Photo by Sheila Janssen
3 Skills to Pivot in your Career – by Arnie Wohlgemut
Statistics tell us that we change jobs and position several times throughout our career. A person may change careers 5-7 times during their working life and may change employment even more frequently.
For some, an internal transfer may be considered a change, while others would only consider a jump to a new company. A promotion or internal occupational change may be a career change for some workers, but others may define it differently. No matter how you define a change, the reasons generally fall into three categories –
Economic
• Money, better benefits and perks
• Reorganization or outsourcing of job function
• Layoff due to duplication of their job resulting from a merger or acquisition
• Redundancy/business closure or working in a diminishing industry
Work environment or culture
• Lack of career advancement opportunities
• Better alignment between personal values and organizational priorities
• Choosing a less stressful job
• Skills and natural abilities didn’t fit the job
Personal
• Lack of recognition for accomplishments
• Desiring more interesting or meaningful work
• Realignment of personal/spiritual values
• Dislike of the organizational culture or escaping an incompetent or negative boss
“A person may change careers 5-7 times during their working life and may change employment even more frequently!”
To future proof your career, you need to be willing and able to pivot when the opportunity or need arises.
What are the 3 skills needed to pivot effectively?
1. Be able to build skills faster than others. Those that successfully pivot to a new position inevitably are fast learners and have a higher learning curve.
2. Know how your skills are transferrable, even if it’s not obvious. A friend of mine once said, she would never hesitate to consider hiring a person with restaurant serving experience, even if the job wasn’t a direct correlation, because of the multitude of skills you learn in that job
3. Be a high skilled performer. Those that are successful in pivoting to a new job or career have a record of being highly effective and useful to an organization.
Career coach Karen Schmidt writes “Your pivot could allow you to stay with your current employer and simply move to a different part of the organization. Once you learn the skills of pivoting you can use them again and again as you need them.”
How are your pivot skills? Be ready, change is inevitable. If you need help, don’t hesitate to contact me.
You must be logged in to post a comment.