The
Top Career Road Blocks and How to Hurdle them.
Part 3 of a 10 part series in making your career change happen. Stay tuned to get there...
Road
Block ThreeThe Skills Trap
A common way to approach the career
question is this:how can I use my
existing skills to do something different. This is a valid question and an
important one. And it is a practical place to begin. The
trouble is it can also lead you down a dead end and hurtling straight into
Career Road Block 3.
Here’s why – first using your existing
skills might mean you end up doing something very similar to what you do now.
Second, you may be very good at what you do but not enjoy it at all! Third, and crucially, skills can be learnt. Talent on the other hand, cannot.
So approaching it from a skills angle can
feel constraining and myopic - like trying to peep through a keyhole instead of
opening the door.To really expand
your thinking and options the more useful strategy can be either:
To ask yourself
what you would really like to do and then work out how you can acquire the
skills to do it.
Or
To understand
your TALENTS and see where you can apply and/or develop them.
This may seem an impractical approach -
particularly when like most people, you have the very real concerns of paying
the bills. BUT doing so allows you to let in appealing options that you may
have been roadblocking simply because you think they are out of reach. If you
hold fast to the almost unassailable fact that most career changes happen over
time, that you have to start somewhere, that most of us do so while still doing
another job, then the complexion changes to a rosier one.
This is not to say by any means, that the
converse is not the case. Just changing the context in which a skill is applied can make all the difference. For
example: an accountant working for a major corporate, weary of shareholders and
politics may get tremendous satisfaction from starting a consultancy to help
small businesses. Or a music teacher tired of an unimaginative curriculum and
unruly kids may use her experience to work at a record label, a music
magazine or an arts centre.
There are (thankfully) many ways to spin the career satisfaction wheel. Starting from skill though, can sometimes severely limit your road ahead.
