10 Ways to Thrive During a Career Transition

Transitioning careers is a normal part of most people’s career journey, and yet, there’s no foolproof blueprint or timeline. Everyone’s process is different — sometimes it takes weeks, sometimes months and sometimes it happens when you least expect it.
As the job market continues to shift, I see more and more people feeling stuck and overwhelmed at the vast and convoluted prospects, unsure of how to navigate them, wondering how to make the leap and feeling more and more defeated as time goes on. As a career coach, I believe that personal resiliency is one of the most important factors in successfully transitioning careers. When things don’t seem to be going as planned, rejection feels crushing, or things don’t feel like they’re progressing, how do you stay the course and keep moving in the direction of your dreams?

Below are 10 things you can do to help you stay the course, get unstuck and dare I say thrive(?!) during your career transition:
​

1. Create a list of good things people say about you. If you don’t have one, ask friends, colleagues, clients etc. Look back at performance reviews, thank you notes you got from clients or customers, etc. Revisit this often! It will help you focus on what you have to offer and will also be a valuable document to turn to if you get down in a career transition rut.
2. When you read a job description, don’t overly focus on areas that you don’t feel you measure up and self-select out of job candidacy. If you meet most of the requirements or are close on most of them, apply for the job and make sure your application focuses on why you would be a great fit. If you’re applying online, be sure to optimize your application for that job specifically.
3. Don’t spend all day everyday online clicking through job postings. Instead, give yourself some achievable job search goals and then shut it off. Think up measurable goals like, “Each day, send one email. Each week, find two companies I love and try to connect with someone there. Each week apply to one job I am really interested in. Each week, attend an event and meet someone new.” Make these achievable and measurable so you can mark them off your list and know you’ve accomplished something. If you don’t, the job search can become an endless energy suck and you may burn out. If you need permission to take a break, I am giving it to you :)
4. Along those same lines, take care of yourself physically and mentally. It may seem counterintuitive to take a walk or go to the gym when there is so much you could be doing to find a new job, but managing your state of being and staying as healthy as possible is critical to a successful career transition. If you aren’t taking care of yourself, you could miss out on your dream job by not putting your best foot forward. Let go of the guilt of spending time on something that is good for you or brings you joy. Taking care of yourself is ALWAYS worth the investment.
5. Don’t get caught up in self-comparison. It’s a waste of time to look at other people’s career success and beat yourself up for not “having it together,” not being successful, not measuring up. Almost everyone has been in your shoes at some point, trying to figure out their next move. It’s a natural part of the process, it’s just not the part that we hear about generally when there’s a big public success.
6. Spend time getting clear on how you talk about your skills. What you have learned, how you have grown, what accomplishments you can highlight from past jobs/roles/experience and what transferable skills you have to offer. EVERYONE has a skillset. What is yours?
7. Be the most interested person in the room, not the most interesting. When you go to an event, ride the bus, get a coffee, strike up conversations. Try to meet someone new everyday. Be open, friendly and curious. Be memorable because you showed interest, asked genuine questions and were actively curious about the person you were talking to. A quality conversation is more valuable than a bunch of superficial ones. If it’s natural to mention you’re considering a transition, do it. Follow up with people you meet. Nurture the new relationships you are building. Opportunities will come.
8. Spend some time thinking about what you want and what you don’t want. Jobs are a lot like relationships. If we are unhappy in one, sometimes we will go find one with the opposite qualities and start over there. The problem is, it isn’t long until we realize there were actually some qualities about our last job we did like. Don’t hop from job to job reacting to what you hate. Spend some time being thoughtful about what has worked well in your previous roles and what you didn’t love. Get clear on what you are looking for and what environment you are best suited for. Then look for something that’s a better fit.
9. Learn something new. If you genuinely feel stuck and nothing you are trying is working, learn something new. Take a class, an online course, build a personal website and learn the components of that. Do something you find challenging and interesting and develop a new skill set that might later come in handy. Learning something new and completing a project is a GREAT way to build confidence too!
10. Get out of your comfort zone and take action every day. When we feel stuck, sometimes we spend a lot of time in our heads telling ourselves, “Once I figure out what I want to do next, I will do something about it. Once I figure out how to talk about my career, I will reach out to someone.” And on and on… I tell my clients to flip that on its head. When you have a curiosity about or interest in a career path, an industry or job, figure out an action you can associate with that to get more information or get one step closer and take that action. Talk to someone. Volunteer. Join a meetup. You might be amazed what opportunities can open up when you start taking action and get out of your head!

​
If this feels daunting, or you feel like nothing you try is working, it might be time to seek support from a career coach that can help you get unstuck and provide some expertise, resources and accountability for a successful career transition. If that’s you right now, I would love to explore how to best support you in changing your career. Let’s talk!