St. Louis Business Journal
An addiction to competence
can impede change to
a more satisfying career

By Anna Navarro

May 2000 - An addiction to being competent can sometimes keep people mired in careers that aren't a good fit for them.

I have worked with individuals who hate what they do, but who by dint of discipline have achieved proficiency at it. While they dislike their work, they still get a lot out of being good at it. Knowing what to do and how to do it brings with it a status and comfort level that gets stripped away as they seek to find work that is satisfying.

Charlie was the vice president of a trust company. He'd been in the financial industry all his life. The responsibility of managing other people's money had become both exceedingly stressful and increasingly boring.

During the course of our consulting he identified that he was fascinated with broadcast television journalism. The one aspect of his work in finance that he had truly enjoyed was giving presentations. The thought of performing for a TV audience seemed like total fun for him, though he had never actually tried it.

The challenges of being a novice started as we contemplated his need to talk to people in the field. We were both aware that it was important to get past the glamour and get in touch with the nitty gritty of what it is like to be a broadcast journalist day-to-day.

He was used to being an expert in the field of finance. But doing this research required him to be the non-expert that he was in broadcast journalism. While this stopped him for a moment, he soon jumped past the hurdle.

He interviewed a number of TV journalists who painted true pictures of what entering the field is like. It's extremely competitive; you start at the bottom and work your way up. There are few shortcuts. Only a fraction of people make it. He was already a lot older than many seasoned journalists.

This information wasn't unexpected. The description he got of the dues he'd have to pay was sobering. But the field still really turned him on.

I much admire him for what he was willing to do next. He resigned his job and applied for an internship with a local TV station. He competed with people much younger than himself for a position that paid next to nothing - and got it.

His willingness to be a novice was frequently tested during the internship itself. He hauled equipment around to photo shoots. He made phone calls and set appointments for TV reporters, a task that in his past life his secretary would have done for him. He learned how to use recording equipment and how to edit footage.

He also arranged to get extra voice training and lessons in being in front of a camera delivering news. All the while he got up in the wee hours of the morning to be available when he was needed.

Eventually he succeeded in getting a real job on the first rung of the ladder of the TV news business: a junior on-the-street reporter for a station in a small city. This again required that he be a novice, the low man on the totem pole.

Charlie's story is one that has always inspired me. While I was his guide and coach through the process, I honestly don't know if I could have done what he did.

He was willing to be a beginner and give up the pride and satisfaction of being a savvy insider. He also relinquished money, status and power in the short term. He reported from his small city post that he'd never had as much fun before, on or off the job. Clearly the payoff for him was worth the sacrifices he made.

I see other examples daily of people who are willing to sacrifice their savvy insider status for the sake of growth and the excitement of a career that really turns them on.

It can be as simple as having to deal with being the new kid on the block when they accept an offer from a new employer, even if they are doing the same kind of work they've done in the past. Or shifting to a new department within the same organization, and having to figure out from scratch how to get approval for their projects.

Making a transition from work that makes you crazy to work that makes you happy requires a lot of internal strengths. One of them is humility.

Anna Navarro is the founder of Work Transitions, a nationwide career consulting firm that trains independent career strategists and consults with individual clients.

This column was originally published by the St. Louis Business Journal. The actual title of the column and date in which it appeared in the Business Journal may be slightly different from what appears on WorkTransitions.com.