Heather Mundell

Heather worked in HR management for eight years, and after five years as a stay at home full-time parent, became a certified professional coach. In 2003 she founded her coaching business Dream Big Coaching Services.

What prompted you to change careers?

I changed careers from HR director to parent-at-home because being the full-time caretaker for my newborn was more important to me than human resources, and because I could financially. After my second daughter turned one, I started thinking about what I wanted in a career and what I was willing to contribute to it.

I didn’t have a passion for HR and felt that another director job wouldn’t allow me to spend the kind of time I wanted to with my kids. I researched different ideas and finally settled on coaching, because it was a perfect match for my talents, skills and values and because as a self-employed coach I could be in charge of my schedule.

What was the biggest challenge of the career change process?

The biggest challenge of the career change process was simply taking a leap into the unknown. I didn’t know when I left HR if I would be miserable at home with my daughter (at times I was!)

When I started my coaching business I had no idea whether I had what it took to get clients and make a go of it. Through both of these transitions I had to get comfortable with feeling uncomfortable, and learn how to ride the inevitable ups and downs.

To what degree were you able to utilise previous skills and experience in your new career? Did you need any new qualifications?

As a coach I rely on many of the skills I developed as an HR director (good listening, critical thinking, creative problem solving) and added a bunch of new ones (all of the coaching competencies as laid out by the International Coach Federation, plus entrepreneurial skills). I spent a year in a coach training program to become a certified professional coach.

What advice would you offer anyone considering a career change?

Decide what’s important to you in your life and then examine whether getting that really requires an entire career change. Do you want to work fewer hours? More challenge? Less stress? In many cases people can achieve the difference they are looking for without embarking on a complete career overhaul.

Sometimes changing jobs within the same company or changing jobs within the same industry can make a huge difference. Even taking on a different project or delegating out an old one can help. Spending more off hours engaged in something you’re passionate about generally improves your outlook at work as well.

If you know you’re interested in a career change, take your time and do your homework. Go back to your list of what you want in your life, make a list of the skills you enjoy using, and research different career options. You can do a lot of this on your own online,or from books, or you can get guidance from your college’s career development office (even if you’re an alumni) or a career coach.

And before you sign up for grad school, be sure it really is the ticket to what you want, rather than something you “hope” will get you the job you want. Too many people incur too much debt attending graduate programs that don’t end up yielding the results they were hoping for.

Penelope Trunk

Penelope played volleyball for nine years and reached the US Professional Beach Volleyball Tour. She has since had three careers, working as an entrepreneur, professional writer, and software marketing executive, where she helped launch new businesses for Fortune 100 companies, and manage on-line marketing for a startup through its IPO.

What prompted you to change careers?

I changed careers from volleyball to software marketing when I realized that my learning curve had plateaued in volleyball. I was very good at marketing myself to sponsors. And while my tour rank remained pretty steady, my sponsors kept getting better and better.

That’s when I realized that I had more growth potential in marketing than in volleyball – it was time to move on. I picked software because I knew I could market anything, so I wanted to work in a field that was known for good salaries.

What was the biggest challenge of the career change process?

The biggest challenge is convincing myself I could really do it, and talking to people about my marketing career like I was really doing it. It took a long time for people who knew me well to see me as a marketing expert and not a volleyball player.

At first, when I’d go for interviews, I felt like a compete poser telling people I knew anything about marketing. But soon I realized that whatever I didn’t know I could learn quickly. I picked a field I was good at so I could learn it quickly.

To what degree were you able to utilise previous skills and experience in your new career? Did you need any new qualifications?

I read a lot. I gained a competitive edge in volleyball because I read more – about weight lifting, jump training, endurance, for example – than anyone else. I used that same tactic in marketing. I read a lot to make up for my lack of experience.

The most important skill I leveraged was learning something new. When I started playing beach volleyball I was not from California and all the natives had more experience on the beach than I did. I had to convince myself that I could learn something new quickly.

I had to figure out how to break into pickup games, convince coaches to work with me, and figure out when to let people know I need help and when to fake it. All these skills are important for any new career. They are skills that help you get your bearings in a totally new situation.

What advice would you offer anyone considering a career change?

Figure out what you have to leverage. Don’t start out completely new. Look back on your life at the things you have done in an outstanding way. That is where your talent is. Use that talent to make the career change, and then you have something to put on your resume for experience.

Don’t change to a career that will not be an outlet for talents you have not already shown. Each of us has a few outstanding talents - we don’t have unlimited, undiscovered talents, even though we wish we did. Work is the most interesting when we are doing it very well, learning quickly, very engaged.

These traits come from areas where we have some talent. (A good book on this idea is “Flow“.) So when you’re making a career change, be honest with yourself about where your talents lie. You’ll be happiest with your work if you cater to them.