Welcome to Sridhar’s newsletter number # 9. Appreciate you being here, so we can connect weekly on interesting topics. Add your email id here to get this directly to your inbox (https://sridhargarikipati.substack.com).
This week let’s talk about Career Purpose, Career relaunch, Career breaks & Late Career. Entirely different topics but way too related. The reason to talk about it is, irrespective in which state we are, one is stumbled at the beginning stage of the career looking for their purpose or post working more than a decade realizes that their current career is not as fulfilling as they initially thought. For the latter case where people switch careers post a decade to their life-calling job which can be related to same field or altogether a different field. As an example, we have seen IT Professionals turning into singing career or becoming a stand-up comedian. This latter case where one is moving in to different industry is something we have to learn there, say even one is starting late career that is looking for their first job at age of 35 or 40. For that person it’s their first job they are looking out & for the person who is moving entirely too different industry is their career re-launch, the circumstances are same. So there are common points for late career folks to learn from career re-launching folks.
Having a purpose early in career is not so easy to many. I have seen a teenager in senior year (12th Grade) want to know what to do next, what specialization she has to select while filling out college applications. Here we are adults or myself, didn’t knew exactly what I wanted to be and then got into a career where I stepped in and thought as I’m in I should give it my best shot. Most of us will have a thought of doing something else, for few it’s just within first 2 years of work or for few a decade later. So it’s Okay not to have purpose clearly defined when we begin the career, as people end up changing careers or doing completely different in same career with different role. Sometimes you need to get knocked down even before you know what is that you are fighting for. So take the time to figure it out.
Before we talk about Career re-launch, we need to talk about career break. We are not talking about moving from one job to another job in same profile as you are in, even when you are taking a higher position in same work-line. Re-launching is something moving from one industry to another industry, so it doesn’t happens overnight. While one is in current career to move to another career requires lot of extended hours. Such work hours will not work for all, so career break will come into picture. That break will be used to prep one to move to next chapter of career.
Taking career break scares many of us. We are talking about breaks which are more than year specially. Not the break of maternity leave like say 4-6 months, as in such case all your network will know your expected return date, your field of career won’t be changed that much as you will come back to the job. These are the breaks which we take for family care reason or trying to work on new venture. So whatever the reason of taking the break, for career re-launch one has to spend some effort in learning the new required skills for the job by going back to school or online learning or volunteering in those job field to know more about it. As for that new industry one will be fresher.
During the times of Covid-19 especially women are taking breaks for taking care of family. At least with my generation or people with my mindset, I don’t see this a gender specific but yes I agree as society is not changed much, its women who are majorly impacted and goes through career breaks compared to men. So if you take an example of same gender couples, than both women couple or men couple raising a baby or supporting their old parents will end up in same situation as men-women couple.
So Irrespective of which gender making the choice of career break, every family needs to have conversation of roles clearly. This is true for same gender couple as well. If there is clear bread winner in the family, than conversation is easier, but sometimes irrespective of work we do is a bread winner for the family or not, work defines an identity for who we are. So losing an identity is not easy discussion, these are most vulnerable discussions as husband and wife should have with each other. As a family have to decide who will be primary financial care taker & who will be primary family care. I’m not saying just because one is working will have less tasks to take care of family. Not every family will have case of only 1 person working, with financial market dropped in 2008 and now Covid-19 situation , especially for millennial generation it has biggest impact for where they are in career Or financial independent state (Retirement ) compared to prior generation. So in such cases both partners need to work. This conversation has not changed in many decades. It’s not the problem with men, maybe it’s the system. Contributions towards career or contributions towards family should be equal, this is way easier to say but it is very hard discussion as a couple should have when talking about career break.
Okay coming back to our topic of career re-launch. I just derailed above as mentioned career break will happen as we move to next chapter. Also I wanted to talk about career break in much detail, as it’s not easier decision to take. Personal finance is something which I push a lot in my talks, so every couple irrespective if both are working or not, knowing how well as a family they can attain financial freedom, as it’s for family. This is more important than ever as one will be taking career break, if second partner is not working, this is where those emergency funds will come for help. While one is figuring out for their next step, those emergency funds will give them buffer to try out more free hand rather than jumping back to old career again.
Just as college student steps into job market first and slowly builds the experience. The same is needed for the Adult making their career re-launch.
Going back to school for specific field to learn about it is the first choice to be taken. In case like IT, one can choose for online learning and work on building up skills from their home is also possible.
Job Volunteering is also one best way to get understanding about new work, as hands-on working will give push to learn faster and make those learnt skills to work
Networking is must. Be in contact with people of your new industry or make new contact if you are entirely new. LinkedIn is great platform to follow influencers of your choice of work-line, follow them, learn from them and do connect with them. At first it will be odd to talk to unknown person, work is common ground. So make an effort so other person will step up as a mentor to help out. The reason I say this one is must is because the person currently performing the work will be best person to guide, rather than following what’s on internet.
All in all, become a subject matter expert. As once you have substance it will give your self a self-confidence. Which will help to perform great at volunteer job and turn that into full time job or it will help in networking as it will give confidence for your mentor as well to see you as potential candidate and they can refer you to jobs
This requires lot of dedication, commitment and self-motivation throughout the process. Just trust the process and keep working on it, you will get to your results. This has not just said by many rather proven by many. Prior experiences adds lot of weight when we move into any industry, so make best utilization of your multiple skills of prior job and current job to maximize to scale up quickly.
Coming back to Career break, this is specially the case for women who have taken break of more than 10 years. People who are working through out their work life, even for career re launchers it is a way big gap and also one needs to work on ageism issue in workplace. This is also proven by many and in Late Career category of people, 10 years gap is just a number and its pretty normal in such circles. As you never know taking care of kids how first few years will roll over into 10 years. Once a women at workplace asked me about effort to raise a baby, I replied back saying now that I have my own kid and seeing my own work style & what my wife goes through at home are not at all same. Raising a baby at home requires a lot more effort than the effort we spend at workplace. Also 10 years gap changes a lot as industry moves on. The Skills which we have used decade ago may be irrelevant after a decade. This is true in many industries. So why am I talking about such long career break is because people who start their career late will often face same challenges as career re-launchers. I have seen many examples especially in Indian society where many women have regrets for not taking up work outside of home.
A 65 year old women still regrets for not taking up that nurse job she got during her 20’s. She has raised a beautiful family and had fun ride, but still she has this regret somewhere in her heart for not taking up that work flight.
Or a young women who got married and chosen to be home maker initially, but after a decade of marriage think of going to workplace and it scares a hell out of her. As she has never worked before
Or a young men who really didn’t taken career seriously all their 20’s. Might have worked some irrelevant jobs or were just hanging around working mom-dad.
All these examples have one common regret for not getting into workplace right after college or scared for not having any work experiences at their age now. The reason why I’m talking about such cases is, its lot common in Indian society & rather than having regret at age of 65, people at age of 30 or 35 or even 45 can make a comeback. This is the reason why I used a career relaunch example of entirely different industry is to talk about late career. The circumstances are same for people making late career as for career re-launcher as they are getting into industry where they are also a fresher. So use the same notes we discussed above going back to school, learning new skills etc. It is very important to gain skills and be a subject matter expert. So that knowledge will help in long run always and put yourself a potential candidate along with people who are in same career path.
As seen many aspects are same in these different stages of career where one is. There is something to learn from every stage to apply to our current stage. That’s for this week, we will talk in more detail in my podcast and will sure come back to career related topics as requested by few of you.
Also I have been sharing my writings over email, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and WhatsApp. There have been many visitors to my site but very few subscribers compared to views (Oh I use free Google Analytics & Apple Podcast Analytics beta to track site visits. Don’t worry I only know from which country one is visiting or from which platform they are coming here), So last week I just shared my 2 sketch notes over my office writing event and Bingo it got picked up in winners list. Just sharing the news as it gives happiness to get recognized for the work that too it was outside of this site networking and more over for me real happiness is when my tiny thought, viewpoint or ideas reaches to you and it make you think or help in anyway, That is all i need.
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