Career Constraints - Overcoming barriers to a successful job or career change

What are some of the barriers you have overcome in progressing or changing your career and how did you overcome them?

One of the most important aspects of planning for a career or job change is understanding what your barriers to success are and whether you have the appetite and strategies in place to overcome these.

We all have different priorities at different stages and times in our life and work and sometimes compromises do need to be made. It’s okay to decide that you can’t chase your dream of becoming an environmental scientist right now because you need a degree which you can’t afford the time and money for due to personal and financial constraints.

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As a career coach it’s really important to help my clients understand whether these constraints are real or “perceived and challenge their thinking on perceived barriers. “I don’t have any of the skills and feel like a fraud” just doesn’t cut it for me!

It's important that people take control of their careers and make the decisions that are right for them. Often motivation slows or dries up altogether when unanticipated challenges pop up along the career change journey and these kinds of setbacks can stop us from developing the resilience and tools to get through any future challenges. So identifying, understanding and managing the risks and challenges associated with change are just as important as understanding the experience, skills and personal characteristics you have that will enable you to unlock your potential and achieve your goals Of course career coaching involves both of these things but I do make an effort to identify the barriers early on in my coaching sessions through conversations and tools such as the Career Constraints card sort exercise. That way my clients can make informed decisions on the best way forward and break down barriers with an achievable action plan in place or go with a Plan B if the barriers are insurmountable at the current time #careercoaching #success #career #careerspheres

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I approached Leeanne from Career Spheres when my workplace was going through a restructure 18 months ago and again more recently during a Covid19 related restructure. Each time the company started talking about change I felt a lot of unease and found it hard to think clearly to make the hard decisions like do I take voluntary Redundancy? do I apply for another internal role or leave for another challenge?. After just one session with Leeanne I felt a lot clearer about what options would suit my current situation and after 2 sessions I was able to make a decision and feel confident about it. I have now left my employer and Leeanne is helping with my CV, LinkedIN profile and preparation for upcoming interviews. I find her service invaluable and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend her to others at any kind of career crossroads!

August 2020