When I was doing my career change course earlier this year, I made time for the missions and exercises I had to do each week. Every Saturday I had a 10 am call which I never missed, this time though I seem to have lost the impetus to instigate the same rigour and routine to my new course. I think it’s because it’s self-paced. There’s no one pressurising you to have completed homework during the week.
And I don’t want to end on a sad note, but the saying ‘life is short’ was brought home to me when a friend of mine died recently after her fight with cancer.
Truthfully, I don’t think I can face applying for an external role either. I’m in a permanent position after being a contractor for many years and am comfortable, just a little bored. Boredom generally signalled a new contract for me. The thought of ‘pimping’ myself out now as I used to doesn’t appeal, especially within the current job market.
Families may have reservations, friends might be in a completely different place to you, and you don’t necessarily want to tell work colleagues, who although you spend more time with, might let it slip. The last thing you want is questions about your commitment to the job or the assumption you’re looking for a new job. My colleague Chloe and I had spent more time talking recently, mainly due to the pandemic. (Why does it take a pandemic to talk more?!)
I remember two images that were shared in my career change course that I feel justify my randomness and how I’m feeling. One showed points A and B with a direct line from A to B. The tutor said that people think a career change is a simple process or step. The other was an absolute mess of squiggles and swirls from A to B. This is career change she said. Ha! She is so right.
Since I’ve started looking at roles in the creative industry, I’ve used it as an opportunity to educate myself on what these roles are, understand the skills required, and whether it highlights a skills gap I need to address. In the Internal Communication industry in which I work, I can interpret an Internal Communication job description easily. Still, some of the creative roles I’ve seen have me interested and confused in equal measure. Just this morning I saw a Head of Email role. Interesting.
I’d been thinking a lot about how to start my first column and introduce myself to you. I’d pitched this column as a fly-on-the-wall account of my career transition from full time employment to freelancing building on the Beginnings article you might have read in Issue 1. I was going to talk about my wins, fails, and how I was navigating the creative and freelance arena.
What I didn’t expect was for my first column to reflect on mistakes already. And some big ones. Enter the reminder that you’re still very much a novice at this Claire.
