Escape the Mid-Career Doldrums E-Book

Marcia L. Worthing

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 317

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Beschreibung

Whether you're bored, burned out, retired, or fired, Escape the Mid-Career Doldrums offers solutions, ideas, and practical tools for shaking up your professional life for the better. Based on real case studies, this smart and practical career guide will help you discover the causes of your professional problems and give you the inspiration and confidence to take action and seize new opportunities. This is the perfect prescription for a new and exciting professional life.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Introduction

OUR MID-CAREER MISSTEPS AND EPIPHANIES

MARCIA

CHARLEY

GETTING PAST THE DOLDRUMS

AN EXAMPLE OF A GREAT MID-CAREER DOLDRUM ESCAPE

THE MORAL OF THE STORY…

Chapter 1 - The Changing World of the Mid-Career Professional

SIX CHALLENGING TRENDS

STUCK IN THE DOLDRUMS

AN ASSESSMENT TOOL

GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF THE PARADIGMS

HOW TO PREVENT YOUR CAREER FROM BEING SIDETRACKED BY YOUR “CHANGE REACTION”

Chapter 2 - Your Career Is in a Turnaround: A Great Environment for Fresh ...

A NEW WAY TO CAPITALIZE ON YOUR SKILLS

PROFITING FROM THE NOT-FOR-PROFIT MOVEMENT

FLEXTIME, PART-TIME, ANY TIME: MORE STYLES TO SUIT YOUR NEEDS

EMERGING TRENDS, EMERGING JOBS

THE IMPORTANCE OF REEDUCATION

CROSSING BOUNDARIES, EXPLORING NEW OPTIONS

ASK YOURSELF IF YOU’RE BEING OPPORTUNISTIC

Chapter 3 - What You Do Next Doesn’t Depend on What You Did Before: Moving Past ...

MYTH #1: I DID SOMETHING WRONG, AND THAT’S WHY I LOST MY JOB

MYTH #2: AT AGE 65, IT’S TIME TO RETIRE

MYTH #3: IT MATTERS WHAT PEOPLE THINK

MYTH #4: NO ONE HIRES PEOPLE MY AGE

MYTH #5: I’VE HAD MY CAREER, I CAN’T HAVE ANOTHER ONE

MYTH #6: CORPORATE SKILLS DON’T TRANSLATE TO ENTREPRENEURIAL OR NOT-FOR-PROFIT VENTURES

MYTH # 7: CAREER SUCCESS CAN ONLY BE DEFINED ONE WAY

Chapter 4 - Assess the Underlying Cause of Your Boredom, Burnout, Retirement, ...

STUCK IN THE TUBB

BORED: WHY HAVE YOU LOST INTEREST?

BURNED OUT: WHY ARE YOU FEELING STRESSED, ENERVATED, AND EMPTY?

RETIRED: WHY ARE YOU VOLUNTEERING TO LEAVE THE WORKFORCE?

FIRED: WHAT WAS THE REAL REASON YOU WERE LET GO?

OPPORTUNITIES AND OPTIONS

Chapter 5 - Use the Cause to Find the Cure

THE CURES FOR BOREDOM

THE CURES FOR BEING BURNED OUT

CURE FOR BEING UNHAPPILY RETIRED

CURES FOR BEING FIRED

RE-CAREERING: HOW TO MAKE A FRESH START

CHALLENGING CHANGES: TWO PEOPLE WHO MADE THE SWITCH

Chapter 6 - Open Yourself to the New World of Work and Emerging Opportunities

DESIGNING A NEW CAREER

SIX INCREDIBLE OPPORTUNITIES

FIVE BARRIERS THAT OPPORTUNITIES HIDE BEHIND

USE YOUR ROLODEX, RESILIENCE, AND OTHER MID-CAREER RESOURCES

DEGREE OF DIFFICULTY: RECOGNIZE THAT SOME TRANSITIONS ARE EASIER TO MAKE THAN OTHERS

Chapter 7 - Enter Your Discomfort Zone: Transitioning to a New Way of Working

BE AWARE OF THE STAGES OF DISCOMFORT

SURVEYING A NEW LANDSCAPE

WIDEN YOUR COMFORT ZONE

LET DISCOMFORT BE YOUR GUIDE: LEE’S STORY

SPECIFIC SOLUTIONS FOR SPECIFIC FORMS OF DISCOMFORT

FORGE A NEW IDENTITY

Chapter 8 - Monitor Your Progress: Signs that You’re Going in a Great New Direction

MULTIPLE MEASURES

THE COMMON SIGNS OF BEING ON THE RIGHT AND WRONG PATHS

TO YOUR OWN SELF BE TRUE: BE ALERT FOR BAD FITS

ARE YOU ON THE RIGHT TRACK; CAN YOU ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS?

Chapter 9 - What Next: A New 30-Year Plan

THE R WORD: REPLACING RETIREMENT WITH RENEWAL

THE MORE CONNECTED YOU ARE, THE BETTER YOUR NEXT 30 YEARS WILL BE

PREPARE FOR EVOLUTION: CHALLENGING CHOICES AS YOU CHANGE

IF YOU NEED HELP DOWN THE ROAD . . .

THRIVING IN CHANGING TIMES: HOW TO ROLL WITH THE PUNCHES AND MAKE THE MOST OF OPPORTUNITIES

Appendix 1 - Financial Issues to Consider When Changing Jobs or Careers

Appendix 2 - 13 Step Networking Process

Appendix 3 - Business Plan Outline

Appendix 4 - Employment Opportunities on the Internet

Index

Copyright © 2008 by Marcia L.Worthing and Charles A. Buck. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Worthing, Marcia L., 1943-

Escape the mid-career doldrums : what to do next when you’re bored, burned out, retired or fired / Marcia Worthing, Charles A. Buck.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-0-470-11515-2 (pbk.)

1. Career changes. 2. Vocational guidance. 3. Mid-career. 4. Occupational mobility. I. Buck, Charles A., 1942- II. Title.

HF5384.W67 2008

650.14—dc22

2007021313

This book is dedicated to Ronald M. Foster, Jr.

Acknowledgments

We wish to acknowledge the guidance we have received from Bruce Wexler. He has been wise and patient and has taught us a great deal about the business of writing a book. Thanks also to our editor Laurie Harting and the group at Wiley for believing in the project and for encouraging us along the way. All of the people at Mullin & Associates, starting with Keith Mullin, deserve a special thank you--for being good friends and for providing an excellent environment for practicing the art of coaching.

Personal notes from Marcia…

Charley and I have dedicated this book to Ron Foster, my late husband, who was my greatest supporter over the years and who celebrated life everyday he lived. Thank you to my wonderful family--my children, stepchildren, brothers, sisters, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, and all of their families. Special thanks to Chris and Geoff, who have been there every step of the way this past year. And then there are my amazing friends--you know who you are! Thank you!

Personal notes from Charley…

I especially want to thank my partner, John Murtha, for the support, enthusiasm, encouragement, patience and sound advice he has provided for this project and everything else for almost a quarter century.

This book could not have come to fruition without the interest, information and support of many including: Jason Arbuckle, Mark Arena, John Beardsley, Eli Boyajian, Judy Casey, John DeRemigis, Susan Dunrovich, Tom Fallon, Clayton Fisher, Kim Forster, Tom Forster, Joe Harney, Ron Hatcher, Richard Hersh, Patricia Houtz, Gary Karel, Tony Manning, RuthAnn Marshall, Clay Railey, and Patricia Slingluff.

Finally, both of us want to thank all of the wonderful people who we have had the privilege of coaching over the years. We have learned as much from them as they could possibly have learned from us. They have contributed to our learning the key to coaching: to ask questions and listen carefully. People know the answer to whatever is on their minds--from facing burnout to being fired. The job of a coach is to help bring out the knowledge that is inside. Being able to support people in their journeys to discover truth from within is what brings us pleasure and what motivated us to write this book. Some of their amazing stories are told in the chapters that follow. We have changed some of the names and circumstances, but the stories are based on real people and real circumstances. A special thanks to all of the people in the stories who have brought us joy and been the reason we loved going to work every day.

Introduction

While many career books exist, few focus on the challenges and opportunities facing mid-career professionals today. Given the number of mid-careerists in the workforce and their growing need for advice, we decided to embark on this project. We are excited about the possibilities for people who have been working for 20 or more years, and we want to share what we’ve learned about how to capitalize on these possibilities—how to exit from jobs, careers, retirement, or workstyles that have gone stale and find fresh and fulfilling options.

This book evolved, as many things do, over lunch. We have known and worked with each other for years in New York City, and one day about a year and a half ago over lunch, we began talking about a phenomenon we had both observed: Many of the professionals we were seeing in our coaching practices were unhappy with or unmotivated by their work; however, some of them had seized opportunities, revived their careers, or reinvented their professional lives. Why had this latter group thrived while the former group was struggling? The more we talked about the individuals we were counseling, the more we realized that we were on to something.

Both of us worked with a lot of people who had been fired from jobs (often as part of a corporate downsizing) or who were unhappily retired. We also had numerous clients who were bored or burned out by their jobs and careers. And, we noted the existence of many permutations of a condition we started calling Bored, Burned out, Retired, or Fired (BBRF). Some of our clients were bored by a job they had been doing too long, and their lack of interest caused them to be fired. Others burned out from the high stress level in their workplace, and they chose to retire prematurely. Still others continued to work at jobs that bored them or caused them to be stressed out, yet they didn’t look at other options because they were gripped by inertia.