The holidays are here again, and while many people are swept up in Christmas, gifting, coordinating family visits, and whether it should be a roast dinner or an outside BBQ – many people are thinking about the New Year and what they should be doing with their career.
While we are always supportive of our candidates thinking about their professional development (it’s kind of our thing after all!), we also believe in the importance of timing.
The time between Christmas and New Year might be a great opportunity to consider your goals, your plans, and where your career is going, but let’s have a look at how you can do that productively and without it weighing on your celebrations.
The Consideration Phase
There are ideal situations for deep consideration of your life, and less than ideal ones. The day that you’re four department stores deep in gift shopping, wrangling your kids away from the animatronic reindeer at the local Santa’s Workshop, or trying to negotiate who’s driving to whose house for Boxing Day – probably aren’t ideal.
That’s why career contemplation around the holidays can be difficult – they’re often inspired by stressful or emotional situations. Making big decisions in this frame of mind is usually not recommended, so what we suggest instead is to take note of these thoughts when they happen and sit down in a more relaxed frame of mind and have a look at your professional life.
You might be thinking:
- Would working a FIFO role allow you to spend larger chunks of time with your loved ones?
- Does your current role support your current lifestyle, and will it continue to do so in the future?
- Would taking on a role with more responsibilities or hours lighten the financial load?
- Are you dreading heading back to work in the New Year?
If you realise that the answer to questions like these is “I need a change!!” then it might be a good time to get into The Planning Stage.
The Planning Stage
The Planning Stage of your career change or progression, just like The Consideration Phase, is entirely unique to you.
The first thing many people do is to look at where they want to be in ten years. This might already be something you know the answer to, but you can crystallise it by asking yourself questions like:
- Is salary a major contributing factor?
- Do you want to remain in your sector, or maybe pivot from one to another?
- Are you happy working a physical role, or do you see yourself transitioning to the corporate or administration side?
- Do you want to work more regular hours, or is a non-traditional working pattern like FIFO something you’d consider?
- Do you love your current position but just need to find a way to progress?
When you’ve got a reasonably clear idea of where you want to be with your career in a decade, you can start looking at what you need to do to get there. You might need experience in something you’ve never done before, a qualification, or to pursue upskilling to make sure that you can achieve the career you’ve got in mind.
When you’re in this phase around Christmas and New Year, this is the point in time where you should let your thoughts percolate while you enjoy your time with family.
Because the resources sector doesn’t really stop, a lot of people in our industries celebrate a nominated Christmas Day with their family because they’re needed on site or in the workplace over the official days. The step of putting your thoughts and considerations aside to enjoy your Christmas Day (even if that Christmas day is in January) is important. Your notes will still be there tomorrow and you might even be struck by a brilliant idea while you’re serving up the pavlova or trying to get through the terrible cracker jokes.
The Action Stage
This is when you start taking steps towards achieving those things that you’ve decided on. This doesn’t mean handing in your resignation and starting on the job hunt, but it does mean that you should consider the following:
- Is there room for progression with your current company or position? It might be time to talk to your boss.
- If you need additional skills or qualifications to succeed in your ideal career, how can you go about getting them? Consider a part time qualification or on the job upskilling.
- Register with a resourcing professional service who can help you identify roles, professional development, and next steps to help you succeed.
Going through these steps is just the beginning, there’s applying and interviewing to be done as well as the separation process if you’re still working when you get a new offer.
Timing Your Career Progression
There’s a lot of pressure around “New Year, New Me” and while it can be the thing that makes you start considering your career plan, don’t feel like you have to make major decisions by Jan 1st just because it’s a New Year. We’re here year round, and if you’re just exploring your options then that’s great too!
The resources sector in Australia has been dealing with a shortage in skilled workers for a while now and with the infrastructure pipelines across the country ramping up, mining careers offering more pathways than ever before, and energy constantly changing and evolving – there is a lot of scope for anyone wanting to get into these industries.
