Career Changes: Getting Unstuck

Clients in career transition often get “stuck” on closure of their last work activity before being able to consider the next adventure. They anguish over the loss of an implied system of mutual loyalty between employer and employee in today’s world of work. In fact, their need for loyalty can be personally continued by conscious transfer to the “excellence of the work” they do.

This loyalty develops and is nurtured during the assessment phase of transition. By taking an inventory of strengths — separating the “best at’s” from the “can do’s,” reviewing what especially worked well on the last job, identifying moments of passion and successful accomplishment, in short discovering the “magic” that makes each of us unique and differentiates our contribution — we shape our vision of the work situations we need to connect with in the marketplace.

Now none of this means much unless somebody has a work situation needing this unique magic! As we start talking to friends and colleagues we get questioned in many ways: ”What are we up to? What are we looking for? What are we going to do next? What we need to do then is describe this vision of a work situation, without regard to whether the connect is as an employee or contractor, or whether the work is full time, a time-constrained project, or part time.

Conclusion

First find the fit of your magic to the marketplace need. Let the client/customer direct how to put the deal together. That’s how clients have successfully navigated a path to “finding their way to work” coming out of past recessions, and it’s how it will happen again in 2010.

Author

The author of this article is Frank Cohee.