Top Three Things to Consider with a Late Stage Career Change
Or, Once More, with Feeling
For the past six months I’ve been contemplating a career change away from B2B communications with a marketing focus towards more meaningful (to me) work. I went about my search as most professionals do, with a flag up on my LinkedIn profile and outreach to my network. Recruiters started messaging. Opportunities for B2B PR, with a heavy dose of thought leadership, were plentiful. But I honestly struggled with the reality of having to start again in the same/similar role with another company. At this stage in my career (Gen X) bravely greying but not yet eligible for retirement benefits) I wanted to move beyond “meet the new boss, same as the old boss.” I wanted thought leadership to mean something. I wanted to lift up impactful content and not just add more noise to the digital media space.
So with the benefit of hindsight, I asked myself the following:
At what point in my 30+ year career journey did I experience the greatest job satisfaction?
When did I learn, grow and contribute the most?
What interests me now? What topics do I follow in the media? What books do I read?
The answers leapt off the page. I loved working in the non-profit world reinventing public education. I loved that our family embraced and contributed to the concept and eventual creation of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati. I loved working independently, managing my own consulting practice, writing as a stringer for my local paper as a “Stay at Home” mom. And I loved/still love the intrinsic reward of a job well done.
What interests me now? Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). ESG reporting is common in Europe and a requirement of many international exchanges (so no, Mike Pence, it is not a new left wing thing). Still relatively new to the US, it has become one of the hottest areas in finance with room to grow exponentially in the coming years.
I also examined some hard truths about myself.
In “Once More, with Feeling,” the much celebrated Buffy the Vampire Slayer sixth season musical episode, all of Sunnydale breaks into song, expressing hidden truths at random moments. Each character is forced to reveal their truths, and can hear each other’s truths. Only then are they challenged (by a demon) to say that they are happy now. But this time, to say it “once more, with feeling” and a face full of ugly, uncomfortable hard truths.
In most job searches we present the best possible version of ourselves. We may hide our age or ethnicity. We bury our politics lest they be offensive or trigger negativity. We cloak or delete our social profiles. Our job-seeker selves are not a reflection of who we really are. The practice of deliberately not revealing our personal, authentic self stops us from growing or stepping into the unvarnished future.
My hard truths? I really disliked shoving PR into the marketing communications shoe. Oh, and I hate that SEO determines content value (the “Top Three Things” in this title is ironic) and article structure. Cold calling as a stockbroker in 1987 was the worst (but I learned a lot). Improving click-through rates leaves me cold. I’m a self-confessed news junkie and can’t imagine a day when I am not skimming headlines.
The opportunity to re-invent yourself doesn’t come along often. Life and obligations get in the way for most of us. But launching into something new and unexpected is absolutely in my wheelhouse. Believe it or not, my next venture is a marriage of all the truths I’ve learned about myself. This time, I’ll say it with feeling.
