Career transition drivers

- Recently, I took a look back at my own career transitions and was really surprised by what I found. Over the last 35 years, I worked for seven different companies, most of the time with Fortune 250 firms. I made one lateral move and I was promoted 12 times and I worked for three industries, starting on Wall Street, moving to a business services firm, and finally, starting my own company in the wellness space. I can still remember what drove me to each one of those transitions, along with what benefited me and what I found challenging at the time. In this lesson, I'm going to share both the beneficial and challenging factors related to career transitions, so you'll be able to list your reasons for considering a professional change. First, the benefits. This is what I enjoyed imagining most when I contemplated making a career move. These include broadening your skillset, making a bigger impact, increasing your salary, reinventing yourself, renewing your enthusiasm for work, aligning with your passion and making new connections. Here with three of the most common ones, which involve broadening your skillset. This is where continuously expanding your professional experiences keeps you relevant in your field and attractive in the marketplace, which can lead to more opportunity and salary increases. Making a bigger impact. When your expertise results in positive outcomes, you feel more motivated and inspire others, and aligning with your passion. When you connect your work with your values and beliefs, you feel more fulfilled and resilient. Of course, there are challenges as well, and it's good to be aware of them before you make a move. This includes the risk and uncertainty that comes with change, the effort it takes to reestablish yourself and the process of adapting to a new professional culture. Here's a real life example to show what can tip the scale to drive big career changes. I valued my 18 years on Wall Street, but the workload toward the end was so relentless, I had no bandwidth to figure out my next move. It was during a planned vacation when I was away from the office that it became clear a change was necessary. In other words, I could see how the benefits of making a change would outweigh the challenges of starting over. Within weeks of returning to the office, I received a call from a former boss and mentor who I loved working with. He shared he recently switched industries and his second in command resigned. We had lunch the following week and he me to join his team, which I did, and went on to lead that global team when he moved on. What drove that successful career transition was the time I took to gain clarity on the benefits and challenges of leaving my established Wall Street career. Now, it's your turn. I invite you to gain some clarity on what's driving you to make your career transition using the Exercise file. Review the list of benefits and challenges I provided, and add some of your own. Then take some time to reflect on the challenges of making a career move and what you'll gain, so you can make empowered decisions.