Wednesday, August 12, 2015

How to Change Your Career

In a Time Magazine article recently, columnist Joel Stein talks in his usual humorous strain about changing his career. He draws his points referring to the book by Anne Kreamer.


Risk/Reward

Why Intelligent Leaps and Daring Choices Are The Best Career Moves You Can Make

He writes: There are subtle signs that you’re not advancing at work. Like when you’ve had the same title, salary and responsibilities for a decade. And when your boss thinks it’s a great idea for you to write a column about switching careers. 
Well everyone may not be writing about switching careers but I can think of the situation where one has had the same title, salary and responsibilities for a decade. Am I the perfect candidate for a career change or am the perfect candidate for a career change. 
So do I need to read this book which is supposed to give me all the answers I need to go from thinking to acting? This is what the books website says.
From an analysis of the survey data based on a total of almost 1,000 respondents, four clusters emerged, and thus a Risk/Reward Matrix consisting four distinct occupational types:
  • Pioneers
  • Thinkers
  • Defenders
  • Drifters
Candid stories of professional risk-taking from Sheryl Sandberg, Jim Cramer, Jane Pauley, Po Bronson, Rosanne Cash, Sallie Krawcheck, Anna Quindlen, David Carr, Seth Godin, John Eyler and many more reveal the essential qualities that define each of the four types.  I reveal vital facts that will help readers understand the pros and cons of their approaches to job and career risk, and offers specific strategies that can help each of us flourish in the fluid new workplace. Risk/Reward is a practical navigation guide for making your way through uncharted territory at this unprecedented economic and cultural moment.
So far so good. So now I did some more research on the net. Forbes has a list of 16 questions to answer before considering a career change. They go like this- 
  • What do you want?
  • Do you have what it takes? (meaning the skills for the job you want)
  • What can you offer? and so on and so forth, I lost interest after this point. If any career requires a lot of patience and reading through lists, its clearly not for me. You can go here for the complete list.
So, what do I want? This entails an assessment of my values, how I like to work, what would I be compelled to do even if I dont get paid for it. The answer to the last bit came to me immediately. Nothing. I would not be compelled to do anything but bring up my daughter, teach her, put in effort behind giving her an education which I was hoping her school would but which I see they are not fulfilling. That does not count, does it? Or is teaching a profession I can actually look at? I also like to write, and it does not pay, does it? So what about writer as a profession. But the whole point behind working is getting the money. Otherwise why would I want to work anyway? Is there enough time to sleep ever? All the writers I see nowadays get money by writing (sometimes rather silly) columns, or doing reality shows on TV. While being on TV is not bad, but what is the point behind trying to be a writer if I spend my days trying to market myself for money?
Next, I went to google.com and typed in "what career is right for me" and I went through an online test which gave me these results:
Does harp on 'teachers' a lot. I also tested myself on another site which promised to give me my perfect career. And that said I was perfect for a 'counselor' or 'psychologist'. Another form of saying 'teacher', 'teacher'.
I remember when I was little we had these essays to write in school "What do you want to become when you grow up", and I always wrote Teacher. Seems my instinct was right even when I was 7 years old. 
That settles it then. Dont need the book anymore. I know what I am meant to do!
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