Living Through A Career Change
When
people ask me how I decided to change from being a Microbiologist in a hospital laboratory
to being a counselor helping people with life-changing issues, I usually tell them that I
was so impressed by the help I received from a counselor, that I decided to change
careers. That is true. However, when I really
think back, I realize that I have been moving toward a career shift all my life.
I just didn’t know it. If I start
counting careers from the first time someone paid me for a genuine job, my resume goes
like this: babysitter (middle child of six),
paper route (inherited from my brother), clerk at a religious articles store (at my mother’s
urging), office assistant to a dentist (mom, again), nurse’s aide (in the summers during
college years), cafeteria dish-washer (in the winters when I ran out of money during
college years), Medical Technologist (when I finally attained my degree) and presently,
Counselor in Private Practice. Eight careers,
so far. Eight unique, unconnected changes
beginning with work I could do when I needed work and ending with work I truly enjoy.
Of course, most of those changes occurred in the early years, because once I began
working in the Microbiology lab, I stayed for two decades.
But, when I think of why I was not overwhelmed by my decision to begin a new career
in mid-life, it may have to do with some of those early experiences.
Experiences where I faced brand new situations and survived by listening, learning,
faking it or quietly asking for assistance.
Changing
careers is not so hard when you have a backlog of experiences where you have been
uncertain and frightened but managed in spite of it all.
From experiences like that we gain the ability to adapt to new situations and
handle our own emotions. Anyone who can do
that is well armed to face the transitions and challenges of a new career.
Although I am in no way simplifying or minimizing the incredible time and energy
that goes into the process of changing careers, I do want to minimize the fear. Because, even if you can’t wow them with your previous experience as
a cafeteria dishwasher, you bring to your career-change the skills and expertise that come
from your work history. These are the skills
no one can teach you in a class. They are the
coping and managing skills that are called “experience.” As an adult, when you change
careers, you bring a lifetime of experience. You also bring your own ingenuity in the face
of change. When I got spooked by my new
career, I could always say to myself: “At
least this is not as crazy as the time I went to work for that dentist and not only could
not identify the instruments he wanted handed to him, I couldn’t even type his bills!”
Think hard about your own experiences. Count
the changes you have made. If not in jobs,
look at school changes, moves, children and relationships.
Look at successes and failures. Record
the times that you have adapted and coped. See
if you can learn something from your list. See
if you can find something from your previous experiences that makes you valuable in your
new career and resilient in the face of change. Bolster
yourself with the confidence that you not only made it through these past experiences, you
were empowered by them. Though you may feel like a rookie in your new career, you bring
the experience of a pro because all the years of life and work count. Career changes,
after all, are kind of like learning your brother’s paper route.
You can learn the houses and how to fold the papers and when to collect the money,
but you figure out for yourself to ride your bike with the wind at your back
© by Mary DuParri, MA, LPC. I encourage sharing Authentic Living in whole or in part if copyright and attribution are always included.