 “You’re not qualified to do anything other than {insert what you currently do here}.”
Heard this before? Thought it yourself? It’s easy to question whether we’re capable of doing anything other than what we’ve done in the past. One of my doctoral advisors, when he heard I was looking to leave academia, told me that I wasn’t qualified to do anything other than be a professor. Even though he was one of my fiercest advocates (and still is to this day), it was truly foreign for him to think that I could do anything other than use my PhD to become a faculty member. I’m here to tell you that it is absolutely possible to move: between roles, companies, or industries. In fact, it may even be desirable to move into a different area given that COVID-19 is likely to shape the job market for years to come. You may be skeptical that you can move into something new. You may think that you need to take an additional course, obtain more training, or somehow prove yourself to move into something new. But what I’d like to convince you is that you already have skills and intellect. Where you may need practice is in the toolkit that you’ll need to use to conduct your job search. The EXAPT model From what I’ve learned, having made the jump from academia to the Tech industry to running my own business, there are four core steps to any career transition. I’ll share them with you, just as I’ve shared them with more than 45 people whom I’ve coached in identifying the next steps in their career. These four steps form the basis for a model that I’ve called EXAPT:
Why EXAPT? In evolutionary biology, one of the concepts proposed in the past 50 years was the notion of an exaptation - a trait that is currently being used for a function other than what it evolved for. For example, say bird feathers initially evolved as an adaptation to keep birds warm. Birds that grew feathers made it through the winter and so survived more readily than those who didn’t have feathers - this trait would therefore be adaptive. Now let's say that once birds had those feathers for warmth, the feathers also became useful for another function - flight. Those feathers were exapted for flight, or stretched beyond their initial adaptive use. My goal is to give you tools to EXAPT — to take the skills you’ve already acquired and stretch them to a different function, beyond their initial use. Many of the folks whom I’ve coached believe that they need to learn new skills to make a career transition - following the metaphor, they believe that they need to adapt. But instead, you can EXAPT — take the skills that you already have and use them elsewhere. If you do so successfully, you won’t need to learn any new formal skills beyond those related to the job search process itself. Get Started With a Free Webinar Returning now from evolutionary biology to pragmatics of how to search for a job: I’m currently formulating more detailed online courses around each of the four stages of this model. To get started, I’m offering ************************************************* A free webinar at 5 PM EDT on June 11th 2020 ************************************************* In this interactive webinar, I’ll share an overview of the EXAPT model that will tee you up for a career transition. Again, this webinar is completely free, with the expectation that you fill out a survey after the webinar to give me your feedback. To sign up for the webinar, RSVP here or on the "services" tab. I’m excited to share these tools to help you make a successful career change. Join us on June 11th to learn more. Until then - happy searching!
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Hello, reader! Thank you for giving me a small moment of your day to read content that I’ve created. I know we all have a lot going on in our lives, so I’m grateful that you’ve decided to spend a few minutes here to read what I’ve written.
In getting started with my blog, I thought it would be valuable to define what my mission is in writing it. I’m writing a blog because I want to have an impact on the world - even if that impact is tiny. If I’ve made 1-2 people laugh, learn, or think about the world a bit differently on a given day, my goal will be achieved. Why does this type of impact matter to me? I’ve had variegated forms of impact throughout my career, and am finding that right now, interpersonal impact is the most fulfilling for me. Early on in my career, I received a PhD from Harvard and had an impact on the world by contributing to scientific knowledge. The world now knows a little bit more about things like bonobo cognitive development because of my thesis. Hurrah! When I worked at Facebook and Google, I had an impact on the world by changing customer experiences and making money for those companies. At Facebook, my proudest achievement was being able to point to features in the product that changed because of A/B tests that I ran. My work had a tangible, visible impact. At Google, my team’s efforts brought in more than $1 B in revenue, so I could easily quantify how much I’d contributed. Recently, the impact that has meant most to me is interpersonal. In focusing on personal growth myself, I’ve come to enjoy creating moments of growth for others. Allowing someone else to live a slightly more meaningful or fulfilling life because of a conversation we’ve had? Amazing. To that end, I’ve started a coaching business. I know that I can’t work with everyone 1:1 given that the time in my day is finite. My hope, then, is that through my writing I can reach others who I may not have the opportunity to work with directly. For today, then, perhaps I’ll leave you with the question that I wrangled with myself in this post:
If you’ve read this far, hooray! According to average read times and the word count of this article, it’s taken you 2 minutes to read this post. I hope that it’s been a valuable use of your time. Looking forward to what comes next! |
AuthorI'm writing this blog to share my perspective on career transitions, time management, and personal growth. Archives
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