3 minute read
Thoughts on: career changes
By Chuck Morris
For a number of years now, we have heard experts advising young people leaving school and trying to get into the workforce that they will have a multitude of different jobs throughout their working life. That is, if they can find work. I believe that with proper education and some good direction from parents, most of them should be able to find work, though maybe not in the field in which they wanted to begin. So after obtaining training and field experience over a number of years, one will then need to ‘jump ship’ and begin to acquire other traits and experiences in order to provide for themselves and by now, their young families. Or at least that is what the experts would have us believe. This may be true for those who entered their working life unprepared.
What about those people already working hard and doing a good job and planning for the future? There may come a time when the organization for which they are working needs to downsize or re-organize. Someone may be out of a job and it just might be the junior person. Time to look at what else is available and if that person is lucky, a similar opportunity may exist somewhere else. Otherwise it may well be a career change.
A wise man I once worked for suggested that a career move approximately every five years was a very good way to obtain experience in your field of work, and would usually translate into advancement. This advice works quite well, providing you have the ability to deal with the respective additional responsibilities. It also offers up your now-vacant position to someone else, preferably prolonging that person’s work life within the organization.
Another challenge is after you have spent twenty-five or more years working for an organization and though still capable of the work, a lot of the work may be mundane because of solutions to problems long since discovered. A move may be a good thing! Who wants to continue in a job that has become boring? (Though I do believe we each have the ability to create challenges within our jobs so that boredom does not become a factor.)
Plan wisely. If near the point in your life when a move out of the hard political arena and ever-increasing workload suggests it might be the moment to make a change, take the time to think about the potential impacts. Financially, it can affect family, and it may affect your current lifestyle one way or the other. Don’t move into something just for the sake of moving – unless you are a daring individual and feel a move like this will not go south on you (or you don’t care if it does!).
Speaking from experience, after a great many years providing my passion for the work I was tasked to do, I moved from the public sector and went to work for a private company. The timing was right and the move turned out as expected – it’s great! With my senior position now vacant, an opportunity was provided for someone else to move into that spot.
Career changes are not taboo and they may well be a fact of life for many people today and into the future. However, as the old boy scout motto says: “Always Be Prepared.” b
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