Sometimes we hit a career crossroads and know we need to make a change, but instead, we keep following what’s familiar, until we’re not longer able to ignore the signs.
I’ve learnt that when we ignore the signs, the signs get louder, and one weekend when I was looking for another job and not getting anywhere, I was in despair. What was I going to do? I was a single mum and supporting myself, two teenagers and a mortgage. The pressure was on, but the usual job searching wasn’t working for me, plus I wanted to pivot out of recruitment, after having been in that space for over 18 years.
So I approached it from a different perspective.
Rather than put the same criteria into job search platforms, I took a step back. If I don’t want to be a recruiter, stop searching for roles that require those skills. If I’m not getting interviews for HR roles, stop searching for HR positions. I need to approach this by removing any job title and deconstructing my skills set to ultimately identify my transferable skills, and see where they may take me.
I didn’t realise it at the time, but I was roughly following the Ikigai model, which I now use as one of the critical processes I take clients through to identify their Career Sweet Spot.
So I started writing down all the skills I had that I enjoyed using, and what people actually gravitated to me for. I realised that when I interviewed people, I actually helped them get clarity about what they wanted their next career move to be. If it was a longer term goal, then we’d plan out what the next few stepping stones needed to be. When I spoke with people who were navigating challenges in their career, I was a sounding board that helped them see things from a different perspective, and work out a strategy. When I met with organisations, I loved talking about their business and what worked and didn’t work, and help them find solutions. I enjoyed connecting people to learn from each other. It was right under my nose all along – career coaching.
When people start realising they want a career change, quite often they feel like it needs to be something completely different from where they are now, but in most of the cases I see, they are already doing it but just don’t know how to sift out the gold.
So if you’re at a career crossroads and wondering what that next step could be, go through the Ikigai exercise and see what ideas it starts to trigger.
