Square peg in round hole

You’ve heard the expression “fitting a square peg into a round hole does not work”.

And yet, this is precisely the situation that many individuals feel about their jobs– their natural strengths do not match the skills needed for core job duties. Many of my clients “grind it out” day after day in order to pay their bills and bank pensionable time, even though it hurts and causes much career pain.  

For example, I’ve worked with some clients over the past 30 years who get hired into an entry level position then show a special ability to step into an unstructured situation to solve problems with people, planning, or productivity.  They have a natural talent for sorting through many complex details to develop a step-by-step solution exactly suited to the people and the situation.   

The outcome of their solution is often the establishment of very efficient and effective structures, systems or processes that improve productivity.  Their accomplishment makes a big splash in the organization and they often get promoted to maintain the new structure or system that they developed. But this new role bores them to tears because maintaining a structured situation requires a different set of skills and motivations than problem-solving in unstructured situation.

In short, they are often the victims of their own success.  The new structure does not produce the same kind of problems as the previous unstructured situation and their natural talents don’t get triggered again.

They might go around looking for new problems to solve–they are simply doing what comes naturally to them–but end up stepping on other people’s toes, crossing boundaries, or unwittingly causing friction with co-workers.

They feel like a square peg in a round hole.  They sometimes blame their employer or themselves for not being able to advance in their career…and they continue to feel that way until they understand their natural strengths and their unique motivational pattern.

My job is to identify and define those key success factors and match them up with the kinds of jobs that need their strengths and the organizations that will reward them for it. 

For example, some of my clients with the talents and motivations described above have gone on to new roles, such as Workflow Analysts, Strategic Consultants, Business Operations Analysts, Project Managers, Change Managers, or similar in large dysfunctional organizations or medium sized ones experiencing rapid growth and all the problems that go with it. 

JobJoy Smile – Work puns

– Employer: We need someone responsible for the job.
Job Applicant: Sir your search ends here! In my previous job whenever something went wrong, everybody said I was responsible.

– A human resource person was quizzing a new employee on the company’s safety manual. “And what steps do you take in case of a fire?” she asked. The new employee replied, “Quick ones.”

– Boss: How is it that you are always sick on weekdays?  Employee: It’s my weekend immune system.

To be or not to be…who you are!

I had a client recently who is passionate about animal care…always has been, since childhood. 

At least once a year, for the past 30 years, someone like her enters my practice.  Sometimes young, or middle age, male or female—what they all have in common is this inner longing to take care of animals…for them a stronger desire than taking care of people.

And yet, none of them had been able to move beyond the care of their own pets.  Most of them tried pet-sitting or dog-walking or some related low skill, low pay job but couldn’t make enough money to make ends meet.

Finding the right path

Like my client this week, they go into other careers, usually because they had no desire or inclination to be a vet or a vet’s assistant.  As my client said, “I want to care for them, not kill them!”  This is a typical rationale for such clients:  when the most obvious option that society offers (e.g., be a vet) is not one that interests them, they give up on their heartfelt aspiration.

In her case, she worked as a cashier, custodian, martial arts instructor, and finally trained and worked as a Rehab Assistant, caring for individuals recovering from accidents…but she quit after two years because it didn’t meet her expectations.

She’s determined now to find a career working with animals, which is the only thing she really wants to do. I assured her that there were dozens of animal care jobs, including many she’d never of heard of, and many that don’t require a lot of education or training.

Choosing the right path

In general, jobs with animals fall into three categories: service (care & feeding), resource development and conservation.

I gave her a list of all the jobs related to animal care, everything from animal trainer to bison farmer to wildlife photographer.  I gave her a list of education programs for Resource Development and Animal Conservation.
She loved the idea of wildlife rehabilitation but didn’t want to go back to school.

In the end, she decided to start with Kennel Attendant and work towards owning and operating her own kennel someday.  She may even return to Rehab Assistant part-time, or on contract, to save money to buy some property for a kennel near Winnipeg.

She is finally accepting who she is in terms of her right work and taking responsibility for what she wants in life.

Living the right path

Very often our right work shows up early in life, but other values, priorities, advice, or circumstances get in the way of us following our instincts, intuition, or heartfelt desires.

We often get knocked off our right path early in life and end up surviving on another one…but not thriving.

It’s never too late to get back on it.  Sure, it might not be ideal, but it will certainly be deeply satisfying and rewarding in ways that are often hard to explain to others who have different values or priorities.

Be who you are…you won’t regret it.

JobJoy Smile – Animal Puns

Q: What do you call a sleeping bull?
A: A bull-dozer.

Q: How do you fit more pigs on your farm?
A: Build a sty-scraper!

Q: What did the farmer call the cow that had no milk?
A: An udder failure.

Q: Why do gorillas have big nostrils?
A: Because they have big fingers!

Q: Why are teddy bears never hungry?
A: They are always stuffed!

Q: Why do fish live in salt water?
A: Because pepper makes them sneeze!

Q: What do you get from a pampered cow?
A: Spoiled milk.

Q: Where do polar bears vote?
A: The North Poll

Top 3 factors to a successful career change in midlife

In the last few years, even during the pandemic, I’ve helped a significant number of individuals make real career changes into a new field or into self-employment.  Based on this experience, here’s the top 3 reasons they did so:

1. Know where to look

There are lots of opportunities in today’s job market but only in specific sectors.  By doing a deep analysis of their transferable skills, we identified which sectors will recognize, reward, and motivate them.  We start with the sectors where there is high demand and high growth.

2. Know how to look

We position and package them for specific jobs in those sectors.  We master the online application process and identify a few very specific people to approach offline for leads and referrals.  Then we prep for interviews by developing compelling stories that demonstrate in very clear and concise terms how they can help these employers make money, save money, improve productivity, attain efficiencies, meet difficult deadlines—all the bottom-line stuff that adds value to an organization. 

3. Stick to it.

Most of these people had some financial security because, by a combination of their age and covid circumstances, the value of their assets (especially their house) had gone up a lot, so they did not feel desperate.  This allowed them to really focus on attaining the kind of work that energized them, work that gave them purpose or meaning, rather than settling on something just to pay bills.  They felt liberated, empowered!  This positive attitude enabled their job search.
In addition, they found it quicker and easier to acquire a new credential, or skill, or subject matter expertise with all the micro-credentials available online.  Succeeding with a credential boosted their confidence in interviews and helped them make their case for employment in a new field.  They could speak with authority and authenticity on how they would handle certain situations in a job. 

Conclusion

Making a successful career change in mid-life is really about understanding and communicating your past accomplishments at work and in life, and how they fit the needs and priorities of a potential employer.  By mid-life, you’ve succeeded in many things that support you to succeed in a career change!

Starting over is not starting from scratch

A local client came to me recently seeking a career transition after 23 years in the same job.  Like many others before her, she asked, “Is it even possible?”

In their minds or, to be more accurate, in their emotions, it feels like a career change means “starting over” from the point of departure 23 years ago when they started their career from scratch. 

No, a career change doesn’t mean you are starting from the beginning.  Having been in the world of work for 23 years, this client has many transferable skills and knowledge because there is no substitute for experience.

To transition to certain jobs that require a specific license to practice—such as medicine or law—then a career change might involve much more education. 

But for many individuals, including this client, there are dozens of jobs that match her work experience. I provided her a list of such jobs that she can easily transition to without further education.

And, today, there over 1500 micro-credentials that she can acquire in the space of a few weeks or months that will qualify her for dozens of other jobs that are in demand.

With just a little career exploration and a few hours of simple research or assessment exercises, most individuals can identify a handful of job targets.

Then it’s a question of hitting those targets with proven job search strategies and tactics. 

Remember, it only takes one employer to recognize your value in this very dynamic job market in which employers a desperate to meet with experienced candidates.

Some individuals prefer to go all in with a job search.  They quit their current job and dedicate themselves to finding a better job fit.

Others, like my recent client with 23 years’ experience, prefer to keep their current job while taking small steps to reposition themselves for jobs that they are targeting as a better fit.

Return To Work

A client in Calgary is looking to return to work after 12 years of childcare, eldercare and pandemic isolation. 

Like many individuals in her situation, she does not like the idea of jumping into job hunting after an extended absence.

In her case, we are undertaking an assessment of her natural talents and previous work and education to match with sectors of the economy where there is a high demand for new employees.

Then we will identify the micro-credential that she can acquire in the shortest time that she can leverage into a targeted sector where there is a significant shortage of workers.

This is the quickest way to re-enter the workforce—to acquire a technical skill that is in high demand by employers. Here is a link to the Massive Open Online Courses.

The great advantage for workers nowadays is that the preponderance of remote work expands options for individuals with a technical skill, especially a computer-related technical skill, because computer skills are now core skills required in traditional sectors—such as transportation, healthcare, manufacturing, education, public administration—as well as new sectors, such as IT, SaaS, cybersecurity, data science…so workers are not restricted to jobs only in their geographic area.  Instead, they can work remotely from anywhere in the country for employers located anywhere.

The key is to identify the sector and skill that best suits you for a return to work sooner rather than later.

If you would like to discuss your situation, please contact me. 

Career change tip: Don’t make assumptions

According to many surveys, about half the working population is preparing to make a career change.  We read stories about exhausted nurses and teachers leaving their fields. Or service workers going back to school for IT diplomas. Or senior executives cashing out to sell real estate.

Many individuals change careers for good reasons. But just as many make decisions based on assumptions that could lead them down the wrong path. For example, a good many people have come to me with the intention of going into HR because they want to have direct contact with people and help them. That’s a noble motivation, right? Yes, but most HR duties are about managing processes not people.

Processes or people

HR is about using software and systems to effectively and efficiently deploy a specific resource in an organization—that resource is called talent, or human resources. When employees actually need help for a work-related problem, such as managing their stress or mental health, they are most often referred to a third party. If you want to work directly with people, then consider working in an employee assistance program run by a third party provider.

We need to substitute our assumptions with a reality check. Before committing to a career change, verify that your natural strengths and motivations align with its core duties and responsibilities.

Let’s use the HR scenario again. If by “helping others” you mean meeting with employees one-on-one to listen to their problem, then advising them on their options and helping them choose and appropriate course of action–then you may not enjoy sitting in front of a computer all day using PeopleSoft or some other software to review payroll complaints from workers spread across the country.

If what you really want to do is influence the thoughts, feelings, and behaviours of individuals towards some positive change, then identify which “jobs” in HR actually perform that function. Also, check to see what other careers are organized around that core activity.

You can make a better decision about a career change and what you need to do to make it happen with the assistance of my JOBJOY FOR LIFE™ Course.  

Job change or Career change–which is right for you?

The pandemic has caused many people to re-evaluate their life priorities and surveys indicate that many plan on changing their job this year, some for a better or different job and some for a whole new career.

In terms of deciding what to do, it may be helpful to understand the difference between a job change and a career change.

Career is derived from its Latin root meaning ‘wheeled vehicle,’ which lent itself to the modern notion of a single, linear, vocational direction (the metaphor equating to: ‘following a particular path’ or ‘climbing the corporate ladder’), as working permanently in, or committed to, a particular profession, such as a journalist, nurse, teacher, police officer, engineer, and so on.

Job change is not necessarily career change; some job change involves promotions, or demotions, with the same employer, or a lateral transfer using similar or related skills with a different employer in the same career field.

For example, social media has wiped out many daily newspapers and magazines, and some journalists who’ve lost their jobs have made a job change to a Communications/Media Relations Specialist with a large corporation, a government department or a nonprofit organization. Instead of reporting the news, they now work to “make” news by having their employer’s activities reported as news.

A career change, by contrast, is more difficult and involves moving from one career path to something completely different; for example, a journalist becoming a home renovator as an independent contractor.

Job change or career change—which is right for you? It will depend on your aspirations, preferences and circumstances. Your strengths and weaknesses will need to be factored into your decision. It may be important to do an objective evaluation of the pros and cons of each strategy for your situation.

Would you quit astrophysicist job to run a fireworks business?

Just this morning, one of my clients called to tell me that his two nephews—one a dentist, the other an astrophysicist—can’t stand going to work each day…so they are quitting their jobs to take over their father’s very successful fireworks business in Baltimore! I kid you not.

Now, if you were to go to their mother’s FaceBook page, you would get a very different impression, one of a proud mother singing the praises of her boys, and rightly so…it’s no small accomplishment to become a dentist or astrophysicist!

But the misery these boys feel is quite common. Psychology Today, the Menninger Clinic, The American Management Association, and other eminent organizations estimate as much as 90% of the working population is not in their right work. And we all know that depression is now the #1 workplace disability in North America.

If you’re in this situation, it is not your fault!

We tend to do things because that is the expected thing to do. We’ve been told to go to school to get good grades, in order to get into a good university and get a good degree in order to get a good job and live a good life. We follow this formula.

Sometimes it works, much of the time it doesn’t. Why? Studies show that most individuals are motivated by extrinsic drivers early in their lives, i.e. to get a secure job, get married, raise a family—do what is expected of us. Nothing wrong with it.

What is true for university is true for trade school, the family business or the military—we conform to the norms of societal expectations, rather than finding out how our personal priorities and our public contributions can be combined through work to create a meaningful life.

But then life smacks us between the eyes—job loss, aging, divorce, death of a loved one, new values, new aspirations—and we start to question our values and priorities.

It’s just normal adult development after the age of thirty to re-order our priorities around intrinsic drivers, such as our deepest values and highest aspirations.

My client has no idea if his nephews—as a dentist and astrophysicist–have any skills or motivation to run a fireworks business! And neither does his brother, the father of these two men. They could run it into the ground for all he knows! But it hurts him, as a father, to see his sons so unhappy in their chosen professions.

That’s why my client told his nephews to sign on to my JOBJOY FOR LIFE™ Course.  He wants them to take the time to find out now what they each have as natural strengths and motivations when it comes to work.  This will increase their chances of finding job satisfaction and success in a fireworks business…while sparing their parents the misery of seeing their sons unhappy once again.

How Covid Time Unlocks Career Options

Examples of what you enjoy about cooking can reveal natural strengths and motivations that can unlock career choices.

Do you have time on your hands now that you’re social distancing, or working from home, or collecting a benefit?  What do you do with that discretionary time?  Many people gravitate to their favourite hobbies or interests or explore new ones.

These activities often reveal a lot about your natural talents and motivations, and the kind of work you might be best suited for, excel in, and be rewarded accordingly.

Let me give you an example.  With so many of us at home, we know that more people are learning to cook or re-discovering their love of cooking.  That doesn’t mean you should rush off to be a chef or short order cook (even if you could find a restaurant that was open!)

It’s a simple enough activity…but it often reveals natural talents or hidden strengths that can open the door to new career opportunities!

By closely examining what it is that you truly enjoy about cooking, the thing or things that come easily to you or give you great satisfaction provide clues to your motivational pattern.

Over the years, I have seen the following talents and motivations appear in the stories of clients and what they truly love about cooking:

– “I will think about some new ideas about food and come up with new recipes.”  This knack for coming up with new recipes might reveal a natural talent for innovation for designing or developing and giving shape to new ideas.

– “I never follow a recipe but always use what’s available in my kitchen.”  This might be a reasoning talent for combining, mixing, harmonizing, or integrating—bringing together diverse parts or elements to form a new whole.

– “I have all the tools and equipment in my kitchen, everything ready at hand, clean, and ready to go.”  The inclination might show a talent for ordering one’s personal space, for sensing the most efficient positioning of materials for easy retrieval, and for maintaining things in their proper place (but does not necessarily include the ability to order space for others).

– “I like cooking but not for myself.  What I really enjoy is the presentation of the food to my family or a group of people, that’s what I enjoy most.”  This might reveal a person’s preference to work with Sensory subject matter in a visual manner in order to create a space where s/he feels comfortable socializing with a familiar group of people.

– “I like cooking but baking is what I really enjoy, especially decorating my cakes and sweets.”  This person may have a understanding how objects and shapes affect people’s moods and feelings, like someone adept at sculpting in wood, clay or stone objects, or an architect or UI/UX designer.

I want to be clear:  one of these talents by itself may not mean much unless it is viewed in the context of a bigger picture, i.e. your total motivational pattern. If you have a particular talent or motivation, it will show up in many of your enjoyable activities–both at work and home–and it will be linked to other elements in the motivational pattern, such as their natural talents, preferred subject matter, natural way of relating with others, the situations that motivate them and what it is they are trying to accomplish when they do what they enjoy most and do best.

So…if you find yourself with time on your hands and gravitating to certain activities that you might think are quite ordinary or mundane but truly enjoy—such as gardening, photography, needlework, car repair, word games, collecting things, rearranging home furniture, budgeting, gaming, electronic kits, model building*—you are using some of your motivational pattern.

Furthermore, if you want to know how these talents and motivations might help you develop your career in certain directions, use a simple career assessment process like my JobJoy Story assessment tool to help you identify and define your motivational pattern.

*If you’d like a list of a 100+ hobbies and interests that you might’ve forgotten how much you enjoy, email me and I’ll send it to you.

Example of Career Change as a Journey with a Clear Destination in Mind

As we get older, making a career change is more challenging for many reasons:

– we’re locked into a job that gives us economic security that we don’t want to risk;

– our identity is invested in our job—especially in the way that our family (you’re the breadwinner) and friends (you’re like me) view us—so there is little support for a major change;

– we might’ve tried a change previously and it didn’t work so we’ve lost confidence and don’t really believe we can make a change;

– we don’t have the desire or the energy to face adversity, it’s just easier to coast along with the devil we know;

– we don’t know where to start so we don’t do anything except daydream (news reports consistently tell us about 70% of workers fantasize daily about changing their job).

Whatever the challenge, there is a simple antidote that I have seen work everytime over the past 25 years–take one action towards what you want.

Did that action move you closer to your goal? 

If so, take another action.  If not, identify what was learned from that experience…then take a different action.   Baby steps!  We crawl, we pull ourselves up, we take a step or two, we walk, we run.  That’s life.  Same thing goes for career change.

For example.  A local client visited me 10 years feeling “stuck” in her government job.  She was thinking about going to law school.  After exploring the pros & cons of such a commitment for a young family, she decided against it.

Last year she returned.  She now had 18 years employment as a public servant but still desired a career change.  She had an idea in mind for developing her own business.  We discussed some options and developed a plan with specific action steps.

Action Steps

She took the first action of seeking advice from her network to evaluate the demand for the service she wanted to offer.  Her network was very encouraging.  At the same time, we reviewed all the legal and logistical requirements for starting a business in Ontario and established a timeframe.  She approached several contacts in her network to solicit them as initial clients…but they turned her down!  This took some of the wind out of her sails.

In the meantime, she found it difficult to choose between solopreneurship and registering as a corporation and received conflicting advice from lawyers, accountants and other professionals.

I encouraged her to continue prospecting with her targeted client base; in short, when faced with adversity, swim with your kind of fish.  She attended professional networking groups for business women, some of whom took her under their wing.  She started to feel supported in very practical ways.  She decided not to incorporate, then launched her business and immediately got referrals, new clients and projects.

Her side hustle keeps her busy outside of a 9-5 government job providing grant writing and social media management to clients. She says, “I couldn’t be happier!”

Next Step

We can now plan the next step to build her business to the point that she can go full-time by moving from solopreneur to employer.

Ten years ago this client had one idea that did not pan out…but her desire for a new venture was strong.  In the past year, she took her idea through baby steps to walking and is now preparing to run!

Career change is a journey with a clear destination in mind.  How fast you travel is not the issue.  The point is to enjoy the journey in the one life we get.

Fighting #FOMO with the write hack

We live in anxious times…especially in matters related to economic security.

We are all subject to pressures of competition, achievement, production and acquisition– fears, worries, anxieties about work and money are just part of navigating our economic rat race.

Most of us worry about finding a job, keeping a job, advancing with a job; we worry about paying our bills, making enough money to buy a home, or raising a family, or saving for retirement. We fear missing out on life’s many pleasures and promises.

Our anxieties are further fuelled by news reports highlighting precarious work with no benefits; corporate bankruptcies; failed government policies; the increasing reliance on robots, automation and artificial intelligence in our workplaces, and the replacement of jobs by such technologies. The future is uncertain.

Anxiety is a nervous disorder characterized by a state of excessive unease and apprehension. It often manifests first in a general restlessness, loss of appetite, insomnia, sometimes panic attacks or compulsive behaviour. If it carries on long enough, it can develop into serious illness, such as depression.

I know the telltale signs for myself, such as pacing, ruminating, procrastinating, a vague and general restlessness that interrupts, even prevents, restfulness. When feeling anxious, I know that I make poor decisions, so I’ve learned to tackle my anxiety head on.

    The write hack

We all need a work around when it comes to dealing with our anxieties. One of the first things I do when such symptoms appear is to take out a paper and pen and do a very effective writing exercise (known in some circles as morning pages) that quickly calms my worries.

If you are feeling anxious about your work and money, try this: get up in the morning and write for 3 pages non-stop about your career decisions up to this point in your life. How did you make those decisions? What were you thinking at the time? What were you expecting in terms of an outcome?

Don’t judge or censor yourself, just write whatever thoughts and feelings come to mind. Don’t stop writing until you’ve completed 3 pages. If you get stuck with writer’s block then keep writing the same thing over and over until another thought comes. You must complete 3 pages.

Do this for 5 days as early in the morning as possible. [Of course, the sooner you start this exercise when feeling anxious, the better; it’s not a substitute for clinical treatment if you’re depressed!]

By the time the fifth day rolls around, I can almost guarantee your anxiety will dissipate to the point where you can look for patterns in your pages that reveal the roots of your anxieties. Some of those roots may be internal and grounded in biology, beliefs or behaviours. Some of them may be external and rooted in your experiences with work and money. You might want to share your pages with a close friend or a professional to help you find the patterns and move forward.

    How to Move Forward in your Career

It is my experience that this kind of mental/emotional house cleaning is necessary before you can move forward in life with good decisions and powerful actions. There is something magical about such simple writing exercises.

That is why JobJoy is collaborating with Phrase Strategy to help leaders move forward with their careers. Maria Ford, Phraseologist, refers to writing exercises as pre-marketing, and necessary for the growth and development of leaders. Read her most recent post to learn more about how such “magic” might help you.

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