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Why is Career Change Hard?

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(@lamar-blackwellbiocareers-com)
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We have all heard of the saying that we need to become comfortable with being uncomfortable. This means that we need to be accept that we are never completely comfortable with where we are at, but we understand that 100% comfort is not normally possible.  So, if we know these things, why is it that we can’t make the change that we know we need to make.  Why is that we continue think through things that we already have the answer to.  The answer is that we want to make change in our careers but we don’t need to make changes in our careers.  Our want for a career change is not as big as our need for the status quo.

When you need to do something, it becomes more of a focus of our time.  When we need to make a career change then we feel like the time for running the same mental conversation through our minds is over.  Once it becomes a need, we must act.  Even if it is just getting more information to make a decision, we are taking new actions.  When we need to make a change, we will come to a place where we are honest with what we have done, the information we have, and what we need to do.   We know that regardless of where we are now we appreciate one important point:  our need to make a career change will place us in a new role and at the beginning it will be uncomfortable.

Our uneasiness with change comes from a lot of different places.  Fear of rejection, failure, and the opinion of others come to mind quickly.  The truth is that there will be some of that along the way.  However, it has been said that to be something that you have never been, we need to do something we have never done.  It makes a lot of sense because if we could already have what we want without feeling uncomfortable then we would already have it.  It is also why career changes must be things we need to do for us to get pass the energy barrier of comfort and familiar.

The good thing is that we have experience learning to do things that we could not do at first.  Scientists are asked to do experiments that can and do fail all the time, but we know that we will learn something from those experiments that and it will lead to a change in our understanding of a process.  We can make career change and learn to do something new.  The question is do you want to change careers or do you need to?


   
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Dave Jensen
(@davejensencareertrax-com)
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Thanks for the quality post Lamar. 

 

Fear of change is behind most of this, wouldn't you agree? 

Dave

Dave Jensen, Founder and Moderator
Bio Careers Forum


   
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DX
 DX
(@dx)
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100 percent agree with Lemar.  Fear of change is addressed in the context of wanting to change. But when one's readiness for change, interfaces with need for change, well that's when the good stuff happens, that's when the change happens - because when one take the leap, the fear is still there, but then courage to manage the fear comes in. 

Let's face it, all of us who made the leap from academic to other careers all had to get to that "readiness" - and that was driven by a need, at that particular point. We had the fear and I don't think the fear went away, its just getting up the courage and alot driven by the want and need coming together nicely.   

This will happen in a career over and over, be it changing company's to channge roles, to makeing lateral moves, to being promoted, to taking on any other chapter, even in life. 

Good post. Well contextualized. Alot of professional coaching is about this exactly, getting people to search themselves to understand their wants, needs, personal values, and fears, to name some, and getting them ready to take the next step, what ever that next step is.

Dx

 


   
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(@romansuslogmail-com)
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Many thanks for the article! It seems to me that it is really very difficult to change the profession. First of all, because people are always wary of change.


   
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Dave Jensen
(@davejensencareertrax-com)
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The major fears that affect us in our careers include this one, the Fear of Change, along with the Fear of Failure and the Fear of Success. We should have threads that talk about those last two as well! Yes, people are sometimes paranoid about achieving success because they feel they aren't worthy of the level they have reached!

Dave

Dave Jensen, Founder and Moderator
Bio Careers Forum


   
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(@romansuslogmail-com)
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Friends, hi. I have a question
How do you feel about resume preparation services? Now I want to change jobs, and I am advised to order a resume in one of these services. People say it will help me get a better paying job and all that. But I'm not so sure. I'd like to hear your thoughts on this.

This post was modified 4 years ago by Dave Jensen

   
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DX
 DX
(@dx)
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HI Romansuslo,

If you can't articulate your reasons for career change crisply and clearly, both verbally and in written form, then no resume writting company can help you with a career change.

At best with these firms you get a well formated document that looks likes nice visual wise at the risk that what they write is NOT the way you write or express yourself with can work against you. 

I don't know what career change means for you, but most of us here have had career changes, from academia to non-academia or have done within sector moves into a different function or subject matter area, (i've done both) but a common thread is that there is some experience linkage from one career spot to another, generally derived from sets of experiences, competencies, skills, and knowledge that can be portable.  The burden is on you to show that portability to the career path you want to go.

Have clear "why" and "what"  you want...then you'll see your CV, statement of intent (cover letters) will emerge aligned to your objectives.  No need to higher an agency.

DX


   
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(@zoeywilson141gmail-com)
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Yes, having a clear 'why' and 'what' is super important. It's not easy, but seeing some good samples of CVs really helps.


   
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Dave Jensen
(@davejensencareertrax-com)
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Does anyone have a suggestion of a place to find good samples of CVs online? The UCSF career center used to have these online examples, and I found them very useful. Don't know if they still have them, but it's quite a useful practice to see what others are doing.

At my recruiting firm, we've been getting candidates who send in these wild looking one page resumes with all kinds of links and different fonts, colors, boxes and graphics. I don't know in what market/niche these are seen as appropriate, but it sure isn't science.

Dave

Dave Jensen, Founder and Moderator
Bio Careers Forum


   
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DX
 DX
(@dx)
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You'll see a lot of those types of resumes in those who work in areas where there is a high creativity need. I.e. digital marketing, advertising, etc.

They are starting to penetrate my sector/job area as well - at first glance, i nearly feel like a technological bafoon, in some albiet rare cases, they can be crisp and give me info I want.  For the most part, I"m old school, so I'm like seriously?  you have TIME for this? OR you spent money to get this done?  why?   Old fashion..yup, I am.  Generational i'm sure but there are your early adoptors and younger folk who penetrating the job space and are more wowed by this stuff vs. me. 

My advise, for now assume its more old timers, old schoolers like me - stay traditional.  Let the words speak not the fancy..yuck. puke, graphics. Hell, even some mild formatting looks yucky to me.   Plane jane. That's me.  New Times Roman font..and if you use Hevetica...you're pushing it buddy, inches from my garbage can.

DX 


   
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Dave Jensen
(@davejensencareertrax-com)
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Yes, DX -- definitely a generational element to this. "Visual" CV's with links might work in marketing, but probably not going to rise to the top of the pile in the more science-focused positions. I don't think it's a valuable use of time -- taking the same effort and applying it in a networking process would be the far better investment.

Dave

Dave Jensen, Founder and Moderator
Bio Careers Forum


   
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