St. Louis Business Journal
Changing careers without knowing what you want to do
can be a landmine

By Anna Navarro

January 2002 - Pierce managed a large restaurant for a chain of high priced eateries. He hated his job. He often thought about quitting and starting over, but he didn't know what else to do.

He endured this predicament for several years. Then he came to see me.

In our initial meeting, he poured out his story of frustration and expressed fear that he was trapped for life. He disliked the long hours, having to manage low salary workers who often failed to perform well, and a schedule that prevented him from enjoying holidays with his family.

I assured him he wasn't trapped, but also said that getting him into a better work situation would require time and effort. Because of the constraints of his schedule, he could only meet twice a month. I predicted that at that pace, it would take a year or so to make the change, but that it was very doable.

Two months into working together Pierce began to lose hope. The process was slow, he said. He doubted it would get him out of where he was. I assured him it would work if he stuck with it.

A few weeks later he heard about a job managing a sporting goods store. He loved sports, and was enthusiastic about the possibility. I expressed concern, saying he didn't know what he wanted yet and the job wouldn't get him out of the things he most disliked: long hours, managing low income employees and work schedules that interfered with enjoying family holidays.

While he listened and somewhat agreed with me, he was so desperate to make a change that he decided to pursue the job anyway. He interviewed, was offered the position and accepted it.

I understood his decision . . . He was feeling hopeless. Confronted with the old "bird in the hand versus two in the bush" dilemma he chose the bird in hand. He doubted whether he could do better.

Ten months later he was back, this time out of a job. He'd quit because he couldn't stand it. In addition to encountering similar problems to those he'd had in the restaurant business, he had a boss who made unreasonable demands, including expecting him to fill in personally when an employee didn't show up.

He still didn't know what he wanted to do, but now he was facing an immediate financial crisis because he no longer had an income.

I advised him to get a job as a restaurant manager to keep body and soul together and then to come back so we could do the work of figuring out what he wanted to do long term.

Fortunately, he was able to find a job within six weeks. It didn't pay as well as his old job, but it was enough to get by while he finished the process.

The episode was painful but it ultimately added to his ability to find a satisfying job. Our work flowed much more easily after that experience. What he'd been through gifted him with a patience and commitment that he hadn't had before.

As we worked together, he realized he had a knack for fixing and repairing things. He liked working with others, as long as he didn't have to supervise them closely. He wanted to do a variety of tasks.

After exploring a number of career alternatives, he decided to go into property management, working for a small company that manages apartments for owners. The process took about 14 months.

He does some repairs himself, but he also leases apartments and does some bookkeeping. Major repairs are done by independent contractors, like plumbers and heating and air conditioning companies. Though he manages them, he doesn't have to supervise them closely. Most of the time he works Monday through Friday, eight to five. Bottom line: He likes his new job very much.

There are many lessons to be learned from Pierce's struggle to find satisfying work:

1. Don't wait until you are desperate to think about changing careers. Start doing the work of finding an alternative while you still have the psychological lead time to be patient about the process.

2. Move toward something you want rather than just fleeing from omething you hate.

3. Resist the temptation to make a change just to relieve the pressure. Look carefully at opportunities to be sure they are improvements.

Pierce found satisfying work. So can most people, given time, effort and a good methodology for making the change.

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.