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Do You Have a Plan B for Your Career [Updated]

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Do You Have a Plan B for Your Career?

Plan BYou have probably been told that you should have a Plan B. What if something does not work out?

How about having a Plan B for your career?

I entered the job market in the 1970s when I expected to work for one employer for most of my career. Well, that lasted 22 years and I have had six in the last 18 years. Most of those transitions were planned, which means I planned very well, or that I was lucky!

Every move I made was my choice. I was only laid off once and I volunteered for that one.

Did I always have a Plan B? I had several career failures but I recovered from all of them. It was always better to have a Plan B.

What should you be prepared for?

Cyclical Professions

In my most recent past, I have been involved in the two very cyclical professions:

  • Recruiting
  • Learning and Development (Training)

Recruiters are the first hired when the economy picks up AND the first to be let go when the economy slows down. It is great to be a recruiter right now. Wait until the next recession hits and suddenly recruiters are no longer in demand.

Learning and development professionals know that their mission can easily be eliminated. In fact, as traditional stand-up training has faded into oblivion driven by online training, if your job is eliminated it may never come back.

Ask any recruiter or trainer whether they have a Plan B for their career.

Mergers and Acquisitions

I have worked for two successful tech startups that were acquired. Both eventually started to lay off staff. This can be due to eliminating redundant positions, or because expectations of growth after an acquisition are not attained.

Rarely has there been a merger or acquisition where layoffs do not eventually follow! It may take a couple of years but…

This can now include taking a company private or being bought by private equity. Once a company is taken private is much easier to lay off staff and keep it quiet. The rate of companies being taken private via private equity firms is accelerating.

If you work for a company where an acquisition or merger is possible, you better have a Plan B for your career!

Patents

I currently have multiple clients in the pharmaceutical industry. Many companies have patents on pharmaceuticals that are going to expire in the next few years. Several of these companies have announced multi-year staff reduction plans.

Patent protection is key to profitability in many industries, but when the patents expire it is like going over a cliff. Profits dry up overnight! When this starts to happen you will see lots of mergers and acquisitions. Check out this list of merger and acquisitions in the pharmaceutical industry. It is a pretty big list.

If you work in the pharmaceutical industry or any other industry dependent on patent protection, you should always have a Plan B.

Creative Destruction

Creative destruction has been around for a very long time. Check out my post, Surviving Creative Destruction in the 2nd Half of Life if you are unfamiliar with this concept.

There are two easy-to-spot targets of creative destruction:

  • Retail is being devastated by online commerce driven primarily by Amazon.com.
  • Mobile computing, started by the introduction of the iPhone in 2007, has had a devastating effect on many industries.

I previously wrote about this in the post Has Your Job Been SMACed? If not Yet, It Will!

If you think your job is immune to creative destruction, then you must be smoking something and yes, you are inhaling. You really need to be developing a Plan B.

Economic Bubbles

We all know what happened in the last two recessions. Having worked in the semiconductor and telecommunications industry during the dot-com bubble, I knew the end was coming and acted accordingly. Similarly, I was working in the non-profit industry raising money from the financial industry at the beginning of the great recession. In hindsight, I saw the collapse coming but did nothing about it. A safe place appeared in late 2007 as luck would have it.

If things seem just too good to be true, you need a Plan B!

Unforeseen Situations

Sometimes stuff just happens. My last employer put me in a highly unethical position, which I wrote about in a recent post When Your Ethical Boundaries are Crossed [Updated].  My Plan B was already in place, but I was not prepared to act quickly enough.

What will you do if your employer places you in an untenable position? Do you have a Plan B?

You will always be prepared to move to your next position if you follow the steps of the Targeted Job Search,

You never know when you will need a Plan B for your career.

Marc Miller  

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Career Pivot is Pivoting in 2018 – Check Out the Changes

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Career Pivot is Pivoting in 2018

pivoting
Copyright: michaeldb / 123RF Stock Photo

I am a multipotentialite and I need to keep things fresh and pivoting. Therefore, 2018 will bring some changes to CareerPivot.com, the podcast, and offerings.

The Career Pivot brand and website launched in February of 2012. My plan at the time was to offer coaching services to accompany my books. My coaching practice has expanded each year until we hit a major lull in the first half of 2017. This lull is kicking me in the butt to make some changes.

Options to Expand

I have been looking into how I could expand the business to help more people and stop trading my time for dollars. I have been looking at 2 options:

  1. Develop a franchise that I could sell. I have an established system but everyone I have spoken with has told me that my system is uniquely tailored to my eclectic background. It would be very hard to find people who have the background required. Also, the people who most need the help do not have the money and cannot afford the services.
  2. Take the practice online and develop an online community. I have watched numerous initiatives to take career services online for those in the 2nd half of life and watched them all fail. I then started listening to the Flipped Lifestyle Podcast and realized that I needed to start small and listen to what people wanted. I am following the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) philosophy.

Career Pivot Community

In November, I will be launching a beta community website to accompany the CareerPivot.com website. I have an initial cohort of 10+ individuals who are guiding me on what they want.

I have developed curriculum for audiences in 40 or so countries. What I have learned is no matter who I think the audience is ….. I am always wrong. In this case, I was wrong again.

The initial cohort is older than I expected. Most are over 60 and the rest are right behind them.

They want community.  I have been asking everyone to reach out to at least one member of the community and have a 30-minute phone call and then share what they learned on our weekly Zoom.us video call. You can join the call via your phone for those who have not figured it out or choose to stay off video.

What people are learning is their issues are not unique. There are others who have the issues and some have figured out solutions. If he/she can figure it out then I can figure it out.

Horizons Broadened

What people are learning is that there are options out there that they had no idea existed.

  • A couple of members own franchises
  • One member has become a vendor on Amazon Vendor Central
  • Another member has written a play

A common phrase I have heard is “you can do that?”

Having their horizons broadened is important because just about everyone wants the freedom to work how they want, where they want and when they want. There are so many ways to pursue careers that do not follow the traditional employment model. You just have to be willing to consider alternative ways of work.

Community Structure

The community will be a “private-like FaceBook community.” It is NOT built on FaceBook.

There will be a set of forums where people can share on a number of given topics. I will be on the forums daily to answer questions. I will be holding weekly coaching calls where we can discuss current concerns that have not been addressed in the forums. What members will discover is there are others in the community besides me who can answer their questions.

I plan to bring in an expert each month to deliver some training but also to answer community questions and concerns. This will be recorded and available on the website.

I will be providing training on blogging, LinkedIn and other topics that the community requests.

The community structure and content will be driven by the 4 beta groups, which will contain 10-15 people, that I will let in over the next 6 months. I have my first beta group and I am working on onboarding them in the coming weeks.

This is a paid membership community but I want to keep this very affordable. The initial group is coming in paying $19 per month and that rate will never go up. Some of them I am letting them in for free for the first 6 months in exchange for their input and participation.

Do You Want to Participate?

I have created a waitlist you can join if you would like to participate in the group. This is not a commitment to join but I will choose the next beta group from the waitlist. People in the beta groups will have a lot of influence on the content and structure of the community.

You can also go to https://careerpivot.com/community to join the waitlist.

Portals and “Start Here” Pages are Coming!

CareerPivot.com has over 800 posts in a variety of categories. A lot of the content is difficult to find.

The solution is a “Start Here” page which will have links to 9 Portal Pages. My fearless virtual assistant, Stephanie Brodt, is currently recategorizing all of the content. Once that is complete in the next few weeks, we will start organizing the content into portals. There will be portal pages for:

  • Job Search
  • Career Sucess
  • Personal Brand
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Multigenerational
  • Baby Boomer
  • Networking
  • Career Change
  • Social Media

This will make it much easier to find content that you want and need.

Repurpose Your Career Podcast Celebrates it’s One Year Anniversary

The same day this blog post publishes I will be releasing the One Year Anniversary episode of the Repurpose Your Career podcast. This will the 52nd episode of the podcast and I am looking for your input.

If you have listened to the podcast please take a moment and fill out the Repurpose Your Career listener survey. I am looking for your input and how to pivot the podcast in 2018.

If you have not listened to the podcast, listen to the current episode now and then go back through the archives here and find other episodes that might inspire you.

Download Link | iTunes | Stitcher Radio | Google Play

Pivoting to Mexico in 2018

You may have read on this blog that my wife and I are strongly considering pivoting and moving abroad. I have written 2 posts on the topic that you may want to read now.

Part of the plan to move to a community website and group coaching model is to allow me to work from anywhere. By this time next year, it is highly likely that we will be test driving living in Ajijic Mexico.

Lot’s of changes are coming in 2018 that I hope will allow me to serve those of you in the 2nd half of life.

Marc Miller  

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Career Pivot When in Crisis, Is a Bad Idea

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Career Pivot When in Crisis, Is a Bad Idea

crisis
Copyright: solerf / 123RF Stock Photo

When you are in crisis mode it is often one of the worst times to make big career decisions.

I was contacted by a 50+ year woman this last week about the uncertainty in her career. She had spent 15-20 years in a dying industry, print media, and had been working on pivoting her way out of it for a while.

She had transitioned her print media sales and marketing skills into a completely different industry and had held a variety of full-time and contract positions. All of these positions came to an end due to the business failing or the function was outsourced overseas.

Then the triple whammy hit

  • She lost her job due to outsourcing
  • Her fiancé’s home was flooded by one of the recent hurricanes
  • Her impending marriage was postponed due to the chaos caused by the hurricane

With all of this going on, she was definitely in crisis mode. She was sick of what she was doing and had no idea what to do next.

She asked me if she should take a bold step and move into a totally new direction? She did not know what direction but just a new one.

My response was NO!

Moments of Clarity

This woman was experiencing multiple instances of moments of clarity. Moments of Clarity are wonderful events to reflect on to understand what is really important to you in your life. When these compound on one another and they are all negatives (not all moments of clarity are negative) then it is easy to go into crisis mode.

When we are in crisis mode, this is usually a bad time to make big career decisions.

Career decisions in the 2nd half of life should be done thoughtfully. It is very easy to suffer from what I call MSU (Make Stuff Up) disorder when we are in crisis.

Maslow Hierarchy of Needs

Maslow HierarchyMultiple times in my learning and development career I have had to refer back the Maslow Hierarchy of Needs.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is often portrayed in the shape of a pyramid with the largest, most fundamental needs at the bottom and the need for self-actualization and self-transcendence at the top. – Wikipedia

In order to fulfill the higher needs, you need to have the lower level needs met. You will need to have enough food to eat, a dry safe, place to sleep and a sense of belonging.

It is only when you have the bottom 2 or 3 levels fulfilled before you want to take on a Career Pivot.

Get a Job Like You Had Before

I told her that she needed to get out of crisis mode first. The way to do that was to find a job, a steady income and safe place to live. The key was to think of this as a 1 or 2-year gig.

Similar to the what I wrote about in my last post, Find a Problem to Solve. That Will Lead to a Job, she needed to do a good job but not get invested into it. She was fearful that if she took a job like before, she would get absorbed into it and never make time to find what fulfills her. In other words, she will eventually work herself into crisis again.

Find an Accountability Partner

I told her to find an accountability partner that she can check in with on a weekly basis. This will help her keep her next job in focus and not let it suck her in.

This is no different than a study or a work out partner. Find someone who is willing to hold you accountable. You might have to pay them. This might be seeing a psychologist or a life coach.

Stair Step Out

In Taylor Pearson’s book, The End of Jobs: Money, Meaning and Freedom Without the 9-To-5 Taylor talks about stair-stepping to the next thing. That is to keep your day job but start a side endeavor that you can grow. When the side endeavor grows large enough to provide you an income you step out of your day job.

The first step is to figure out what that side endeavor might be.

Get Out of Crisis Mode First

Sometimes we need to make compromises and return to jobs or careers that we want to leave in order to create the platform to assist us to move on.

Making big career decisions when you are in crisis is a bad thing.

Have you done this? How did it turn out?

Marc Miller  

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Living in a “Career Disaster Area” at the Age of 65

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Career Disaster Area

career disaster area
Copyright: paylessimages / 123RF Stock Photo

I am working with two clients who are 65 years of age and they are figuratively living in a “Career Disaster Area.”

The career world where they lived for so many years has been hit by a massive earthquake. They truly are living in a “Career Disaster Area.”

Can they recover?

Sure.

Will they ever go back to the good old days?

Probably not.

Let me tell you their stories but their names and identities have been altered to protect the innocent. You may see yourself in their stories.

Marketing Career Disaster Area

Sally was the consummate marketing professional. She had worked in a variety of different industries over the span of her career. At different times in her career, she worked freelance and she worked for some major agencies.

Like many of her peers, she took a hit in the great recession and then her spouse passed away suddenly. Sally decided to move across the country to be closer to her children. Now she is trying to reestablish herself in a new city, where the culture and job market are very young and vibrant.

Sally is 65 years of age.

Sally is taking courses in social media and digital marketing but the skills required to be a productive marketing professional have made tectonic shifts in the direction of technology and analytics. For Sally, this is really a “Career Disaster Area.”

For more: Beware Automation and Robots Will Sabotage Your Career

Tectonic Shifts in Marketing Skills

I spent much of the 1990’s working either in IBM marketing or in an executive briefing center, which was a marketing and sales support function. We produced presentations, marketing collateral, and web content that supported the sale of IBM hardware and software. That world no longer exists.

I am currently working on launching the Career Pivot online community. I am learning about Facebook marketing, Google adwords, re-marketing and pixeling strategies, ad networks, and other digital marketing strategies. When I made the decision to leave the world of technology marketing 15+ years ago, I left a place that looks NOTHING like it does today.

Can Sally shift into this new technological marketing world that is populated with a very young workforce at the age of 65?

It is possible but not probable.

The marketing world where she thrived for so many years is now a ‘Career Disaster Area” for her.

Sally is having to shift her expectations, likely moving to freelance writing, and possibly non-profit community – where her skills are still valued.

For More: Has Your Job Been SMACed? If not Yet, It Will!

Technology Hardware Career Disaster Area

Larry, a 65 year old engineer,  has worked for some of the top companies that designed and manufactured leading computer hardware throughout his career. During this time, Larry was a program and project manager for huge, multi-national and multi-company development projects. The projects had huge scope and complexity.

That world is disappearing fast. Companies like HP, IBM, and others have seen their hardware businesses almost completely disappear. Companies like Sun and DEC have been wiped off the map in a very short period of time.

There are many like Larry that built their careers around designing large and ever-growing, complex hardware systems. The hardware market has become commoditized in the last 10 years. The iPhone sitting next to me has more computing power and function than huge computers of just a few years ago.

There have been tectonic shifts such that the market now demands software, mobile app development, cloud computing software infrastructure and similar skills.

Last week, Larry interviewed with for a position with one of the leading cloud infrastructure companies for a program management job. The first thing they asked him to do is take a coding test.

WHAT!! A coding test??? This is a program management job!

I am like Larry. I have not written a line of code in over 15 years. Could I pass a coding test? Probably not.

Does it make sense that they want to see if he can code? Probably not; but that is not the world we live in now.

For More: What Skills Will You Use in the 2nd Half of Life?

They Moved My Cheese!

The complex world that Larry excelled and thrived in moved from hardware to software very fast. In fact, at warp speed. They moved Larry’s cheese and he did not even realize it.

The career space that Larry and his peers lived in for so many years now looks like a “Career Disaster Area.”

Like Sally, he could retool; but can he do it fast enough and be accepted in a very young fast-moving market?

It is possible but not probable.

It is now time to shift expectations and direction.

For More: Larry Bird, Winners, Talents and Skills

Rebuilding After a Disaster

We have seen it over and over again. People can and do rebuild after a disaster. Sometimes, people have to walk away from the disaster scene because it is too risky to stay.

The question for both Sally and Larry is do they rebuild on their existing skill foundations or do they move on to something different? Neither of them want to stop working at the age of 65. They both have lots of working years ahead of them and the last thing either want to do is retire.

Does this sound familiar? Has this happened to you?

What did you do?

Marc Miller  

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Cash In On Your Skills: Become A Virtual Assistant [Guest Post]

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Virtual Assistant

virtual assistant
Copyright: vladstar / 123RF Stock Photo

Have you thought about a career as a Virtual Assistant?

What if there was a career that allowed you to:

  • Work from home (and home can be anywhere in the world)
  • Travel (did I mention you can work from anywhere in the world, even an RV?)
  • Enjoy the freedom and flexibility of being your own boss and setting your own hours
  • Earn as much as you want
  • Cash in on skills you already have

This is not a pipe dream. Let me tell you about this booming business that is perfect for your second-half-of-life career.

Become A Virtual Assistant

A Virtual Assistant, usually shortened to VA, provides support services to clients who may live around the corner or halfway around the world.

As a VA, you work remotely using your computer, internet and phone to communicate with your clients. You offer administrative, technical or marketing support services to small business owners and entrepreneurs.

Since just about any administrative, creative or techie task can be performed remotely (except personally bringing someone coffee, filing printed papers in folders or greeting people coming into the office) the field has a surprisingly large scope.

Virtual Assistants work in a wide variety of roles:

  • Executive Assistants
  • Social Media Specialists
  • Real Estate Assistants
  • Bookkeepers
  • Author Assistants
  • Writers, Editors, Proofreaders
  • Project Managers

Businesses hiring VAs are as varied as the type of services provided by VAs:

  • Internet Marketers
  • Coaches
  • Trainers
  • Consultants
  • Real Estate Agents
  • Authors
  • Professional Speakers
  • Online Retail Businesses

A Rapidly Growing Business Model

Demand for Virtual Assistants is high and will continue to expand for as long as the internet is around.

Small businesses and entrepreneurs desperately need support. They have discovered that Virtual Assistants can provide professional support more cost effectively and efficiently than employees.

Virtual Assistants save businesses time and money by:

  • Working out of their own offices. VAs provide their own office space, desks, computers, phones, and supplies.
  • Charging only for work performed. Virtual Assistants get the work done as it comes in, without businesses paying overtime or holiday wages. Businesses also avoid paying employees for slow times, when they don’t have enough to keep them busy.
  • Specializing. On their own time and at their own expense, VAs attend training and gain experience to become experts in their area of specialization. Businesses save the cost and time of training employees when they hire VAs.
  • Operating as 1099 Independent Contractors. A VA is self-employed. Business owners do not pay social security taxes, FICA taxes, worker’s compensation, insurance, 401K, retirement plans, medical, dental, sick pay, holiday pay and other benefits.

You Might Be A Great Virtual Assistant

If the following scenarios describe you, you might be a great VA.

  1. You are a doer.

Your superpower is getting stuff done. You love checking things off your to-do list.

  1. You know your way around a computer and the internet.

A Virtual Assistant has to handle all her duties remotely. She needs to be able to use email and Skype to communicate, Microsoft Office (especially Microsoft Word) to provide services, and Google to find answers to questions that arise.

You do not have to be a techie guru. Yes, there are VAs who love technology and specialize in all things tech. I’ll be the first to admit, that is NOT me. I’m Kathy Goughenour, a VA who earns 6-figures, and I panic at the thought of having to do anything more technical than send emails and create Microsoft Word documents. For the last 10 years, I’ve shown women worldwide how to make awesome money and have amazing freedom working from home as VAs … as tech gurus, administrative assistants, and everything in between.

  1. You enjoy supporting and helping others.

Being in the background of a business and helping the owner get stuff done lights you up. But you can also lead a conversation with a business owner about what she needs done and negotiate a deadline.

  1. You’re good at juggling multiple clients and deadlines.

As a VA, you’ll have multiple clients … and multiple deadlines. You might have a newsletter that has to go out for Client A on Wednesday, a blog post due for Client B on Thursday and a series of emails to write for Client C by Friday. If having something new to do daily sounds like fun, you’re going to love being a VA.

  1. You can manage your own time.

You do not need (or want) a supervisor telling you what to do, how to do it and when to do it. You can keep yourself motivated and focused on a task and get it done by the deadline.

  1. You have an amazing work ethic.

One of the many reasons I love working with women who are in the second half of their life is that they have the most incredible work ethic. They’re honest, personable, professional and organized.

No Need For A Degree Or Experience As An Administrative Professional

Before becoming a VA, I was a marketing manager at a Fortune 500 corporation. Successful VAs I’ve trained were once teachers, nurses, stay-at-home moms, human resources specialists, accountants, real estate agents, and hairdressers.

There is no certification or degree required to work as a Virtual Assistant. In fact, you can use skills you already have to begin earning quickly.

  • Cindy, formerly a real estate agent, became a real estate VA.
  • Dawn, formerly an English teacher, become a ghostwriter.
  • Tori, formerly an IT specialist, became a techie guru.

Intrigued by this booming “remote” business you can run from anywhere and everywhere? Watch for the second article in this Virtual Assistant series. You’ll discover how much VAs really earn (it’s more than you think) and the top 7 benefits to building your own Virtual Assistant business.

Kathy GoughenourThis post was written by Kathy Goughenour. After saying “bye-bye” to her corporate career, Kathy started her first business – as a Virtual Assistant. She went on to earn six-figures working from home — usually in her pajamas. After eight years as a VA, Kathy launched Expert VA Training. There she teaches VAs how to create a consistently high income while working remotely. Get your questions answered about starting a VA career during a free call with Kathy. Apply for your free call by clicking here and putting “Career Pivot Blog” as the answer to the last question “How did you hear about us?”

Kathy can found on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Be sure to check out the Career Pivot Client Testimonials Page

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