I recently had a client who called me up because she was totally disillusioned with her current job. When we spoke, she was adamant that the only way forward for her was to leave her current position and find something better though she had no idea what.
What she believed she needed was to sign up for a series of sessions to figure out “what is the right career for me” and to have her CV re-written. This could potentially have been quite lucrative for me however, the more we talked, I wasn’t sure that this was exactly what she needed at this point and suggested that we did a “career check” instead to find out where the real issues were and to set a clear career goal and action plan towards achieving that goal.
What we found was that she didn’t feel that her work was challenging anymore and that she faced a lot of problems because the majority of her team were based at a different location so she didn’t feel really involved or part of the team. As the session progressed, it became apparent that she hadn’t actually spoken to anyone else about these issues because she thought “it wouldn’t make any difference”. On digging deeper, she also suffered from a lack of confidence to speak to her manager.
We put together a short term goal and an action plan detailing the steps she needed to take which included us working together on a couple of issues.
And the result?
After a couple of weeks she called me to say that she had finally spoken to her manager who was not only pleased that she had initiated the meeting but also liked the ideas that she put forward to the extent that she was given a six month project to manage with the promise of promotion if she met the project targets – just the opportunity and challenge she needed to prove herself to the company and get the project management experience she had hoped for.
Sometimes, by taking a step back and looking at your career as a whole via a check-up, you can prevent having to hand in your notice and find a new job and in this case, not only did she get her career back on track but she saved herself some money too.
If you’re not happy in your current job, contact me for a free 20 minute strategy session and to arrange a “career check”.
