least above average. They are in a career path that they could rather easily do for the rest of their lives. It sounds surprising, right?

I'm talking about the people who don't hate their job but don't love it so much either. It's just kind of fine, and they are quite good at it.

Why this group?

The reason why this group gets trapped is because, at the beginning of their career, even for a few years, they get away with not searching for THAT thing, either because they get busy with life or because it feels nice for a few years to be praised and maybe make money. It feels really good for some time, but over time, it gets less and less satisfying.

Maybe once in a while they change employers and feel a little bit of a thrill for a few months at best, but over time they get kind of numb.

At this point, the idea of switching careers gets really challenging, maybe even scary, or just feels like a silly, “non-logical” thought.

It can be really challenging because even if they potentially have a hobby they would like to monetize, they are trapped in this place of being comfortable with what they do. They might be financially comfortable, comfortable with their skills, or comfortable with how they appear to the world.

This makes it much more difficult to take a leap of faith and do something where their skill set is not so developed or where they wouldn't make much money at the beginning—especially if they feel like they have a lot of responsibilities.

I saw that these people, over time, lose their mojo. They seem like they are slowly heading into numbness, and some even towards depression. They feel like they should be happy because they "have everything they wanted" and worked towards. It's almost like they don't even allow themselves to think differently.

It's not great to witness because I've seen it with so many of my candidates. They're good at what they do, they get paid well, and they feel trapped.

Is it ever too late?

Some realize it, some do not yet. Especially when they are between their 30s and 40s, with most of their lives still ahead of them—it's quite heartbreaking to see that. I would argue that even later in life, you still have so much of your life ahead of you, but this was the age group I saw this commonly appear with.

Being able to see this when talking to my candidates has helped me make my own decisions and choices and take my own leap of faith.

My personal journey

I’ve loved being a recruiter. Later on, I became a career coach. I loved it, but it's not exactly it.

It's difficult to explain because I am good at what I do. Most of my candidates would tell you they were happy with going through their job search process with me.

But I always knew that there's something that I'm meant to do, and I just didn't know how to do it and had many different fears around doing it… so I didn't.

But one day, an opportunity came, and I felt like I couldn't miss it. So I went for it a little bit and took a step forward. Another day, I took another step forward. Slowly, I started taking so many steps that I got to a point where I just couldn't keep going with both career paths at the same time.

When I was unsure about whether I should make that choice, I remembered all of my candidates. I remembered that the longer they stayed in a job without following their true calling, the more they headed towards unhappiness. That's when I decided to make my own leap of faith.

I wanted to share this with you because I know that right now, with everything happening in the world, you might feel like this is not the time for you to do these types of things.

But always remember what is at risk. You are actually risking your overall happiness and life satisfaction. You might think you are doing it for your family or your kids. I'm not telling you to make any crazy decisions that would put anyone around you or yourself in jeopardy.

Take just one step at a time

But if there's something else out there that you feel is calling you, try your best to take just one step forward. Don't think about making insane jumps and taking huge leaps of faith because you don't have to.

We can easily get trapped by hearing these rags-to-riches stories of other people on YouTube, even here on LinkedIn. But it doesn't have to be that way.

It took me a long time to realize that. So I really want to share this right now. Just take one step forward. Sign up for that course. Go to that class. Talk to that person. You just don’t know where that might lead you next.

In the next newsletter, I'm going to share my own journey. Right now, I just wanted to give you this perspective. As I mentioned already from my recruiter journey, I love learning from other people's stories and their journeys. I will be so happy to share my own with you.

Join the conversation! Have you ever felt stuck in a "good but not great" career? How did you take your first step towards a more fulfilling path? Share your experiences in the comments below.