Career Doctor Articles

With the kind permission of the Career Doctor, jfo is able to bring you a series of articles to help you in your work situation and longer term career management

Need Help with your Career?

We all have experienced the signs when things are going wrong at work. The most common complaints that I hear from prospective clients are permutations of: “bored, frustrated, no prospects, under-paid, under-utilised, not using my degree / qualifications, being bullied / harassed, no enjoyment / challenge, chose the wrong career, the writing is on the wall, time to change.”

The person goes home to his / her partner and complains about the job, and the most frequent reply is “its time to move on, so do something about your career.” In almost all cases the partner is totally supportive and knows that unless something is done, the person in the wrong job will possibly suffer emotionally and physically. No job is worth damaging your health.

But what about damaging your wealth? If you are in the wrong job, but are well paid, how can you even consider trying to escape into a new career, when such a move will probably mean a reduction in salary?

So what should you do? For most people the thought of identifying a new career path and then doing whatever is necessary to achieve it, is a very daunting prospect. So who can you turn to for help?

In this article I will evaluate all the alternatives sources of help, so that if you are in the wrong job, you will have a better idea of where to seek help from.

A REDUCTION IN SALARY

Let’s discuss this thorny question first. In my own career I have twice taken salary cuts to get the job offer I needed to advance my career. Those readers who play chess will have made sacrifices on the board to achieve a winning position, and the principle in careers is the same.
If you will enhance your career and improve your quality of life by deliberately taking a pay cut, what’s the problem? Seems like a good idea to me.

If you need more convincing, go into Google and type in Herzberg and Maslow’s theories on this search engine, then click on the first one referring to ERIC Digests. When I was studying for my HR qualification we were obliged to study these theories, as they are fundamental to understanding what are the important factors in work, for everyone. According to Herzberg, the receipt of a good salary will not motivate people, nor make them satisfied / happy, whilst the only thing that will make you satisfied / happy is the work itself, and promotion.

According to Maslow, the ultimate need for everyone is to reach their full potential, yet if you are in the wrong job, that will never happen!

So if you are in the wrong job, do not let the fear of taking a salary cut stop you from taking proactive action to find the right career path for you. Having made your decision to change career, who can you turn to for help, advice and support? There are six main options available for you to consider, namely:

THE D-I-Y APPROACH

This, of course, is the cheapest route to take, and the one likely to be the least effective! Guessing at what would be the best career for you, or asking well-meaning friends for their advice is amateurish to say the least, and has many obvious pitfalls. The most obvious of all being that if you are unhappy as an XXX and you decide that you would like to be a YYY, it could be that you may be jumping from the frying pan into the fire. Disaster if you guess wrong.

And, more to the point, how do you beat the competition and get a job offer as a YYY? Its not easy, believe me. For most people, making such a major change to their life can be a very daunting prospect, whereby some form of support would be essential.

THE CAREERS TEACHER

Having had so many teachers as clients, and helped them to escape from teaching what I have learned about careers teachers fills me with dread. It seems to me that most teachers have very little, if any, experience of working in the real world; they go from school to university and back to school as a teacher. Those teachers who volunteer to act as a careers adviser to the children seem to take the view that if Johnny or Jilly is good at a particular subject, then that’s what they should study at university, or possibly try for a career in a related discipline.

Now I know that I should not generalise too much and that there must be some careers teachers out there who do inspire their students to think beyond the obvious, but from all the adverse criticism I hear from those who visit my consultancy, it seems such enlightened careers teachers are few and far between.

All I seem to hear from my clients is the lament: “I wish I’d had professional careers advice when I was at school, then I’d never have followed the career that I have”. What a legacy for the future!

JOB CLUBS

There are a number of state-sponsored initiatives for helping the unemployed regain employment, and these can be quite useful if you are watching every penny. In general these clubs provide certain facilities and premises where those in a similar position can meet and share experiences.

From what I hear from my clients, the upside is that you can use the club’s phones, newspapers, computers, copiers etc. The downside is that by sharing experiences with other unemployed people there is a serious risk that your own morale and self-confidence will be reduced by continually hearing of other people’s problems. There’s no such thing as a free lunch.

RECRUITMENT AGENCIES

Again I must not generalise, but the vast majority of recruitment agencies have earned themselves a poor reputation because of the way they treat those people who are looking for another job. I hear so many complaints about how recruitment consultants promise the moon and deliver nothing.

Other complaints are that your CV will vanish into a black hole and when the agency advertises the very vacancy for which you would like to apply for, somehow your CV has not been considered. What do they do with all those CVs? Why don’t they keep their promises to “phone you back”? Why do they enthuse about how they will be able to help you, then nothing happens?

If you are an experienced XXX and want to find another job as an XXX then if your CV is with an agency that specialises in providing XXXs to its client companies, you may stand a fair chance that the agency would put your CV forward to the company.

If however you are an XXX and want a new career as a YYY (without having much, if any relevant experience), then a recruitment agency will probably not be overly interested in you, if at all. Moreover if you are an unhappy XXX and want to escape, but do not know what other career you would like to do, then I would be incredibly surprised if any recruitment agency would be remotely interested in helping you identify the most suitable career for you.

Why should they give you their time for free, when there is little, if any, chance that they will be able to market you as a prospective ZZZ, and thereby earn their fees from a client company? In these circumstances you might wish to consider visiting a Career Analyst.

CAREER ANALYSTS

These are specialist consultants who will subject you to a number of tests of varying types, interview you, and then advise you what type of career(s) you would be best suited to. You can anticipate spending several hours with a Career Analyst and receiving an extensive report with well-reasoned recommendations for your new career path.

Such a report would be a very strong weapon in persuading a company that although you are an experienced XXX, you have all the right ingredients and potential to be an ABC, even though you may not have any relevant experience.

Bolstered with such a recommendation you can then consider investing your time and money in studying for a qualification in ABC, in the hope that this will also help you secure employment as an ABC.

The downside of using a career analyst is that they stop at the recommendation. The bigger challenge is how to turn the recommendation into the offer of a job as an ABC, and that is quite another matter.

Where I think career analysts are best used is in helping young people choose the right degree to study, or the right career to follow after leaving school or university. I certainly sent my two sons to a career analyst when they were young.

CAREER CONSULTANTS

Save the best till last is my motto. A career consultancy is a one-stop shop that will do all the things that a career analyst will do - but then go on to provide support and guidance in how to achieve a job offer as an ABC. This is called career redirection and is the main service we provide at my career consultancy.

We also get involved in outplacement (helping those who have been made redundant regain employment as quickly as possible), franchising and self-employment (helping clients select the right options, then guiding them to make their dream come true) and career management (helping more senior people develop their careers in the optimum path).

My particular speciality is employee relations (especially helping those who have been dismissed, or who are facing disciplinary action). I am consulted by owners and managers of small businesses who have a difficult situation with a member of staff, as well as those employees who have / will be losing their jobs. I could write another article on the wide variety of cases I have been involved with.

Finally we also get involved in HR projects whereby we help small local businesses devise and install recruitment and disciplinary procedures, draft contacts of mployment, use psychometric tests to identify the most appropriate job applicant, etc.

So, the choice of who you turn to for help is yours, but don’t put off making the decision to do something positive about your career. There is no time like the present - you will have the rest of your life to regret not taking the plunge!

Good luck!

The Career Doctor is Eric Hearn, Chartered MCIPD and Managing Director of Milverton Career Solutions Ltd, Ascot, Berkshire, UK.

Contact details:
Tel: 01344 624383
Email: milvertoncareers@btconnect.com
Website: www.careerdevelopment.co.uk