When I first started out as a career coach, I was placing interns into host companies and soon came to realise that a placement was not what my clients needed the most. Often, people that come to me looking for work or an internship say their greatest challenge is finding a job. But what they really mean, is that they are challenged about finding a suitable job, meaning a job they actually really want. A Job that has meaning.
Of course, many of the students are also challenged with the process of applying for work, they’re challenged with reading unclear position descriptions, and mostly, they are challenged with their own level of confidence. They tell me stories of how they have spent hours sending their resumes out to hundreds of companies and recruitment agents who don’t get back to them, or how they have read countless position descriptions without finding one that sounds suitable.
In our modern economy, with half a million different career options, not knowing how to get what you what, and not knowing what you want, is a problem faced by most of us. When you don’t know what you want, you won’t be able to focus your energy and mind in the right direction, and you’ll end up applying for the wrong roles, or not making a thorough enough effort in applying for or attaining the job.
The career crisis that many of us feel on a Sunday afternoon, is rooted in our high expectations to find meaning and satisfaction from our work. To help my clients feel better about their situation, I present these 6 strategies to get over your career crises.
1.Know that your feeling is normal
Feeling confused about your career choices is perfectly normal, and it’s also normal to feel better about it when you know others are struggling with it too.
When faced with too many options we can become so anxious about making the wrong choice that we end up making no choice at all. Psychologists call this paralysis stemming from too many options, the paradox of choice.
Acknowledge that fear is normal and that your confusion is natural and make sure not to let it hold you back.
2. Get to know yourself
Knowing what we want to do for work doesn’t arise spontaneously. Most of us don’t have a calling, we don’t have an epiphany directing us to accountancy or engineering or marketing. We all have tastes or inclinations, we just don’t know them clearly enough. Being in such an exposed position as to not having a plan quickly puts us at the mercy of those who have one. Start by taking a few different free personality tests online, speak to people around you, and watch free online content to warm you up.
A great exercise is to write down, without too much thinking, everything you’ve ever enjoyed doing or making. Anything from Baking cakes, to hiking, to organising parties. The more creative and strange your list, the better. Amongst your list you will find patterns that reveal a slight shape of a possible future self. Your messy picture needs to be further analysed, perhaps with the help of Philosophy – the art of clearing up and demanding logic of our first thoughts.
3. Take your time to think and discover
we need to be generous about the amount of time we give to considering our careers. For something that takes up about 75% of our time awake, we should be forgiven for spending weeks or months or even years of reflection discovering a career that suits us best.
It’s not self indulgent to spend time on our life choices, so no need to feel guilty. Making sure you don’t spend the rest of your life trapped in a job chosen by your unknowing 17 year old self, your well meaning but not knowing parents, or society.
4. Examine other peoples problems
For once, it might help to look at problems, to reflect on what makes people unhappy, as long as you don’t get stuck in the thinking hole. Every business is an attempt to solve someone’s problem, to offer a service for them to solve their problem. The bigger and more urgent the problem, the greater the opportunity to flex your entrepreneurial muscles. consider an average day and everything in it that might make someone unhappy, from waking up, to losing the train, to staying healthy, to dealing with in-laws. Each of these is a business opportunity waiting to be exploited. It’s a chance for us to serve, which is what work really is. It’s easy to imagine that everything’s been done and tried, but thats not true, we are unhappy enough for capitalism to have many more centuries of invention and creativity to it.
5. Do something rather than nothing
As we can only understand ourselves and others by colliding with the real world, we ned real data in addition to reflection. In order to work out the shape of the workplace and our own characters we need to get to know both it and our own natures. Thinking about resigning every Monday is not helpful. There are lots of small non irrevocable steps we can take to gather information. You can investigate your future through branching projects on the side of your existing job. You can join a Chamber of Commerce and interview people you meet there, you can shadow a Manager or CEO, Intern or volunteer.
6. Learn how to increase your confidence
Seeing as how the difference between success and failure is sometimes nothing less than the courage to give it a go, I’m shocked at why we don’t learn about confidence and how to increase it annually through our school years. Many of the top positions in this world simply belong to those who dare to boldly ask for them and sell themselves. These leaders are people with the ability to imagine themselves into a role, one doesn’t need to ask anyone for permission.
A lack of confidence is an internalised enslavement which imagines that only certain other people, and not oneself, have the right to get certain things. It’s simply a misunderstanding of how the world works. As we all know, a lot more than timidity and doubt is possible, and unfortunately for those who don’t have teachers or parents to teach or show us, confidence is something we don’t know whether we have too much or not enough of all too late.
7. Exercise your body and mind regularly
There is a proven connection between physical and mental health. A great way to combine the two is to walk and talk, or walk and think, or walk and listen, just as long as you walk. You can listen to podcasts, and motivational audiobooks on your way too and from work; and call your friends or parents and discuss your strengths and dreams; or watch youtube videos while you walk on the treadmill; or even mull it over with your dog. We often come up with great ideas when we walk, so take advantage of the things that come naturally.
A lot more is possible than what you might think, and you need to spend time around people who helps build you up. These seven strategies is the start of the path towards a career you love, and a job you won’t regret in your deathbed, which should always be the ultimate criterion when looking for fulfilling work.
