So where do I pivot to?

In earlier posts I’ve covered surfacing your values, figuring out your key skills, and then finding your new direction through conversation with your network.

𝗕𝘂𝘁 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝗮 𝗱𝗶𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝗱𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗳𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲?

I’ve just explored a tool called Pigment that can help you do that. Pigment is targeted at knowledge workers with 10+ years in the workforce who are in career transition. One of the underlying principals is that the work you’ll love doing is the work you’re good at. That’s mostly held true for me during my long, pivoty career. So, Pigment focuses on revealing your top skills and then mapping them to potential careers.

It’s an online assessment that takes around 15-20 minutes. Each question gives two possible answers and you have to pick the answer that sounds most like you. Being somewhere in the middle is fine too (it’s a five point scale). For example, the answer choices on one question were:

 1. My friends tell me I’m the life of the party

 2. I need quiet times to recharge my energy

People who know me well would not be shocked which way I went on that…. There are over 100 questions in total. The idea is to move fast and think little.

A couple of hours after completion, you get a lengthy report (36 pages in my case), with plenty of guidance on how to interpret what you see. It’s a pretty thorough exploration and analysis of your strengths, together with potential roles that align with them.

A couple of observations. First, 𝗜 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝗶𝘁 𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗳𝗮𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗴𝘁𝗵𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗮𝗻 𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝘆. In my experience, job seekers often struggle to identify their strengths when they focus on their professional work alone. By bringing in questions on how you like to cook, or how you work on your home, Pigment sidesteps that head on approach somewhat. Second, 𝗜 𝘀𝘂𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝗹𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗿𝗲, 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂'𝗹𝗹 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻. That’s not really a criticism of the tool. I just think if you’re in the later stages of your career you’re less likely to be surprised by any of the findings. You simply have more professional and lived experience!

(𝘍𝘶𝘭𝘭 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘤𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘮 𝘢𝘵 𝘗𝘪𝘨𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘭𝘦𝘵 𝘮𝘦 𝘦𝘷𝘢𝘭𝘶𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘵𝘰𝘰𝘭 for 𝘧𝘳𝘦𝘦. 𝘐’𝘮 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘗𝘪𝘨𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵, 𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘧𝘧𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘪𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘸𝘢𝘺. 𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘐 𝘢𝘮 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘯 𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘤𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘮𝘺 𝘤𝘰𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘤𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴)