Marketplace Faith
Know What’s Next For Your Career: Again and Again
Have you ever had that sinking feeling that the finish line is not the end of the race? Maybe you were an athlete, and you’d have a coach who would pile on extra conditioning just when you thought you were done with practice. Perhaps you’ve been through some life-challenge, like a medical one, and just when you think the worst is over, something else pops up. Maybe it’s dating, and although he seemed perfect at first, the more you know him, the less he shines. You find yourself waiting for the next dark secret to the surface.
None of these examples is a particularly happy story, yet each scenario would be easier to swallow if one knew from the outset what one was getting into. So, we conclude this series with the process nature of career navigation.
As you think about what’s next in your career, it is tempting to think that if you just get this move right, you’ll be done, and all set for the rest of your work journey. Perhaps this was the case a generation ago, but no longer. Most of us will have many jobs at many firms in multiple career lanes. Gone are the days of “fix it and forget it when it comes to career navigation.
Facing the Reality of a Changing Work Landscape
Much is being written about how AI will transform work. The more capable and integrated tech becomes, the more it will shape the way we work and the work we are needed to do. While AI is on the horizon, there’s already plenty of change happening in the market for talent today. Much of these changes are at the micro level-specific firms and industries. Yet they could still send people like you into job and career change.
No Hits at Google: One of my clients works at Google. The division she’s in has little appetite for the sophisticated computer science applications she learned how to build through her Ivy League education and internships. She’s heading to grad school to open doors for more options.
Analyst, analyze thyself: John (name changed), was an award-winning analyst, he focused on a specific sector, knew everything about it, and even won awards. Unfortunately, he was a winner at a losing game, the market for his kind of analysis is going away, AND the company he worked for was dogged by poor financial health. John is taking his skills and working on marketing them in a different application. He has to get out of his dying industry.
Victim of his Success: Clay has had several senior financial management jobs with a multinational consumer products company. He had always performed well, especially when corporate needed someone to parachute in and turn a business unit around. But now Clay is bored! The culture of distrust and the layers of bureaucracy have worn him down. He is considering a very different kind of role in the C-Suite of a start-up.
Left Behind. Don had a great job managing sourcing risk for a large multinational food company. The company was purchased by a firm based in Nebraska. Nothing against Nebraska, but Don is not willing to uproot his family from the Northeast. The geographic shift of the firm is forcing him to rethink his priorities, where he must live, and what is important to him in a job and career.
All of these cases demonstrate the fallacy that we find our dream job, then “set it and forget it” for the rest of our lives. On the market side, dream jobs don’t last: the industry, process, and people morph over time. Today’s dream job could turn into a nightmare tomorrow. On our side of the ledger, our priorities, goals, and requirements for our work evolve. Neither side is static, and therefore we must constantly keep our heads in the game of matching our real selves to real-world opportunity.
Never Quitting the Career Change Game
Here’s what I see, talking to hundreds of professionals from ages 25 to 60, in the busiest, most competitive job market in the US: unplanned career change is MUCH easier when you’re prepared. When you know what you’re good at and why, when you know which companies and industries are growing and why, you are miles ahead of the others in your age cohort.
This is being proactive instead of reactive. It involves seeing the danger in the company and preparing, instead of crossing your fingers and hoping that what happens to everyone else (an unplanned, forced exit), won’t happen to you. It will. At some point in your career, you will lose a job. If you are normal, there will be a time when you find that it takes longer to get a new job than you thought it should. However, if you know that navigating the unseen requires deep knowledge, and you know where to find personal clarity, and you know how to garner real-world intel about what’s possible, you’ll be able to make your way to your next.
At various points along the way, this kind of optimism is easier said than done. And so we conclude with a few words of hope and promise.
There’s A Plan for Your Work
Even when we can’t see what’s next in our career or when the only options forward all seem like drudgery, it is hope-giving to preach the following words to ourselves.
For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do(Ephesians 2:10).
If you’ve been churched throughout your life, you may well be suffering from a very limited definition of “good works.” Good works could be limited to church service or serving the poor, or boy scout stuff like helping old people across the street. Why is that? Why does institutional religious activity claim to control the market on good work?
What if what you do at work all day is just as good, just as connected with a bigger plan, just as important to the Creator?
The Apostle Paul wrote words that remind us that we have good work to do, good work includes our work at work. The path is already planned. Making your next career move is discovering God’s plan for your working life. He made you, carried you through the experiences that have shaped you, and has a plan for how your talent and experience will be good for His world.
His plan even includes all the switching we will do, the wider networks we will grow, and the broader experience we will develop in such a tumultuous work environment. Even in the throes of constant change, you still have good work to do at every step of your career journey.
How About You?
- What about the idea that you will change jobs and careers is exciting? What about it is unsettling?
- What experiences have forced you to reconsider your career path?
- As you review this four-part series, what is the most helpful idea you’ve gleaned, and what actions will you take to maximize your career navigation process?
About the Author and Resources for Your Career Journey
Dr. Chip Roper writes Marketplace Faith from New York City, where he is Founder and President of the VOCA Center. Under Chip’s leadership, VOCA rescues clients like you from the forces that rob them of effectiveness and joy at work. With over 30 years of P/L responsibility and experience successfully navigating career change, Dr. Chip and his team at VOCA are well-positioned to be a resource to you and your team. VOCA provides coaching, training, and consulting to individuals and organizations in NYC and beyond. Visit our faith-based website at vocacenter.org and our market-facing menu of services at www.vocacenter.com.
If your wrestling with what’s next in your career, sign up for a complimentary consult to for our Calling Discernment Program.
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