Andrea Kay Shares Steps for Taking Control of Your Career

Last evening I had the delightful pleasure of interviewing Andrea Kay, Cincinnati's "Best Career Counselor," as part of our Midlife Career Change Teleseminar Series. She shared how different life events can prompt people to start thinking about a new career. Maybe it's retirement from a job that you've held for twenty years, but you're not ready to quit working and desire something that more closely reflects your passions at this stage in your life. Maybe it's a close brush with death that makes you realize that you're not going to live forever and acts as the catalyst you need to carve out a career that is more stimulating. Or you might have simply lost your enthusiasm for your work and some internal clock is giving you the wake up call to start seeking a career that makes you jump out of bed in the morning in eager anticipation for another day!

Unlike a 30 minute sitcom where a woman decides in the flash of divine inspiration that her next career should be that of a wedding planner, reality is that for most of us career planning is a step-by-step process that takes time, deliberation, and a well-thoughtout process for outlining your career objectives.

Andrea highlighted those foundational steps for us from her new book, Life's a Bitch and then You Change Careers. After going through the process of defining your career objectives, Andrea revealed her insights into researching potential careers. Through library research, Internet searches, and interviewing people working in your targeted field, you can discover:

• What's involved in the area you care about and appeals to you most
• What kinds of jobs might exist in this area
• What trends and issues surround the areas you care about
• What's driving these areas in the direction they're going in
• How all this matches up with your career objectives

Andrea cautioned, however, not to jump to premature conclusions without talking to a variety of different people and gathering several different perspectives. If you hear something negative about your targeted field, don't abandon the idea without checking it out. Talk to others and see what they have to say and then draw your own conclusion. But get all the facts first.

When you've finally figured out what you want to do, it's imperative that you ask yourself, "Why would the world care?" You need to be able to explain how someone would benefit from what you want to do. Andrea challenges, "What would contributing your most joyful skills, knowledge, passion and interests to your potential intended audience or entity lead to? What would it result in? Why would anyone care if you did it?"

Then you need to evaluate what changing careers will cost you in terms of time, energy, money, and freedom to get to the next step and go after what you want. There is no easy path. Whenever you choose one thing, you sacrific something else. It's at this point that many people face obstacles that Andrea refers to as "head demons." For instance, "What if I fail?"or "What if I can't afford to do this?" Others question whether they should just hold onto what they have in terms of security, status, finances, etc. Another concern is "What will others think?"

A big and very realistic obstacle for many people is finding the time to conduct a career change. It's not like when you were in your twenties and seemingly had all the time in the world. If you're over forty, you are most likely faced with balancing current job responsiblities, family responsiblities, and other commitments with your desire to explore new career options. The brutal truth is that there's never a good time. Andrea says, "You just have to break it down into small tasks and schedule them in like you do everything else in your life!"

If you have questions for Andrea or want to subscribe to her newsletter, visit Andrea Kay's website for a wealth of information to help you get out of your funk and on with your future!

As always, enjoy the journey!

Christine