3 questions to consider before making a career pivot

As we head into the new year, I am facing a daunting prospect. After over 34 years in higher education as a professor and administrator, I’m moving to the private sector to support more effective teaching practices. I would classify this change as a significant career pivot. I am changing market sectors (public sector to private) and shifting from serving a single institution to a global base of clients.

Decisions like this are not to be made lightly. It is important to ensure that you are making this move to run toward something attractive and not just away from something that frustrates you. Here are three important considerations if you think a significant career move may be in your future.

Why do you want to do this?

Career pivots are generally rooted in dissatisfaction. There is something about the work you’re doing now that is frustrating or unsatisfying. For many people, there is a particular crisis that initiates the real desire to take a pivot. It could be an illness, accident, or death in the family, or it could be a crisis at work.

Crises are helpful, because they allow people to take stock of their lives. Significant milestone events like a birthday or the end of a year can play the same role. However, dissatisfaction provides energy to run away from something. A career pivot also involves running toward something.

So, a successful career pivot must also involve a reason to take on a new role. One common career switch involves moving from a position that no longer fits your personal values to one that is a better fit to the values important to you. For example, you may have been focused on achievement early in your career and now feel like doing something that benefits society is more important than personal gain. It is useful to be explicit about the ways that a new job may be a better fit to your personal values, because that compatibility is a crucial source of long-term satisfaction.

In addition, you want to ensure that you are clear-eyed about what a new career path entails. Just about every job has a certain number of frustrating tasks you have to put up with. You want to acknowledge the frustrations and drudgery of the path you’re selecting so that you are not just engaging in the mythical belief that the new career path will be free of BS.

How does your experience and expertise transfer?

If you are going to be successful in the new role, there has to be something about your knowledge and skills that will enable you to contribute. Psychologists use the word transfer to name the capacity to take what you know and what you can do in one area and use it in another.

As you contemplate this career pivot, talk to people who are already doing this work about their day-to-day work life. If possible, shadow one of them for a while. Think about how you would react or solve problems in the new work you would be doing. Are you able to take your experience and apply it in the new setting?

At the same time, you want to be realistic about your willingness to learn. Some people are very comfortable in situations in which they are a relative novice. They don’t mind being someone who needs to be helped along and may make a certain number of “rookie mistakes.” Making a career pivot involves learning a lot. You’re not going to be the most effective person at work when you start in the new role. If you find that exciting, then you are a good candidate to make a change.

Where does your life satisfaction come from?

Earlier, I mentioned one big source of life satisfaction, which is the fit between the results of the work you do and your values. But, that is not the only thing that will make your life satisfying.

For one thing, you may not derive your greatest satisfaction from your work. Instead, you may have organizations, hobbies, or relationships that are a deeper part of what makes your life worth living. If so, you want to think about how the new responsibilities at work will relate to what is most important to you in life.

For another, your happiness with work is not just in the relationship between the mission of the organization and your personal values. The day-to-day engagement with work is also going to affect how you feel. Long commutes can suck the life out of you, even if you like the work you’re doing. If you are someone who needs to be around people a lot, then a job that is mostly done remote may not feed your desire for social interaction.

How does the work you’ll be taking on relate to the things you do and do not like to do? Look for some ways that your daily work life will bring with it a few elements that will be truly enjoyable so that you can envision yourself getting out of bed excited to take on the day rather than wishing that the weekend would arrive sooner.

I explored all of these questions as I moved toward my new career path. I’m excited to share more details about it over the next few weeks.

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