Does your job fit?

As a careers confidence coach, I help people find direction and fulfilment in their careers. Our working years are such a big proportion of our lives that we deserve to do something we love and really enjoy day to day. It is so important that we align our jobs with our values, beliefs and passions.  I’ve spoken to so many people about their careers and most of them come to me because they feel stuck and they don’t know what their next move is. Watch my video on how to shape your perfect job description and build the confidence to get what you want. I also share some insights into my career coach job description and how I arrived at it.

In my conversations with career coaching clients, I’ve noticed 10 statements that people say to me over and over again:

1. I’m staying in this job because I dont know what else to do

2. I don’t know what else is out there that would suit my skill set

3. My job title is niche and I simply don’t know what else to look for outside of that title

4. I’ve been climbing the career ladder and I don't know how to get off it

5. I don't know where my talent would be accepted or needed

6. I don’t know what I’m good at

7. I don’t know what I want, but I want something else

8. I’m worried about starting again so have stayed where I am

9. I wouldn’t know where to begin with looking for a new job

10. I want something totally different but I’m just not sure what that is

 There are also people who were really happy in their career prior to COVID-19 but unfortunately suffered from the effects of the pandemic and found themselves out of a job, out of their comfort zone and trying to identify which way to turn. 

Do you notice anything about all of these statements and situations? They all contain:

●      Lack of clarity

●      Lack of direction

●      Lots of unknowns

●      Very low self-awareness 

This is where coaching can really help identify your next step. Coaching helps you gain clarity on what it is you are good at, what strengths and skills you have, what you enjoy, what you are passionate about, what values you have and most importantly what your first step forwards could be - towards a career you love. 

I’ve been there and done all of this myself so I’m familiar with this experience and know what my clients are going through. 

I was in an advertising sales role for eight years and jumped up the progression ladder until one day I just couldn’t see what my next move was.  A male colleague was promoted above me and all sorts of limiting beliefs were running through my head: ‘I’m not good enough for the next stage’, ‘I’m not clever enough’, ‘I’m not charismatic enough’, ‘I don’t have what it takes’, ‘I’ve reached the glass ceiling’. 

With these thoughts running through my mind hundreds of times a day, you can see why I became very unhappy. Alongside those thoughts I had also grown tired of sales. I love learning and I didn’t feel I was learning at pace in my role anymore.

 All of this uncertainty led me to find a careers coach to help me shape my job description. Here are some of the steps we took together:

1. Identifying what my 5 core values were:

   Creativity, Fairness, Learning, Freedom, Love

2. Identifying areas where my current role was in line with those values:

   I couldn’t find any alignment, which made me determined to switch career pathways

3. Identifying what types of activities I liked doing in my sales director role

   1. Teaching, empowering and inspiring others

   2. Developing people

   3. Running events outside of my normal role

   4. Learning

   5. Using my creativity to think of new ways to communicate to bring about changes in behaviour

   4. Exploring how often I was doing these activities in my sales role. Could I do more of them in some way?

   I felt my role would never align with my core values to the level I wanted to experience every day

   5. Identifying my core strengths (soft skills and hard skills) and the ones I enjoyed using:

   SOFT: listening, build relationships, empathy, emotional intelligence, integrity, problem solving, organisation

   HARD: Microsoft Office, presenting skills, writing and designing training content, design skills

I pitched an idea to the company I worked at, suggesting that I pivot into a Learning & Development Manager role. I had the skills to do it, I had passion for teaching and inspiring others and I believed I could do it well. I made my pitch as a business case - presenting why the company would benefit from me being in this role and laying out my commitment to train and gain more qualifications that would help to embed me in the role and prove I was worthy and qualified. Read more of my tips for having productive conversations about your ambitions in my guest blog here.

You don’t need to be perfect in a new role or in a career pivot.  You have to have bedrock skills and passion that will support your performance. Your desire to do well will help you learn all the things you need to know on an on-going basis. 

Now my careers coach job description looks like this:

1. Teach, empower, inspire and develop people

2. Speak at events and host workshops

3. Constantly learn for my own self-development and pass that learning onto others

4. Use my creativity to think of new ways to communicate and coach to help bring about positive changes in my clients’ behaviour and mindset

 Sound familiar?

 I am truly aligned to my values, my passion and my skill-set. Could this be you too?