Passion - Proficiency - Profit

   Career coaches often assess their clients on the Three Ps. Passion, Proficiency and Profit. What do you love doing? What do you excel at? What will the market pay for? Often clients tell me that they’ve been doing something for over twenty years and they don’t have any passion for it. In fact they hate what they do! They do it because it paid the bills. Often they say they would have liked to change jobs, but they had a pair of golden handcuffs – meaning they needed to make a certain salary to pay all the bills. 

The 3Ps

   Changing careers or industries requires some serious investigation. Begin with what is your passion: associated with this is assessing where your talents lie. If you are artistic and have been working in an accounting job that doesn’t allow any artistic expression, what did you do? Maybe you took pottery classes to fulfill your talent. But now you’d like a job that allowed you to express yourself, however, you’ve not seen a lot of job postings citing pottery and clay molding skills; so what do you do? 


   Look at all your talents, strengths and passions, and list them. Then what are all the things you are good at? List your proficiencies. What are all the jobs you can do? List the jobs that will pay you a salary that will meet your fundamental need. If we were to set these lists into a Venn diagram, the intersection of the three would point to your target career.


   Changing careers may require a drop in pay or some additional education or training. But if you’ve recently been let go from your job, it’s a good time to assess all your opportunities. Many clients report that changing careers regardless of the salary was the best thing that ever happened to them. Why? Because the three Ps were aligned in their new career. They loved what they were doing and their salary was enough to meet their needs. Lastly these folks also report a decrease in stress and anxiety at the office and at home. 


   Once you know what you would enjoy doing and know that you’d be good at it... there is another world of jobs and opportunities open to you. 

Career Changers: Consider Temp to Perm

   Career changing is difficult for those of us who have done the same thing for a long time. Recently, a friend pondered that the reason we don’t like change is because we lose the illusion that we are in control. Things are new and we don’t know our way around. This causes anxiety and stress. Changing jobs, especially careers, is indeed very stressful. Even if we hate what we are doing or have been released from our previous job, making a career change does not make most people’s top ten list of  favorite things to do.

   Put your toe in the water first before you jump into the deep end of the pool. Many companies do this. They hire people on a temporary basis and then evaluate them before offering them a full time position. The same can work for the career changer.

   As a temp, you may realize that you love the work but not the company. This is another plus for the Temp to Perm argument of career changing. You’ll quickly learn the company culture and values. If it is not a fit for you,  you’re building experience while keeping your eyes open for a better opportunity at a better company.

   The difficulty for some people is taking a lower pay as they break into a new career. Starting out as a temp can mitigate this risk. I have found that salary is more important if people don’t like or enjoy their work.  In other words, if people love what they do and who they do it with, their salary is never a problem as long as their basic expenses are covered. By starting out as a temp, the career changer can evaluate their appreciation of the job and get a feeling if they can make the salary  work in their lives.

   Finally as a temp, age, gender or other so-called limitations (excuses for not hiring a qualified candidate) go away. When employers see that your transferable skills are what make you stand out over less experienced candidates, the “limitations’ fall to the wayside. Remember that those conditions are only there because they don’t know the true value you present by looking at a resume. A real person with a positive attitude, who is producing and solving problems leaves little doubt to their ability to aid in the company’s success.

   If your pondering a change in careers think seriously about starting in a temporary job and growing from there. It’s like a long interview where you can prove yourself and evaluate the career and company at the same time. It has worked for many career changers and it can work for you.