By Randy Hain I have had several coffee meetings this year with job seekers seeking their next opportunity. I am grateful for all of these conversations and have done my best to be as helpful as possible to these wonderful men and women who are all senior leaders in the second half of their careers. One recent conversation in particular was on my mind this morning as I reflected on my job-seeking friend’s point about being better prepared “when the music stops.”
My friend is more fortunate than most as he is about to begin a new job after a grueling seven-month search. He shared with me not only how difficult the process was to find a new role, but how the journey also prompted him to humbly reflect on a number of his life choices and how he would love to go back and advise his younger self about what was to come. Our resulting dialogue about ways to prepare for inevitable career and life transition became the best practices list you are about to read. This advice will be particularly insightful for early to mid-career professionals, but professionals at all ages will hopefully find value.
- Always be networking. My friend pointed out that when things were going well for him in his career, he neglected his network. He neglected to build strong relationships inside and outside his companies and found himself almost starting from scratch in this most recent job search. This is a common tale among jobseekers and we should always be investing in our network regardless of how comfortable we are with our career. I have long advocated for a goal of two coffee meetings and one lunch meeting per week with other professionals at every stage of your career.
- Cultivate advocates. A follow up to the networking best practice is to focus on cultivating strong relationships with people who will advocate for you when you are not in the room, who will always open their networks up to you and who will place their own credibility at risk to open doors for you. These are rare and special relationships that are to be nurtured, treasured and never taken for granted.
- Be a continuous learner. A common theme among job seekers I have met and certainly in my friend’s case is neglecting their personal development and growth. Always be reading the latest leadership books, listen to helpful podcasts, spend time with people who know more than you and adopt the mindset of continuous learning that will help you stay up with the latest trends and help you grow your knowledge and skills. This approach will greatly assist you in staying relevant, which should be a priority.
- Avoid complacency, embrace challenge. Raise your hand if you have ever coasted a bit in your career. We encounter these periods where everything is going pretty well at work and in life. We are content with just enjoying the ride, but before we know it, a year or two…or five has passed. We may have lost our edge and realize we need to catch up. We recognize that newer and more aggressive team members have passed us by. An antidote to getting complacent is to continually look for new challenges to keep you sharp. Take on tough projects at work, spend time with helpful mentors, find accountability partners who will push you, proactively pursue new career opportunities inside and outside your company that will help you grow. It may even be a good idea to re-invent yourself and go in a very different career direction if it makes sense.
- Don’t be chained to your lifestyle. My friend pointed out what so many of us have experienced: we often elevate our lifestyle to fit our current income as our careers/paychecks grow. Sometimes we foolishly live beyond our incomes to project worldly success to those around us in pursuit of some illusory status that in the end, is hollow and meaningless. There is nothing wrong with having a good life and providing for our loved ones, but it is always wise to live within our means. This will create difficult spending choices in life, but saving for an inevitable period of instability is prudent and very wise. It is much easier to weather career and life roadblocks with financial freedom and a rainy-day fund in the bank.
- Develop a side-hustle. This often-overused buzzword is actually a very good idea, especially in a climate of frequent corporate restructuring and downsizing. One thing my friend did five years ago was develop an LLC for possible consulting and project work in case he ever needed it. He wound up doing a lot of this kind of work while looking for his most recent role and he told me several times about how grateful he was to have set it up in advance. For some, developing a side-hustle can be getting new certifications, investing in a rental property, flipping houses, buying a franchise or teaching classes at a local college. I have one friend who transformed his love of lacrosse and experience coaching his son’s lacrosse team into starting paid summer weekend camps for advanced high school lacrosse players looking to sharpen their skills. Of course, we must do our full-time jobs with excellence and we need to stay focused, but having something on the side can be a smart option…and a financial lifesaver in periods of transition.
- Own your career, don’t let it own you. This will feel obvious, but do you actually feel like you own your career as you read this post? At some point in our careers we need to ask ourselves this question. We all have the ability to make choices, but are we confident enough to make the difficult choices when it comes to managing our careers? Are we willing to take appropriate risks at work, buck popular trends, leave for better opportunities, start our own business, follow our dreams, etc.? How do we avoid feeling trapped? Have we created the financial freedom I mentioned in best practice #5?
- Know your priorities and be authentic. What are your priorities? Where do faith, family, relationships, your health and work rank in terms of what really matters? How will you honor these priorities with the career choices you make? How will you strive to be your authentic self in this process? My friend and I shared the same opinion that professionals who are clear about their priorities and who live authentically seem to have a much easier time navigating the roller coaster of life.
I do not pretend to have all the answers and I recognize this post is not focused on helping people in an active job search, but I do hope these best practices will provoke some deeper thinking about better preparing yourself for the inevitable changes you will face in your career and life. When I shared this post with my friend, he observed that this would have saved him a great deal of stress and grief if he had read it early in his career, but he also strongly felt it will help more experienced professionals to think differently and course correct if needed.
Wherever you are on your career journey, I hope this is helpful and I wish you the best of luck.
