Only one professional career? No, at least two! – 3rd part
The power of a network for a second career The article by Luigi Rigolio, which I recently read entitled “Starting from Peter Drucker: the second professional life of knowledge workers”. is a cue to comment on the author’s thesis about the possibility to start a second career thanks only to one’s network.
Rigolio argues:
A second professional career is only possible thanks to a network, which can be extended and consolidated based on the trust someone enjoys in their field, which gradually allows them to break free from their first professional identity.
– Luigi Rigolio
And he also quotes Peter Drucker directly:
Organizations are no longer built on force but on trust. The existance of trust between people does not necessarily mean that they like one another. It means that they understand one another. Taking responsability fro relationship is therefore an absolute necessity. It is a duty. Whether one is a member of the organization, a consultant to it, a supplier, or a distributor, one owes that responsability to all one’s coworkers: those whose work one depends on as well as those who depend on one’s own work
– Peter Drucker, Managing onesof, HBSR 1999
A network is becoming increasingly important for identifying and seizing new professional opportunities as our profile becomes more complex, and what matters most - as we have said - is trust one has from others rather than technical knowledge.
An example
An engineer with an MBA, who spent her first career in management consulting. After quickly fulfilling the professional goals she had set herself at the start of her professional history, at the age of 40 she was looking for something new after spending a year exploring different options and also studying.
After completing a Masters in Executive Coaching and developing a passion for this new "consulting" methodology, she identified a job opportunity (with a salary!) thanks to the sister of an ex-colleague that enabled her to move into a new market/sector – HR.
Aside from the brainwave by this acquaintance, she will be eternally grateful to, the person in question - at nearly 60 years of age - can now rightfully claim that she has had a genuine second career, which is entirely compatible with her first career in terms of success, satisfaction, duration, the people she met and the projects she has been involved in …
I hope you can experience this 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.
