is it time to stop being good?
why a career change is the best thing I’ve done in years.
This year I left a 15-year career in sales to earn a living as a writer. I turned away from a steady salary and took a leap into the unknown world of copywriting. I should have been terrified, but it was the easiest decision I have made in years. What's more, it only took a couple of months before I had enough freelance copywriting work to bring me back to the same salary bracket I had left behind.
In her brilliant book, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, Angela Duckworth concludes that the four ingredients that lead to career success are:
Interest
Practice
Purpose
Hope
My job comes with all four magic ingredients. The job is new, but my passion for reading and writing has always been a part of who I am. This career is a natural fit for my skills and interests, and the long hours haven’t felt like a chore. If you are thinking of a career change, ask yourself these two questions:
What are you usually doing when you feel most connected with who you are?
What three values matter most to you?
We grow up knowing what we stand for. We have unique ways of engaging with the world. Why does it take some of us so long to make a career from it?
I wonder if it has something to do with timing. For many of us, the formative decades of our lives come with a socially-structured box we learn to fit neatly inside (the brave few refuse to climb in - oh, how I admired them from the sidelines!). As a woman, I’ve been all too aware of the chain of predetermined expectations that lie before me.
I went to school knowing I had to leave with good exam results. The good exam results would get me into a good university. A good university would lead to a good job. A good job would pay for a good home and a good family structure (thankfully, I had the freedom to marry someone I loved - not the case for millions of women). For a while, I lost connection with my identity and threw myself into raising children (more on how society judges women/mothers another day). Now I am in my 40s, and I’ve done all the good things I was supposed to do. I’m free to be me - it’s liberating! I wish I had discovered it sooner.
I have never felt more comfortable in my skin or more valuable to this world. Gone is the confusion of my teens, the anxiety of my 20s and the exhaustion of my 30s. I can raise beautiful children without losing touch with who I am. I can make a career out of something I love doing.
Five Tips if you are thinking of a career change
Read Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth. It will help you to dig deep and connect with your inner spark. Remember, that you will be more successful doing the thing you are genuinely inspired by.
Make a list of your transferrable skills and superpowers.
Sign up to Escape The City for listings of jobs you may not have considered suitable for you (but probably are).
Listen to podcasts with people in sectors you’re interested in, and then reach out to them for advice. I was blown away by how supportive and helpful other copywriters were when I got in touch with them out of the blue.
Remember that nothing is final. If this doesn’t work, it is not the end.
One final thing
I often read Dr Zeus’s poem, Oh The Places You’ll Go! with my children. It occurred to me when we read it again recently that this is the first big life choice in years I have made without questioning myself. I found these words empowering.
Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You’re off to Great Places!
You’re off and away!
You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself any direction you choose.
You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go.
Have you had a career change, or are you on the brink of one? I would love to hear about your experiences.
