Leslie has been trying to find her ideal career for a long time now.
She’s so dedicated to this notion of finding her “calling”, that she takes survey after survey online, continually looking for guidance and direction.
Each time Leslie thinks she has learned something new about herself, she flits on to the next opportunity, believing that what she learned could be the direction in life she has been looking for.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, taking guidance from a series of algorithms never really works out for Leslie.
She’s stuck in this cycle, where, for the life of her, she can’t figure out where she went wrong.
Like Leslie, have you been taking career advice from online tests?
Self-reflection is key to a successful career transition
The best clues to your ideal career don’t come from answering multiple-choice questions.
You might be disappointed to hear that – after all, everyone loves a quick solution.
However, a more individual and self-reflective approach to this is critical.
When you’re undergoing a career transition, there are three key areas of your life to pay attention to, before deciding on your future direction.
Those are:
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Skills and accomplishments
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Interests
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Values, motivations and preferred working culture
These three key areas, plus the financial viability of a job make up what I call the SLIM model.
In short, that is strengths + love + importance + money.
To understand where you sit in each of these areas, start by asking yourself:
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What are you good at personally, professionally, or in an educational or community setting?
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What do you love to do so much that it causes you to lose track of time?
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What are the things most important to you, in terms of your core values, your inner motivations and the people you best fit with in a work environment?
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What careers that combine these prior factors are financially-viable for you?
At the intersection of these four components lies your enriched career.
The benefit of this approach is that it takes both your basic, environmental needs into account, as well as your higher-level needs in order to achieve true satisfaction.
For more help applying the SLIM model to your career transition, check out my soon-to-be-released book: So You’re Career Confused! WTF is Next?
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Greg Weiss is Australia’s leading career coach. He is the author of “So You Got The Job! WTF Is Next?”. The book prescribes a proven, practical 7-step guideline for new employees so they succeed, rather than fail their probation periods and beyond. Find out more about the book at https://www.wtfisnext.wtf
He is the Founder and Director of Onboff an online training and coaching platform that helps HR specialists, coaches and recruiters to deliver exceptional onboarding and offboarding experiences for employees.
He also hosts The Keep: The Employee Experience podcast and runs CareerSupport365.
Keyword: career transition
