It’s Time for an Annual Career Check-Up! See How Others Have Benefited from One:

By Paul Cecala, January 17th, 2022

*Some names and details are changed to respect clients privacy.

For your health, you attend an annual physical.

For your personal growth, you set New Year’s Resolutions.

For your finances, you do a yearly review of your taxes and accounts.

(Or I hope you do at least one of those!)

But why do we neglect to regularly review where we are on our career path and revisit or revise our future career goals?

Because it’s easy to live on autopilot. Life goes by fast, which makes it hard to remember to pause and check in with yourself. Every day you might get stuck in the weeds of a work project or constantly planning the next one, so it’s important to take a moment to take a high-level look at your career. Where are you now? Where do you want to be?

When was the last time you asked yourself those questions?

As for me, a solopreneur, I annually create my business goals and then review their status and adjust my direction quarterly. In having those consistent check-ins, my business has seen 2-fold growth every year for the past 4 years. So, maybe I am just programmed to take a periodic look at where I am going and where I have been.

As for you, are you taking an annual look at your career status and direction? Are you making a periodic course correction, so you stay on your ‘A game?’

You’re not alone if your answer is no to these questions. But I want to encourage you to consider what a check-in could do for you and your goals. This past year I have had multiple clients do exactly that with great success. By following their lead, you may have some exciting positive changes to your career trajectory this year!

Whether you find yourself facing a potential layoff, feeling stagnant in your current role, preparing for a big vertical career jump, or feeling left behind in the changing times, you might relate to one of my clients stories that benefited from a Career Check-Up.

Fearing a Layoff and Ready to Explore:

In July of 2021, Sandra, a senior-level project manager with chief-of-staff experience, learned that her division of this very large company was being sold off to a competitor and any redundant employees should be prepared to lose their jobs. She found me on the web and arranged for an initial consultation with some hefty questions. If she survived the acquisition, should she plan to stay with the new company if offered a role or switch to a new role in a different division of the old company? If she decided to leave, should she change fields? How?

In our consultation, she recognized that she had lost interest in her role and was looking for something of a new challenge: maybe something more impactful that will be of value to humanity or the world.

The Plan:

Our plan was (and continues to be) that she first and foremost, shore up her position within her current employer and then the purchasing employer. We wanted to be sure she can make this change on her terms and on her schedule, not those of the companies involved. It turns out, both companies want her, and she has been negotiating what will be the right best next move with one of them. At the same time, because she is unfulfilled in her current role and likely will be with the new company, the two of us explored places, industries, and ways she can take her excellent skill sets to not-for-profits and other industries she finds more interesting and challenging. We completed an accomplishments stories exercise to explore where these other opportunities might lie and created a chart of potential target markets.

In Sandra’s case, or your own if you’re in a similar position, this is a great time to explore her options. Negotiating a role in either company secures her in a more interesting position than before and, more importantly, gives her the time to explore options for her next career move. She has already researched 2 different industries and determined they would not be good fits. And that is still great progress. Sometimes it takes filtering out what you don’t want to discover what you do want. Her goal is to be ready for her career change by mid-year 2022 and I know we’ll get her there at the rate she’s going.

From Stagnant to Business Owner

Steve is a ’30-something’ financial services professional with a large NY FinTech bank. He feels he has been held back from his full potential and is bored with his current role. He sees other contemporaries making more money and enjoying life more than he is. Realizing his career needed a change, we met for two conversations to explore his options and discuss potential career risks and rewards.

Sometimes career changes are smaller, as in a raise or promotion. Other times, the change is big, i.e., a change of company or industry. Then there are leaps of faith.

The Plan:

After some research, contemplation, and conversations with others I recommended to him, Steve and his spouse have decided to invest in a franchise that will take advantage of Steve’s marketing and business planning skills while offering him more control over his family’s financial future.

While I am personally more risk-averse to something as giant as this, I truly believe it is not the coach’s role to impose their ideals and help the client find their own path. Together we assessed the opportunities and risks. He feels he is young enough that if the new business does not work out, he can still recover and relaunch a corporate career with new experiences and skills. What is most important in Steve’s case (and yours!) is that he has a thought out business plan to help him achieve his goals now as a new business owner.

Again, it’s having a plan that matters — paired with regular scheduled check-ins to assess any changes that need to be made. Success doesn’t come from luck; it comes from consistent work mapped with a purposeful direction.

Obsolete No More

I have assisted Sam in several job searches over the past decade. He is in his late forties and has been with the same company for nearly 20 years in IT project management. He was beginning to feel left behind by the company and wanted to reposition himself for the future. If he can make 25 years, he can receive significant retirement benefits so changing companies is not the best move now.

The Plan:

In two sessions, we reviewed his current situation and looked for the best path forward. Our plan was to find ways to capitalize on his strong project management and agile scrum master skills. He began networking with other peers and more senior managers who crossed his career path. In doing so, he was able to get a promotion, a large salary increase, and moved to a more forward looking and acting division of the organization. His new leadership better values him and sees a path for him to grow even further with the company.

While younger clients are used to the gig economy or changing positions every couple of years, many of my older clients have stayed with the same company for many years, even decades. This poses challenges with changing times, but it is not the end of your career. You have great experience and wisdom to leverage from being in the industry and company for so long. The question is how to turn it into an opportunity.

Eyes on the C-Level Prize

Tom is just starting the work search process and being VERY proactive. He has decided that, assuming no other significant life change, he will make his next career move in 2023. He wants to jump levels to a C suite title and knows he needs to properly prepare for that vertical move up. We have already met once and plan to meet several more times during 2022. In our first meeting, we reviewed his status – education, jobs, skills, and accomplishments, and compared them to several job descriptions for the role he wants. We identified 3 gaps in his background that need to be addressed.

The Plan:

He has already researched and will soon begin a training program to address one skill gap. He has identified a way to steer his current role so he can meet one of the other gaps and is working out plans to address the third. In our future sessions we will be looking at his progress and begin to modify his brand and marketing materials (i.e., adjust his LinkedIn profile, create a twitter and social media posting plan, and rewrite his resume, marketing plan and cover letter) to position him for the value he can bring at this new level.

What I hope you take away from Tom’s case is that you can create your own career timeline without any external pressure. Tom isn’t like most; he is incredibly proactive in defining his goals and building his path instead of letting life and his career happen to him. He’s in the pilot’s seat and I hope this encourages you to do the same. Let’s all strive to be a Tom.

Now, what about you?

The common thread with all these clients is that they were not particularly happy in their current role, and they reached out to us for guidance. They willingly retroactively looked at their situation with the help of a qualified coach who could provide a different perspective and options to consider, ask the right questions to uncover deeper desires, and help discover their strengths and skill gaps. Then together, we looked forward to finding a path that will help them navigate to their career goals. Each has his or her own path, different from the others one size does not fit all. And each could only gain clarity of direction by talking with someone else, a professional mentor or coach who could help them find their own way.

In their first career check-up, these four found some new ideas that required more exploration. They chose to pursue additional sessions, but not all will need or want that option. The key is that they found a moment in time to stop, look at where they are, from where they have come and mostly where they want to go.

Now as for you, are you due for your own career checkup? If so, I would like to assist you.

Sign up for a 1-hour consultation by going to our Contact Us page or simply schedule a time that works for you at http://www.calendly.com/cecalacareer.

I look forward to helping you navigate to your career success for this next new year. Let’s do it!

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Paul Cecala

Paul Cecala can help you navigate to your success. Learn more about his services here.