Dorota Klop-Sowinska is an executive and international career coach and author of Career Jump! www.dosocoaching.com.
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Are you feeling stuck in your career? Do you find yourself daydreaming about doing something different, but never taking action? I know the feeling, because I was there, too.
Fifteen years ago, I was working as an internal auditor for the financial sector. On many levels, I had a great job. I traveled all around the world, had a great team and had a supportive manager; yet I kept feeling that something was missing. If I only knew what, I thought to myself.
The big wake-up call came one warm September morning when I found myself in an intensive care ward. I thought to myself: There's no time to waste. Now is the time to change. And so I did.
Over the past 15 years, I have helped many clients do the same. In recent years, one technique I've found particularly effective in helping clients make a rapid and successful career change is what I call "rapid experimentation."
Rapid Experimentation
You can spend months and years visualizing and dreaming about what else you could do professionally. But even after spending a long time "at the drawing board," there is no guarantee that this will be the thing you will want to do long-term.
Rapid experimentation is a method of quickly identifying, on one hand, all your possible side careers or passion projects, and on the other, all the possible obstacles and ways to deal with them. This is a way of testing the waters and gaining real-life experience regarding these new possibilities.
When I was changing my career, my initial idea wasn't to become a career coach for expats and executives. Instead, I intended to become a psychotherapist for children with trauma.
However, when I was considering my studies, I decided to start with something with a shorter timeframe, coaching and counseling, before committing to a five-year psychotherapy program. The institution providing my education offered the opportunity to jump to the second year of the psychotherapy program after successfully completing the coaching program, so I felt like there was nothing to lose.
I'm so grateful I made that decision, because through my studies, I discovered that my personality is much more suited to coaching than therapy, and I have a greater affinity for working with adults than children. It was only through experimentation that I was able to find my true calling.
So how do you make rapid experimentation your own?
Obstacles And Handling Them
First, you must identify what is holding you back. We often think of these as external factors, like other people not giving you the right opportunities. The truth is, most of the time, it is our own mindset that is limiting us.
Write down all the limiting beliefs you have about yourself and career change. This might include things like “I am too old to change,” “What will others say?" and so on.
Then take practical steps to eliminate those limiting beliefs. I am a strong believer that other people can help us grow or keep us stuck. Identify people around you who keep you stuck and do not involve them in your new plans. Then ask for support from those around you who are positive. Find other professionals who are going through the same process and become each other’s accountability buddies. You all want each other to succeed.
Side Jobs And Passion Projects
To start planning, think about your current skill set and interests. Is there a particular area you've always been drawn to but haven't had the opportunity to explore in depth?
Before you make a big, complicated plan to leave your current job, start your side hustle. Depending on what the side hustle is, it will require different things from you. It could be that you need to start with upgrading your skills. Look into short-term, affordable courses first to test the waters.
It could also be that you do not need any new training but rather a simple website or a good social media profile. Do not get trapped into spending big budgets on complicated websites—start small, ask for feedback, get your first test clients and go from there.
Keep in mind, you are experimenting to find out if your idea will work for you long-term or not, without losing financial stability.
Need Some Ideas?
Here are some ideas based on my clients’ experiences:
• Start a podcast on the topic you are passionate about and see if it resonates with listeners.
• Start a blog or YouTube channel focused on a particular niche and see if you can grow an audience.
• Create and sell digital products like templates, designs or ebooks.
• Set up an Etsy account and sell your products there.
• Start writing a book on a topic where you have lots of experience that you want to share.
• Shadow a job you are interested in (event manager, dog trainer).
• Look for opportunities in your company to take on a different job (cross-cultural training, coaching, D&I projects, sustainability projects).
• Volunteer at an NGO.
Don't Be Afraid
Ultimately, rapid experimentation is about taking action and not being afraid to fail. Really, you cannot fail, because even if your first idea doesn’t work out, you have gained loads of experience and are now ready to start experimenting with another idea.
By adopting a mindset of rapid experimentation and starting a side job now, you can set yourself on a path to a fulfilling and successful career change.
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