Career Transition
People often feel that the space between jobs, referred to as a career transition, is a time that you either never want to be in or, if you are, you want to get out of it as quickly as possible. When you think like this, you tend not to make good decisions about your future. You might lose your focus and pursue any job. This usually results in your delaying getting any job. You might be so focused on wanting to do what you have always done that you don’t see that the job market or an industry is not going to be receptive to you any more. These books will help you to understand that the transition period could be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for you to get outside the box and think of new opportunities. I highly recommend the following books:
Managing Transitions, Making the Most of Change by William Bridges, Perseus Books, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1991.
Directed at managers and employees, where change is necessary to revitalize and improve corporate performance, this book addresses the fact that it is people who have to carry out the change. It not only talks about what should be done, but also shows how to do it, giving managers practical ways to bring the people “on board.”
Transitions – Making Sense of Life’s Changes (Second Edition) by William Bridges, Da Capo Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2004.
If you are finding yourself facing unemployment or are currently unemployed and you feel pressure to find your next job as soon as possible, you should read this book. The author describes why you need to leave the past and see the transition period as a “The Neutral Zone” and a time to reassess what you really want your future to look like. The transition time is when a critical and necessary process needs to occur for you to find a new beginning that matches your future expectations. If you view transition time as “dead time” or just getting you from where you are to another job, like walking from one side of the street to the other, this book will help you understand why you need to see it as time you need to adequately prepare for the next chapter in your life.
Who Moved my Cheese? An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life by Spencer Johnson and Kenneth H. Blanchard, Putnam Publishing Group, 1998.
A story using mice and cheese as the parable of something related to our livelihoods – our jobs, our career paths and the industries we work in – although it can stand for anything, from health to relationships. The point of the story is that we have to be alert to changes that affect our life and constantly be open, prepared and receptive to searching for new opportunities.