There Are Two Kinds of Career Transitions and One Of Them Is Right For You!

You may have spent the last few years feeling vaguely unhappy in your career, and yet not feeling motivated to do something about it. If so, this one's for you.

Research, particularly in India, shows that a very large number of Indians want to move jobs.

While a few lucky ones have a very clear idea of where they are going next, and how they are going to get there, most do not.

While many of us actually have a clear idea of what we DO NOT want to do. We are far less clear about what we DO want to do.

And while that sounds like a bad thing, I am going to say that's not necessarily true. Sometimes just admitting that we don't know where we are headed is not such a bad thing. All it means is that we are taking a different route in our career transition.

If the ultimate goal for most of us is work that brings us joy, learning and money, we can actually get there in different ways.

One way to think about this is that you can reach your destination in two very different ways.

1. The Expressway: You have a clear idea of where you are headed. And sometimes a clear idea of what your first few steps are going to be.You have a clear destination, a compass and even a rough map.

I personally love the story of Nykaa's founder Falguni Nayar. She has decided she would start her own e-commerce start-up several years before she gave up a very successful career as a banker at Kotak Mahindra bank. She even had an internal timeline for this. She waited till her kids were in college.

At 50, she left with confidence and a clear idea of what she was going to build. Today she is India's first self-made billionaire woman.

Perhaps you know of that friend or colleague who has all along known of what they wanted to do. They may have even drawn out their business plan or future plans while working full-time.

That is certainly one way to do it.

It is crisp, clear and very direct. And there is certainly much to admire about that kind of clarity of purpose.

But that is also not the only way to build a successful next career.

1. The Discovery Route: You have only a very vague idea of what kinds of careers you may be interested in.

You are not clear about your destination. You often just have a rudimentary compass to help you navigate. (Sometimes, you first have to build this compass). The map doesn't exist because you don't know where you are headed.

Now this is actually true far more often than you think.

In fact, this is the number one reason people often stay on unhappily in careers.

While they know that they are not happy, they are not sure what else will make them happy. Nor are they sure of how they will get there. And that is enough of a barrier to keep them stuck where they are.

So what does the discovery path look like?

Start at any place that looks like a place you potentially could see yourself in. If that role or industry is out of reach, search for the nearest 'port of entry'. Use that place to understand and build skills. Learn as much as you can about the career you have in mind.

It may happen that the career you thought of still seems every bit as satisfying as you thought. Or you may find that up close you didn't actually care for it.

It almost doesn't matter.

As long as you are learning you are moving in the right direction.

The path of discovery, while often much longer, takes you to some very interesting places. What's more-- the many experiences you have, can make you specially innovative.

Case in point, Karan Bajaj's journey before he started White Hat Junior. Now note that he was actually super clear about WhiteHat Jr well before he started it. But what was interesting was the route that brought him to that clarity.

That route included working with big name companies, interspersed with sabbaticals, extensive travel across the world, and being an author. Staying in ashrams helped firm his personal philosophy towards life. It also helped build a meditation practice that stayed consistent across life. Being an author, and later learning how to sell books on Amazon taught him about how to use digital advertising to build a business. In ways that are rarely clear at that time, each experience from the past helped him build WhiteHat Jr. the way it did.

My own career journey has taken me to academia, practice, consulting several times round. Each leg of the journey has taught me something very useful. Doing a PhD taught me how to try and find answers to my curiosity. It also taught me how to read research by others and how to connect the dots in ways of my own. All of these skills I now use in my consulting work.

As many of us go on to have second, third or even fourth careers, we may get better at making these transitions.

In the end, as we get comfortable with career transitions, sometimes we may be on the expressway, moving with clarity and speed. At other times in our lives, we may be on the discovery route, taking our time to explore ourselves in the many possible worlds we can inhabit.

Each is beautiful in its own way.

And on any particular day, one is the right choice for you.

p.s. While I have used falguni nayar and Karan Bajaj 's stories as illustrations, I am sure the truth is far more complex and perhaps each had moments of clarity and discovery interspersed in their own journey.

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(About me: I lead Unqbe, a think-tank and advisory firm around building future organisations, and building future careers. We track change through commissioned and primary research. We help leadership teams build the new workplace through a culture that supports change and people practices for the future.)