525: How to Switch Industries Without Starting Over

Taj Dashaun 00:01

Other people are doing it. Here's an example of other people who have made a complete shift or completely changed industries. And yes, it is possible.

Introduction 00:14

This is the Happen To Your Career podcast with Scott Anthony Barlow. We hope you stop doing work that doesn't fit you. Figure out what does and make it happen. We help you define the work that is unapologetically you, and then go get it. If you feel like you were meant for more, and you're ready to make a change, keep listening. Here's Scott. Here's Scott. Here's Scott.

Scott Anthony Barlow 00:39

One of the most fun things that I get to do every single day is talk to people all over the world about how they have completely switched industries without starting over. We get to share a lot of those stories on the podcast, you've heard them if you've listened to more than one episode. But it's also one of the biggest challenges. Switching industries without starting over? This is something many people come to us for. Almost everyone we talked to feels like it's going to be the struggle for them. They think they're going to have to accept an entry level role or go back to school, or they're going to have to take some kind of a pay cut. However, what we found is that these don't have to be true. And in fact, in most situations, we find that it's unneeded. You can pivot to a new industry without taking a demotion or a pay cut. But the way to do that is probably a lot different than how you're thinking about it.

Taj Dashaun 01:32

She had built the confidence through following all of those steps, and the confidence was building and building. So by the time she walked into that interview, she felt like the job was already hers.

Scott Anthony Barlow 01:42

That's Taj Dashaun. He's a career coach right here at Happen To Your Career. And he's also one of the people on our team who talks to folks that are interested in working with us, and trying to figure out how we can best help. But the reason he's here today is because he's an expert in helping people switch industries. He's helped athletes, even Olympians transition into different careers. He also works with people here every single day at HTYC to change industries, or change roles, or change, I don't know, just about everything. He's even done this in his own career. Okay, if you want to hear his story, by the way, you can go back to Episode 503 and hear all about Taj. He's got a pretty phenomenal story. But in this episode, he and I discussed the most common myths that people believe when it comes to completely switching industries. No matter how long you've been working in one industry, it is possible to pivot your career without starting an entry level position or going back to school. It's also possible to pivot without taking a pay cut as well. We found that in almost all situations. We go over the three steps that you can take if you decide you want to change careers and move into a brand new industry. Okay, here's Taj kicking off our conversation by sharing what he most commonly sees when someone is wanting to switch industries.

Taj Dashaun 03:04

I think the first thing that comes to mind for anyone looking to make such a change, which is human nature, is of course, fear, uncertainty, or regret of feeling like, "Oh, I wasted my time doing this thing for this long. And now I'm looking at doing this thing", or, "I don't know what this thing is" well, either way, it's scary to make a shift into something entirely new. I've seen that with a lot of our clients as you have. I've seen it in my personal life. And I think it's definitely something worth talking about. So I'm glad we're fleshing this out and discussing this today.

Scott Anthony Barlow 03:38

Yeah, it turns out, we get to talk about it today. Let's solve all of these problems right here, right now for all the people. Okay, well, I don't know if we can solve all the problems. But I think we can provide a really wonderful framework. And when I say a framework, I'm talking about some of the specific steps that you can take, if you're listening, and you're considering switching industries, or making a career pivot of any kind, really, and you don't want to start over, you don't want to go back to an entry level position, you don't want to take a pay cut, you don't want to have to go back to school, because that's what most of us are thinking about as we're considering that type of change. Okay, now, if you're in that place, one of the things that Taj and I have found over the years is that, there has to be some pretty specific mindset shifts as it relates to this particular type of change. What do you think some of those mindset shifts are?

Taj Dashaun 04:36

One thing I want to touch on that you just said about pay cuts. That was actually one of my favorite parts of the HTYC book is that you don't have to, there was a line in there about not sacrificing your income to do something that you enjoy more and coming from a place of, "I can have it all. I can have a better opportunity that I enjoy and I can make just as much if not more money." And I think that's one of the common patterns that I see is something to overcome mentally, and having that mindset shift of, okay, first of all, this is possible, I can do it. And having that level of hope and optimism, especially if you have guidance through that process brings a level of, "Okay, well, I can't have it all. So let me get to work on figuring out what that looks like." Also, another common mindset shift, I guess you can say that needs to happen is, realizing that no matter what you're doing, your skill set can be transferred into something else, even if it ends up being something entirely different. You may not know right away what those transferable skills are. But if you go through the process of identifying what it is that you're going to go into, you can then begin to look at where you've been, and start to take those skills, and begin to articulate them, not just for the sake of telling other people, but so you know internally how these prior skills translate into this new opportunity. So those two are probably the biggest mindset shifts– I guess, I would boil that down to possibility and understanding that you didn't waste your time, you can use what you've done and translate that into where you're going.

Scott Anthony Barlow 06:13

That's really powerful. That idea of you didn't waste your time. And you can use that. I think that is one of the biggest fears that people don't even realize that they have, that many of us don't realize that we have. And as humans, we’re really hardwired to avoid loss at all costs, or nearly all costs, I should say. So that, I mean, that's very much the way that our brains work. So when we put some of those together, where we may have worked incredibly hard to get a degree or you know, a master's degree, or even a doctorate, or something like that, or put a ton of work into a particular industry over the years, it feels like we: One, do not want to give that up. Because we're hardwired to avoid loss. And then two, it is kind of this double secondary problem of you feel like you need to. So it doesn't really mix very well. So I feel like I have to give that up to be able to move on to something else. And also, I don't want to. So it's no small wonder why people feel like they're stuck, right. And in actuality, to your point, we find that you don't have to. One, you don't have to give that up. You can utilize your past experiences and you can bring them forward, whether that's, you know, degree, whether that's experience in a particular industry, all that stuff carries forward with you provided that you understand where it is that you want to go. So it seems like the pre-req in there is figuring out where you want to go, whether it's a different industry or different place or a different role or anything else like that. So any other thoughts on that?

Taj Dashaun 08:01

I just want to touch on what you said about people who are, or have gone through extensive schooling, or certifications, or whatever it is. Because, you know, as well as I do, how many people come to us who are doctors, lawyers, I have a few clients right now who are doctors and lawyers. And that lends itself to that fear that you were talking about, well, this experience or this school that I've gone to doesn't mean anything. And we often have to have that, I don't want to call it a difficult conversation, but the conversation of explaining to them that once the clarity is there, like you said, you can then look at, well, being a doctor, it has a lot of skill sets. And you're part of an elite club if you're a doctor, or a lawyer, not only because of the schooling you've done, but because of the skill sets that you've developed over time. And if you can learn to incorporate that story into why you're wanting to make a pivot into the next thing, then I think that goes a long way and actually gives you a better chance than some people even if they have experienced in this new industry that you're going into.

Scott Anthony Barlow 09:03

What are some of the examples that you've seen of this in real life? You know, you just mentioned some of our clients right now. But what jumps into mind as you think about real world examples of this?

Taj Dashaun 09:19

Yes. So I have some experiences from my personal life. But let me share one from a client. This is probably the most complete 180 into something totally different that I've experienced, at least recently. There was a client I was working with, I can't remember what her major was, I want to say she got an accounting degree. And she only did that because it was safe. That's why she told me she got an accounting degree. "It was safe. I can get into accounting." She did an internship before graduating and the accounting field was not for her and she realized that quickly. So she did what most people do after realizing what she got her degree in, it wasn't what she wanted long term. She just started looking for anything. And she hit the job boards and just tried to see what was available, what was open. So somehow, some way, she ended up being a claims adjuster for a car insurance company. And she was there for about, I want to say almost a decade before... She was miserable from the start, but realized at a certain point, she had hit her capacity for wanting to make a shift. And as we were exploring ways that she could make a pivot, one of the things that had always appealed to her was working in college athletics. Which totally different ballpark. How we landed on that was just a combination of interest side projects she had done, different camps she had run over the years. All these skill sets were lending itself to "Oh, she would be really good at going into an athletic department and building out programming to help student athletes." Absolutely zero experience with this, of course. But what she did that I thought was fascinating was, of course, by going through our process, making contacts, being able to have test drive conversations, as we call them, to be able to understand what is the daily life of someone like in an athletic department who's building out programming. She then took it a step further to start to build out her own programming. And anytime she would have a conversation with someone, she would share some of her ideas based off of data that she was gathering from people who are in the role, where the holes were, what needed to improve, not just in each athletic department, but in the system as a whole. And she would publish articles, she would share her insights, she would send in pitch decks and different programming decks that she created every time she sent in an application and a resume. And to me, when she ended up actually getting a role in an athletic department, it was not only a huge moment for her, but for me too, to be able to, I felt like a proud dad. You know, that's weird to say. But just being able to see her make that change, it was phenomenal.

Scott Anthony Barlow 12:02

Two things stand out to me, because I hear you tell that story. First and foremost, not even knowing who this individual is, just from the story alone, it's pretty clear that she wouldn't want to be in this new industry. Like you're talking about creating her own processes, observing the holes in the system. And that's the type of thing that someone only does if they are, first and foremost, really excited about it. Secondarily, that probably says something about using her strengths too, not necessarily just her previous skills and experiences, which is pretty cool. And we can talk about that later, too. But here's the question that it makes me think of. If we were to break this down into some of the steps that she did, step by step, what would that look like? How many steps and what's the high level of those steps?

Taj Dashaun 12:57

The first step, like we touched on earlier, is acknowledging that it's possible. And I know that's extremely oversimplifying. But acknowledging that her previous experience didn't disqualify her from anything that she wanted to do next. So that was the first thing. Creating the possibility, the hope, in her own mind that it was possible. Then begins the exploration and the discovery of what's out there, auditing the skill set, auditing the strengths, auditing anything that she had ever, it's funny, because when she was a child, it actually crossed her mind to be an athletic director. She always loved college sports, wanted to work in an athletic department. And then the third step would be, after identifying what that is, and we put that to the test through those test drive conversations, like have conversations with people and make sure that this is something that you actually want to do. You could find out that these people are miserable, and that you may want to reconsider going that route. But every conversation she had, she built up more momentum. And so the third step would be acting as if you're already in the role or thinking as if you're already in the role. That's kind of how I would put that. And I think that's ultimately what led her to starting to create programming that she could then share with people because she was acting and thinking as if she was already in the role, right. And also gave her the confidence when she went into interviews because she could then lean on not necessarily past experience, although there were some transferable skills, which she got to lean on a body of work that she had created throughout this exploration process. So that's about, I think, that's about as simplified as I could make the process.

Scott Anthony Barlow 14:40

Okay, so here's what I heard from that. One, acknowledging that is possible. That's step one. Sounds like a silly step and it sounds nice and fluffy, right? But it really is an important step– intentionally acknowledging that it's possible. Two, then auditing your skill set and the past set of experiences that you have, understanding what is already there, what functions as an asset. And then from there, it sounds like exploring and testing in a variety of different ways. And that eventually leads to, as you said, acting as if you're already in the role. And part of that might be articulating why you want to make the switch and that'll help with those interviews that you're talking about as well. Okay, so let's go through each of those here, first and foremost. And let's see if we can share some examples of how to do each step functionally. Okay, step number one, it's one thing to say we should acknowledge that as possible, that we should acknowledge that it is absolutely something that can happen. It's much harder to do in reality. What have been the best ways that you've seen people be able to intentionally acknowledge that as possible?

Taj Dashaun 16:01

I think a great start is seeing examples of other people who have done it. And then sometimes just to start with, sometimes people haven't had the conversation at all. So it's more so something that has lived in their mind, and they've never actually had a conversation or had someone tell them, "Yes, this is possible." Other people are doing it. Here's an example of other people who have made a complete shift or completely changed industries. And yes, it is possible. Like we said earlier, not only is it possible that you can, in fact, make the same amount of money, if not more, by making a complete change. So I think, I know that sounds oversimplified, probably, but I think you have to have a conversation with someone who can instill that hope in you or just let you know that it's possible. And then of course, seeing examples never hurts of people who have done it, as well. And the more extreme the change, the better. I feel like, you know, that's a really extreme change, then it's like, "Wow, if they can do that, I can definitely do this."

Scott Anthony Barlow 16:58

Yeah. And I think that's a fascinating psychological phenomenon. For me, when I look at it, like when you see those extreme changes, then it sets the bar further back for you. And you're like, "Oh, well, shoot, if that's possible, then like what I'm thinking about no problem, basically. Right." And I think that's kind of a funny phenomenon. But it really illustrates the point that you've got to go seek out those other examples. And I think that's one of the biggest reasons why, if you've listened to the Happen To Your podcast over and over and over again, you'll hear stories that we've shared, where people are like, "I started listening to the Happen To Your Career podcast, and I heard this episode, and I heard this episode. And then now I'm telling my story on the Happen To You Career podcast." And I think that's the coolest thing in the world, first of all, that we can create a show like this, and have that happen where you can witness that real time. But the bigger point is, one of the easy ways to do it is go listen to those other episodes. You know, pick out the ones that seem relevant, exciting to you. And then the other thing I hear you saying, Taj, is that just simply saying it out loud, having another conversation with a human being, a real life human being and saying this out loud, all of a sudden makes it more possible than it was if you didn't.

Taj Dashaun 18:20

Yes. On that note, too, I want to share just from personal experience. Early on in my career, coming out as a college football player with no experience at all, I got into sales. And I know I shared this in a previous episode. But my point with that is, when I realized I wanted to make a shift from sales, one of the things I was looking at was going into career services or recruiting. And I was thinking, I have absolutely no experience in this. How am I going to break into this seemingly totally new industry? And I had a conversation with my cousin, actually, I was kind of telling him like, "Man, I want to get out of sales. I want to do something that's more focused on helping people." And he was like, "Well, why don't you just tell them that?" And I was like, "That's a great point. Why didn't I think of that?"

Scott Anthony Barlow 19:02

I can do that. How dare you? Tell people that. Yeah, that's awesome.

Taj Dashaun 19:11

But ultimately, that's what ended up helping me when I was interviewing for Career Services roles is just telling them like, "Look, I like working with people. And although sales is great, I feel like I could work more closely with people where I feel like I'm having more of an impact, which in turn would make me more effective if I was helping people get jobs and helping them figure out what they want to do." So that's just the way from my personal experience that someone shed the light on me, so to speak about, "Oh, this is possible." And all I have to do is just explain why I want to make the shift and I do have the transferable skills to do it.

Scott Anthony Barlow 19:45

That's cool. That's awesome. I was just talking with my son, Grayson, about this. He's getting into YouTube. He wants to make YouTube videos. So he's been making all kinds of YouTube videos. And really excited about it, right? So we were talking about Mr. Beast. Have you heard of Mr. Beast? Okay, so I think pretty much most of the world knows Mr. Beast at this point, and there's a reason for that, even though he's not that old. He's only what, like, 23-24 at this point.

Taj Dashaun 20:11

I think so, maybe even younger.

Scott Anthony Barlow 20:12

Yeah, maybe even younger. But what's really fascinating about his story is he set out to be, he basically declared and started talking to people about, he wanted to become the number one youtuber in the world at age 17. That's a part of his story. It had that conversation out loud on purpose, and I'm 100% sure many of the people he was talking to thought he was crazy. Well, it's not that many years later, and he had set that intention. So it starts to become much more possible. So pretty cool, right? So Grayson immediately went and told his mom, I can't remember what he said, but he said something about wanting to do this and this on YouTube. Alyssa comes up to me, and she's like, "What's going on with Grayson?" And then I told her the story. Anyhow, so he's all excited. But let's jump into the second step here that we were talking about. This idea of auditing your skill set and your collective set of experiences. Tell me a little bit about how you've seen that work well for somebody in the past. What can we actually do to do that?

Taj Dashaun 21:19

Once again, it comes back to having someone who can do that with you, because one of my favorite expressions, I forget who said it, is that it's hard to see the picture when you're in the frame. And so you can look at your own resume and at your experience and say, "Well, I've only done this." But you know, if you're sort of auditing, like we're saying, then it starts to bring up more of just what's on the job title, or just those few bullet points, they go under the functions of the job. When you start to take a deeper look, which you can do in a variety of ways, like, we use StrengthsFinder as one of the foundational pieces. But there are also many other facets to how we help people uncover that. And so things start to emerge that aren't as obvious when you take a deeper dive into those bullet points, like I said, because those are more so job functions and duties and responsibilities and tasks and all these formal words versus like, what was I actually doing? How was I interacting with other human beings? What impact was I making on other people? And once those things start to show themselves, then it gets really exciting because you realize that those things can be transferred into anything. Because ultimately any job, not to get super woowoo and spiritual, but I know, we probably have some of those listeners.

Scott Anthony Barlow 22:33

Let's go, let's go.

Taj Dashaun 22:34

I'm one of those people, for sure. I think that, ultimately, that's what any job is. Like, ultimately, whatever you're being paid to do in some way, shape, or form is having an impact on other people. So if you look at it like that, it makes transferring that into the next thing much, much easier. If you look at it from that level.

Scott Anthony Barlow 22:52

One of the easiest ways that I've seen to do that, is initially just try and sit down and listed out. Not so much in the form of a resume, although that's a great place to start. Because you can, you know, you've already got a list halfway built of past roles, past opportunities, but instead, taking it a step further. And what I found fascinating, especially for layering strengths over the top of this, which if you accept the idea of signature, what we call signature strengths, being one of the truest senses of who you are, truest representations of who you actually are. And if you want to do more of that, then a really simple exercise is to list all those roles, job opportunities that you've had in the past, or even outside of work, whatever other roles you've had. And then over on the right hand side of the page, or the other side of the page, list out what specifically did you enjoy, and what specifically did you feel like you were great at or even just above average at. And although that is still to your point, it's really hard to see, because you're inside the frame, you can't look at the full picture, and it becomes incredibly difficult. What you can then do is you can take that exercise and show it to someone else and they can help you decipher, you know whether that's a friend who has a good idea of who you are, whether that is a coach, like someone on our team here at HTYC, whether that is mentor, whoever it is, it gives you a different place to be able to talk about those ideas, your skills, your past experiences, and then it causes you to focus on the ones that you enjoyed the most or that you were the best that which then allows you to set up for some of the next steps later on that you're talking about, right? So let's go into those next steps. What about that idea of exploring and testing? How have you seen that done in the past? What are the best examples of that for you?

Taj Dashaun 24:55

Well, sometimes when we talk about reaching out and I know you are very big on making this distinction between informational interviews and test drive conversations and conversations with people that allow you to build a connection. So I would start with that. I think you have to look at it as the goal of these conversations is not to reach out to people and try to ask for a job. The goal of the conversation is to: A, build a connection, first and foremost. And B, actually learn from this person as much as you can in a way that allows them to almost tell their story to you, and can give you a glimpse of, "Okay, if I were to go do this thing, what is it really like? What am I actually going to be doing from the time I wake up to the time I go to sleep?" Which I think is something that a lot of people don't think about, you know, sometimes the grass is greener, in another field, so to speak, and you look at it and you say, "Hmm, that seems pretty cool until you hear from the people who are doing it." And also, I just want to say this, just sometimes you might hear from someone who's not having a great experience, but you shouldn't let that disqualify you from the fact that you could have a good experience doing that thing. You have to use your discernment, but the more people you can have those conversations with, that's the fastest way to really get... It's the closest thing to actually being in the role itself, is having a conversation with people who are in it. So that's what I'd say on that.

Scott Anthony Barlow 26:22

Yeah. How did your person who made a switch to... your story from earlier, the person who went from claims adjuster to athletic director or assistant athletic director. How did she do this step? What did that look like for her?

Taj Dashaun 26:38

The first thing she did was start researching, identifying people. So that looked a lot like LinkedIn searches, going to school websites, looking up people in athletic departments. And then I just helped her craft some messages that were almost like, I want to say a message that you couldn't say no to. But a message that was so thoughtful and personal to the individual that she was reaching out to that it was more difficult to ignore, or at least not want to help her or want to want to help this person or at least share your story.

Scott Anthony Barlow 27:08

That's an example of what that might sound like, while also recognizing that it's going to be different for every person in different every situation. What's one example of that?

Taj Dashaun 27:18

So I'm just going to say if you were an athletic director, like the message that she would send was, "Hey, Scott, I see you're an athletic director at HTYC University."

Scott Anthony Barlow 27:29

Yeah, HTYC University. I love it, okay.

Taj Dashaun 27:33

"And I am intrigued by the programming that you're doing." So there's a personal touch there, right? It's not just "Hey, I'm intrigued by the work that you're doing." This is a copied and pasted message. It's more so pointing to specific work that is a little more difficult to find on the surface. So there was some digging that had to be done. So "Hey, Scott, I see that you're an athletic director at HTYC University. I love the program that you did last fall. I am currently in the midst of making a career change. And I would love to learn more about your experience at HTYC University." Or you could say, hear your story or something like that. Because I think it's important to make it more about the person you're reaching out to. People love talking about themselves. People love telling their story. And if they see someone is coming up behind them and wants to walk a similar path, I think people will be surprised how willing people are to have those types of conversations and kind of pour back into the people coming up behind you. So that's the general structure that I like to use. And I know all of us as coaches here, use that format.

Scott Anthony Barlow 28:35

Okay, so if we're looking at the last step, being able to act as if you're already in the role, or articulating why you want to make the switch, so that you're better prepared for the interview stage. What does that look like? What's important here? And what are some examples?

Taj Dashaun 28:53

So when you're having conversations with people, and they're telling you their story and also what their day to day function is, their experience of the role itself, something that's important to gather is kind of the challenges or issues that may be happening, because that allows you to go into problem solving mode, which then you can start thinking like, "if I was in their shoes, how would I solve this problem?" So that's the first step because you can sort of formulate ideas in your own mind about how you would immediately come into that role and make an impact. Then when you're in the interview stage, of course, that gives you a lot of ammunition, for lack of a better word, because you've been thinking about it ahead of time. And also you've audited your skills. So now you can talk about how your skills transfer into this new thing confidently because you've been thinking about it ahead of time. And you can think of examples where even though you may have done something in a totally different industry, that same skill set or the same strength or the same framework, or the same philosophy can now apply into doing this new thing, which of course gives you a lot of confidence during the interview because you've already done the heavy lifting up front of understanding, not that you're overpreparing about how to respond to questions, but you know, you're thinking as if I'm already in this role. So no matter what questions they ask me, I'm prepared to speak to that, because I've spent the time thinking about it and learning about myself.

Scott Anthony Barlow 30:11

I think what's really fascinating too, is if you look at research, there's a couple elements that support what you just said. One, if you are future focused, imagining that you're in that particular role, that in itself is going to better prepare you versus if you're only looking backwards. It's a subtle distinction. But something that is going to have the impact, the real world impact of making you feel more confident, but also, when you are imagining yourself, and it allows you to be able to adapt easier. And I heard you mention that, like, you're going to be prepared for whatever types of questions that they ask you for. So it's a very, very subtle thing that just, like, works with our brains and leverages human psychology. And then the other thing too, is that when you practice in that particular way, any amount of practice, any amount of imagining is going to create a different level of confidence. And there's been a number of studies have come up with different time periods. But basically, it's pretty little, like, as little as 15 minutes of practice is going to significantly change your feeling of confidence when you go to those interviews, but also other people's feelings of your level of confidence, which is kind of fascinating.

Taj Dashaun 31:31

Wow, 15 minutes is all it takes.

Scott Anthony Barlow 31:34

Like, again, there's been a number of studies out there, but they're all relatively low numbers compared to what I would have thought. I would have thought like hours and hours of practice. Now, we're talking in some cases less than an hour. 13, 14, 15 minutes, yeah, pretty crazy, right?

Taj Dashaun 31:52

Definitely. I would have thought at least an hour or two. At least.

Scott Anthony Barlow 31:55

Okay. So here's the question I have for you as we're wrapping up. When you're thinking of that interview step, how did that play out for that person who wanted to get into an athletic director role? What did she do? Or what do you remember worked for her in that particular situation? Since we've already utilized that story and example.

Taj Dashaun 32:20

Yes. So when she was prepping for the interview, she definitely spent more than 15 minutes, but that was probably her wanting to be as prepared as possible.

Scott Anthony Barlow 32:29

She was extra confident.

Taj Dashaun 32:30

Yes, extra confident. Her preparation looked like reviewing all of the notes from conversations she had, which made it not just about that one opportunity or that one role, but the industry and the role as a whole, which was huge. And then also being able to practice, not in a scripted way, but looking at how each experience, each skill set that she has transferred into the skill set of the new role, which she definitely spent time familiarizing herself with from A to Z, this is what it looks like to do this thing. And she just connected the dots. I think she told me she even wrote it out on paper where she, like, drew a line to how this thing connects to this thing. She compared notes on that. And then really just being confident. I mean, she had built the confidence through all of that, following all of those steps, and the confidence was building and building. So by the time she walked into that interview, she felt like the job was already hers. Right? Not in an arrogant way. But just in a "I'm more than qualified to do this role, because I have vetted myself, and I pass the test." So yeah.

Scott Anthony Barlow 33:34

I think that's awesome. It's also a wonderful place for us to wrap up. Because we started out saying, okay, "how do you switch industries when you don't want to start over?" And in many cases, the pretext was, you feel like you have to start over, you feel like there's no other way for you to start over. So you get stuck. And now we're all the way on the other side of that saying, you know, in the example we've been using this entire conversation, she went to feeling like she was confident and that she could imagine herself in that role, and that she was prepared for it, which is pretty cool. Very, very, very different from the way that it starts at the beginning. Awesome. I appreciate it, Taj.

Taj Dashaun 34:19

Thank you, Scott. I always enjoy these conversations with you.

Scott Anthony Barlow 34:27

Hey, if you've been thinking about making a change for a while now, and you don't really know how to best take the first step or get started, here's what I would suggest– just open your email app on your phone right now. And I'm gonna give you my personal email address, scott@happentoyourcareer.com. Just email me and put "Conversation" in the subject line. Tell me a little bit about your situation. And I'll connect you with the right person on our team where we can figure out the very best way that we can help you, scott@happentoyourcareer.com drop me an email. Here's a sneak peek into what we have coming up in store for you next week.

Speaker 3 35:03

It just got worse and worse and people leaving, getting the wrong people hired into roles and just the culture just got so, so bad.

Scott Anthony Barlow 35:13

In 2007, I had changes in the company that I was working in at the time, that pretty much pushed me in the direction of apathy, like I pretty much didn't care, didn't feel connected anymore. And if this is something that's happened to you, then you're not alone. You're not even close to alone. According to a Gallup study, only 32% of US employees felt engaged at work in 2022. So this is pretty recent, right? Companies seem to be losing their grasp on what employees actually want, or when they're rapidly restructuring and trying to make changes, and when they're trying to navigate the after effects of the pandemic, they're not being successful, many of them, most of them. So if you've been spending your time in a job that is very out of alignment with who you are, or maybe you're surrounded by people that just don't share the same values, they don't place value on the same things that you do, if this is the case, then you'll find that even if you enjoy your day to day job functions, and even if there's many other good things, you're probably going to fall quickly into the category of disengaged, that'll make you ready for a change whether you recognize it or not. And the good news is that well, the number of engaged employees is extremely low, there are in fact organizations out there that have more than doubled this percentage. What does that mean? Well, there's organizations that actually care if you are feeling connected, and enjoying your work and feeling engaged. Pretty cool, right? You just have to find them.

Scott Anthony Barlow 36:57

All that and plenty more next week right here on Happen To Your Career. Make sure that you don't miss it. And if you haven't already, click Subscribe on your podcast player so that you can download this podcast in your sleep, and you get it automatically, even the bonus episodes every single week, sometimes multiple times a week. Until next week. Adios. I'm out.