Are You Experiencing A Career Crisis?

Are You Experiencing A Career Crisis? Or, if not, should you be experiencing a career crisis? I did - several times. First time was when I was thirty years old, again when I was 40 years old, and again when I turned 50. The first time it happened I'd been working in my chosen field for 9 years, and I acknowledged it again at the 10 year mark both the second and third time it happened. Each time my worklife and work situation was fraught with personal and professional unease and dissatisfaction. I remember thinking that the organization I was with had changed – only to realize each time that it was me who had changed. Each time I experienced a growing sense of uneasiness that this work was not what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. Fortunately, I listened to my inner voice.

Fast forward to today!

I am in the fourth phase of my career and deeply satisfied with the quality of my personal and professional life. I morphed from being an engineer, to becoming a program manager, to becoming a manager and leader of people, to becoming an executive leadership coach, mentor and teacher. Had it not been for my several career crisis’s I would never have been able to create this wonderful worklife that I love!

Jerry is a client of mine, whom I coached through his career crisis and career transition. Here is his story:

My career journey (up until now) has been fairly consistent as it revolved around Finance and Facilities Engineering. I stayed with one organization for 13 years, rose through the ranks, and annoyed a whole lot of folk. I made great money, traveled extensively, had great mentors, and yet found myself longing to do something very different. I wasn’t dreadfully unhappy yet I definitely wasn't happy! Sometimes I would catch a mental glimpse of myself sitting on a plateau (or perhaps even leaning over a ledge) and felt like life was passing me by. My work just didn’t have any meaning for me anymore. I had lost my joy – my passion! Every day was a drain on my emotional energy. I was exhausted by the sheer act of faking it at work! "

I began to work with Dr Tina for several months to sort through this professional malaise. She helped me reframe my image of myself in my worklife. We worked through the up-until-now version of my worklife and explored my professional background. We then began to articulate my talents in a way that appealed to a different industry. It was hard work. At one point I got so frustrated that I almost accepted another role within my current organization; just to make a change in my life. Dr Tina pressed me to keep moving towards something different. She served as my accountability partner and she kept me on point! I was amazed at how a purposeful career change/job seeking process worked. I was doubly amazed at how building a career change strategy and a networking strategy in the right way really paid off. "

I’m now working as a Senior Analyst with a global Asset Management organization. This culture is phenomenal and the work is compelling, meaningful and challenging. I’m very happy and I no longer dread the workday!"

So let me ask you again…. Are you experiencing a career crisis???

As part of the initial reflection or data gathering process I assisted Jerry to identify his baseline personal profile, against which to develop his career change strategy. I provided her a variety of data gathering tools, including a framework to explore his ‘up-until-now’ story, her tolerance and desire for joy and passion, his personal/professional mission statement, and access to a MBTI? Personality Type assessment instrument. If you are in the midst of a career crisis or contemplating a career change, or you are a new job seeker, this data gathering process can be daunting. However it is essential not only for selecting a "good fit" for your future career, this period of reflection is a key to understanding your past in a way that illuminates strengths, and helps restore your self-confidence and optimism about your capability and willingness to pursue autonomy, mastery, and a sense of purpose in your worklife.

A an executive leadership coach I offer career-crisis clients access to either an individual or group coaching program called The Career Changing/Job Seeking Coaching Program? which I created in response to a recurring demand for a specific process to help identify a path forward for clients who are in professional crisis. I also offer the program to clients seeking a proactive strategy towards preparing for inevitable career changes. While I have written previously about the “5 Steps To An Effective Career Change Strategy (Or To Find A Job)” I simply want to focus on the first step in this article. The first step in responding to a career crisis is the need for self-reflection.

Reflection Upon The Career Self!

Career self-reflection is the capacity of professionals and aspiring careerists to exercise introspection and a willingness to know and understand more about your fundamental nature, purpose and spirit or capacity for joy. I believe that career self-reflection invariably leads to inquiry into our human condition in our worklife and can improve the condition of our workplace. I simply ask each coaching client to begin their career change journey by completing four specific tasks towards deeper self-understanding;

1. I provide each client a template to assist in preparing your biographical reflection of your life up-until-now. By reflecting upon your life up-until-now you will begin to see patterns in decision making that have brought you to your current professional situation – for good and for not-so-good reasons.
2. I provide each client a template to assist in preparing a memorialization of your ‘happiest day’ towards establishing a visual memory of what joy feels like as you prepare to develop your strategy towards a joyous, harmonious, engaging, and prosperous worklife.
3. I provide each client a template to assist in preparing your first version of your worklife/personal life mission statement. The production of the mission statement is one of the most significant outcomes of either an individual or group coaching program. Typically the statement is one to two sentences long, and includes specific attainable goals within a specific timeframe. It will include your career goals, emphasize personal values, and identify the unique contribution you bring to your employer and to society. This first statement is a rough draft, as I will ask you to continue to refine it during the coaching engagement.
4. I also provide each client a Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) assessment, which is a psychometric questionnaire designed to measure psychological preferences in how people perceive the world and make decisions. These preferences were extrapolated by Katharine Cook Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers from the typological theories proposed by Carl Jung, and first published in his 1921 book Psychological Types. While studying the work of Jung, Briggs and Myers turned their interest in human behavior to practical use, and began retooling the indicator during World War II, with the belief that a knowledge of personality preferences would help women who were entering the industrial workforce for the first time to identify the sort of war-time jobs that would be most comfortable and effective for them. The underlying assumption of the MBTI is that we all have specific preferences in the way we construe our experiences, and these preferences underlie our interests, needs, values, and motivation, and by helping clients discover and explore your distinctive personality type you can gain a rich self-knowledge towards creating a career that excites and rewards you.

Food For Thought!

So if you are experiencing a career crisis, as I did – several times, listen to your inner voice! If your work situation is fraught with personal and professional unease and dissatisfaction, then reflect upon your up-until-now story and perhaps you too can see how you arrived at your current situation. If you need a guided approach then follow the step-by-step plan on my website - its free to download. If you don’t know where to begin this approach leads you through the process.

Subscribe to my blog at www.MCGConsultingGroup.com and podcast at www.TheJobTalkRadioShow.com and I will share the free Career Changing/Job Seeking steps with you. While I also provide one-on-one coaching to clients looking for a more immediate and personal program, I will begin to offer the Career Change/Job Seeking strategy through a significantly discounted month long group coaching program which begins in April 2015 (use the MCG321 code to get a 50% discount off the program cost). If you are stuck in a joyless worklife and want to know more about the group coaching program just send me a note at [email protected]

Dr Tina - aka - Dr. Martina Carroll-Garrison is the owner of MCG Consulting Group, LLC, and helps leaders and executives to speak the story of their lives to those they can trust, towards achieving self-awareness, work-life balance, increased leadership capacity and executive presence, while creating healthy work environments.