As Published in Business 2 Business , June 2005

Second Careers: How to Jump Ship without Drowning

My neighbor just retired after 42 years of working for the same government agency. A human resources manager just celebrated 30 years with the same employer and she's only in her early 50s. A dentist keeps on drilling and cleaning teeth after 50 years.

Just a decade or two ago, lifetime careers like these were not only the norm, but the expectation. Loyalty, job stability and financial security were revered and considered more valuable than holding the winning lottery ticket. Changing a career in your 30s, no less your 40s and 50s, was deemed irresponsible and immature behavior.

When I made the decision to leave a lucrative professional career at age 44 - just 10 years ago, people couldn't understand why. My accountant - at the time - had so little confidence in my decision, I fired him. "What were you going to do?," he asked like so many others. Others wondered, "how were you going to take care of your family?" The assumption was that a dentist is a dentist is a dentist. Patients and friends begged me to confide in them: "was my health okay?" or "was my marriage on the rocks?" A few even pulled me aside and in a barely audible whisper said, "you can tell me - do you have cancer or AIDS?" Spouses of other professionals approached my wife and expressed how sorry they were. Sorry about what she wondered. They asked, "how can you let him do this? How are you going to live?" The mere thought that a professional or executive could change careers voluntarily mid-life was unfathomable. (I'm happy to say that ten years later, I didn't drown. I have a fabulous second career, I'm active and healthy, and still married!)

Not all career changes are voluntary. Life changes like plant closing, forced re-locations, premature death of a spouse and even divorce force unexpected career transitions.

Marilyn Walker, the director of the Success Performance Solutions Employee Assessment Center, found herself searching for a new career after a divorce. This stay-at-home mom and college grad quickly enrolled in graduate school after twenty years at home and within a few years moved from counseling to outpatient therapy to executive director of an adoption agency to career consultant.

Getting fired or involuntarily terminated carries an even worse stigma than voluntary career transitions. Whether this is true or not, you wonder if everyone is asking "what's wrong with you that you couldn't keep a job?"

And even as recently as the 1990s, posting several jobs in different companies on the same resume was an instant red-flag to hiring managers. Job-hopping was the kiss of death if you were looking for a new job.

Times are changing. Today, if you're like most people, you simply will no longer be a good match for your current job at some point in your career. Several studies suggest that the average twenty-something will hold at least nine jobs in his or her career. Today, instead of job-hopping stigmatizing workers, individuals with a variety of experiences and the right skills become the hottest ticket in town. The marketplace is dynamic and fluid and the skills required to do the jobs are in a constant state of flux.

In the past, both employers and employees valued loyalty and tenure. Today, employers value productivity and employees value job satisfaction. Terminations, job hopping and career changing by people of all ages is the norm. Whatever the reason, a time comes when voluntary or unexpected career changes will happen.

If a career change is in your future, what do you need to know before you take the plunge and swim safely toward a new career?

Know everything about yourself

1. Identify your transferable skills. When I left dentistry, I stopped drilling, filling and cleaning. But those skills weren't what helped me build a thriving practice and business. The skills I honed were an ability to build relationships, to communicate with a variety of people in different settings, to create effective teams, to make good decisions even when the information was ambiguous, to get results, to gain endorsement, to solve problems with innovation and limited resources, to overcome adversity, to lead others, and accept responsibility for failures. I didn't learn those in the classroom but developed these in the community through volunteering, learning from others, believing in myself, and knowing I didn't know everything. These skills aren't specific to dentistry but applicable in any business and life in general.

Ask anyone who has ever raised a child and they'll tell you the toughest job in the world is parenting. During all those years at home, Marilyn found herself juggling schedules, negotiating conflicts, making decisions, and mastering the art of multi-tasking. Hmmm - I've had senior level managers looking for the same skills in their workers. At one time many people thought a woman's place was in the home. Cooking, sewing, and ironing were her best honed skills. No more! The skills required to manage a household and to be a good spouse/partner and parent are similar to the skills required to be successful in business.

While special training, education and licenses are required for many careers, successful transitions result when people recognize their transferable skills and put them to work.

2. A common mistake people make assumes that personality traits determine your career fit. Personality factors might determine how you approach your career and how happy you might be in a specific environment and company culture but when it comes to career fit, opposites sometime do attract. For example, if personalities were the perfect predictor of careers, then we'd never see a successful accountant who happened to be an extrovert; only detail-oriented, pencil-pushers would need apply. This we know is not true - all types of personality types have been very successful and happy in the accounting field. We also wouldn't see any successful salespeople whose charisma didn't resemble Tony Robbins. And only individuals who were innovative, risk-takers could have any hope of becoming a successful entrepreneur.

All types of personalities can be successful in every career if the motivations are right and the environment is compatible. If you're unhappy in your job, take a good look around you before you chuck the career. Your dissatisfaction or burnout may be a result of your boss, your team or company culture, not a bad career choice.

3. While matching personalities to careers doesn't ensure success, making sure your career satisfies your business values and motivators does.

For most people this boils down to understanding the six primary values that drive all human behavior. I have found the following analogy helpful at describing what motivates people.

Imagine yourself waking up each morning and right next to your bed are two buckets. As a kid, you actually had more buckets to choose from - six in all. But over time, you came to positively value the rewards and recognition that two of these buckets brought you. (You also came to judge negatively two of these buckets.)

As an adult, you carry these two buckets in all walks of your life, whether working, parenting, or volunteering. Throughout each day you hope the efforts from your activities fill your buckets. If at the end of the day, your buckets are empty, job dissatisfaction and burnout creep into your life. If your buckets fill each day, motivation and energy is high and life is good.

Each bucket represents a different business motivator. These six motivators are Conceptual, Economic, Aesthetic, Social, Power & Authority, and Doctrine.

Individuals driven by the Conceptual value are most satisfied in careers that encourage continuous learning, reward knowledge and recognize the need to solve problems. Examples are teaching, research, and troubleshooters. Careers that offer ample financial rewards such as sales and management as well as promote efficiency and effectiveness attract individuals motivated by the Economic value. The fine arts, interior design and environmental services motivate people who value the Aesthetic aspects of life. Careers in health care, social work and non-profit causes fill the Social bucket, while opportunities with career ladders, leadership roles and competition drive the individual who carries the Power & Authority bucket. Working and living for a cause, whether it be religious, political, or civic, fuels the passion of individuals motivated by Doctrine. Careers in politics, clergy, and law enforcement fill the buckets of people who value the Doctrine motivator.

4. Admit that you don't know what you don't know. The biggest threat to a successful career transition is not always a lack of skills and motivation. It is the failure to recognize your weakness. Often times people over-rely on their strengths.. But overextended strengths eventually becomes an individual's weakness. Confidence may lead to egoism, detail-orientation may lead to perfectionism, persistence may lead to stubbornness, caution may lead to fear, ambition may lead to impulsive behavior.

Ira S. Wolfe is founder of Success Performance Solutions (www.super-solutions.com), a consulting firm providing employment and career test. He has also authored two books, Business Values and Motivators and The Perfect Labor Storm.