Have you received comments about your career choices? Did it feel like your decisions were criticized? By whom? Yourself? This exercise will help you to explore your interests and find the next steps towards your fulfilling career path.
When careers consisted of lifelong commitments to one company there was no need to update CVs or write applications, look for new job opportunities or compete with other applicants. Specialists landed a job from school and continued often in the same workplace until retirement. A career was built on one profession.
Today, professionals often change jobs every 3 to 4 years and make even a few bigger pivots during their career seeking to challenge and grow themselves professionally. These desired changes progress one's career often vertically and nowadays even more often horizontally.
My mom has been a great inspiration for me. She showed how to make a major pivot in her 50's. Not only did she transition to a new industry and take over a new business area as a Managing Director but she also wanted to expand her skills by taking extra studies. This goes to show it's never too late to progress your career and learn new. So, I'm inviting you to put aside the thoughts of what would be expected or 'normal' and broaden your perspectives on what comes to your career development desires from here onwards.
New industries offer new career opportunities
After the industrialization boom, the nature of work has been changing towards service and knowledge work. New industries have risen as companies utilise business opportunities of fast-growing digitalisation, technology and artificial intelligence. New fields have created new lines of work we couldn't even think of when finishing high school.
While some businesses are integrating VR and AI services others focus on people. Since we humans have the psychological need of belonging to a group, we take and appreciate the advice from others. Airbnb and Uber are only a few examples of these community-based companies that have copied the business model of connecting providers and users together.
I myself found the field of coaching which combines service and knowledge work. The coaching industry started gaining more attention in the past decades when people and businesses started wanting personal guidance to get where they want to be faster and more efficiently than if they tried alone. Since, coaching methods have spread from sports to help reach basically any outcomes in career, leadership, mindset, relationship, wealth, health. The methods can be similar but the coaching experience is tailored to meet the client's needs.
As disruption and innovation have changed many industries and sprung new ones there is no evident way of thinking and doing business anymore. There is no one business model that suits all companies. So, there is no career model that fits all professionals.
There isn't a normal career path to follow. So, how do you build one?
You could think that it'll be easy to plan a fulfilling career path since the world offers endless opportunities and new ones all the time. Yet, many of us struggle in this web of million options. If you've worked in one field it's maybe difficult to see other options that you'd find interesting. Or you might doubt if you can still change to another field. I had them both. You can read more about my eventful career path later.
Having had my career planning challenges, I want to help others, you to find your exciting and meaningful career progression path faster and less painfully. So, I collected these five ideas for you to look at your current situation and think about the future direction to enjoy your career development. Please take notes when answering the questions to make the most of this career development exercise :)
1. Align your passions and priorities
First, make a list of your main interests and passions - what lights up your soul.
Then make another list of all your priorities - the life areas you find important now.
Think about the relations of your professional interests to your personal interests. How can you make room for both?
2. Nourish your natural strengths
What are the things people ask for your help at work and home?
What do you enjoy doing the most that strengthen your natural skills?
Come up with ways how you can use more of these strengths in your career.
We've been looking inwards into your passions, priorities and strengths. So, let's look at how they align with the bigger impact you want to make.
3. Identify your impact
As well as finding our life fulfilling when we get to practice our strengths, we experience our work meaningful when it serves others. We have a need to seek significance in what we do and finding ways how to pursue our meaning. Thus, I'm inviting you to think truly outside of your own world.
What do you dream of?
How do you want to see the world?
How can you contribute to making that happen?
4. Design your ideal job role
Job roles are created based on the needs of companies and their clients. When you know how you want to help the world or your close community, you can create a job role that meets to needs to reach your professional targets.
What can you do to make your dream come true?
What strengths and skills you have to support your purpose?
What would you need more to succeed in your mission?
5. Own your own path
The biggest step is to take your self-exploration work to real work. So, how do translate these insights of your next exciting career steps and professional interests to reality?
Think about who would share your passion and resonate with your purpose. How can you sell yourself and your ideal job role to them?
What other options do you see for fulfilling your calling? Have you dreamt of starting your own business or offering your expertise as a freelancer?
What are you going to do next to take a step towards your meaningful career path?
Many of you are starting holidays soon - would it be a good time to reflect on your current career now when you can put work things aside? If you feel the need to make some changes in your career before the autumn rush hits again, I hope you found this exercise useful to find ways to add meaning and fulfilment to your work-life. Let me know how valuable the exercise was so I can come up with more career coaching content for you! When you'd like personal help with your career planning you can book a free consultation meeting with me here <3
Wishing you a joyful journey and making your career count for you!
Kaisa
Career Growth Coach | LIVIO JOY
Kaisa's career was built on her plan B. When her work wasn't supporting her new life situation, Kaisa started exploring what would excite her. Her career transition journey turned out more challenging than expected. After deep self-exploration and tearful panic, she came up with a plan that would meet her professional interests and personal priorities. So, she re-educated herself to a certified coach, pivoted to a new field and started LIVIO JOY that follows her soul purpose - building a more successful and sustainable work-life through career happiness.