Careergasm: Find Your Way to Feel-Good Work by Sarah Vermunt

Author:Sarah Vermunt
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: ECW Press
Published: 2017-03-14T00:00:00+00:00

CAREERHACK

Desperate for a career change, have you ever taken to Google to see what your safest options are? Or if not for yourself, perhaps for your son who just graduated from college, or your daughter who will apply for university next year? C’mon, fess up.

I work with a lot of people who have spent a great deal of energy forecasting sure bets when choosing their career. They come to me five, 10, 20 years later and say things like:

“My dad said people will always need accountants, so I just picked that.”

“I love the security of my government job, but I feel like I’m dying inside.”

“The research showed it was a stable career, and I could make a ton of cash, but I don’t actually like being a pharmacist.”

These people thought they were doing their due diligence, but in each case, it led them down the wrong path.

If the research-it-to-death approach sounds like your own, I’d like to gently suggest that you may be looking for direction in the wrong places. Outsourcing decisions about your future in the name of security seems less risky than following your intuition, but it rarely leads to a good career fit.

I’m about to tell you a secret that, frankly, not a lot of people want to hear:

There is no safe choice. Or right choice. Or wrong choice. The world is, and will always be, filled with change and uncertainty — even when it comes to your career. Does that make you want to jump off a cliff? Give you hives? I know, I know . . . me too. But the truth is, there is no way to prepare enough to guarantee yourself a secure and risk-free career. And that really sucks.

Careers are rarely predictable. The predictable ones are the exception, not the rule, and the myth of playing it safe can box you in. Most people make a career change because they want more freedom. But the minute you start considering only the surest and safest bets, you paint yourself into a corner. You’re back in the box.

Career security is like a mirage — you see it shimmering in the distance, but it’s not really there. Just ask any union employee who finds himself out of work when his plant closes, or the woman who gives 30 years of her life slogging away for one company only to be unceremoniously dumped during a merger. You can always be fired, downsized, or replaced. Your company could fold. The economy could tank. Depressing, I know. Nobody wants to learn that their ironclad plan was really just a house of cards, but it happens all the time. There are no lifetime guarantees.

I’m not trying to be a downer. I don’t want to make you throw up your hands and say, Well, fuck the whole thing then. I’m off to live in the woods. What I’m saying is that since there are no lifetime guarantees, you might as well make your career choices based on what you actually

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