I tend to describe myself by the work that I do. So how do I identify myself now that I am out of work? I wanted to change careers and do something different so now I really am faced with a challenge. How do I describe myself without saying what I did before?
Most of us tend to categorize ourselves by our job title. "I am a teacher." "I am a manager." "I am a pastor." I made a shift from stating my job title to describing my former job skills. When people asked what I did I would say, "I was an educator." or I would say, "I was involved in training and development." I found myself experimenting with generic ways to describe myself.
What I quickly realized was that I needed to come up with a new way to identify who I was without boxing myself in to what I wanted my next career position to be. I had a general sense that I wanted to move into career coaching but I wasn't sure how best to describe my new identity.
After much thought and several failed attempts I finally came up with a tentative description that served me for several months. I called myself a
Career Transition Specialist. I tried the terms Halftime coach, career specialist and vocational counselor first. I found myself struggling to find just the right words to describe my new identity but I needed something to summarize what I wanted to become. I also needed to stop describing myself by my old job title.
To my delight I discovered that new people I met took me at face value for how I was now describing myself. In fact, I frequently got very positive and inquisitive responses from people. People would say, "That's interesting. What do you do?" That gave me a chance to briefly tell them what I hoped to do, to help people find careers or volunteer opportunities where they could make a shift from success to significance.
I learned early in my career search that I had to change how I saw myself and how I described myself to others. I had to stop identifying myself by my old job title and start introducing myself with a new career label.
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Day 8 Identity Crisis-Who am I now?
Sunday, December 2, 2007
Day 7 Finding a job in the nonprofit sector
I have a terrific web resource to tell you about today. It is a nonprofit organization called Action Without Borders. It's website is called Idealist http://www.idealist.org/ . It is the largest and best known nonprofit meeting place in the world for individuals and organizations wanting to connect with people and groups interested in the same causes.
Take a few minutes to explore this site and learn about their mission to bring people together to address issues of common interest. One of their goals is to encourage grassroots community collaboration. Their website makes it possible for anyone to post a notice and call people to meet and address issues in their very own city, town or even neighborhood. What a potential for finding like minded people in your very own area!
Also take time to look at its career center. This site is a great resource for job postings if you are looking for a career in the nonprofit sector.
Day 6 Decide when you will begin your job search
If you are released or laid off from a job with a severance package you may feel like you owe it to yourself to take a few months off before beginning your new career search. Weigh the pros and cons of postponing your job search before you make that decision.
To some extent the circumstances surrounding your termination may dictate how much time to take off before starting your search. As I mentioned in my first blog, I was caught off guard by my termination. I knew there was a good chance that I would be let go or that I would leave on my own but I thought it would be another six months before the employer or I would make that decision.
I was stunned when I learned that I was going to be let go. Two or three weeks passed before it was officially announced to my co-workers and the public. Nearly a month passed before I felt emotionally and physically ready to start my job search.
Set a time limit for how much time you need to transition from your old job to the starting date for searching for a new one. Get rested. Recover emotionally but decide when you you are going to start looking. Chances are, especially if you are over 45 that it is going to take longer, much longer than you think to find work. Be intentional about resting then be intentional about starting your job search.