SuperManager: Midlife Job Searching - Are You Happy? (part 1 of 2)

Did you always know what you wanted to do as a career?  So many people realize after several years in a job that they're just not satisfied.  But what does it take to make that leap?

Listen in as our panel discusses how people end up in unsatisfying jobs and what happens in part 1 of this 2 part episode:

Host:
 - Samantha Naes - CN Video Production

Guests
- Tara Gregor - BreakWell
- Kristen Reed-Edens - Kristen Edens LLC
- Vicky Wors - Wors Consulting

Transcript

CN Video Production:   0:02
You're listening to SuperManager, the podcast with a diverse panel of experts discussing what goes on in the office.  And your host, Samantha Naes with CN Video, Your businesses video team on call.

Samantha Naes:   0:15
So welcome back to another SuperManager podcast.  This week, we're talking about midlife job searching, and I have my team of non job searchers with me, we have

Tara Gregor:   0:27
Tara Gregor with BreakWell, a workplace wellbeing resource and partner.

Vicky Wors:   0:31
Vicky Wars Wars Consulting with the Human Resource is consulting for small to midsize organizations

Kristen Edens:   0:39
and Kristen Eden's I'm a content writer for business and also the founder of Managing Midlife of Blog.

Samantha Naes:   0:46
And I am Samantha Naes with CN Video, we do corporate video production. 

Samantha Naes:   0:49
So I did what a lot of people do. When I first started my career, I listened to advice from parents and other people. Kind of fell into my role as, a  software engineer and IT person because I tried it at a company I was working with and was good at it, and so kind of followed that path. And it wasn't until I was in my forties that I got to a point where I kind of took a look at the situation and said, What am I doing here? This is a good job and it pays all the bills, but I don't really enjoy it. I don't look forward to going into work. It's just kind of a job that I took. And what was interesting was I was supposed to be VP director of IT. But I was producing training videos because they wanted me to travel. We would build a system and they'd say, Now, can you travel to a different location and trained people on how to use the system? And so I started making these training videos, and the only thing I looked forward to going into work was making training videos. And so I just decided to take that leap. I just got tired of doing what I was doing. Took that leap, started CN Video to work with other companies doing video production for them, And I think based on my experience, I believe that people eventually in their career it could be sooner or it could be later. They end up where they're supposed to be. Either you get it figured out right up front, right off the bat and you manage your career or you go along, go along, go along. And at some point, you either just kind of work your way into what you're meant to be doing. Or you just decide you don't like what you're doing and you make a complete change. I think a lot of people are later in life making that change.

Tara Gregor:   2:24
Absolutely.  

Vicky Wors:   2:25
They're forced to in many respects, um, back in the 2008 when the bottom dropped out. For a lot of people that dropped out right at a time when people had nice big savings 401K's thought that life was gonna be good. They had a major mortgage. Their kids were doing well, getting ready, getting college or were in college. Bottom drops out, and they have to start tapping their resources  retirements, and it didn't turn around very quickly. Resources were depleted. Foreclosures occurred all over the place. Now you have 5 - 10 years after that fact, and you've got people in that age group that are now not destitute. But if it weren't for Social Security, they'd have nothing.

Samantha Naes:   3:17
I  agree that that time period definitely started something. People kind of realized that you maybe couldn't get settled into something and it would be there forever and ever and ever. But I think there are a lot of people that just take the opportunity when it's given. Just realize that they're not in the right position and just...

Vicky Wors:   3:36
Well, there was this thing with you coming. I jumped before the big problem I've been doing

Samantha Naes:   3:41
I did too.  I lept right before the problem happened

Vicky Wors:   3:44
Right before, and it's like, oh well, thank you very much. But anyway,

Tara Gregor:   3:48
I just started my career right in 2007 is when I got promoted into the middle management position that I had stayed in for a decade. So it was also you're lucky to have a job. You are going to do the job of five people, but that was the grind that you just do until you can't do it anymore.

Samantha Naes:   4:06
well, and the interesting thing about the generation that is now switching jobs midlife is that if you started a job and you've stuck with that job for years and years and years, chances are you're not getting the same pay and benefits as people that are switching up and. It's actually beneficial to change employers periodically...

Vicky Wors:   4:25
well is the promotion aspect. That's kind of fairy tale. Let me give you a title. And so I can give you some money. Okay, Your job didn't change. Nothing changed. And when?

Samantha Naes:   4:36
Well, but I mean a real I mean a real promotion, I mean a real career path. 

Vicky Wors:   4:39
People come out of college and they get a director's title right off the bat. Where are you to go?  

Samantha Naes:   4:46
I don't think...  are people getting titles...  

Vicky Wors:   4:49
If that's what the young people demand. I want the title of director, such and such. Yeah, I'll call you chief poopa in charge of left turns. Okay, I need your skill here, some money, But that is a big thing. So the idea is OK, well, you gave everything away with the title. But the challenge is to keep their wages and salaries along with their benefits competitive, and that people feel good about themselves. Even if they're in a position that they are not getting fulfilled.  Now, that's only gonna last so long. But at least you know, basically meeting the bills and taking care of it. But  

Tara Gregor:   5:33
I'm not happy.  

Vicky Wors:   5:34
you get to a point where am I prostituting myself? And that's a tacky way of putting it. But in reality you're selling your soul because you want the money and you're not. I've done this for so long.

Tara Gregor:   5:46
I cannot do it another day

Vicky Wors:   5:47
I can't do it anymore. I have to be true to myself

Kristen Edens:   5:51
Well on the flip side of that. Let's go back to 10 years ago when most of us were raised to follow that you graduate high school, you go immediately into college. You get that degree and you just keep climbing that corporate ladder. My parents were one continuously do that. So up until 2010 ish earlier we didn't know any other way. And then everything fell apart. And so, for any age group following the what did you call it? The downturn, the economic downturn. When the bottom dropped out,  Following that time period, everybody of any age had to realize I can't count on the traditional... 

Samantha Naes:   6:34
So you think that that is what caused this? You don't think that we had a lot of midlife career changes before the bottom dropped out in 2008?

Kristen Edens:   6:41
We did. But it wasn't, I believe. Yes, I think so. That's what it was accelerated. But prior to that time, I think a majority of people were more stuck in the well, this is what is expected of your  

Vicky Wors:   6:55
10 more years. And I've got I've got so much built in

Kristen Edens:   6:59
a lot of people have not been happy. And so they felt stuck. And then all the sudden 2010 comes around and people are going enough of this crap. I'm gonna do something I can rely on. And that is myself. 

Samantha Naes:   7:11
I used to volunteer it Businesspersons Between Jobs, BBJ, I kind of help people get their linked in profiles and order and do test interviews and things like that. And one thing I noticed is they used to say you should see this as an opportunity. Yes, you've lost your job. You've been there for 20 years. But you should see this is an opportunity for change. You can reinvent yourself. You can figure out what you really want to do. And this is the kick that you need to do it. And I watched as the people who took that advice that said, You know what? I am gonna take some time. I'm gonna get some training. I'm going to think about what I want to do. I'm gonna get some coaching. I'm going to start a whole new career. Those people were in and out. It was the people that came week after week that kept going. It's not fair. It's not fair. I lost my job. It's not fair. What am I going to do?

Samantha Naes:   7:56
And I don't mean to belittle what they were going through because it was a very stressful situation. But they just weren't able to flip that switch and see it as an opportunity. And I think that it's possible that people that were able to see it as an opportunity maybe that carried forward once the crisis was over. People were like, Hey, I can reinvent myself. I could get some training.  I can...

Vicky Wors:   8:15
Well, it was a success. We build upon our successes

Samantha Naes:   8:18
people with that attitude we're successful.

Kristen Edens:   8:21
Additionally, we all grow up with. I want to be X when I grow up.    

Samantha Naes:   0:00
I don't know.  

Kristen Edens:   8:25
I did. I wanted to be a writer. Okay, that now there's this massive gap. I wanted to be a writer when I grew up. I even  

Samantha Naes:   8:34
okay, but wait a second show of hands and I realized that people in podcast can't see us. But how many people at this table as a kid knew what they wanted to be when they grew up?  

Kristen Edens:   8:42
Me.  

Samantha Naes:   8:42
One.  Mine changed so much. There were so many different things. You know, every time I'd see something cool. That's what I wanted to be.

Vicky Wors:   8:50
It's your experience. You've had so many vistas that were opened up to you as a child meld. You had this vista, this vista, and then you get older and you broaden your experience and wow, look,  

Samantha Naes:   9:03
so many choices.  

Vicky Wors:   9:04
Look over here's this dangly thing. You know.

Kristen Edens:   9:07
Well, so continuing  my thought here is all right. Many of us. I won't to say most of us, many of us or some of us, whatever that parameter is, we knew what we or we had an idea. I want to be an X when I grew up. And, yes, it may have changed, but there was something that moved us forward. But like you said earlier, I think before the podcast began is that you wanted to be an X. But loving people guided you to where you are now. So my parents did the same. Yes, Writers. Great but it's not going to make the money, so I pursue something in the sciences. So I eventually ended up with a master's degree in exercise physiology, and it took me 10 years to find a job. And then, in the meantime, and thinking  

Samantha Naes:   9:50
Great advice, mom!  

Kristen Edens:   9:51
Yeah, exactly. So I used that 10 years pursuing a job that didn't exist writing, and then eventually that job came out. I worked it for eight years and realized I rather write, and so it was the same time

Vicky Wors:   10:06
it's you hit on the point there. We all have our personalities, and we have things that we have as I would call interest. We tend to do well in things were interested in.  

Samantha Naes:   10:21
That speaks to what I was saying about. We end up where we're supposed to be because you have interests and you start gravitating towards whatyou like.  

Vicky Wors:   10:29
The assessment tool that I use. The Berkman measures interest, and you could take a Berkman if you could understand the words and what the questions were when you're two years old and you're basically going to get the same thing as you take it as an adult. The idea is that these are your interest? It doesn't necessarily mean it's a strength or anything. It's where you have an interest, and what we're talking about today is the opportunity to follow interestl  You as you describe your background  Sam was I was in this role in IT. I thought it was kind of neat, but I kept wanting to do just certain aspects of it. Your interest were there. It would draw you to that.  I

Samantha Naes:   11:16
No, it was the money that drew me to that.

Vicky Wors:   11:18
I started out in college as going into journalism, but I was told all you're gonna be writing his obits for the Dallas Morning News. So I said, I can't live on that. I wound up in the B school in industrial Well, with these east industrial relations, human resource is, and so I pursued a career, but interesting enough, my strengths in my career are by writing my policies and procedures, writing up disciplinary letters, investigative reports along those lines. So whatever you are in you tend to is an interest start to go in that area, and that's where you find your happy zone.

Samantha Naes:   12:00
At some point, either your employer has to have a position for you. Like if you're navigating towards what you're interested in, they either have to be able to offer you a position. Or you have to find out what kind of training that you need to actually get a job in a different field. You know what are the requirements of this new?

Tara Gregor:   12:19
And I think really good leaders and management. If they know their employees and they know their interests of their employees and their strength, they are looking at how they can groom their employees for that next step. I think that's where the jump happened. 

Samantha Naes:   12:34
Now, see, I wish Bernie (Frazier) was here. because I think a lot of that is the employee being responsible for their own career and what do I want to do? And you really can't count on someone else to notice.

Tara Gregor:   12:45
You can't. But if they're looking at how they can retain their employees, they can also say that they know that they're not going to be content in that position forever, so they can look to see where in this company can they go. What title or promotion or gap in the skill set in our company?  

Samantha Naes:   13:03
I ralize it's the right thing to do. But do you think managers are really they're responsible for managing a department? Do you think they're really being mindful that their priority is? You might be happier in a different department. I'm gonna promote you somewhere else. And now I've got a refill your position. Find somebody that can do the job you've been doing.

Tara Gregor:   13:22
No, not at all.  

Samantha Naes:   13:24
That's why the employee has to

Tara Gregor:   13:26
take some ownership,

Samantha Naes:   13:27
take ownership of their own career.

Vicky Wors:   13:28
as a child

Tara Gregor:   13:30
and have that conversation with them. Right?

Vicky Wors:   13:32
If you're forced to do something that you don't want to do, you don't do it very well. You whine, you

Samantha Naes:   13:38
as a child?  That's  everybody.

Vicky Wors:   13:40
I mean, when we're in our emotional state, the old transactional analysis that you used to get into that when the person is experiencing emotions, it's a childlike response. And so what happens is that they start becoming a problem in the workforce. Rotten apple. Okay, absenteeism, creating sexual harassment or hostile work environment or something. They're not a happy camper. Whatever is going on,

Tara Gregor:   14:09
I think going back to what you were talking about, knowing what you wanted to do as a child. I didn't know what I wanted to do, but I knew how I wanted to feel in a position

Samantha Naes:   14:18
That's true. That is true.  

Tara Gregor:   14:20
I knew what I wanted. I wanted to be a contributor. I want to feel purposeful, who want to feel good about that, surrounded by people in a positive environment. And I guess that is actually what has led me to my second role.  

Samantha Naes:   14:32
Now that's a really good point because you do kind of know how you want to feel. And then the question is, when you've been working the same job for X number of years and you realize that you don't have that feeling regardless of what you're doing, you're just not happy. Then it's time to make that change.

Samantha Naes:   14:48
Does anybody have a horror story about somebody who wasn't in the right job needed to make a career change?  

Samantha Naes:   14:55
I hate to say it, but my dad was something of a horror story, and I didn't know it growing up. I didn't know it until I was an adult. My dad actually got his degree in anthropology and he wanted to explore and he got married and first kid came along and he took a job as a budget analyst for the government because it paid the bills that got us moved into a house. He stayed in that job until the day he retired and hated it was miserable. I mean, he was just a miserable person who hated his job. He ended up being angry with his family because they were the reason he had to work this miserable job that he hated, and he never got to do what he enjoyed doing, and it wasn't until long after he retired. I was having a conversation with him and I told him I was taking a trip somewhere and he said, Oh, I've always wanted to go there You know, my degree was in anthropology and I was like, No, I really had no idea And he's like, Yeah, it's always been my dream to do And then he died, and  he never...

Kristen Edens:   15:49
that's the regret is you don't want to regret, it's better to take the risk and something will come along.

Samantha Naes:   15:55
agreed.

Kristen Edens:   15:57
I didn't want that. I realized things were off for me and I, I did it.

Samantha Naes:   16:03
If you're interested in a company culture video to help you hire the right fit or you're thinking about switching careers and want to do a video resume, contact me at 314-843-3663 That's 314 Video me.

CN Video Production:   16:16
Thanks for listening to SuperManager by CN Video Production Give us a call at 314-843-3663 That's 314 Video me.  Or visit our website at cn-video.com for additional episodes, information or to discuss video services.