Find Extra Time and Space to Focus on Your Career Pivot

(Photo Credit @aaronburden)

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Interested in joining the Digital Orchards Fellowship to help jumpstart your tech career pivot along with a small cohort of ambitious individuals?

Join the waitlist here: Digital Orchards Fellowship

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Yesterday, we discussed how to take stock of where you are in your career & then how to start envisioning your future. You can view that post here: Take Stock + Envision your Future

For many clients, that’s the fun part: looking towards a bright & successful future. And many job pivoters stay in that phase - and don’t progress forward to make that vision a reality. 

Why? There are a host of reasons that can give someone pause when making a career pivot. It’s not the right time to make a move; you realize it’s not the right industry for you; a family situation delays your move, or an unexpected promotion comes your way and improves your current job situation. All of these are among the many valid reasons to stay where you are. 

Today, I want to explore one common challenge to moving forward that is often overlooked but easily addressed: you, the job seeker, haven’t prepared the groundwork to give yourself the time and space to make this change.

1. The Reality: Job searching takes time 

   • It happens all the time. A potential client says I’m ready to get a job in tech - can you fix my resume? The assumption is that all you need to do is change some words on a paper & that’s enough. Actually, it takes thoughtful review of your current situation & skills to map out a good plan for making a career change. 

   • You will need to open up extra time & space in your life to make this pivot. How are you going to do that?

2. Map out the tradeoffs you are willing to make

   • Sit down and estimate how much time you can realistically devote each week to making this career change happen.

   • Then try to identify how much time it will take to make the pivot. You can guesstimate that it’ll take one month for every year you’ve worked - but this depends on how big a pivot you’re making, what your transferable skills are, and the networks you can leverage (we’ll cover these a bit more over the next few days). It’s good to have a realistic set of expectations. 

   • Then write up a list of tradeoffs you’re willing to make with yourself, your spouse/partner/family, volunteer commitments, etc.

     1. Maybe this means skipping the Friday night bar scene for a few months? Maybe this means getting takeout for the family every Sunday night so you can spend your evening on your career change? You might also try to postpone a trip that will be right in the middle of when you expect to start interviewing. Or it might mean you need to step back from a volunteer commitment for the next quarter or two. 

     2. Try not to view this as a punishment. This is a strategic choice you’re making to give yourself the necessary time to make this pivot successfully.

3. Have the conversations you need to have

   • Once you’ve identified what you need to succeed, you need to ensure that key members of your support network are aware of the choices you’re pursuing. 

   • Tell the Fri night crowd not to tempt you for a few weeks - but that you’ll celebrate with them once you get the new gig. Talk to your partner/family and ensure they are on-board with this potential change. Seek out advice if you’re not sure whether you’ve estimated your timing correctly. 

   • All of these conversations help you to gather the support you’ll need to slog through when you get frustrated. And admitting to these trusted folks that you’re looking to make a change makes it easier to start having the future networking conversations too.

4. Put it on the calendar

   • For me, nothing happens if it doesn’t appear on my calendar. Partly because I need the reminders, but partly because I’ve told myself that I’m dedicating a specific amount of time on a specific day and time to work on a project. 

   • Add recurring appointments to your calendar to remind yourself to work on items related to this career pivot into tech. This is your commitment to yourself that you will make this happen. 

You might be thinking these items are obvious, but humans tend to resist change, even when you do actually want the change to happen. These steps might only take 20-30 minutes but it’s surprising how important they are for long-term career change success. 

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Pivoting into a new career can be hard, depending on how BIG the move that you’re making is and how much support you have in making the move.

If you’d like some help with charting out your pivot into tech and you’d like to work with a small cohort of peers making this shift, please consider joining the Digital Orchards Fellowship waitlist: digitalorchards.com/fellowship

Take Stock + Envision your Future

(Photo Credit @lndtxphoto)

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Interested in joining the Digital Orchards Fellowship to help jumpstart your tech career pivot along with a small cohort of ambitious individuals?

Join the waitlist here: Digital Orchards Fellowship

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Last week, I posted a blog discussing the Top 5 Things You should do to Now to Pivot Into the Tech Industry. It’s been a pretty popular post, so I thought I’d expand upon each of these topics and offer some additional advice. 

1. Define it: Why are you pivoting?

   • There’s a reason (maybe many reasons) that you’re considering this switch, and you should be clear on what these are. 

   • It helps you identify your motivations for the move, how to avoid similar pitfalls in your new job/career, and gives you the confidence to explain the decision to others too. 

   • It’s also really important to have this solidified so you don’t have regrets later on. We all spend time looking back at choices we’ve made - it’s natural to revisit decisions. The hope is that you review the decision and know that you’d make it again, even if it was hard or went in a direction you weren’t expecting. Building your trust in your decision-making muscles will help you in so many other parts of your life and career. 

   • Unsure? Check out the top 2 questions to ask yourself about whether to stay or go by visiting my post on job-hopping successfully. 

2. Write it down & consider these questions

   • Start by writing down where you see yourself in your current career, and where you envision yourself after a successful career transition into tech. 

   • Looking back: Why are you leaving your current role/company? Did it get boring or frustrating? Lack of growth opportunities? Company culture mismatch? Distrust in management? Burnout due to overwork & no one above you seems to care? Need to increase your salary? Try to name the reason(s) and be specific - don’t just leave because you have a vague sense of meh. 

   • Looking forward: Why does tech excite you? What part(s) of the industry make you curious to learn more? What impact do you hope to have in tech? What kind of role will you be in after this pivot? What kind of company did you end up at? Close your eyes - what does it feel like to be in that new role? Sitting at your new desk, meeting new colleagues, tackling new projects? 

   • It’s ok to dream here! This exercise will help you to define why you’re making this move, which will help keep you motivated along the journey. 

3. Get creative to stay inspired with your pivot

   • Now that you’ve put words to the page that help you see what you want, we need to keep you motivated to actually take the next step. 

   • Easy: create a Pivot Post-It for your desk at home. You could also have one at your desk in the office with nothing but a date on it. (No one needs to know it’s your target departure date but you!)

   • Medium: Add a daily or weekly invite to your calendar. Take a minute to close your eyes, and visualize yourself in your new role. Breathe it in. Live it! 

   • Worth your time: Create a career pivot vision board. I know, I know - I used to think these were kind of silly. But there is plenty of research now on the power of visualization in achieving your goals. You could have a paper one or a digital one, something very simple or with tons of images. The important thing is that (a) you spend the time creating something that will inspire and motivate you, and (b) you look at it regularly & often. 

This is the part of your tech career pivot that should bring you energy, which will help sustain you through the next parts of the journey. 

Pivoting into a new career can be hard, depending on how far the move that you’re making is and how much support you have in making the move.

If you’d like some help with charting out your pivot into tech and you’d like to work with a small cohort of peers making this shift, please consider joining the Digital Orchards Fellowship waitlist: digitalorchards.com/fellowship

Top 5 Things You Should Do NOW to Pivot into the Tech Industry

(Photo Credit @jluebke)

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Interested in joining the Digital Orchards Fellowship to help jumpstart your tech career pivot along with a small cohort of ambitious individuals?

Join the waitlist here - Digital Orchards Fellowship

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Well, it’s that time of the year where we all spend our weekends working on taxes that we should have done months ago…but who doesn’t love a good deadline to get the brain juices flowing?? I also wanted to say thank you to two individuals from my network who independently of each other sent me very lovely & personal thank you notes for caring about the people I work with and continuing to share great career advice. Sometimes you wonder when you put stuff out into the social media ether whether it connects with anyone - and it has been gratifying to continually get notes like these from folks who have never liked a single post, but instead actually read every single one. I think I’d rather have regular readers than semi-random likers. 

#announcements

I enjoy helping people navigate through transition. It’s both challenging and empowering to navigate a career pivot, challenging as there is so much to learn and empowering as you start to see yourself & your skills in a new light. 

I’ve also found that many of my clients could use a support community to help them with their pivot into tech. It’s a hard road to walk alone!

So I’m launching my first Digital Orchards Fellowship to jumpstart the tech career pivot for a small cohort of ambitious individuals. You can join the waitlist here to learn more about the fellowship before anyone else! digitalorchards.com/fellowship

#careertip : Top 5 Things You Should Do NOW to Pivot into the Tech Industry

I’m often asked by prospective clients: what should I do if I’m considering a pivot into tech? It’s a great question - and has opened up many good conversations about how to shift both your mindset and your skillset towards this new industry. Remember, it’s never too early to start preparing to make this shift! Even though there are a lot of tech job postings out there, just randomly applying is unlikely to get you the result you’re after: a great job in a top tech company. 

1. Take Stock + Envision your Future There’s a reason you’re considering this switch, and you’ll have to explain it to others too. 

   1. Start by writing down where you see yourself in your current career, and where you envision yourself after a successful career transition into tech. Why are you leaving your current role/company? What kind of role will you be in after this pivot? What kind of company did you end up at? 

   2. It’s ok to dream here! This quick exercise will help you to define why you’re making this move, which will help keep you motivated along the journey. 

2. Find Extra Time You will need to open up extra time & space in your life to make this pivot. How are you going to do that? 

   1. Sit down and estimate how much time you can realistically devote each week to making this career change happen. 

   2. Then write up a list of tradeoffs you’re willing to make with yourself, your spouse/partner/family, volunteer commitments, etc. Maybe this means getting takeout every Sunday night so you can spend your evening on your career change? It might mean you need to step back from a volunteer commitment for the next quarter. 

3. Manage Your Current Job Consider how you’d like to handle your current job and what kind of departure you’d like to architect. 

   1. Think about bonuses and promotion cycles. 

      1. Are you close to getting a yearly bonus? Aim to make your transition after that date and use it as motivation. 

      2. Are you going to be up for promotion soon? I’d advise you to focus on your current role, get the promotion, and then start to make your pivot. You’ll be able to command a better salary and/or title in a new company by leveraging your recent promotion. 

   2. Not interested in bonuses or promotions? Maybe you just want to get out asap. Think about how to move your current job into ‘maintenance mode’ so there are no complaints about your work, but it then frees up your brain to learn new things about tech. 

4. Identify Tech Connections Try and learn from trusted connections about the new industry you’re moving into. 

   1. Identify 3 friends/connections who work in tech. Look for people who are in roles and companies you are considering. 

   2. Don’t have those connections? Think about how you can leverage your current network to get to those who do work in tech. Fellow alumni? 

   3. Reach out to tell them you’re considering a move into tech and would appreciate their advice on how to get started. Schedule informational interviews to learn why they work in tech, what you need to know about company cultures/operating styles, and skills needed for your target role(s). 

5. Develop a Learning Path Everyone who pivots into a new career needs to learn about their new target industry. 

   1. Use what you learned from your connections to write out 3 key topics or skills you’ll need to develop or refine. 

   2. Find the resources to help you learn. Online courses will cover tech topics like ‘What is cloud computing?’ or ‘What is cryptocurrency?’ as well as teach you how to use SQL or Tableau, often in 2-3 hour courses. (Check out sites like LinkedIn Learning, Coursera, Udemy, Code Academy.) 

   3. Then we can add these courses to your resume to demonstrate your growing tech domain expertise. Likely, you’ll also end up using this information during your future interviews - so recognize its value in the whole tech career pivot process. 

6. BONUS: Consult a Tech Career Coach A tech-specific career coach can help explain the nuances of the tech job search process. Make sure you find someone who has worked in tech as a recruiter or has hired others into various functional roles within tech & startups. 

   1. Seems counter-intuitive that I only just mentioned resumes in the previous bullet. However, if you don’t do the 4 things above, it’s just not worth it to do much work on your resume or to start applying to jobs. Tech recruiters can easily tell when you haven’t spent any time getting to know their industry – and they also know it means you’ll likely fall out of the interview process later on. 

   2. Have you been struggling to design your tech career pivot? Schedule a call with me today to discuss strategy! 

It’s never too late to make a career pivot! You deserve to be in a job that values your skills and expertise, and you should keep searching until you find the right one. 

Once you’ve done these 5 steps, we’ll discuss how to convert this new knowledge into your resume & other job search materials. 

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