Alright, let’s pick up the thread on career pivots again

. I’ve written a couple of posts on pivots already. ICYMI, I’ve already covered:

 • How you can dig deep to better understand your values and what truly makes you tick

 • How you can figure out the “must-haves” and “hard no’s” to help shape your job search and guide your interview conversations

 • Figure out what your most important skills are

So far, so good. But what’s next? Fair question, we are getting to the fun bit where you bring it all together.

𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘀, 𝗳𝗶𝗴𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘄𝗲𝗲𝘁 𝘀𝗽𝗼𝘁 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗲𝗻𝘃𝗶𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁, 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘀𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹𝘀, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗲𝗰𝘁. For Venn diagram nerds - no shame, we all have our guilty pleasures - it’s that bit right in the middle!

There are a few ways to do that. I’m exploring a couple of handy tools at the moment that might help. I’ll write about those soon. For now though, let’s go old school. 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗱𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗽𝘆 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹𝘀, 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲𝘀, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗿𝗼𝗹𝗲 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗹𝗮𝗽?

𝗧𝗮𝗽 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗻𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸. Here’s what I suggest:

💡 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗻𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸.

Explain you’re looking to make a career pivot, and ask for 15 minutes of their time to help you think through options

💡 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗩𝗲𝗻𝗻 𝗱𝗶𝗮𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗺 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗶𝗺𝗮𝗴𝗲. (I’m not sure who came up with this originally, it just seems to be roaming the internet at this point…). List your key skills in one circle, with your values, must-haves, hard no’s etc in the second. In the third circle…that’s where your network comes in. Brainstorm together ideas on roles that might fit in the third circle that would hit the sweet spot in the intersection.

💡 𝗔𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵 𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹, 𝗮𝘀𝗸 𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻 “𝗪𝗵𝗶𝗰𝗵 𝟯 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗱𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽 𝗺𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀?” 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝗺𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗯𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘁. For many of us, our network is pretty narrow, it’s mostly people that we’ve worked with. So, often their career trajectory will be similar to yours and you’ll end up with a pretty narrow picture of what your options might be. So, leverage your network to bring in as many diverse opinions as you can.

For another free and fast option, you could always ask your favorite large language model too. That’s it for now. More to come on helpful tools soon.