Recognise the signs to change job direction

Linley Rose

It's been brewing for some time and as much as you don't want to admit it the passion you once had for your chosen profession faded long ago.

To make matters worse you've also run out of strategies to make the job interesting and can no longer hide your disillusionment. But even though the feeling's gone and you think you can't go on, it doesn't have to be tragedy, says former career economist Paul Stewart. In his case it was just time for a radical career change.

It was on the Wellington leg of a national roadshow back in 1998 that Stewart, ANZ's 31-year-old chief economist, had an epiphany. He realised that waning passion had dissipated the desire to perform on the job.

"At the end of a day spent explaining the impact of the [then] Asian crisis, I stopped and asked myself, how many people will do anything differently tomorrow after the messages I gave them today?" recalls Stewart.

The answer was none, so he resigned a week later.

It was a charter yacht venture - which failed after the boat sank the first day out - that spurred Stewart to re-enter the corporate world a year later. Though Stewart wasn't sure what he wanted to do, he knew taking another chief economist's role would be a big mistake.

He decided to focus less on a specific job and more on the capabilities he wanted to use within a much broader working context. It was Stewart's desire to leverage his skills in a more meaningful way that ultimately attracted him to financial services company Baycorp.

After he successfully completed a strategic development role, Stewart went on to jointly develop the NZ operation of international consulting and training company TMI.

"I get a lot of satisfaction helping companies deliver tangible benefits from aligning their brand with their strategy," says Stewart.

Sharon Brown, 34, loathed the way employers within the rag-trade treated staff.

"Having been recently made redundant for the second time was a defining moment. I never again wanted to have my career controlled by the angry little men who dominate this industry," explains Brown.

That's when she engaged career coach Linley Rose to help her reinvent herself as a self-employed contract production manager. If the number of people opting for self-employment is any proxy, Rose says, many of today's workplaces clearly aren't great places to be.

"One of the recurring issues within coaching is the poor quality of communications at work, lack of honesty, straight talking, openness and trust," says Rose, a director with Coaching Associates.

Brown admits the primary motivator for self-employment was no longer being answerable to an employer who could change her life at the stroke of a pen.

"Working with a mentor has really motivated me to implement my goals," says Brown. There's no way my business would have unfolded so quickly without it."

To career coach Christian Dahmen, both Stewart and Brown are indicative of many people from differing career paths who - while technically good at their jobs - no longer love what they do or who they do it for. He has coached more than 300 executives in Europe and New Zealand over the past 10 years and says it's not uncommon for people to get disillusioned when they can no longer see value in their work.

The growing dissatisfaction many people experience with their chosen careers is part of a realignment within today's work/life dynamics, says Dahmen. A growing number of people place a lot more value on quality of life than on how much they earn.

A recent study by the Australia Institute revealed that 23 per cent of workers over 30 had taken a significant financial loss in order to enhance their quality of life. Brown recalls how her decision to accept a pay cut - while setting up her own business - wasn't difficult once she realised she could exceed her former income over time.

Income aside, Rose says the other hot-spot confronting today's executives is sustainable career development while maintaining a reasonable quality of life. She says a fundamental requirement of any sustainable career is that daily work is something you're both naturally good at and enjoy.

"Many people simply haven't taken the time to work out what they love doing, versus what they do well," says Rose.

She suspects there are accountants who don't like numbers and really just want to paint. Then there are managers who hate managing people and just want to get on with the job.

"The more conscious we are of our values, the easier it is to make the right career decisions," says Rose. "If the things you value highly are fun, creativity and spontaneity, working as a lawyer or for a large bank may not be the place for you."

So assuming you're part of the 65 per cent of people between 35 and 45 who Dahmen suspects would like to make a radical career change, where do you start?

Nothing can happen, says Dahmen until you consciously decide to make a change.

"For most people this means turning from an earning to a learning mode. This means replacing the immediate focus on making money with the need to re-invest in your-self," says Dahmen, a German-born former psychologist who moved to New Zealand four years ago for a radical lifestyle change.

He says the journey to a new career should start by re-discovering your passions, core values and beliefs that may have been pushed to the background over the years. "It's not about getting people to make behavioural changes," says Dahmen. "But when someone can really put their finger on what makes them tick - their dreams, hobbies, and core values - a behavioural change usually follows."

The next step, advises Dahmen, is to explore whether there's something meaningful within your passions and values that links them. In 85 per cent of cases he says execs can find common traits that help to define where their interests really lie. Another good test, suggests Dahmen, is to ask yourself if you would choose your current type of work as a career if you had to choose again.

If the answer is no he says you need to discover if you can salvage any passions from your current profession that can be transposed elsewhere.

"The biggest challenge then is for you to move from your current 'low-passion' high-income job to your [initially] low-income dream job," says Dahmen.

Only once you've done sufficient soul-searching, adds Stewart, it is easier to channel your newly identified passions in a new career direction.

But he says you'll never do it unless you're prepared to compromise income while you're learning new skills.

"You've got to have the confidence to give it your best shot knowing that if it doesn't work out you can always fall back on your former occupation."

10 steps to radical career change

* Identify your values and goals.
* Seek career coaching.
* Accept a period of lower income.
* Share your dreams with family.
* Learn new skills.
* Regain the passion you once had.
* Be patient.
* Reinvest in personal development.
* Commit to the journey.
* Consider refinancing to fund the transition.