I changed careers multiple times over the course of my working life (book publisher, dot-com entrepreneur, development officer, antique dealer, human resources professional). I made each of those changes alone. As I have talked with friends and former colleagues who are considering a career change about how I did it, I realized I might have benefited from some guidance and support.
Julie Hamilton is the owner of Core Rising Coaching. We first crossed paths over 10 years ago at MSK when she and I were both compliance consultants. She is a career transition coach who helps people identify and align their values with their career choices and then make the next move confidently. Julie’s approach applies to anyone considering a career change, voluntary or otherwise.
Here’s what she has to say about the process of career transitioning.
Elizabeth
What is your first question when someone comes to you for help?
Julie
I ask them to tell me why they scheduled a call with me. Then I ask, “How long have you been wanting to make a change?” “How are you feeling about where you are currently?” “What have you tried so far?”
In most cases, people have been thinking about this for some time – they wouldn’t be coming to me if that weren’t the case. So I usually follow up with, “What do you think is holding you back?
Elizabeth
What do most people say?
Julie
They may or may not say this outright, but it’s clear that most people have no idea how to get started. They might say, “I've looked at other opportunities in my field,” or “I've had other opportunities offered to me, but I don't want to do those things.” They want to do something different, but they don’t know what that thing is or how to go about it.
Elizabeth
So they're unhappy or dissatisfied but they don't have a vision of what the next thing might be – they don’t see alternatives. Why do you think that is?
Julie
What we're taught, what we consume, what we see in the media, and – most importantly – what the people we surround ourselves with think and say all reflect back what we think we already know.
People often say, “My colleague is in the same boat. She also wants to leave. She's also unhappy. She doesn't know what to do next, either.” The problem is that talking with people who are in the same place as you isn't going to get you anywhere, comforting as it may seem. When everyone around you says the same thing, this becomes evidence that a career change isn’t possible or will be too difficult.
There is a great quote from Jim Rohn about this: “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” If you spend most of your time with five people who generally think the way you do, the idea that it's not possible to change careers at “this age” or at this time is reinforced by your shared perspective.
Elizabeth
The received wisdom about career development emphasizes formulating clear goals and objectives – you shouldn't just go off and try different things to see what works for you, you should have a plan. Does discomfort with the ambiguity and uncertainty of a career change get in the way?
Julie
When friends and colleagues challenge your assumptions, it creates fear and self-doubt: fear of what might happen, and self-doubt about whether it’s possible. If you don’t have a clear plan, it feels difficult to create a path forward. To make things more challenging, most people don’t have a role model for this kind of change; they don’t know anyone who has done this before.
Elizabeth
What's the most frequent misconception people have about career transitions?
Julie
They think they must stay in their field, where they have expertise, credibility, and a network. They assume that if they step outside of that, they won't make as much money. This leads to, I can't do it financially. I can't downsize my house. I have kids in college. It's not possible. And their friends agree.
My response is that there's no reason we can't find an opportunity that pays the same amount of money. And you don't have to take something that doesn't meet your needs. I’m not saying that it is easy, but I believe it is possible, especially if they have an open mind and ask for help.
Elizabeth
How do you help people get past that?
Julie
I start by asking if they’ve talked to a financial advisor.
It's the same thing as working with me on a career change. I'm helping them frame possibilities, to think about what might be available to them without allowing fear and limiting beliefs to get in the way. Similarly, they need to understand their financial situation – what obligations they have and for how long.
It's about having the information they need to move forward.
Elizabeth
I imagine that people are sometimes reluctant to talk about money because of the taboos surrounding it.
Julie
That is another challenge, which is why I don't get into details about their financial situation. I recommend that talking with a financial advisor might help them see things differently and help them establish a plan or timeline. My main thing is that if you have a dollar amount that you think you need to maintain, then that's a parameter that we work within. But we're still going to explore the possibilities of what a different kind of work could look like. We don't know what those jobs are yet, and we certainly don't know what they pay.
Elizabeth
Have some people already concluded that they can get by with less?
Julie
What I most often hear people say is, “Yes, I can get by with less, but not right now. I've got a kid who has three years of college left,” for example.
So if we have a three-year timeline, my next question is, “Will you be satisfied with where you are for three years if you're this unhappy now? Are there things we can work on right now to improve your present situation?” Or if they can’t stay where they are for three more years, maybe we look at a different opportunity in the same line of work for three years, but we also explore what's after that.
Elizabeth
What can people realistically expect from coaching?
Julie
Coaching is first and foremost about giving yourself permission to invest time in yourself. And spending the time going deep on who you are and what you want and don't want.
I focus on the client’s values by going through a series of exercises that help them get in touch with and articulate those values and what they mean and why. This helps them start aligning their thoughts, feelings, and day-to-day actions with those values. It also creates a foundation for identifying what is important to them when they begin looking for a new opportunity.
One of the most meaningful things coaching offers is that a coach can help change your perspective. Another person often hears things differently than you do in your own head. I then reflect that back to them. Identifying the fears, doubts, and limiting words, statements, or beliefs that they have expressed helps them increase their awareness and begin changing their approach.
Essentially, I help them get unstuck. They may have good reasons for why they have stayed stuck, but they need help getting past that.
The process itself is helpful for people – similar to the points you make about recalibration. I’ll ask, “What value did you get out of our conversation today?” They often say, “I just feel lighter. I don't feel the weight of this situation anymore.” That sense of relief compounds over time.
Coaching is also about accountability and support. We all need that when we're going to make a life transition, especially in our careers. It is a huge deal to make a big job change or switch industries. I want to help people successfully make this transition.
Coaching is not a silver bullet. A coach is a guide and teacher, but ultimately they are the only ones who know what will work best for them.
Elizabeth
Do people under- or overestimate how much work is required to make this kind of change?
Julie
I find that the people who are ready to hire a coach are ready to make a change, so they feel it's manageable. I use a questionnaire that asks people to put on a scale of 1-10 how ready they are to make a change. And almost everybody puts 10. I think their expectation is that if they work with someone else, they can make it happen faster than they can on their own, which I believe is true.
Elizabeth
Do you run into people who get started on the process and then start to freak out because it's taking them in a direction they weren't prepared for?
Julie
Not that it's taking them in a direction they aren't prepared for but that it takes longer than they had anticipated. At least six months and often longer. Many people will say, “I thought I would have a new job by now.” But the reality is that job-hunting takes a long time. And if you're at the executive level and being well compensated, why would you want to jump quickly?
Elizabeth
What is the most important thing that someone thinking about a career transition should consider?
Julie
When we want to make a major transition, we need help, and that’s okay. It can be a mentor, coach, therapist, or someone else in your life who has done what you want to do. Having another person talk through what you're going through helps unpack what’s underlying the fear of “what if” and then start taking action.
Elizabeth
You’ve also said that people need to think about what they enjoy and what is important to them. It takes your energy away when you have to do stuff that you don't want to do. Can you talk about that a little bit more?
Julie
If people are telling you that you have a great job and you're at a great organization and you're making great money, asking why would you leave usually presumes that money is what keeps you there. In the big picture, money matters for sure. But it’s not the only thing or even the most important thing. I will often say, “We're taking money off the table. Tell me what your ideal day would look like.”
People typically want more time for their family, for working out, for being outside; they want to do work that they enjoy; they want to stop rushing to the office and being overwhelmed with emails – because that's what most people are dealing with.
If you don’t have the time you need to do whatever it is you want to do, whatever it is that you value, you are creating stress in your life. People significantly underestimate the impact all that stress has on their overall happiness and well-being. They assume that it's worth it because of the money.
But when people make a transition into something that's more aligned with what they want to do, their whole life lights up in a way they couldn't even imagine. They’ve got their energy back. We've been told for too long that work is all about the money and benefits. But it's not true.
Elizabeth
There's this constant drumbeat about work that says that you should do something you love and then it won't feel like work. I’ve always resented that way of thinking because it feels like I’m being set up for something unattainable.
I spent sixteen years in academic book publishing in my first career, and I absolutely adored it. I spent the next eighteen years making things up as I went along. I did not enjoy working in healthcare compliance, and never in a million years would I have imagined working in HR. I took those jobs because they paid me the money that I needed to live the life that I wanted to lead and gave me the flexibility I was looking for. I was very financially motivated and largely never loved any of it.
Of course, now I've ended up in the privileged position of not having to work for money. I spend my time doing things that I enjoy, including studying jazz piano. Sometimes I wonder if I could have been a professional jazz pianist from the beginning. Probably not. Not because I wouldn't have been good enough (who knows?), but because I could not have lived that lifestyle.
I think this balance between money and doing what you love might be the crux of why this is so hard.
Julie
This is an interesting question, and the answer is complex. There are times in our lives when we do work that we don’t enjoy for money, benefits, and other reasons. But then when we have the freedom to do something more fulfilling or joyful, we don’t have the mindset or tools to figure out how to do it.
It also depends on people’s life circumstances. When someone has a lot of responsibilities (kids, mortgage, partner, etc.), the considerations are different.
In order to make the transition from doing something we do not enjoy to pursuing something more fulfilling, we have to build self-awareness of our values and then work to align with them.
Elizabeth
How much of that do you think is about the practical realities of needing money and how much of it is about money as a measure of your personal value and worth?
Julie
People look for more money and/or promotions because they are a tangible way of measuring “success,” especially the way society defines success. I encourage my clients to write their own definition of success so that they have a more meaningful measure to utilize.
Elizabeth
Any final thoughts?
Julie
I encourage anyone who is considering a career change to seek out a coach to talk to about their situation and how a coach might help them. Many coaches offer a complimentary introductory session, including me. Please feel free to reach out!
Thank you Elizabeth for this beautiful article and collaborating with me. I look forward to continuing working in alignment to share our journeys with others.
Great conversation! I've also had a somewhat winding career path, starting out in book publishing. I then got into tech by accident (I live in the SF Bay Area), and that, surprisingly, lasted over 14 years. I had a good run there, but by the last few years I was seeking something more meaningful to do with my life. I'd started in tech as an editor and had become a project manager, so I explored opportunities through volunteering for a green committee at my local Project Management Institute chapter. I did lots of other volunteering and went to a green career coach to finally narrow down my search to jobs in solar energy. She helped me identify groups and events that were helpful to me in networking and finding my way. I finally got a job in solar at the age of 52. It's now been a decade, and I left full-time work to become a clean energy communications consultant nearly two years ago. Each transition since tech has meant significantly less money, but I'm in a position to be able to earn less and be okay (not having kids is part of that, as well as being older). It took a lot of work, and I can't imagine doing it again now, but it was worth it. Seeking help is key, as is connecting with people, letting everyone know what you're looking for, and engaging in groups devoted to the area you're interested in.