What Color Is Your Parachute? Part 20

Well, let's start with a definition: a job is a job-t.i.tle in a field.

That means, a job has two parts: t.i.tle and field. t.i.tle is really a symbol for what you do. Field is where you do it, or what you do it with.

A dramatic career-change typically involves trying to change both at the same time. It's what's called Difficult Path in the diagram below. Problem with trying to take this difficult path is that you can't claim any prior experience. But if you do it in two steps, ah! That's different.

Let's say you are presently an accountant working for a television network, and you want to make a career change. You want to become a reporter on new medical developments.

If you try the Difficult Path above, if you go out into the job-market as the first-accountant in the television industry-and you try to jump to a new career as the second-reporter in medicine-well, that's a pretty large jump. Of course, sometimes you can pull that off, with a bit of luck and a huge number of links on LinkedIn, friends on Facebook, or followers on Twitter.

But what if?

What if that doesn't work? Then you're likely to run into the following scenario: Interviewer: "So, I see you want to be a reporter. Were you ever a reporter before?" Your answer: No.

Interviewer: "And I see you want to be in the medical field. Were you ever in the medical field before?" Your answer: No.

End of story. You are toast.

On the other hand, if you were to change only one of these at a time-field or job-t.i.tle-you could always claim prior experience.

In the diagram above, let's say you move from A to B to D, over a period of three years, and in two steps.

Interviewer during your first move (a change just in your field): "Were you ever in this kind of work before?" Your answer: "Yes, I've been an accountant for number of years."

Interviewer during your second move (a change now in your job-t.i.tle): "Were you ever in this kind of work before?" Your answer: "Yes, I've been in medicine for number of years."

Another example: let's say in that diagram, you make a different set of two moves over a period of three years: you move from A to C to D.

Interviewer during your first move (a change just in your job-t.i.tle): "Were you ever in this kind of work before?" Your answer: "Yes, I've been in television for number of years."

Interviewer during your second move (a change just in your field): "Have you ever done this kind of work before?" Your answer: "Yes, I've been a reporter for number of years."

By doing career-change in two steps, each time you make a move you are able to legitimately claim that you've had prior experience.

Needless to say, your likelihood of getting hired each time has just increased tremendously.

The Fifth Way to Change Careers:

Finding Out What the Job-Market Will Need

With a run of just plain bad luck, you may have used all four previous ways of changing careers, but nothing worked. You're stuck. Your needs or wishes are dying on the vine.

Well, then be glad there is this fifth way of changing careers. It is not based on your needs or wishes, but on projections about the coming needs and wishes of the job-market, during the present decade, 20102020. It starts at the opposite end: not what you want, but what the market wants.

These are typically called Hot Jobs, though I'd take that with a grain of salt, if I were you. There are dozens of these lists online and off (just Google Hot Jobs). Just remember: take what you read, wherever you read it, not with just a grain of salt, but with a barrel. "Projections" is just a nice word for "guesses." The way that some of these guys and gals decide what const.i.tutes a "hot job" would make your hair stand on end. I know; I've talked with them. (Think dart boards.) The U.S. government gets into this projections game with their Occupational Outlook Handbook 20122013, which you can find at your local library, or better yet, online at www.bls.gov/ooh (it may be 20132014 by the time you read this). Here you can browse careers/occupations by occupational group, number of new jobs projected to be available, faster-than-average job growth projected, level of education or training required, median pay, etc. Oh, and it has a lovely feature called "similar occupations." That's great if for any reason you don't qualify for some job that otherwise really fascinates you.

Conclusion: Eight Cautions About Changing Careers

Whenever you have to choose or change a career, here are eight cautions to keep in mind. Many of them you've already thought of; this is just a reminder: 1. Go for any career that seems interesting or even fascinating to you. But first talk to people who are already doing that work, to find out if the career or job is as great as it seems at first impression. Ask them: What do you like best about this work? What do you like least about this work? And, how did you get into this work? This last question, which sounds like mere cheeky curiosity, actually can give you important clues about how you could get into this line of work or career.

2. In moving from one career to another, make sure that you preserve constancy in your life as well as change, during the transition. In other words, don't change everything. Remember the words of Archimedes about his mythical long lever: Give me a fulcrum and a place to stand, and with a lever I will move the Earth.4 You need a place to stand, when you move your life around, and that place is provided by the things that stay constant about you: your character, your relationships, your faith, your values, your transferable skills.

3. If you can, you'll do better to start with yourself and what you want, rather than with the job-market, and what's "hot." The difference is "enthusiasm" and "pa.s.sion." Yours. You're much more attractive to employers when you're on fire. Maybe times are just too tough where you are, to start with your vision of what you want to do with your life, for now, anyway; but try.

4. The best work, the best career, for you, the one that makes you happiest and most fulfilled, is going to be one that uses: your favorite transferable skills, in your favorite subjects, fields, or special knowledges, in a job that offers you your preferred people-environments, your preferred working conditions, with your preferred salary or other rewards, working toward your preferred goals and values. This requires thorough self-inventory. Detailed instructions are to be found back in chapter 7.

5. The more time and thought you can give to the choosing of a new career, the better your choice is going to be. There is a penalty for seeking "quick and dirty" fixes.

6. If you are young, or relatively young, you don't have to get it right, the first time. It's okay to make a mistake, in your choice. Bucky Fuller used to always say that Man was the only creature that learns primarily from making mistakes. You'll have time to correct a bad decision. Most of us will have at least three careers during our lifetime, and eight or more jobs.

7. Choosing and then finding employment in a new career that you really fancy, should feel like a fun task, as much as possible. The more fun you're having, the more this points to the likelihood that you're doing it right. To make it more fun, take a large piece of white paper, and then with some colored pencils or pens draw a picture of your ideal life: where you live, who's with you, what you do, what your dwelling looks like, what your ideal vacation looks like, etc. Don't let reality get in the way. Pretend a magic wand has been waved over your life, and it gives you everything you think your ideal life would be. Now, of course you're going to tell me you can't draw. Okay, then make symbols for things, or create little "doodads," with labels-anything so that you can see all together on one page your vision of your ideal life-however haltingly expressed.

The power of this exercise sometimes amazes me. Reason? By avoiding words and using pictures or symbols as much as possible, it bypa.s.ses the left side of the brain ("the safekeeping self," as George Prince calls it) and speaks directly to the right side of your brain ("the experimental self"), whose job is to engineer change. Do fun things like this, as you're exploring a new life for yourself.

8. One final word of caution here: if you're just graduating from high school, don't go get a college degree in some career field just because you think that this will guarantee you a job! It will not.

I wish you could see my e-mails, filled with bitter letters from people who believed this myth, went and got a degree in a field that looked just great, thought it would be a snap to find a job, but are still unemployed two years later. Good times or bad. They are bitter (often), angry (always), and disappointed in a society that they feel lied to them. Now that they have that worthless degree, and still can't find a job, they find a certain irony in the phrase, "Our country believes in getting a job by degrees." To avoid this costly mistake, what you must do is take the choosing of a career into your own hands, with the help of this book, and then explore the career you've chosen down to the last inch, find out if you love it, and then go get your degree. Not because it guarantees a job, but because you feel pa.s.sion, enthusiasm, and energy with this choice. You feel you have found the kind of life that other people only dream of.

1. In case you care, a scholarly a.n.a.lysis of the limitations of O*NET by Robert J. Harvey at Virginia Tech may be found by putting "Robert J. Harvey Construct Validity" into your favorite search engine, and clicking on the first entry. To keep up-to-date on what O*NET is doing, or has to offer, you can go to www.onetonline.org/help/new.

2. Limited funds are cited by O*NET as a large part of the reason for this decision.

3. See www.personalitydesk.com.

4. Archimedes (ca. 235 BCE), Greek inventor, mathematician, and physicist. His saying here is loosely paraphrased.

I do not think there is any thrill.

That can go through the human heart Like that felt by the inventor As he sees some creation of the brain Unfolding to success....

Such emotions make a man forget Food, sleep, friends, love, everything.

-Nikola Tesla (18561943).

Chapter 11.

How to Start Your Own Business.

If you're unemployed, and just can't find any job-openings, no matter how hard you try, you're probably going to think about starting your own business. According to some surveys, up to 80% of all workers toy with this idea at some point in their lives. According to official statistics, only 10% actually do it, in any given year. But if you're seriously considering it, you should do your research carefully beforehand; and, you should try to find a business that really fits You.

Creating Your Own Business.

It may be that, in thinking about creating your own job, you know exactly what business you'd like to start, because you've been thinking about it for years, and may even have been doing it for years-but in the employ of someone else.

But now, you're thinking about doing this kind of work for yourself, whether it be business services, consultancy, or repair work, or some kind of craft, or some kind of product, or service. Maybe your dream is: I want to run a bed-and-breakfast place. Or I want a horse ranch, where I can raise and sell horses. Or I want to grow lavender and sell soap and perfume made from it. Stuff like that.

The first thing you should do is read up on all the virtues and perils of running your own business. The Internet has tons of stuff about this. For example: World Wide Web Tax www.wwwebtax.com/miscellaneous/self_employment_tax.htm Wow. If you're going to be self-employed, you really really want this site. One of the banes of being self-employed is dealing with taxes; this site has more than 1,300 pages to help you handle all of that: articles, resources, links, downloadable tax forms (going back ten years!), in PDF format, of course. The site is selling something (e-filing tax returns), but it has a lot of free information about what self-employed people have to do vis-a-vis taxes, in the United States at least.

Business Owner's Toolkit www.toolkit.com/small_business_guide/index.aspx Yikes, there is a lot of information here for the small business owner. Everything about your business: starting, planning, financing, marketing, hiring, managing, getting government contracts, taxes-all that stuff.

Small Business Administration www.sba.gov The SBA has endured some bad press in the face of the multiple natural catastrophes that have been striking the U.S. in the past five years, from hurricanes to tornadoes to floods. But keep in mind that it was established to help start, manage, and grow small businesses. Lots of useful articles and advice are online, here. Also, check out its Starting a Business resources at http://tinyurl.com/24h59yy.

The Business Owners' Idea Cafe www.businessownersideacafe.com Great, fun site for the small business owner.

A Small Business Expert http://asmallbusiness.e.xpert.com Scott Steinberg, a hugely popular a.n.a.lyst and industry insider for all the major TV networks, has just produced a free-yes I said free-Business Experts Guidebook, for those considering starting their own business. You can download it from his website (above). Unbelievably comprehensive! He will also allow you to download a free 2012 Online Marketing Guide.

Free Agent Nation www.fastcompany.com/online/12/freeagent.html Daniel Pink, before he became famous for such books as Drive and A Whole New Mind, was the first to call attention to how many people were refusing to work for any employer. "Free Agent Nation" is his cla.s.sic work, written in 1997, on the site of the popular magazine Fast Company. It's still regarded as timeless, though of course its statistics are outdated. His basic thesis: self-employment has become a broader concept than it was in another age. The concept now includes not only those who own their own business but also free agents: independent contractors who work for several clients; temps and contract employees who work each day through temporary agencies; limited-timeframe workers who work only for a set time, as on a project, then move on to another company; consultants; and so on. This is a fascinating article to help you decide if you want to be a "free agent."

Working Solo www.workingsolo.com/faqstarting.html www.workingsolo.com/resources/resources.html Working Solo is a good site for the small business worker. The first URL, above, is a series of questions to help you determine if you have it in you to be an entrepreneur. The second URL gives you a whole bunch of resources if you decide Yes.

Nolo's Business, LLCs & Corporations www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/business-llcs-corporations Lots of helpful legal stuff here, about how to form an LLC, and other stuff you'll really need to know.

Entrepreneur www.entrepreneurmag.com Entrepreneur magazine's website. It has lists of home-based businesses, start-up ideas, how to raise money, shoestring start-ups, small business myths, a franchise and business opportunity site-seeing guide, how to research a business opportunity-and more.

How to Avoid Going "Belly-Up"

You have a great idea for starting your own business. But you know that a lot of start-ups, online and off, don't make it. You want to avoid this happening to you. You want to interview others who have started the same kind of business, so you don't make the same mistakes they did. Your interviewing, then, should have three steps to it. Those steps can be summarized in a simple formula:

A B = C

To explain: 1. You must find out what skills, knowledge, or experience it takes to make this kind of business idea work, by interviewing several business owners. This is "A."

2. Then you need to make a list of the skills, knowledge, or experience that you have. This is "B."

3. Then by subtracting "B" from "A," you will arrive at a list of skills, etc., that are required for success in such a business, that you don't have. And you must then go out and hire or co-opt a friend or mate or volunteer who has those skills you are lacking (at the moment, anyway). This is "C."

I will explain these three steps in a little more detail: a. You first write out in as much detail as you can just exactly what kind of business you are thinking about starting. Do you want to be a freelance writer, or a craftsperson, or a consultant, independent screenwriter, copywriter, digital artist, songwriter, photographer, ill.u.s.trator, interior designer, video person, videographer, film person, filmmaker, counselor, therapist, plumber, electrician, agent, soap maker, bicycle repairer, public speaker, or what?

b. You then identify towns or cities that are at least fifty to seventy-five miles away (so they won't feel you are in compet.i.tion with them directly down the block, as it were) and by using the Yellow Pages, the chamber of commerce, or some smartphone apps, try to identify at least three businesses in those towns, that are identical or at least similar to the business you are thinking of starting. You drive to that town or city, and talk to the founder or owner of each such business.

c. When you talk to them, you explain that you're exploring the possibility of starting your own business, similar to theirs, but seventy-five miles away. You ask them if they would mind sharing something of their own history, so you can better understand what pitfalls or obstacles one runs into, when starting this kind of business. You ask them what skills, knowledge, or experience they think are necessary to making this kind of business successful.

Will the business owners you interview give you this information? Well, that depends. Some may be afraid of you as a potential compet.i.tor, some are just clinging on their business in the current economy by their fingernails, and have no time to help others. So, maybe not. But if that happens, thank them politely for their time, and go on to the next name on your list.