Losing A Career Can Feel Like Getting A Divorce
|
Most of us are aware that we need to grieve the death of a close friend, relative or favorite pet. We are beginning to learn that other events -- relocation, divorce, illness -- can also be experienced as loss.
Losing a career or business can also be a source of grief, anger and frustration. Starting a new business is an end as well as a beginnig. You may feel as though you are getting a divorce after a twenty-year marriage. Here's why.
1. Sometimes the career leaves you. The field wants "younger people." Or you have to change in ways that violate your sense of self.
2. Sometimes you leave a career that seems perfectly wonderful and fulfilling to those on the outside. "The money's so good," your mother says, "and it's not as if you're scrubbing floors all day. Can't you just hang in there and pretend you like it?"
3. You feel disloyal. After all, you've gained a lot from this career. For the rest of your life, you will view the world through the lens created by your training and experience. You will question assumptions, criticize, challenge, argue, prepare, organize, or negotiate.
4. Friends take sides. After you leave, some former colleagues no longer return your calls. Others try to engage you in a rousing session of "Aren't they horrible," which you don't want either.
5. Those left behind begin to feel abandoned. Are you leaving for a new love, an opportunity that will be livelier, more exciting, and yes, even sexier? Worst case: you're leaving for a new career that your former associates find entirely unsuitable.
6. You have started projects that you will be unable to finish because your new life has no room for them. Anyway, without your former big-name affiliation, you have no credibility to raise them to a level you can present or sell.
7. Your new identity gains you access to new and exciting places, but people treat you differently. You feel naked without the old title on your business card.
8. The rules of the game have changed since the last time you were unattached. And this time around, you're less interested in those "how to get lucky" sessions.
9. You spend more time in the gym. You spend hours walking the dog. You try new hair styles, dare to enter an art gallery, read your first self-help book and consider talking to a professional who bears little resemblance to Jennifer Melfi.
10. You're starting to think, "Being on my own for the rest of my life may not be such a bad thing."
I offer one-to-one consultations on career strategy.
About The Author
Cathy Goodwin, Ph.D., is an author, speaker and career/business consultant, helping midlife professionals take their First step to a Second Career. http://www.cathygoodwin.com.
"Ten secrets of mastering a major life change" mailto:subscribe@cathygoodwin.com
Contact: cathy@cathygoodwin.com 505-534-4294
|
|
|
Diplomats And Spies
"The Baratarian pirates also offered their services. Even though an American naval force had destroyed their base on Grand Terre Island in September, the Baratarians rejected British overtures to side with them. (6) {Other accounts make it clear the men were willing to go it alone or against the Americans and yet Lafitte convinced them to support the American cause. I see this as part of the French Masonic or Merovingian/Priory plan that included Napoleon. Lafitte and Joseph Napoleon later tried to break Napoleon out of St. Helena. I think Lafitte was their agent a...(related: Employment)
Vocational Experts 7 Proposals To Solve The Unemployment Problem
The subject is constantly in the news and may decide thenext national elections - the infamous jobless recovery.More than 8 million Americans are out of work with another 4million underemployed or no longer looking for work. Goodmanufacturing, technical and services jobs are being shippedto India, ...(related: Employment)
Prepare For Your Future Now --
All Presidential candidates (before and after) make all kinds of promises about YOUR 'social security' when running for the top job. Regardless of the promises, YOU are the one who has to live or die by the future plans made on your behalf.Future plans that YOU make and control. It's your actions that count. No one else is going to make sure that you are cared for in your old age. At street intersections in every city there's the guys and gals with a sign (hungry, homeless, work for food, etc.). The 'Government' will not meet your needs when you are down and out or fe...(related: Employment)
What Is Experience Anyway?
I learned in first grade that one plus one equals two. But, that's not the right equation when counting work experience. We often think we're building experience to help us get ahead. In reality, we're passing time. Ten years working like a cloned Bill Murray in Groundhog Day is not ten years worth of experience. Doing the same thing again and again yields an experience formula more like: ten times one equals one.
I used to equate y...(related: Employment)
Importance Of Your Job Search
So that you can decide just how critical your job hunt is in your total life scheme, let's put a kind of frame around the importance of the effort ahead.Reflect on it.A job is not just a job. Half of you waking hours are devoted to it. Its quality ramifies through all other aspects of your life. It determines your productivity and how far you will go in achieving full self-realization. It governs your happiness, the happiness of your family, where you live, and how well. The quality o...(related: Employment)
Ten Courses Of Study If You Want To Be Your Own Boss
For many Americans, an important component of the American Dream is the possibility of hard work turning into financial fortun...(related: Employment)
Day Trading ? The Ultimate Work-from-home Job?
Ever dreamt of giving up the daily grind? Want to strike out on your own and work from home, but don't know what you could possibly do to make a living? Full time Nasdaq trader Harvey Walsh wondered just that, and now he asks "Is day trading the ultimate work from home job"?We've probably all had the same thought at some time or another, as we trudge off towards another day at work ? the same work we've been doing day in day out for years ? "surely there has to be a better way?" Slaving away to make somebody else rich just doesn't seem right somehow, but what alternative? Setting up a new business, or buying an established one, are both expensive and risky prospects. So how can the disenchante...(related: Employment)
Job Interviews -- How To Follow Up Effectively
Getting a job is not just about your performance in an interview. The post-interview follow up you do has a critical role in a successful job hunt. Here's how to do it effectively.On the day of the interview or at most the next day, send a thank you note to each of the interviewers. Apart from saying that you're keen to take up the job, mention two or three of your key strengths or skills that are directly useful for the position.During the interview, you should find out how soon they plan to have a person in place. Ask "In what timeframe do you expect to make a decision?" That'll g...(related: Employment)
site-map - Copyright © 2007 | Contact Webmaster | All Rights Reserved | Free Articles and Information | Employment