Career development - the career crossroad stage

Many of my clients fall into this category finding themselves at a crossroads or junction.

Alongside their professional life, there are other factors at play such as children leaving home, elderly parents needing care, health issues either for themselves or other family members along with questioning personal purpose at this stage of their lives. Some of the internal questions arising at this stage are:

1. Can I continue in this type of role for the next 12-20 years?
2. Is it too late to chase my desire for a new profession or way of working?
3. Have I got one more mountain to climb in my career journey to the next level?
4. Should I change the type of company or industry I am working in?

Plus many more similar types of internal searching questions that we explore as part of the coaching journey.

When clients reach out at this stage of their career they are often overwhelmed and confused by either too many options or the feeling of being stuck with limited options. Here are my observations below based on many years of helping people navigate through this maze thus enabling them to make any adjustments required or simply reframe their current situation so that they can proceed with the knowledge they are on the right path.

Spoilt for choice

Many people are surprised when I share my views that there are endless options open to explore at this stage of their career journey and that they are indeed very employable if we go to market in the right way.

If someone has been internally focussed for many years having worked for the same organisation or industry for years sometimes for their entire working life, they can be blind to the wider marketplace. Losing touch with the external job market completely can turn into a limiting belief that they are stuck.

If this is the situation then my work is to shine a light on the numerous opportunities that are available and then support them in an efficient exploration process opening the mind to possibility before filtering with the right criteria for the individual concerned.

Efficient filtering

By this stage of life, I can ask the key question “What do you want and what do you not want? “ with a good degree of confidence I will quickly get the individual to identify strong criteria using past positive and negative experiences.

It is also a chance to consider personal logistical ways of working and financial goals moving forwards. The ideal outcome at this stage of career development is to focus on natural strengths and where an individual can show up naturally and thrive in a role they feel competent and happy in.

It is important to be honest with yourself (and your coach if you are working with one) as it is a chance to intentionally carve out what you love to do and what you are good at. Going into a role at this stage of life knowing you can have maximum impact leveraging off your career so far is powerful and satisfying, we are looking for this sweet spot amongst all the advertised roles.

Selling yourself powerfully

The key here is to be clear about what you can offer to others and use your sales document (concise resume) or website (if going self-employed) as your brochure and the route to market. Digging deep to uncover those transferable skills that you want to offer to others is the work that needs doing, backed up by a list of achievements you have under your belt to function as evidence.

Along with the paper credentials doing the inner belief building is required so that you can show up with the right energy and confidence that will reassure others they are making the right decision in hiring you for the next role. For many, going through multi-layered interview processes can be scary - especially if it's many years since you have experienced the hiring process. Part of my work can be taking someone through a pretend interview process to practice the skills of making sure you show up in the best possible light often in a brief time window.

Thinking about the future you

One method I use to help people start exploring options at this phase of their career is to get them to imagine how they want to spend the next 5-10 years depending on how long their personal planning window is. Think about this from a professional and personal perspective and then using the filter (mentioned above) a few options magically start to come into place and help the decision-making process.

So rather than limited options at this stage of career development, the opposite is true. There are so many options the work often begins with deciding what you do not want to do and enjoying the process of exploration until the obvious next step emerges or you decide you are exactly where you are meant to be already. Either way, the uncertainty is taken away and can carry on enjoying this phase of the career journey.