I last worked in professional services marketing six years ago, and I don’t miss it one bit. I love the work I do now. I use my best skills, I find it interesting and want to keep learning, I see opportunities for growth, and I work with amazing people. It’s also flexible. I’ve even learned to live with the pay cut!
I’m so happy but sometimes I scare myself by thinking about what my life would be like if I still lived in London. Because deep down I’m not sure that I ever would have changed career if I’d stayed there.
Back in London I was surrounded by friends who also disliked their jobs but would never have dreamt of doing anything else. Many of them were from working class backgrounds like me and enjoying the financial trappings of a job in the city of London. You worked to live, not live to work. They were somehow able to compartmentalise work in a way that I couldn’t.
My ex-boyfriend was one of those people and, with him, I found myself buying a property at the age of 25! I was trapped. Every now and then I would go through wobbles. I once even quit my job without having one to go to, everyone thought I was mad. But I never quite summoned the confidence or courage to really strike out from my peers. Part of the problem was that I didn’t know any different.
Even when I quit that job, I lacked the confidence and know-how to be creative in thinking about my next job. The only thing I could think of was to continue doing marketing but for a charity. After 3 months of fruitless job searching my mortgage break ran out and I went back to professional services marketing.
It all began to change when that relationship fell apart and I moved to Australia.
I was still slogging away in professional services marketing (my visa depended on it) but I found myself building new networks of people. People who were making money in all sorts of interesting ways and some of them loved their jobs. This opened my eyes to a new way of being.
I also felt so much freer living on the other side of the world from everyone who had known me forever. It wasn’t so much a reinvention but more an ability to be myself. Internally I started accepting that I was an introvert who liked to help others and that was fine. I began to see that maybe the environment I was working in didn’t suit me. Before that I thought I was the problem. That I wasn’t enough.
My career change didn’t happen overnight and, if anything, I probably hit rock bottom in Sydney working longer hours than I’d ever worked in London. But I began to feel like it might be possible.
As I’ve said before, having my kids was the catalyst for finally changing career. We left Sydney and built a life in Thirroul where we had more financial freedom for me to drop my income. I would never have made an equivalent move back in London. I thought about it lots, but I never had the strength to voice it. In the UK I couldn’t conceive of living anywhere other than East London.
So, what am I trying to say here, that you must move overseas to be able to move career?
Hell no!
But I do think that there are a lot of similarities between changing career and changing countries. The skills and mindsets required for success are similar.
Things like …
Broaden your horizons
When I moved to Australia I started moving in different circles. Back home I tended to hang out with the same people I’d always done. I didn’t think that I needed to make new friends.
You can do this without moving countries though. You can join new groups – they don’t even have to be career related. It could be a local fitness group or crafting group.
This will help to broaden your perspective; it will introduce you to people who might help with your career change later and will give you confidence in talking about who you are to new people. A skill you’ll have to develop to change career.
Get out of your comfort zone
Moving to Australia made me step out of my comfort zone in a massive way. I had to understand a whole new culture, both at work and outside of work. I was homesick and I didn’t know how anything worked. But when I look back it was amazing!
And it gave me so much belief in myself because I did it all on my own.
Again, you don’t have to move overseas to do this. Sometimes it’s doing the things that secretly scare you. If you hate public speaking, join toastmasters. Volunteer for a project at work that scares and excites you at the same time.
Again, this will build your confidence and your self-belief. You’ll need these qualities in bucket loads to change career.
Be yourself
Sometimes it makes me sad that for a long time I couldn’t be myself and I don’t know if it’s a London thing or an age thing.
When I moved to Australia, I found myself being more honest about who I am and who I’m not. And in the early days I probably spent a lot more time on my own, getting to know myself, than I did back in London. I know a lot of expats who say the same thing.
But you don’t have to move to the other side of the world to be yourself. You do have to be brave though. And if you don’t know yourself all that well, then spend time in reflection. Take personality tests (like 16 Personalities) or journal about your strengths, weaknesses, likes and dislikes.
Open your mind
When I moved to Australia, I didn’t have a plan. As a migrant it’s hard to plan. You don’t know how long you’ll have your visa for, whether you’ll get permanent residency or if you’ll even want to stay. In some ways it’s scary but in other ways it’s liberating because you can’t think much more than 2 or 3 years ahead.
But back in London I always had a plan. Where I grew up money was scarce and risk taking wasn’t encouraged. I remember writing my 10-year plan when I was 25 (I didn’t achieve one thing on that list and I’m so bloody glad that I didn’t).
To change career successfully you need to have that same kind of curiosity and openness that a migrant might have. You need to get comfortable with uncertainty.
I’m glad I moved to Australia for so many reasons, my career change is just one of them. But you don’t need to move overseas to change your career. You don’t even need to move to the coast, like I did from Sydney. But you do need to develop those mindsets and skills that migrants often have – open-mindedness, getting out of your comfort zone, broadening your horizons and being yourself.
Now I’m off to the beach.