The 4 missing assumptions behind the 5-step career turnaround

Changing careers and jobs in this economy has become a necessity for many people because of the vast numbers of job layoffs in the Great Recession. Many people — including many executives, not just Cubicle Warriors — find themselves in the unenviable position of looking for new work for the first time in a long time. That means that, while the world of work and finding jobs have changed, these people often don’t know how to go about thinking through what needs doing to find the next right position.

The Corner Office (http://blogs NULL.bnet NULL.com/ceo) over at BNET takes a good look at this and offers up The 5-Step Career Turnaround (http://blogs NULL.bnet NULL.com/ceo/?p=3296). The five steps are good:

1. Assess your situation. SWOT analysis works particularly well here. It’s also critical that you discover your risk profile and what you really want to do, going forward. Get external input from trusted sources.

2. Determine your value proposition (what uniquely sets you apart from the competition). Contrast that with your risk profile and goals. Make sure what you want to do is reasonably doable and not a pipe dream.

3. Develop your plan. How you’re going to go about achieving your goals. If you’re changing careers or targeting a big step up, there will likely be interim stages and goals.

4. Restructure financials, as necessary. Most turnarounds require a restructuring – it wouldn’t be a turnaround if something hasn’t gone wrong. The same goes for you and your career, i.e. you may need to cut expenses to weather the transition.

5. Execute. All the best laid plans fail without solid execution.

Great advice — but the advice is missing four critical assumptions before you can whack your way back into the work world:

1. Assumes you know what excites you and gives you joy in doing work. Without understanding what work gives you energy and drive, any job will do and you’ll not compete with those that have excitement and passion about what they do.

2. Assumes you know the type of people you like working with on the team. Every team is different and you will need to evaluate the team when you interview. But knowing right now that high conflict teams — or boring yes people — are not the type of team you’d like to work with helps you ferret out the right positions and right careers. Know what type of people brings out your best.

3. Assumes you know the management style that works best for the way you work. Startups are drastically different than working in management for a railroad company. You will have to evaluate the management style of your potential manager in an interview, of course, but knowing that you like working in a startup style of management focuses your job search on the types of positions where you can thrive.

4. Assumes you know the place you would be willing to work. Hey, it’s great that you discover that studying plant life found only in Malaysia is what you want for your next work stop — but has your family bought into moving halfway around the world? Or that your job is great — but what about the job impact on your partner or spouse? Unless you have figured out a good framework around what works for the rest of your life, it’s tough to determine what’s next.

By all means — plan and implement your career turnaround. Just make sure you cover the fundamentals of a job search before expending all that energy to find another gig — just like the last one you hated so much…

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