I love to get updates from my clients. A person’s career is literally a story. It’s about their progress through their working life.
As a career professional, I am part of that story, usually for a short period of time, but I truly value that experience. Sometimes, the update is good, sometimes not so good, depending on what is happening in their journey.
Although we tend to think of career as a steady line that swings upward through progressive phases of advancement, it is often a squiggly line that dips and turns and twists, like much of life.
Here’s a good update that illustrates what I’m talking about. I worked with a young adult 15 years ago when he was trying to make his first big career decision. You can read that part of his story here.
In short, we identified his natural talents and knack for working in a physical world–one that is organized around physical infrastructure that needs to be designed, built, maintained, repaired, restored, and often replaced.
My assessment was followed by my suggestion that he enter an applied science program and he settled on a 3-year civil construction technology program at a local college.
After graduating, he started his own construction company, as well as a family! He grew confident with his abilities in a very competitive industry.
Construction is also a volatile industry with its own cycle of ups and downs. But Gui learned to pivot. When business would fall off, he would find a job in his field.
He wrote me recently to say: “After 6 years of working for companies–including 3 years as project manager at an Ottawa general contractor; same thing on the Quebec side for 2.5 years; and, 3 months for a steel fab company as an estimator/installer–I have decided to return to my business and it is booming.”
Business changes, life changes, but building a career around our natural strengths, our deepest values, and our highest motivations can give us the confidence and tools to pivot successfully. That is job joy!