A hurry-up career change — part 1 of 3

Most people considering a career change give themselves a nice long runway – six months, a year, several years if they’re planning to finish a degree first. There’s something about a long-term plan that inspires confidence, not to mention the pleasure of anticipation. If this kind of career change were a musical piece, it would be classical and soothing, meandering thoughtfully through several movements before gathering joyful intensity at the end.

Uh-huh. So what if you take this classical LP and hold it back on the turntable, D J-style, letting the needle drag across the grooves? That disharmonious clang of chords is probably closer to the music career changers are experiencing right now, with every decision feeling rushed and uncoordinated during our newly-minted COVID-19 work-demic.

That’s the situation for tens of thousands of people nationally whose temporary layoffs from travel, hospitality, media and other industries are now becoming permanent. Some determined souls will find a new spot in the same industry, but for countless others, the most logical move will be a pivot to something new.

Ironically, since this is an unexpected career change for most, the sense of urgency is so acute it’s paralyzing. Of course that doesn’t make sense, but so little does these days. It’s like our fight-or-flight button somehow got stuck in the middle and we’re all flapping our wings furiously while our feet remain locked in quicksand. Not good.

If you must change careers relatively quickly, you’re going to need a plan. And somehow, you need it to be doable while juggling home-schooling or other demands suddenly placed on you by the pandemic.

Hi-ho, Silver, it’s the hurry-up career change to the rescue. Let’s start with the first two steps of six, which you can initiate while waiting for next week’s installment. By the end of three weeks (three columns), you’ll have all the steps in hand and may even have some completed.

Step 1. Update your resume and LinkedIn profile. Normally this would happen deeper into the process, after you feel confident about your new career choice. But when you need to change work in a hurry, you can’t go long without these essential communication tools. Having even a basic version of each will make it easier to respond if an opportunity comes up unexpectedly.

If you know what your next career will be, then do what you can to target your materials in that general direction. For example, a restaurant server heading into banking would emphasize customer service and a talent for numbers, but wouldn’t highlight a knowledge of food and wine.

On the other hand, if you’re not sure yet what your new field will be, focus the top third of your resume (and the summary section of your LinkedIn profile) on broadly transferrable skills such as communication, customer service, staff supervision, etc. Later, as you know more about your goals, you can adjust this summarizing style of resume to better fit your evolving career target.

Timeline for this step: Up to three weeks in a hurryup search process.

Step 2. Narrow your career choice to one, possibly two areas of work. Whoa, that came along fast. Choosing a new career direction often comprises a full three or six months all by itself, based as it is on a combination of self-discovery, research and informational interviews. That’s still the gold standard for career transition, but when you don’t have the time to spare, some parts of this step get a haircut.

Here’s the skinny version: Which occupations have you imagined doing, at any point in your life, for any reason? Write them down, look them up, choose the best one.

If that seems abrupt, give yourself a day to mourn the loss of process, before accepting the fact that you may need to make some compromises in this next chapter of your working life to accommodate the situation you’ve been thrust into.

Depending on your age and how long you intend to work, you may yet have a chance at choosing a career that suits you more closely. But on the other hand, there’s no reason to think that the hurry-up choice won’t be the best you could have made. Some of the most amazing careers seem to be the ones people tumbled into backwards while gazing intently at something else.

Timeline for this step: Four weeks maximum, even if you need a dartboard to do it.

Ready for more? Come back over the next two weeks for the rest of the hurry-up career change process.