How to get lucky in your career change
Do you believe in luck?
I’m not sure I believe that there is a deity of good fortune that dishes out good and bad luck, or even that there is a destined path our lives will follow.
But I do believe we can create conditions where luck seems to work in our favour. Some people call this creating your own luck.
Seneca gives us a clue how we might do this:
‘Luck happens when preparation meets opportunity’
It’s not a matter of sitting back and waiting for good fortune to land in our lap, but actually preparing the ground so that when luck strikes we will be ready to recognize and grab that opportunity!
The underlying premise if of course that we can change the course of our lives by what we believe and how we act – and especially by the choices we make.
So what has luck got to do with changing careers?
1. This thing called luck
What exactly do I mean by ‘luck’?
Researching definitions of luck, these words popped up repeatedly:
fluke
chance
windfall
break
providence
There’s an element of the accidental or the unplanned here - something that happens to you by good fortune, whether or not you deserve it or worked for it. And how exactly we can work to improve our luck - that is the part of the equation I want to look at.
Can we really influence how lucky we are in our career change? I think so, because it’s by being active in a relevant and helpful space that makes a lucky break more likely to come your way.
2. Preparing to make more luck
Chance encounters have been central to each of my three career changes, but if I hadn’t been in the right place at the right time by choice, those chance encounters wouldn’t have taken place.
When I was re-training as a career guidance practitioner in my early 50s I decided to attend a careers conference in Dubai where I lived at the time. My aim was to pick up the latest ideas, understand more about the challenges other practitioners were facing, get a better idea about the career landscape locally, and start building a good network of professionals working in this field. I was able to gather a lot of information and meet some interesting people.
But the biggest success came from a chance encounter in the lift.
I always speak to people in a lift – and I’m so glad I did because I came away with a brilliant new contact who worked in a local university. By the end of the conference we’d had a couple of other conversations and exchanged contact details. The following week she got in touch and invited me in to meet the director of the university. They were about to establish a new career service and wanted to discuss ideas with me.
Yes, I prepared well for this meeting, while also being very aware that I had no experience in careers guidance other than the PG Dip I was about to complete. The following day I was offered the chance to create and manage their new career service. That was the best result for an interview I hadn’t realized I was attending!
So there was definitely an element of luck in securing this new role - the chance encounter in the lift. But a proportion of it was because I had, as Seneca coined it, put in the preparation by committing to a course of study, attending a conference in my new profession, building new contacts, and being open to chance encounters!
And that’s how preparation and opportunity can collide, with very favourable outcomes.
To generate more of this luck for yourself, try any of these:
Meet people in your target role and find out what it’s really like on a daily basis (*my guide on Informational Interviews here)
Research and follow organisations that have a culture, a mission and values that gel with yours
Get involved by volunteering, studying, or working part-time in fields that appeal to you and that you enjoy
Dive deeper into a hobby, a passion, a subject or new idea that really energises and engages you – be active in this world, develop and hone skills
Seek out opportunities to be in the company of people you share values and interests with, who boost your energy and are open to ideas
When you are active and engaged in these spaces, you are preparing the ground, and the chances of a stroke of good luck have just increased.
3. Shaping your experience to make it an easy YES for them
Another way you can increase your chances of achieving the job you want in the organization where you believe you can thrive, is by presenting your experience and achievements in a way that is clearly:
· Credible
· Relevant
· Compelling
Your responsibility when you apply for a new role is to understand what they really need, what the main problems are that your target role will solve, and how YOU can provide the solution they’re looking for.
Even if you have no direct experience in the role, the field or the sector, you can show how your career so far has enabled you to grow, achieve success, and that you will bring the same commitment and enthusiasm to this role.
Collect the most relevant success stories from your work history and link them to the skills required or the goals the role will focus on.
By demonstrating your previous successes, you will be establishing your professional credibility. If your research has led you to a good understanding of the current challenges and ambitions the organization is engaged with and you can link your record of success to these, you will be seen as relevant. When you believe it and make the connections, your story will be compelling.
So how can you join the dots for potential employers?
4. Know yourself & create a compelling career story
Know yourself, know the organization and this role, then bring these two threads together. Show them that you have done your research, that you have a high level of professional self-awareness, and that you are passionate about making a strong contribution to achieving their goals.
When you know your own WHY story and can connect it to theirs, you will automatically feel confident in your ability to do the job well.
So what’s in a WHY story?
1. Your values – what matters most to you
2. Purpose – what gives work meaning for you and motivates you
3. Your strengths – the highly developed skills you love using
If you can link these to the role and the organization in an authentic way, you will be connecting the dots to show that you are a great candidate for the role.
When you can you easily connect:
· your values to theirs
· your purpose to their mission
· your strengths to their problems
- then, you will become a very attractive candidate.
So how do you feel about creating this kind of luck? The chances are, you will already have done just this in your work or life. When you develop skills through training, hang out with people whose interests you share, follow where your energy and flow lead you, you will already be enhancing your chances of luck finding you.
And if you’d like a little help to gain the clarity you need to bring this all together in a coherent plan, just get in touch – I’d love to help you get lucky!