Is your career who you are?
I wonder how many people equate their identity with what they do for a living.
Think about it.
You spend more time working, as an adult anyway, than you do with your family or friends. The hours at work far outweigh time spent on hobbies or activities that you enjoy, that truly feed your soul. It’s no wonder we tend to think of ourselves as what our careers are.
What is the first thing you ask a person you have just met? Hi, so and so, nice to meet you. And what do you do for a living?
It’s like this adult script we have to learn and repeat for social situations.
Now, what happens when you come to a crossroads in your life, and you must rethink your career?
Maybe your job is being outsourced or you are physically unable to perform your job required tasks as you once did or in our new Covid-19 world maybe your job is just gone.
Or maybe, like me, entities that you have always relied on to reimburse your services are changing. That means either you take a pay cut or diminished role (working just as hard as always) or lose your position completely. What happens to your vision of yourself and your future then?
Tips for making a career change
For as long as I can remember my focus has been on the physical body so to speak. Whether it was competing in sports as a child then subsequently coaching; or teaching fitness classes as well as teaching my patients as a Physical Therapist Assistant. I have spent most of my life in that realm.
Recently, as new insurance rules are looming in the coming year, I am faced with either staying in my current job and whatever may come with a new normal.
Alternately, I can leave my career in healthcare. A career that I studied for in college, obtained a degree and then passed a licensing board exam to legally treat patients. Plus continued, required, post graduate learning to renew that license annually. This job that I have held throughout my adulthood has become who I am.
How does one start over after almost 3 decades?
Well, I have been pondering this question since even before the Covid-19 pandemic.
Healthcare has a high rate of burnout because it is so mentally and, in the therapy world, physically taxing. You learn to work under stressful conditions. Providers are constantly having to adapt to changes in our environments.
We must be quick thinking, problem solvers and have acute observational skills. We must deal with every type of person and condition you can imagine and treat them with empathy and compassion.
That is a respectable list of skills and it made me think, they are usable, transferable skills that any employer would want. Maybe transitioning out of healthcare will be easier than previously thought.
Ah, but here is the caveat, minimal experience outside of healthcare. Now you are dealing with job options are more entry level. Plus, you question if you are even capable of stepping outside your comfortable box to begin a new profession at the bottom.
Enter, the existential identity crisis.
I am a therapist! Or nurse or counselor, insert any healthcare professional in that sentence. That is who I am. I do not know how to do anything else. It is what I do! And on and on…
Here is what I have come to realize through this period in my life. This career choice has taught us many worthy skills and abilities, resulted in fulfilling accomplishments and acquired expertise.
The reason why we associate our job with our identity is that our experiences in healthcare have helped shape our character and selfhood.
All experiences do, I suppose.
Those qualities make us who we are, not our jobs. Additionally, those qualities also help make us capable to transition to positions outside of healthcare.
Now, how do we dig ourselves out of our own heads to move forward?
Well, that is probably an assignment for another type of therapist. But what we need to do now is take our healthcare skills and figure out how to use them elsewhere. That is our next task to tackle.
I would like to say I have figured it all out, but I am going through that process as well. What I have done is compiled a list of career change options that appeal to me and cross reference those with my skillset.
I have read tons of articles, joined groups on Facebook and other social media outlets. Following social media pages and groups has been eye opening. First person accounts and real time questions helped me figure out that a couple of my options were not going to be right for me and decided to cross those jobs off my list.
Basically, I have tried to get my hands on any information that might be helpful or offer guidance. Talk to your contacts. Feel out friends and family for connections that might be productive.
Watch promotional videos in your areas of interest on YouTube. Read blogs written by people doing what you might want to do. Exhaust all avenues available to you.
This is a significant life event. Do the work.
These are not simple choices. Especially when we assumed, we would retire from these careers.
Just remember, this is a profession change not a personality change. You will still be you, just without the overbooked patient load and all the endless documentation.
Good luck and be confident that you are employable to someone.
