Amy Lindgren
Second Sunday Series – Editor’s Note: This is the last of 12 columns on making a career change which have appeared the second Sunday of each month, from September through August. Last month’s column discussed interviewing for a career-change position, while the months before focused on launching your job search; networking; getting experience in your new career; LinkedIn for career-changers; resume strategies; the back-to-school decision; career-change steps in your 60s; 10 ideas for choosing a new career; a sample timeline; and questions to consider when changing careers.
And here we are, in the twelfth of our 12-part series on changing careers. Although life doesn’t generally follow a process manual, it’s just possible that a person could have begun reading this series a year ago and now be in the position of starting work in a new career.
Imagining that person is you, congratulations! It’s quite an accomplishment to dream something up and then find yourself living that dream not long after. Now it’s time for the last set of instructions in the manual: Setting yourself up for success in your new career.
Following are five areas that will need your attention as you move forward.
1. Getting started. It’s easy to imagine that someone else will take charge of “onboarding” you – that’s the word for helping a new hire get acclimated in their position. The problem is that some companies don’t have an onboarding process, other than giving you a tour and introducing you to the team.
You’ve worked hard to get to this point, so now is not the time to let things slip. As part of your self-designed onboarding process, try to incorporate these steps:
— Come to work in person, if possible, even if the job can be done from home. You’ll acclimate faster by mingling with colleagues and asking for help in real time.
— Find a mentor, formal or informal. Having a guide is good for any new employee but especially so for career-changers.
— Be a joiner. By the end of six months, try to identify a committee or team to be part of. This will help you build connections while gaining incidental learning on the job.
2. Preparing for reviews. Depending on the organization, you may find that your first formal review is six or 12 months from your hire date. That’s too long to wait! Career-changers need early and frequent doses of feedback to confirm they’re on the right track.
Instead of relying on the default process, take this two-track approach: On track one, ask your supervisor to meet briefly for feedback on a weekly or monthly basis (depending on the situation) for the first quarter or two. Cutting back the frequency after that should be fine.
Then, on the second track, anticipate your formal review by writing down what you’ve been learning and doing. Be sure to note your successes, since it’s easy for early wins to get “over-written” as the job gets more intense.
3. Building new connections. In addition to joining internal committees or work teams, career-changers also benefit from building external contacts in their new vocation. By joining a professional association or monitoring a LinkedIn group, for example, you can gain a broader understanding of your field and keep up with developments that could strengthen your work performance.
4. Maintaining past connections. Starting a new job can be a very intense experience, making it easy to leave loose ends dangling from your job search process. One way to keep this from happening is to set a reminder for two months after your start date to re-connect with those who helped in your journey. That’s early enough for the news to still be fresh, but far enough into the new job that you can be specific about how things are going.
5. Moving forward. Remember that you didn’t go to all the effort of changing careers just to get stuck in a new rut someplace. Now’s the time to create a goal list for yourself, naming the milestones you want to reach in the next two or three years.
Then, commit those items to your calendar, with a backwards cascade of steps to ensure they get done. For example, if you want to learn a particular skill, you might need cross-training or an outside class – when can you start on that?
Good job, career-changer. Whether you’ve been taking steps to find your new path over the last year, or you plan to make that leap soon, there’s an exciting adventure ahead of you.
Amy Lindgren owns a career consulting firm in St. Paul. She can be reached at alindgren@prototypecareerservice.com.
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