Having gone through two major career changes, what I've learned is the answer most likely is right in front of you.
Name a job and I’ve done it:
Housekeeper (man, do I have stories)
Bartender (definitely more stories)
Executive assistant (yes, I have awful stories)
Retail
Marketing Assistant
Private Caterer
Lifeguard
Search Editor (days of the baby internet)
Taxonomist
Secret Shopper
Swim Instructor
Food Testing Recorder
Advertising Account Exec
Sales
Vintage Reseller
Tutor
Proofreader
Recorder & Assessor (winner for most random gig!)
Staffing Placement
Recruiter
Team Manager
Office Manager
Construction Coordinator (I had a hot pink hard hat thank you very much)
And many, many others...
Many of these were held at the same time while I worked my way through college, then grad school and then in pursuit of my dream career - College Professor.
Making it through school, working any combo of jobs and getting into a teaching position wasn’t easy. But it was my dream job. And I worked incredibly hard to get it.
I spent the next 12 years as a Humanities Professor at several fantastic colleges here in the Bay Area teaching courses like ‘The History of Creativity’ and ‘Values & Culture.’ I loved my job. Capital "L" Love.
As I'm sure you know, education/academia isn't exactly a cash cow but I really did love my job, like REALLY loved it, so I scrimped, saved, and worked those weird little jobs in the cracks between classes to make ends meet.
Then I got divorced. In San Francisco. One of the most notoriously expensive cities on the planet. And things changed.
Let me say it again, I LOVED teaching. But I also now had to pay the rent all on my own. And due to the recession and with education budgets being what they are, I found my course load shrinking year after year.
I finally hit a breaking point financially and I was forced to reconsider and reevaluate. It all finally came to a head when my options were a) move across the country for a tenure track position and be struggling slightly less financially (only now in a place far from home and family) OR b) find a new career.
How did I feel about my options? I was devastated. It was like a long-term, 'this is it forever' romantic relationship ending! It took me months of soul searching and not a few tears to get to a place where I could even acknowledge that there really were other doors.
Wide open doors.
While intellectually I knew I had to make a career change, I just couldn’t give up a job that I loved so much it had been the basis of much of my identity. I was a teacher.
I made my way back to advertising and marketing - where I had worked until grad school as I struggled to keep teaching by holding on to one or two night classes. I dabbled in several roles and took a series of several jobs that I knew I would hate - which I looked at as a good thing because I thought that I could somehow I should still try to make teaching viable and any other job would “just” be a day job that I could leave when I finally found a way to make teaching work.
IT WAS LIKE BOOTY CALLING MY EX-CAREER
After 2 (yes TWO) years of drunkenly texting my ex-career, I finally had the talk with myself that someone always has to have with you after a breakup. The “IT’S OVER MOVE ON” talk. The hard truth that your bestie gives you. But unlike a ‘true’ breakup, nobody was telling me they ‘never really liked my career anyway.’ Nobody understood that I was grieving (forget bringing over ice cream to help me get through it!)
After 'the talk' with myself I new the era of the ‘day job’ was over. I needed a new career, for real. I decided to do what I needed to do to figure out what it was, while keeping one class a semester to get my teaching ya-yas in.
In the search for “The One” I took ALL the quizzes, filled out all the workbooks, took all the workshops - in essence I online dated the shit out of my career.
After a while I became convinced I’D BE A SAD, LONELY, OLD CAREER CAT LADY.
I tried working with a few career coaches in the hopes that they would magically tell me what the hell I should do with my life (it totally doesn’t work that way btw). It took working with a coach who specialized in career changes to come to the certainty that I wanted to continue educating and helping people find their thing.
I knew I liked helping students figure their own shit out - but I had NO IDEA what form that would/should take in a career. All signs were pointing towards “Coach” but I absolutely did not want to be a coach. That I knew. At the time there really was generally still a stigma around coaching. The common perception was that there were only two versions. Executive Coaching for the uber high-level or woo-woo life coaching for the L.A. based.
I wasn’t up for either. But educating people on how to navigate their careers? I knew I wanted to do that. Cool, but knowing what I wanted to be was only part of it. I had to figure out how to make my teacher skills make sense in corporate-land.
I searched and searched for a job opening that fit the bill but NOTHING seemed right and man did I do some epic wallowing. Then, a former coworker who had moved on to another company reached out. She knew I was miserable in my current relationship - uh, day job. (I had jumped into another one that I knew I would hate out of self-pity or some such nonsense.)
She wanted to introduce me to a new job. A new job that she knew I would rock. A job that played on all my strengths. A job where I got to teach people how to work together and help the develop their careers. Isn’t that always the way? A friend of a friend introduces you to the right thing?
That role that I found my footing in was creative management and staffing. It’s truly a mix of recruiting, management, learning & development and a healthy dose of career coaching.
I racked up almost 10 years experience in creative recruiting and staffing. Was it "love" the way I loved teaching? Not quite (you only get one first love), but I really dug my gig and it made sense. Teaching college is helping students figure out what careers and futures they’re interested in, career development was the next logical step.
I enjoyed the recruiting aspect of the job because I loved helping people get the jobs they were lusting after. The one that made them SO. FREAKING. STOKED. But through this career, it became clear to me that I loved (and always had) helping people find their thing.
The part of my job I especially loved was directly helping women with their career development - however it was only a small part of my day to day work.
Career coaching suddenly just made all sorts of sense.
I knew it was time for career change number two. It took another 2+ years for it to all come to fruition and it wasn't an easy or even a direct path but now I'm currently teaching others how to find fulfillment in their own careers and there's no way I could be where I am without the heartbreak of have to give up being a professor.
I am in love with my job in a whole new way and I can't imagine not being a coach. Life’s funny that way huh?
Now I can proudly say, my name’s EB. I'm a certified career coach who spends her time showing creative types how to leave the fear behind and find their thing so they can achieve the fulfillment they really want.
Why? Because I want you to be happy in your career! Like belting out Beyonce into your organic loofah in the shower on Monday mornings, happy.
If you’re considering a career change for yourself and you’re just ready to find your thing get in on my program Career Change With Confidence before enrollment expires!
Yours in ‘ask me about my bartending stories’ goodness,
EBS
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EB Sanders
Career Coach for Creative Types
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Helping you figure out what you want to do and how to do it your way!
