Comments on: Why I am helping organise the Alt. Career Festival

By: Richard Brownsdon

Richard Brownsdon — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 15:30:09 +0000

Hi Lola,

I’m involved with organising the Alt Career Festival, and I hear what you are saying. We’ll have some career coaches here on the day for one on one sessions, so that you can talk through specific questions. If you arrive early, you can sign up for a 25minute session with one of them.

All the best,
Richard

By: Adele

Adele — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 14:48:33 +0000

Thanks Lola – I’ve passed on your comment to Quentin. He’s away next week but he should see it when he’s back! Thanks again.

By: Lola

Lola — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 21:54:48 +0000

Hi, I am coming to an event. I work in Financial Services, and I’d like to move to doing something more meaningful than selling bank products. I feel that I can and should do more. In the UK, I only worked in Financial Services, so I am not sure what else is out there. I looked at the agenda of the event, it covers adventure, starting own business and moving to charity sector well. How about cross industry move, eg from Finance into Digital or Media, or from Finance into teaching. Is it even possible? How? What should be the next steps? For me, inspiration is there, I need information on what’s possible and available, as well as guidance in terms of the next steps. Thanks and see you on the 15th!

By: Quentin Johns

Quentin Johns — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 17:01:59 +0000

Thanks Adel,

This is really useful! I would also Like to add some context to why a more general shift in the what people are working towards is so important and relevant at the moment by sharing another blog post a meber of ours Karl H Richter wrote http://karlhrichter.wordpress.com/2012/07/19/social-investing-fixing-capitalism-with-capitalism/#more-867

I look forward to seeing lots of people at the event.

Speak soon

By: Adele

Adele — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 11:10:51 +0000

Thanks Quentin! I’m actually prepping right now for an event we’re holding on career change: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/3881052332
Here are some responses I’ve just been reading from the pre-event survey – they might help:

“I want strategies for:
- Working out where my key strengths best fit into the career landscape
- Identifying a good starting point for change
- Exploring different options ‘safely’”

Some pressing questions (these might be too specific for this, but still..):

“1. How to deal with the common issue of being too exhausted and unmotivated during the day at your current job to find the energy to research new areas of work in the evening? How do you know if you can change jobs and what you are suited for?

2. If you really feel lost and have no idea what else you could do (and you have already given it a lot of thought and are panicking about it) what can you do about this?

3. Are contacts in other professions the only way to move around if you don’t want to go in to anything new at a slightly junior level?

4. Where do I start? How do I figure out what the right career is for me?

5. What do I do if I don’t know what I really want to do?

6. What do I do to identify my passions/area I should work in? What can I do with my existing skill-set?

7. How long can the process take?

8. I feel dissatisfied in my career – I don’t feel I am serving any purpose and I think that’s driving the dissatisfaction so I am keen to find out what I need to do to address this. What questions should I be asking myself to help me move forwards?

9. What is your earning potential with a career change? What other factors should you consider when changing careers?

10. Do you have to start at the bottom?