Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Good Morning.
Speaker 1: This is Laura.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's tip is to
Speaker 2: run to something, not from something.
Speaker 3: If you are pondering making a big switch in life,
Speaker 3: it is often more motivating to have something you actually
Speaker 3: do want to do, rather than just trying to get
Speaker 3: away from something you don't. I love hearing from people
Speaker 3: who are thinking about switching careers. There are often great
Speaker 3: ways to explore new options, and starting something new can
Speaker 3: be a good way to become more interested in life.
Speaker 3: I can usually recommend ways to fit training and searching
Speaker 3: into even a busy schedule. That said, I noticed that
Speaker 3: career switchers come in different flavors. Some people have identified
Speaker 3: something they are very excited about. They may be reasonably
Speaker 3: happy in their current jobs. It's just that there is
Speaker 3: something they would like to do more. However, there are
Speaker 3: others whose career switching conversations center more on how miserable
Speaker 3: they are in their current work. They are looking to
Speaker 3: flee their current situations, and that is fine. I don't
Speaker 3: want people to be miserable, But sometimes folks then idealize
Speaker 3: some other profession as just being incredibly different from what
Speaker 3: they are currently doing. The logic goes that if they
Speaker 3: are unhappy, now doing something very different should make them happy.
Speaker 3: So now they need to go back to school for
Speaker 3: two years or more to do that. And I am thinking, WHOA,
Speaker 3: let's slow down. No profession is perfect. Even if you
Speaker 3: work for a nonprofit that is saving the world, you
Speaker 3: can still have a lot of emails and meetings and
Speaker 3: a distracted manager. You can have amazing colleagues and get
Speaker 3: paid a lot, and have a terrible commute that leaves
Speaker 3: you feeling frazzled and starved for time. You can have
Speaker 3: incredible flexibility and the ability to work from home on
Speaker 3: interesting projects, and yet be in an industry where there's
Speaker 3: a lot of consolidation leading to turmoil and layoffs and
Speaker 3: the like. You can invest a lot of time and
Speaker 3: money in trying to change careers and find on the
Speaker 3: other end that things aren't nearly as blissful as you
Speaker 3: imagine them to be. I have seen a number of
Speaker 3: people switch jobs and careers to find something more flexible,
Speaker 3: and I mean anything more flexible, and then they wind
Speaker 3: up board because they are not challenged, and unhappy because
Speaker 3: they are underpaid. So if you are miserable in your
Speaker 3: current job, figure out how to lessen the immediate misery.
Speaker 3: First lots of times, these changes can.
Speaker 2: Be relatively doable. If you work for a big company,
Speaker 2: there is no doubt some other internal team that is hiring,
Speaker 2: so you can get away from a terrible manager. If
Speaker 2: you've got an awful commute, see if you can work
Speaker 2: from home another day or two per week, or find
Speaker 2: a different organization that lets you do just that. As
Speaker 2: we discussed in another episode this week, there is no
Speaker 2: harm in looking for a new job, and you might
Speaker 2: find a better one that uses your existing skills and credentials,
Speaker 2: no new ones required. If your work feels meaningless, maybe
Speaker 2: you can seek a different project or start something new
Speaker 2: at your organization that feels more meaningful to you. Or
Speaker 2: you can start volunteering on the side, because work doesn't
Speaker 2: have to be everything in life. Then, once you have
Speaker 2: solved the immediate source of misery, create a vision of
Speaker 2: what you would like your life to look like. What
Speaker 2: kind of work do you truly want to be doing?
Speaker 2: When are you happiest? If you identify jobs that match
Speaker 2: up with this happy work, talk to lots of people
Speaker 2: in these professions and see what they like and what
Speaker 2: they don't like. How would you spend your days if
Speaker 2: you did this sort of job? What would your hours
Speaker 2: look like? Do the upsides outweigh the downsides? Could you
Speaker 2: live with those downsides? When you have a clear vision
Speaker 2: of what you are running toward, you can figure out
Speaker 2: how to take the steps to get there. But when
Speaker 2: you are just running away from some current misery, you
Speaker 2: may wind up in a place that is not much
Speaker 2: better given the time and energy invested. It's good to
Speaker 2: know what you want and not.
Speaker 1: Just what you don't. In the meantime, this is Laura.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
Speaker 1: our time.
Speaker 2: Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear from you. You can
Speaker 2: send me your tips, your questions, or anything else.
Speaker 1: Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast Pod.
Speaker 2: That's b the number four then Breakfast pod. You can
Speaker 2: also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast Podcasts at
Speaker 2: iHeartMedia dot com. That before Breakfast is spelled out with
Speaker 2: all the letters. Thanks so much, should I look forward
Speaker 2: to staying in tech? Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartRadio.
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