Curiosity and hard work: the keys to meaningful career change in an era of instant gratification

Career change is not a quick fix but a journey of curiosity and possibility

We live in an era of instant gratification. Crash dieting, hitting the credit cards and basking in the glow of social media “likes” to name a few. Uplifting in the moment, but transient in reality.

Seeking a quick fix is also finding its way into career change and career pivoting. Many a coach in recent years who has been asked “to tell me what I can do”, or “to find me a career that fits my skills and experience”.  For me, long-lasting and meaningful career change, comes from the twin drivers of hard graft and curiosity. Chance and happenstance play their parts but it’s also being open to doing the work that renders the best results.

In their seminal respective books Outliers: The Story of Success, and Bounce: The Myth of Talent and the Power of Practice. Malcolm Gladwell and Matthew Syed, argue that focused and deliberate practice is how we achieve success.  For former Olympian Syed, sporting talent is important but training more essential to becoming top of your game, and Gladwell posited it takes 10,000 hours of hard work to become an expert.

Employing effort and curiosity to change career might feel alien, especially when we are used to getting quick responses from our line managers and immediate answers off the internet.

Try slowing down, reflecting, adopting an enquiring mindset and seeing what happens.  As Leo Tolstoy wrote in War and Peace, “ Patience and time are my warriors, my champions”.

It’s a busy business changing career. To do it we need:  to look inside and deconstruct ourselves and what makes us tick. To break down what we like and can no longer stomach from our jobs. To interrogate our changing values.  To talk to people who have careers that sound interesting. To work shadow or volunteer in a different field.  To accept the unpredictability, curve ball nature of life. To appreciate that inspiration might not be immediate but instead, bubble to the top when we’re not looking. To recognise we don’t know the answers but there’s always someone out there to ask. To be open to learning new things to rebrand ourselves. To be interested in everything, be mindful of what we’re naturally drawn to, and possibly a bit scared by.

Clues to a new direction are everywhere, both internally and externally.