Being a “slash careerist” is one thing, talking about it however can be quite another matter.

Working as a slash careerist is – for the most part – a blast. You can roll a couple of interests into a hybrid sort of overall occupation, and if one or two parts of the equation aren’t exactly hauling in the cash, no problem, hopefully another of the slash/options will. The hours might be long, and there are occasions you need to be in two places at once, but otherwise it’s all good. Talking, however, about your slash career work is another, far trickier proposition, especially in social settings, and particularly when meeting people for the first time.

Not exactly related to changing careers but I thought I would mention something I posted on my other website, a guide to office etiquette.

Essential reading whether you are changing careers or not, no doubt!

Jockey Glen Butler’s story is proof that age need not be an obstacle when it comes following to your dreams.

At age 42 Butler has finally fulfilled a life long ambition to jockey race horses.

Although he always wanted to be a jockey, he found the 3am starts just a little too difficult when younger, and gave up training.

It was a decision he always regretted. After numerous attempts, he finally gained an apprenticeship, and recently had his first win in a race.

Of course it was not easy going. He was subject to numerous knock backs while seeking an apprenticeship, and also had to reduce his weight to just 51 kilograms!

A few weeks ago I mentioned the career transition a chemical engineer had made to become an animator with Disney. As with the stockbroker who became a gardener, many people will agree this is a fairly significant career change to undertake.

Recently a radiographer contacted me expressing a long held desire to become an illustrator, and wondered how on Earth he could go about making, what he considered, was such a “drastic” transition.

While there are certainly transferable skills he could identify, and utilise, there nevertheless remains a wide divide between the two professions. And although he is prepared to study the new skills he needs, he remains concerned his background in medicine, and radiography, will work against him when it comes to looking for work.

In short his thinking is “How could an employer take me seriously? They’ll be thinking that going from a career in radiography to one in illustration is quite a leap of faith!”

Well just about any career change requires a leap of faith of some sort, and far from working against him, his background as a radiographer, and in medical imaging, could be exactly what it takes to land the illustrating work he is looking for.

We’ve probably all seen a variety of medical diagrams adorning the walls of our doctor’s surgery, and while this may not be exactly the sort of work he wants ultimately, illustration work of a medical nature could be the starting point he is looking for, and make for the beginning of a professional portfolio that he will eventually be able to show employers, in other fields, who are looking for illustrators.

Medical journals and other reference manuals contain the work of medical illustrators. Universities, schools, and other educational institutions require diagrams and images as part of their courses. And that’s just the beginning. The point is there is no shortage of work for medical illustrators.

In other words his background, and work, in medical imaging could be used as a stepping stone to a career in illustration, and as a radiographer he will be well placed when it comes to looking for medical illustration work. After all he will have an established background knowledge of medical imaging, and will certainly be more than familiar with his subject matter!

He will no doubt have contacts of some sort within the industry he can call upon, and even if he doesn’t, while he is studying he can start networking, and informing the appropriate people within the industry of his future career intentions. He can also keep an eye open for illustration roles within the industry, and become familiar with the requirements of the work.

If he is part of a large enough organisation there may even be opportunities where he currently works. And while he will initially be lacking in experience, given he is a “known quantity”, a result of his past work and reputation as a radiographer, he will be in good standing when applying for medical illustration work.

So far from being “disadvantaged” he may in fact be somewhat better placed than he initially thought when it comes to finding illustration work.

And this is a situation all career changers can take something from. You may be able to find the new career opportunity you are looking for within the industry, or possibly even the company, you are working in right now.

A reader contacted me after seeing the Each to their own – teamwork verses going it alone post of last week, with a tale about the brand of “teamwork” prevalent at his workplace.

The reader, who is currently working in a corporate team environment, said he was seriously considering starting his own business because he feels that while his efforts are being appreciated, his concerns – and suggestions – to improve certain workplace issues, are being ignored.

He says there is a lot being said about “pulling together as a team”, but that’s where the talk seems to end.

While the team is (apparently) doing well overall, the individual frustrations and difficulties some team members are experiencing appear to be of no account, or concern, to management.

This is despite the steps the reader is taking to find solutions to some of these problems.

Seemingly the only thing the managers talk about are the upcoming round of bonus payments, and while everyone concerned stands to gain financially to some degree, no one seems interested at some of the discontent that is present. After all, we’re only in it for the money aren’t we? Or so the attitude appears to be.

Surprisingly though, it’s not just about the money. Many people actually work for the satisfaction and fulfilment that a role offers.

While I may be the first person to think about the pay cheque when I take a job, I’m also interested in drawing other things from my work. I’d like to feel it is engaging and challenging. I’d also like to think I am making some sort of a difference, somehow, as well.

I can certainly relate to the reader’s issue however.

A few years I was doing some consulting work, and let’s just say the company in question was not particularly organised.

Trying to get even the simplest things done felt like an uphill battle, because no one knew what to do, or where to find help. Attempting to complete a task was a stop-start process, and one frustration followed another.

After a time people had started to become blasè, and it seemed many of my colleagues where turning up to work to simply make an appearance and “put in the hours”.

At one point the manager I was working for asked if I was enjoying the work. While I tried to be generally positive in response, when I expressed my frustrations, and told him I’d just once like to experience some feeling of achievement at “doing a job well done”, he looked puzzled.

In fact he looked more than puzzled. The expression on his face seemed to suggest I had stepped out of a flying saucer that had just landed from Mars!

“Thought you were more interested in the pay cheque, ” he quipped before taking a phone call, effectively ending the dialogue.

It’s not so much the nature of work that is forcing some people to consider a career change, or even set up their own business, as it is the apathy, or reluctance to listen to the concerns of workers and act on them, that appears to be present in some workplaces.

So it seems it comes down to personal preference. To tolerate such a working environment and simply be happy with the remuneration, or to find some other way to resolve the situation.

As many small business owners will tell you though, the money is not always fantastic. So what does that tell us? To me that says there are people who would rather forgo a fat pay cheque in exchange for having a lot more control over what they do, and simply derive a feeling of enjoyment or satisfaction from their work.

Others however won’t find that where are they are now, because no one seems interested in such a concept!

My post last Monday The career puzzle prompted a reader to ask whether I thought “doing my own thing” was preferable to working as part of a team.

While such a question is perhaps a little off topic for a blog that focusses more on career change matters, it is still an interesting point, considering a lot of people establish small businesses by way of a career change, and therefore find themselves, in many cases, working alone.

I have worked as a contractor and consultant for a number of years, and that work has seen me go inside many organisations. One thing I have always been at odds with though, is the “team effort” ethic many such places appear to promote over all else.

It has seemed to me that “individual effort” is something that belongs on the fringes and not in the mainstream, by the way some managers talk.

Sure while working with a group of people, for the same company, means it will be necessary to co-operate and get along with them, in order to get things done, there remains an unspoken dislike of any sort of individual initiative.

I am not opposed to the idea of people working together to achieve goals, it’s just something that personally doesn’t work for me.

And ultimately that’s what it comes down to; personal preference.

I for one simply prefer my own space, and judging by the number of sole traders about, I am by no means, if you’ll excuse my choice of word, alone.

Having said though, that I don’t exactly work in solitary confinement.

I am in contact with a range of people for a variety of reasons, whether it be for research, assistance, networking, or even the home office worker’s version of office gossip and banter.

Sometimes this “social aspect” is overlooked by people eager to get out of an office based career because they want to be doing their own thing. After a time they begin to realise they miss the constant personal interaction that working closely with others brings.

There are other things would be sole traders need to consider before going out on their own.

There is no one to pick up the workload if you are unable to do it, should you require time off due to illness or some other reason.

While my experience of office land shows that should you be absent for a day or two, and you will find probably 90 per-cent of your day-to-day work awaiting you on your return, at least any urgent tasks should have been dealt with.

So in answer to the answer to the question which way of working is “better”, team effort or individual, there is no right or wrong answer. No one way is especially better or worse than the other. Or I should say both have their pros and cons.

Ultimately it comes down to what works for you, as an individual. It is however something you need to think carefully about when considering work plans for the future.

Hot on the heels of the Blog Apocalypse meme created by the Urban Monk, I now find myself tagged by Anthony at Antbag as part of the “Why I blog” meme that is also going through the blogosphere at the moment.

The question of why I blog is an interesting one, because there are times I don’t really feel like I am blogging. To me this is simply maintaining and updating a website, a term that used to be a little more common ten years ago, which is when I designed my first personal website.

The term “personal website” has gone the way of the dodo though, so blogs and blogging it is.

The InterChange Desk is a blog, or resource dedicated to providing information and advice to people considering changing careers. I guess in effect The InterChange Desk constitutes a career change in itself for me.

It’s the first time I have done something quite like this, jumping on the whole pro-blogging bandwagon, choosing what is called a niche, despite having the aforementioned personal website and journal (the predecessor of the blog) since 1997.

So why else? I blog because I almost love to hate it!

Despite the fact I love writing I can have a lot of trouble with the creative aspect of it, and I will sit, fidget, wander around, surf the net, and sometimes feel generally frustrated for long periods of time before I can finally get myself started on a piece, and get “into the flow”.

This is a difficulty that has a name. “Eating your frog“, and is a term I first heard mentioned by the people over at Flying Solo. Once this “frog” (and I guess we aren’t talking about frogs of the chocolate “Freddy” variety) is consumed however, the floodgates of productivity fly open!

The satisfaction and fulfilment of (finally) getting into the flow is more than enough to quell any doubts or uncertainties I have in regard to the writing and blogging process.

I also love the way, that once I get going and into the flow, the articles I am writing seem to evolve a life of their own, and often end up “writing themselves” as it were.

This sometimes has a knock on effect, and often as I am writing one article, ideas for one or two more can be spawned. This article is partially a case in point, as it is kind of relates to yesterday’s The career puzzle post.

So there you go, how’s that for a couple of reasons for blogging?

Hopefully though I am being of some assistance for those who are looking for career direction, having had so much difficulty finding itself myself for so long. Hopefully what I am doing here is creating a resource, even if it is 500 words at a time, that will in time be of value to a wide range of people.

So thanks to Anthony for tagging me, and in typical meme fashion I shall pass the baton along, mainly to a few of the people I met at the Sydney Blogger’s Meetup last week.

So Icy, James, Miss Andrea, and also Cedric, since he likes these, and even you the reader, if you’d like to pick up this tag, please go right ahead!

A reader emailed me in response to last week’s article, The “can do” skill, a story about an accountant who decided she wanted to pursue a career as an article writer.

Her decision, as well as the actual career shift, had almost been instantaneous. She had virtually decided overnight to become a freelance writer, and, in what seemed like a very short time later, was out there doing it.

The reader admitted she was more than just a little envious of this particular career change story, as she has been struggling for the past couple of years to find new career direction, and was pondering how some people can have it “so good”, and almost seem to have the next moved mapped out.

I have to admit I myself was likewise a little envious when I first heard the story, and it bought back less than pleasant memories of the difficulty I’ve had in finding career direction through the years.

But then again I was one of these people who has never known what they wanted to do for work, or as a career, for as long as I can remember.

Or so I thought.

There were always clues as to what I wanted to be doing now, but it took the longest time to put the pieces of the “puzzle” together.

As I have written here before, I knew I wanted to do something that was creative, and also something that allowed me to do my own thing, and to be a free agent, or mostly so anyway.

Anyone reading this blog would think the “creative” part of the equation is the writing I do here. And they would be mostly correct.

But writing was a very overlooked part of my career puzzle for a long time, despite numerous pointers it was in-fact an integral part of it, pointers which go back my high school days.

In my final year of high school, our English teacher would give the class a weekly essay assignment, and we had to write 500 words according to a topic of his choosing.

Once the assignments were returned and he had reviewed them, he would read out the one he liked the most, without naming the writer. Mine used to come out at least once every other week, sometimes even weekly.

Perhaps the one enjoyable thing I (care to) recall of my high school days was sitting nonchalantly during the reading, while other classmates were quietly pointing at each other, trying to ascertain whose work it was!

Instead of following this “talent”, and trying to develop it further at the time, I felt under pressure to take a “nine-to-five” job, any job, once I left school, and settle into a “proper” career. There was no time to pursue “silly” writing desires now, I now had a career as bank teller to consider!

That “career” went the unsuccessful way, some people had called it would from the onset, a few years later!

But the inclination to write isn’t my only career motivator. I wanted to be doing my own thing also, not just writing. I’m really no geek, but the element of web design or development, that maintaining this blog, plus my other projects, requires is also a part of the puzzle.

Perhaps also the feeling (whether actual or imagined) that I am making some sort of difference, and hopefully being of assistance to readers here is another aspect of it.

I wrote back to the reader and told her that finding career direction can sometimes be like putting a puzzle together and to persevere with her search.

Unlike the accountant turned article writer who knew in a word, as it were, what she wanted to do for a new career, some of us may have to link up apparently random ideas to solve our career puzzle.

Following my recent article, How blogging can help you change careers, I’ve noticed a couple of people writing about how a person’s blog may work against them, especially while they are job hunting.

Most of us have probably heard the Dooce story. An American web developer, Heather B. Armstrong, lost her job several years ago after her employers discovered her blog, and took exception to some of the things she had posted about them.

While her writings were apparently satirical in nature, her boss however was unimpressed, and sent her packing.

Since then a number of similar incidents have come to light, and it makes you wonder just how far you can go with what you write in your blog, particularly in regards to your job, or employer.

In fact Heather’s experience gave rise to the term “dooced”, a reference to the title of her blog, and is a way of saying you’ve been sacked because of what you wrote about your boss, or workplace, in your blog.

Now it seems employers are actively searching the web in an effort to locate any blogs a job applicant may have, as a way of gathering further “background” information about them, over and above what they have already learned during the application, and interview, process.

Some people are calling blogs the new resumes, and by looking at what a person writes, and how they write, employers are able to gain a “fuller picture” of a prospective employee.

This is not an entirely new “phenomenon” though. I remember a recruiter telling me back in 1997 how she used the web to gather information on applicants, though at that time she, and other recruiters, would not been able to find a great many blogs, let alone, most likely, any written by her candidates.

It is nevertheless something to be mindful of, and prompted Anthony Baggett at Antbag to suggest we consider taking a more serious approach to our blogging.

It would be unfortunate though were employers to make recruiting decisions based to any great degree on what they read, and possibly didn’t like, in someone’s blog.

It has to be remembered blogs, particularly of those of a personal nature, as verbose and detailed as they may be, still do not paint the full picture of the writer.

People have ups and downs in life, blog accounts are not always complete, and will be presented with varying degrees of candour and colour. Not all stories will have “follow ups”, or posts detailing the resolution of problems someone may have articulated at an earlier time.

My earlier article outlined the benefits that a blog presenting your professional knowledge could have while looking for work, and I would hope that is most employers are really interested in.

Everyone has a “story”, and will at times have upheaval in their personal life, and while we can argue that there is no such thing as a complete separation of our work and our personal life, a lot of workers are able to discharge their professional duties without allowing the conflicts, or otherwise, of their personal lives to interfere.

There are a million career change stories out there. Icy at Individual Chic left a comment in response to yesterday’s article, The “can do” skill, about a friend of hers who went from being a chemical engineer, to an animator for Disney!

That’s quite a significant career shift!

A few years ago I was chatting to a careers advisor who told about me about a stockbroker working in Sydney, who had probably presented the worse case of career burn out he had ever seen.

The stockbroker was apparently working 18 hours a day, six days a week. Even on his “day off” he was still studying market trends and keeping in touch with clients.

Then one morning he woke up and decided he’d had enough. He wanted time to slow down so he could “smell the roses”, and take in a bit more of what was happening around him.

He had approached the careers advisor because he simply had no idea what he wanted to do next. The advisor subjected him to all sorts of career aptitude tests, but none of the results seemed to excite the stockbroker.

Then one morning the erstwhile stockbroker arrived at the careers advisor’s office announcing he had found his new vocation in life; sweeping leaves in the nearby domain!

Apparently he had seen a council worker going about his duties in the park and had become ever more curious as to what the job entailed.

It was outdoors work. The hours were set, 8am to 4pm, five days per week. No overtime. And as a bonus, he really could take time to “smell the roses” in the park!

So he went from being a stockbroker on a six-figure salary, to a gardener on a far more humble income. But he was happy. He still apparently felt that way some months later when the careers advisor saw him one morning.

The only adjustment the former stockbroker really had to get used to was the change in lifestyle, as a result of the reduction in his salary!

This story reminded me of a former boss of mine. He had been for some years the assistant general manager of a nationwide company.

Then the company was taken over, and it was decided it would be totally dissolved. The assistant general manager was made CEO of the soon to be defunct entity, and was charged with the task of winding up the operation.

It turned out to be the most stressful six months of his life, as he had to make colleagues he had worked with for years redundant, and break up the company he had spent years trying to build up!

Eventually his last day of arrived, and after leaving with his final pay cheque, wondered what he would do next for work.

Then he spotted a “now hiring” sign on a gateway, and within minutes had signed up for work as a building site labourer!

According to former colleagues who saw him some years later, he was still very happy in his new career, even though he could easily have found another executive role. He however just wasn’t interested in the responsibility (read: stress) that came with such a position.

Changing careers is about finding meaningful work. Work you find meaningful, whatever that is. Not the next person, or the neighbours, definition of meaningful, but yours.

In fact I shouldn’t even call the two career transitions I’ve just described as “downshifting”. If it’s what you want to do, then it is neither going downwards nor backwards.