Only one professional career? No, at least two! – 1st part
The waves of working life Life requires a non-linear approach to work, so you’ll need to consider different aspects in sequence or at the same time.
This applies to youngsters – even if they are graduates and competent – who’ll be starting off with internships and odd jobs, and also applies to older people – 50 and above – with as many as two decades of active professional life ahead of them.
In the West life expectancy is growing. Companies – on the other hand – are shortening the amount of time they need their employees for. The amount of time a company needs you for will vary, depending on the circumstances, but, essentially, as individuals we just have to accept this and deal with it.
In my work supporting people in the labour market I have numerous examples to draw on.
I recently read an article by Luigi Rigolio which offered a cue to examine the subject of a second career. The title of the article was “Starting from Peter Drucker: the second professional life of knowledge workers”.
After 20 years of doing very much the same kind of work, they are very good at their jobs. But they are not learning or contributing or deriving challenge and satisfaction from the job. And yet they are still likely to face another 20 if not 25 years at work. That is why managing onesolf inceasingly leads one to begin a second career
– Peter Drucker – Managing oneself, HBSR 1999
20 years have passed since then and the principle still holds true, but we can now update certain aspects of this statement.
Firstly, the speed of our world has increased so it’s becoming increasingly rare or unusual for people to spend 20 years with the same company. It’s a good idea to change companies to get to know different environments, organisations and people; moreover, companies are no longer so durable because of mergers, acquisitions and market trends that can emerge and die out in a short period of time (just think of Blockbuster).
Individuals are forced to safeguard their own employability, whether they like it or not. They have become a product for the labour market and like all products they can have a single life-cycle or even two/three life cycles. This is where the image of waves comes from: every wave is a career. We therefore need to deal with our skills and competencies – “hard” and “soft” – and keep these up to date regardless of what companies require us to do: in terms of jobs, the market rules supreme, not companies.
The second career
Some second career options:
- Continue your career in another company and increase your set of skills like Drucker says. This is an easy option, which now sounds quite obvious, even though in practice it might actually be a little trickier.
Nurture a passion or hobby at the same time and turn this passion into a job. You might have a passion for the sports market, the non-profit sector or something else. This is a good option but it still sounds like something that’s “second best”, a fallback, as opposed to a ‘real’ Career.
The most desirable option involves really carving out a new career by focusing on the skills you have acquired, breaking these down and building them up again in a different manner, and supplementing them with studies and a new “apprenticeship”.
A concrete example
I met a person with a good degree, an MBA and a first professional career in corporate finance. After the first 20 years – thanks also to the global crisis – he had to invent a new employment strategy. He wasn’t a sportsman and didn’t have any easily monetizable passions! He actually had pretty expensive hobbies like golf, travelling and fancy watches. He lives in a Milan – a vibrant city. What could he do?
He tries management consulting, but… he’s not cut out for consulting and it’s difficult times for consulting too.
He uses his experience as a financial advisor for the entrepreneurs he previously worked for, he studied, got a certification, he works out what the market is like in Italy for financial advisors (which requires them to be connected to a bank network), he sets up his network and “jumps in head first” starting with ONE client and the first €1,000 of fees – so no permanent contract.
Twenty years later he’s happy and is not even thinking about retiring.
I hope you get there too!
GoodGoing!
The professionals at GoodGoing! can help you devise an exciting second career that is sustainable in the medium term. Some of our professionals are also on their second career, while others have experience accompanying others through this process.
Contact us to find out more.
