The Art of Making Career Changes and Designing Your Path | Jessica Lovett

Reinvent your career with Jessica Lovett in this inspiring episode where we dive deep into career transitions, career development, and embracing change. Join us as Jessica, the director of Career Services at Lakehead University, shares her powerful lessons on navigating career shifts, finding clarity, and making thoughtful decisions to align your work with your passions and values.

Learn about the importance of self-exploration, adaptable career planning, and leveraging community involvement to ease transitions. Whether you’re looking to make a big change, explore new opportunities, or simply need guidance, this episode is packed with actionable advice to make a difference in your career journey.

Please note that this transcript was made using AI and it may not be entirely accurate.

00;00;03;06 – 00;00;05;27
Unknown
You’re listening to the Behind the Village podcast,

00;00;06;19 – 00;00;11;25
Unknown
Where we invite you to join us on a journey to understand how to live a life worth living.

00;00;13;04 – 00;00;19;13
Unknown
Our conversation today is with Jessica Lovett, the director of Career Services and Co-op with Lakehead University.

00;00;19;20 – 00;00;55;23
Unknown
Before Jessica moved into career services, her work history ran rambling through a variety of roles in several industries, ranging from agriculture through the energy, corporate, not for profit arts and educational sectors. At various points, she’s been a small farm, field worker, pipeline and facilities maintenance worker, office clerk, library assistant, street busker, music and drama teacher, marketing manager, interim acting executive director for a marketing and communications team in arts and culture, student recruitment manager, full time student, full time mom and more.

00;00;55;23 – 00;00;59;24
Unknown
The information she’s able to provide us is so helpful and so useful,

00;00;59;27 – 00;01;02;21
Unknown
Not only through sharing what Lakehead can do to help,

00;01;02;23 – 00;01;12;03
Unknown
But with her own experiences and her own knowledge and career services. There’s so much here that is helpful for people moving through transitions in their lives.

00;01;14;01 – 00;01;34;01
Unknown
So I think I was really lucky, growing up, that I had a lot of different interests. And so when you look at my professional trajectory or the things that I have done for money, I think they reflect all my different interests. So when I was if I look back on my, my career, I can see how I just sort of for a long time followed my instincts.

00;01;34;04 – 00;02;16;14
Unknown
I just was a very curious person. And I went, I was lucky, and I had a lot of family support and privilege, and I was lucky enough that I could pursue my curiosities and my interests along the way. I spent a lot of time in school, I spent a lot of time in extracurricular activities. I spent a lot of time hanging out with unusual people who introduced me to things like street busking and, I reflected a lot about what I enjoyed, and I just kind of, for a long time, made some curious, instinctual moves until I got to a point in my life where practicalities of having children and living in certain parts

00;02;16;14 – 00;02;21;10
Unknown
of the world forced me to pause and be a bit more deliberate. I was about

00;02;23;14 – 00;02;35;03
Unknown
How would you make a big change when it comes to your career? How do you navigate that? And what happens when it doesn’t go to plan and you realize it’s not a good fit?

00;02;37;07 – 00;03;03;23
Unknown
four and a half years into my my career as a as a marketing person. I was working for an arts organization in Toronto and, and had been really enjoying it, loved working with my team, really enjoyed being in the environment of the organization, but I was in an administrative capacity facilitating other people’s creativity and other people’s experiences, and I was starting to feel like I was missing something in my own creative practice.

00;03;03;26 – 00;03;27;17
Unknown
And, you know, at that point, my dream when I was when I was younger was like to work in a university and be a professor. And so I thought maybe I should go back to work, but I like what I’m doing. Maybe there’s something now not go back to work, go back to school. Maybe there’s something I can do that can also help me stay in this professional environment for this organization I really like.

00;03;27;17 – 00;03;56;16
Unknown
So I started looking at professional education and I, talked to my supervisor, who was really supportive, described how I was feeling, and I thought maybe I just needed to learn something new that I could try suggested perhaps I could learn more about pedagogy, curriculum development, and then bring that back to the organization and develop more experiences that would, you know, facilitate lots of joy for the organization, but also allow me to learn and become more of a pedagogue in my own practice.

00;03;56;18 – 00;04;32;16
Unknown
So the I set it all up. I, I applied to a master’s in education in curriculum, and I got in. I was really excited because the application process was outside of my experience not being an education major coming out of, my previous education got in super excited. I went and met with my designated advisor, and, I balanced my work schedule so that I could take this pretty substantial seminar course as the first introduction to this, this new experience.

00;04;32;18 – 00;04;51;11
Unknown
And I, you know, figured out the commute and I got to the campus. And my happiest moments in that experience were like the the seven minutes I sat in the classroom in the learning environment and looked around and like said hello to all the other excited students that were coming in and thought about it and congratulated myself for, you know, doing something and learning.

00;04;51;11 – 00;05;11;15
Unknown
And I was so excited. I knew I had made the right choice to go back to school, just based on how it felt in the room. And then the class started, and I had almost an immediate adverse reaction to all of the content and everything that I had to do in the assignment. And I started talking to my peers in the class and asking them why they were there.

00;05;11;15 – 00;05;33;13
Unknown
And, they were there for good reasons, but their reasons were very different from my own. And I realized this isn’t the room I should be in almost right away. So I went home. I tried all weekend to do the first assignment, and at the end of the weekend I dropped out. So that was a transition that I did, for I did.

00;05;33;15 – 00;05;56;07
Unknown
Without fully exploring all of the, content that I was about to be exposed to, but it was kind of an instinctual move, and it didn’t turn out the way I wanted it to, but it did really clarify for me that I did want to go back to school. And based in that experience, I realized it’s not school that’s out.

00;05;56;10 – 00;06;19;15
Unknown
I just made a bad choice. Maybe a first course, maybe a program. And maybe what I needed was something super esoteric and academic. And that’s when I decided to go back and do my doctorate, which took another year. But in that time, I kept working at an organization where I felt supported and valued, and everybody knew that I was going to transition back into school.

00;06;19;15 – 00;06;42;23
Unknown
And it wasn’t a shock because I hadn’t made any secrets of where I was developmentally and where I was internally. And as a result of them having been part of my early attempt to go back into some form of education, they were ready to support me with transition on the other side. So when I went back into my doctoral studies, I still stayed on as a freelancer and supported some work for them.

00;06;42;25 – 00;07;14;00
Unknown
And we had really good. We ended in a really good way when I left that organization. So the way that I transitioned perhaps wasn’t perfect, but it certainly taught me a lot and I have no regrets. And so whenever anyone is thinking about making a change, I always encourage them now to be very thoughtful about your change, not paralysis, you know, no need to make a transition perfect, make any move in the direction of your interests and you will learn something you didn’t know before.

00;07;14;06 – 00;07;31;13
Unknown
It will open a door you didn’t realize was there, and then see how you feel. Assess how you are now that you know what you know and then make the next best decision. Because, nobody can predict the future. I would never have predicted that I would drop out after only three hours in a a pretty well reputed program.

00;07;31;16 – 00;07;36;21
Unknown
But that was the right thing for me to do, and it led to good things afterward.

00;07;39;03 – 00;07;40;29
Unknown
When we’re working through

00;07;40;29 – 00;07;46;01
Unknown
a change in career, how does career development help us with those transitions?

00;07;46;01 – 00;07;51;07
Unknown
How do we decide on a career trajectory? How do we get started with this change?

00;07;51;07 – 00;07;52;25
Unknown
Where do we even begin

00;07;52;25 – 00;07;57;19
Unknown
with a big change like this? And how can a career advisor help us?

00;07;59;23 – 00;08;14;19
Unknown
What we talk about within career development theory is that career development is a lifelong process, and it’s got lots of different steps. And often we jump to the action or the solution step without doing the internal work, which is about self-exploration and really touching base.

00;08;14;19 – 00;08;50;11
Unknown
Again, with your interests, things that you might have forgotten you really loved, but you set them aside for practical reasons, and we tend to psych ourselves out of pursuing lines that aren’t really linear. The reality is, a career trajectory for most of us is this wiggly, beautiful, chaotic mess where we keep learning so you start with yourself. You think about how things are for yourself, your interests, your curiosities, and then you assess your skills and you try to see, you know, a little bit of research what’s out there that matches my skills, my interests, my curiosities.

00;08;50;14 – 00;09;14;02
Unknown
And then, like, get a little bit more active, take a step and a step. Could be a conversation with somebody. A step could be attending an event in community. And it takes you right back to reflection. Where am I now? What do I think? Where am I going? And so it’s there’s the cyclical process. Sometimes we think we go to school, we identify our career, we check that box and we’re done.

00;09;14;04 – 00;09;48;16
Unknown
That is not the way most of us get out of bed in the morning. We’re always in process, right? We’re always in some kind of flow. And when we take the pressure off of making a perfect decision and just accept the journey for what it is, it can be really rewarding. And I think, looking back at my own transition from work into school, I didn’t do enough early exploration about the program that I chose because I think if I’d had a few more conversations and not tried to struggle all by myself looking at websites, I probably would have made a different decision.

00;09;48;18 – 00;10;10;26
Unknown
I learned as a result of it. So I regret nothing, but, I do I do really counsel people just to have conversations with current students, with faculty, with working professionals doing work that you’re interested in whenever you’re thinking about either a career change or, progressing to some more education, to skill you up in an area that you’re curious about.

00;10;10;28 – 00;10;31;24
Unknown
Everyone, whether you have children or no children, everyone has life constraints that differ, right? So there’s it’s a highly unique situation. And as I said, I’m learning about this. So in, in terms of, my role at the university, I’m the director of the career services and co-op team at like at university career development practitioners are certified.

00;10;31;24 – 00;11;11;04
Unknown
They spend years accumulating, theoretical and applied knowledge. When you’re making a thoughtful decision, it really needs to start with a thoughtful individual process. And, accessing some help from a career advisor can really help you with that. Just like you go to a medical doctor for help with a physical condition, you can go to a career advisor for help with your career wellness and something that, if you do a little bit of research on this, you’ll see, was making the rounds about maybe 6 or 7 months ago was to normalize the idea of a career wellness checkup that every year, once a year, you would kind of take some time to check in

00;11;11;04 – 00;11;33;09
Unknown
with yourself if you felt like you were a reflective and didn’t need help with that, or check in with a career advisor and run yourself through for 4 or 5 points. And the first point would be and I should I should preface this by saying, this is all to make sure that you don’t focus only on what’s bothering you about your current career situation, but you try to look at your overall wellness.

00;11;33;09 – 00;11;50;23
Unknown
When you think about your your work wellness or your career wellness, you want to take a step back. Give yourself at least an hour of dedicated time and really think just whatever situation makes you comfortable to to reflect in that way. Is it a cup of tea or is it a nice quiet place? Or is it loud music and a whiteboard?

00;11;50;23 – 00;12;18;18
Unknown
Whatever it is, run yourself through these questions. First ask yourself, how does the work that I’m doing every day interact with my personal values and passions like what matters to me and and how does work align or not with what I think really matters. So, like me, how do I feel about this work? And then secondly, what about your personal growth in the last year?

00;12;18;25 – 00;12;43;00
Unknown
Can you think of something that your work has enabled you to learn or do differently? What are the skills that you’re using well in your work, and have you been using in the last year? And are there other skills that you have that you’ve been missing or seeking to use? Like how how does your how does your personal growth interact with the thing that you’re doing with most of your time, every day?

00;12;43;02 – 00;13;06;10
Unknown
And then we talk about those practical physical needs. Does my job give me the financial means that I need for my every day? Am I paying my bills? Am I okay with my commute? Like, really? Is this working out for me? What about my health and safety at work? Am I in a place where I feel safe and the environment is conducive to my wellness that way?

00;13;06;12 – 00;13;26;23
Unknown
And then ask, is your source? Is your work a source of human connection? How does my commitment to work affect my personal relationships and my non-work connections? Am I able to see friends, family, and do the things that I want to do in terms of my wellness? And then at work, do I have a good sense of belonging?

00;13;26;23 – 00;13;50;14
Unknown
Can I be my full self at work? Are my work relationships lifting me up? And so when you when you sit through and you do that, you walk yourself through just those, those parameters and you can sit and reflect. Do I really need to throw the whole if there’s a, if I have like a hanging toenail, do I have to cut off my whole foot and jump into a new job?

00;13;50;22 – 00;14;16;11
Unknown
Or is there something I can do about that small element just by having a conversation with my colleagues? If or with my partner, if I’m self-employed or with my supervisor, if I’m directly reporting to someone. Maybe there’s a way that just by normalizing how I’m feeling about my job, we can take some steps and then you can evolve within your job and not have to start over necessarily entirely in a totally new situation.

00;14;16;13 – 00;14;38;27
Unknown
If, upon reflection, the things feel so big that your current job just doesn’t have room and space for you to continue to grow and feel fully yourself, that’s when it’s really worth having a conversation with your supervisor about moving on. Additional opportunities would they support you if you found a role within the company, or outside of the company, that would allow you to move in the direction of your goals?

00;14;38;27 – 00;15;02;10
Unknown
When you don’t put it out there, that’s when you get into the situation where you’re just waiting around wondering, why am I not getting promoted? Or why am I not getting the opportunities I’m interested in? If you’re not telling your supervisor that there are things you’re interested in, they may not know that you’re interested in that those sorts of opportunities, when you tell them if they give you the straight deal and they say, oh, I really wish I could provide that to you, but we don’t have that right now.

00;15;02;13 – 00;15;23;07
Unknown
That’s a good opportunity for you to say, is there any way else you can help me and look together for those other opportunities? And just having that conversation provides you with clarity, which will help you when you sit down and you do your work, your work, wellness, self check up and you can decide, you know, overall, this is still really good for me.

00;15;23;14 – 00;15;49;21
Unknown
There’s just that one skill. So perhaps I should pick up an evening or weekend course, work on that one skill that I’m not going to be able to work on at work. Or maybe it’s a volunteer opportunity that provides you with that reward or that refreshment, to fill your cup back up so that you can go into work and do a good job and benefit from a healthy community and connection with people who really know you because you’ve shared yourself and your goals.

00;15;52;14 – 00;15;54;27
Unknown
When it comes to the reflection aspect

00;15;54;27 – 00;15;58;10
Unknown
of what works for us and what we’re seeking out of our work life?

00;15;58;10 – 00;16;00;19
Unknown
Is there such a thing as too much work?

00;16;00;19 – 00;16;02;18
Unknown
Are we supposed to love our job?

00;16;02;18 – 00;16;04;20
Unknown
Can it just be a means to an end?

00;16;06;24 – 00;16;30;19
Unknown
Work is a part of who we are, not 100% of all we do. And I think wellness and work balance as we were talking about a bit earlier, that’s something that every individual defines for themselves. Your work life balance and your sense of that perfect mix will change over time too. And so we don’t try to achieve, I think, I don’t think it’s realistic for us to try to achieve a constant state.

00;16;30;21 – 00;16;52;02
Unknown
You know, we have to allow ourselves to fluctuate and to ebb and flow through, high activity and low activity and allow that to change over time, just like other aspects of our wellness and health will change over time. You know, we talk about workaholics and, slackers, like either end of the spectrum of that kind of that work ethic spectrum.

00;16;52;04 – 00;17;20;27
Unknown
And I’m not I’m not, fan of either of those terms. And, because I think it can be possible for one person to be 100% invested in their work and to not have many relationships outside of work, if they’re their work relationships, if they are happy with that, what’s wrong with that? And and it is possible. And I myself have gone through some of the like working all the time, working less of the time, shifts over my life.

00;17;20;29 – 00;17;38;24
Unknown
It is it is possible for someone to look at you and say you’re working too much and just completely disagree with them because they’re trying to assess what is an appropriate amount for you to work according to their own work yardstick, if you will. Right. And, it’s career development in your in your work wellness. It’s highly individual.

00;17;38;26 – 00;17;56;27
Unknown
As long as you’re not putting yourself at physical risk of harm because you’re not sleeping or not eating. Perhaps I shouldn’t be saying things like this, but I feel like you can work as much as you want and that is okay. We have to take some of the woulda coulda should us out of the conversation and allow individuals to define what is a healthy balance for them.

00;17;56;27 – 00;18;16;21
Unknown
there are people who feel that they need to love their work, and there are people who feel that work is a means to an end. So what I talk about, when I’m when I’m connecting with students or graduates who have questions about what to do next, and they were just like, coming to me as a support in that, in that choice.

00;18;16;24 – 00;18;18;24
Unknown
As I talk about what matters to you,

00;18;18;24 – 00;18;36;17
Unknown
So when you’re starting with your career development process, you start with your values, your interests, and what is it that matters to you? Then we talk about how to make, how to make that goal happen for you. And sometimes in those conversations, depending on the individuals, I say, you know, what do you love doing?

00;18;36;17 – 00;19;02;02
Unknown
And they’re like, what does that have to do with this? I want to have a really practical conversation. That’s all right. Let’s have a practical conversation. What do you need in order to have the life that you dream of? What is it that you’re looking for on a practical perspective? And then there’s other people who are super mission driven and they want to do all the things, from a very, heroic, community minded helping mindset.

00;19;02;08 – 00;19;23;26
Unknown
And I’m painting with a very broad brush here. But I guess my ultimate point is there isn’t a should, in should work B, X, y, and z for all people. Or is it wrong to only feel that you should love your work? I think where we can be led astray is if we try to get, we try to use the same message or slogan when we talk about work.

00;19;23;26 – 00;19;35;07
Unknown
When I was growing up, it was always, women can be everything. You can have it all. You can be whatever you want to be. Follow your follow your heart and you’ll be okay.

00;19;35;09 – 00;19;59;21
Unknown
That assumes a certain amount of privilege in the person who is on that career path. And the practical reality is, for many of us, we need to follow the money because we have bills to pay. And sometimes following your heart can, can you can love what you do and you can be good at what you’re doing. But if you’re not being paid for what you love doing, you have a real problem.

00;19;59;23 – 00;20;17;17
Unknown
So what I talk about with, with folks when we’re trying to find that right mix about work and what kind of jobs they should apply to or where they might want to go next if they’re thinking about a transition, is what can you do? What do you like doing? What can you be paid for and what does the world need?

00;20;17;17 – 00;20;37;22
Unknown
Where do you fall in your skill set in terms of where you are right now and what what is the role not just for paid employment, but for community service and volunteerism in in what you’re doing? And I am a musician, so by no means am I suggesting that you can’t follow a creative career and be really financially stable and really well.

00;20;39;27 – 00;20;40;20
Unknown
Settling

00;20;40;20 – 00;20;41;26
Unknown
on the idea that

00;20;41;26 – 00;20;45;05
Unknown
a change in career is what you need

00;20;45;05 – 00;20;49;10
Unknown
Where do you find support? Where do you get started?

00;20;49;15 – 00;20;54;07
Unknown
When does Lakehead University’s role begin? Do they only help students that are currently enrolled?

00;20;54;07 – 00;20;56;10
Unknown
Is it only for students who have graduated?

00;20;58;14 – 00;21;13;22
Unknown
There’s a lot of free supports in the community. So when students come to Lakehead, they can connect with somebody like me at no charge, right? It’s all in their fees, when they graduate from Lakehead, if you’re a Thunder Wolf, you can come and reconnect with career services. And we won’t turn you away. We will. We will connect with you.

00;21;13;22 – 00;21;39;07
Unknown
We won’t charge you. You’re you’re a graduate. We’re here for you. In the community, Employment Services Ontario provides access to career advising and counseling and support and even practical connections for various career pathways that are in-demand. And often there’s some subsidized training and recertification. So there’s a lot of resources in the community that I think people aren’t aware of.

00;21;39;07 – 00;21;59;04
Unknown
Yeah. And if anyone is struggling with this and they’re like, I’ve been looking on websites, I don’t know what to do. I’m talking to my, the, my trusted inner circle members, and they don’t know what I should do. Don’t disregard the the community services that are available all across Ontario, and in other provinces in Canada as well.

00;21;59;04 – 00;22;20;27
Unknown
I think there’s a real strength in community. And in those conversations, you can get some perspective even just by asking someone, you know, what do you think I’m good at? I have a sense of what my own skills and abilities are, but. But I’m seeing it from the inside and I’m super in my head. So getting a perspective from the outside can be helpful.

00;22;21;00 – 00;22;41;15
Unknown
That’s the when you talk to somebody who knows the labor market really well, knows the opportunities really well, and knows different options of support, you’re not asking them to tell you what to do, you’re asking them to help you, find information you might not be aware of right now. And that’s a way to learn something new which changes your lovely chaotic path.

00;22;41;15 – 00;23;09;04
Unknown
Right? It opens a door. You didn’t realize I do highly recommend accessing in-person or public services that are human, not bought based. But you can you you also do need to look at job boards and see what’s out there and make your own determination based on job postings and there is an equally valid alternative approach where you can go to your local job board.

00;23;09;06 – 00;23;33;11
Unknown
In Simcoe County, where we are based, it’s work in Simcoe County, okay. And you can find aggregated job posts across all industries in our county. And even just reading different job posts and turning off your inner critic and allowing yourself to pay attention to your curiosity, could move you in a direction that you didn’t know was was possible just just by being curious.

00;23;33;11 – 00;23;52;20
Unknown
Because even if you don’t have the skills right now for a job posting that you’re interested in, there is a pathway from your present point to whatever that skill level is. So if your first step is, am I curious about this? Do I like this? And then you explore what is the pathway to getting there? What are the various pathways to getting there?

00;23;52;20 – 00;24;13;07
Unknown
Because there’s always more than one. How much time do I want for this transition? I will often ask somebody, how quickly do I need to make a change? How urgent are you feeling this need for change? And then based on their response, we would pass it forward. So sometimes people walk into the office and they’re like, I’m graduating in two weeks, help!

00;24;13;09 – 00;24;36;05
Unknown
And I say, okay, let’s get you going. But remember, there’s no timeline on my on access to my services so we can lengthen that out a little bit. Sometimes somebody comes in and they say, I’m feeling dissatisfied with my current professional situation. This is especially relevant for grads and I want to make a change within three years. So then we talk about what that looks like, right?

00;24;36;09 – 00;24;45;08
Unknown
There’s so many different ways to get where we’re going and ultimately, if the person involved is feeling like they’re taking an active step forward, it’s a good step.

00;24;45;08 – 00;25;00;05
Unknown
We really recommend that when you’re thinking about career transitions, it can be quite stressful. It’s one of the they say one of the most stressful things is, you know, buying a house, making a job change, having a, you know, family change.

00;25;00;07 – 00;25;29;11
Unknown
It’s getting a job change can be one of the most stressful things. So as soon as someone is an applicant to Lakehead, they and even if they haven’t accepted or declined, I will usually take a referral from our admissions office. If, for instance, let’s say you’ve applied to two programs and you’re trying to decide which one you want to go with, I’ll often sit down with an applicant or potential future student and just listen to them about what their goals are and share some information with them about careers that we have seen connected to those programs.

00;25;29;11 – 00;25;51;26
Unknown
And the thing about university programs is they teach you very broadly transferable skill sets, like really deep skill sets that are, almost always at the top of job postings like communication, creativity, problem solving, teamwork, collaboration. Whether you’re coming right from high school or coming back into university after some time out, as I did when I was making a transition.

00;25;51;28 – 00;26;09;14
Unknown
You know, those broad topics can sometimes be a little hard to translate. So I will sit down with a future student and I will show them school to work, transition tools that are available online through the Government of Canada. Sometimes students need better help to understand where do I go if I graduate with an English degree, for instance?

00;26;09;14 – 00;26;31;00
Unknown
So I’ll sit down with them right as soon as someone is an applicant, it’s never too early or too late for current students to connect with us. We also offer a lot of events before you decide to become an applicant, like open House, at all of our campuses. And that’s coming up and our recruitment team will do some initial conversations with with potential future students.

00;26;31;03 – 00;27;02;17
Unknown
Talk with you about part time options or full time options. Shorter format or longer format courses. So we do offer a lot of supports, and you don’t have to be a current student to start getting engaged with us. And then the other thing that I, that I guess I would, would like to share for people is that whenever I offer other sorts of events in the community, like a career fair or an information session, or like this past weekend we had a science exploration activity whenever possible.

00;27;02;17 – 00;27;26;29
Unknown
That is for anyone who wants to walk in. Lakehead University is Simcoe County’s university. We are here to serve the community. You don’t need an appointment to visit our campus. You can just walk in and talk to the people at the reception desk and say, you have a question about careers connected to our programs, and if I’m on campus, I walk out and I say hello and I either make an appointment if I if I don’t have time to connect with you right then, or I connect with you right then, if I can.

00;27;27;05 – 00;27;32;23
Unknown
So just walk in, walk in and see us as many events as possible or open to the community.

00;27;34;24 – 00;27;42;15
Unknown
those people that know me, know that I made a major career switch within the last year, and I really grappled with it.

00;27;42;15 – 00;27;49;26
Unknown
I struggled with the idea that there would be a loss in knowledge that I had worked so hard to gain over the last eight years.

00;27;49;26 – 00;27;51;12
Unknown
How do I reframe that?

00;27;51;12 – 00;27;55;03
Unknown
if I’m choosing to move into an industry that is not linked

00;27;55;03 – 00;27;56;18
Unknown
to the one I was in previously.

00;27;58;22 – 00;28;10;28
Unknown
So this is where you’ll think about actually, and this is how sometimes we can fall into thinking, this is a loss, right? I’ve just I’ve just tanked ten years of my life into a career that I’ve chosen to step away from it.

00;28;10;28 – 00;28;28;18
Unknown
And if you take a little I don’t know if this is helpful, but if you take for you specifically. But if you take a little, mental shift and you think, what are the skills that I’ve been using in this, in this industry for the last ten years or whatever it is that I’ve really enjoyed? And what am I really proud of accomplishing here?

00;28;28;21 – 00;28;45;00
Unknown
What are the skills that allowed me to accomplish that thing I’m so proud of? Which of these do I want to carry forward with me? We have so many transferable skills, and when somebody is taking a hard, a hard like, let’s say, a hard pivot right out of one sector into another, sometimes we think, oh, it’s totally different.

00;28;45;00 – 00;29;11;07
Unknown
Why would anyone ever hire me for this other sector? Because all my jobs are in this, you know, totally seemingly unrelated thing. There is a lot more connectedness between your skills and you as the individual than we realize sometimes. So, once, once someone has thought about their goals and their aspirations and they’ve really made the decision to leave a sector and go into a totally different one, then the process becomes, okay, let’s let’s establish an inventory of my skills.

00;29;11;14 – 00;29;31;20
Unknown
Let’s creatively think about what I’ve accomplished and how would I present that in a way that’s going to make it clear to this new industry that I have the ability to do the things that are required. And then we work with people about the right format for the resume to be skills leading, not role and title leading, which can sometimes lead to a snap decision contrary to the candidate.

00;29;31;20 – 00;29;50;21
Unknown
Right. So there’s a lot of strategy at play in making a career pivot. And the biggest first step is just not what I don’t have. What do I have and how do I present that in a way that makes my competencies clear. So it’s possible to make a hard pivot or a sudden change. There’s some strategy and there’s a lot of support to help people with that.

00;29;50;24 – 00;30;11;11
Unknown
Don’t be afraid to ask questions, and don’t be afraid to come out to all the activities at the post-secondary or the, educational provider that you’re considering and engage there, because that’s that’s why those activities and events are held and everyone wants to see you succeed. So there’s no stupid question to ask at any of those activities. Don’t be afraid to speak up.

00;30;11;13 – 00;30;28;08
Unknown
If you do have a question. That’s the other thing I would highly recommend people do. It’s okay to make a plan to write. Some people are big fans of career plans and like they want it all mapped out. But I always say a plan, a plan for your career. It has to be a general guideline, you know, add goals and general guidelines.

00;30;28;08 – 00;30;49;29
Unknown
You can have some specific things along the way that you want to do, but you have to give yourself permission to edit and revise. Plans should be guidelines, not planks to walk off of. Start with your curiosity and then explore what is out there and see what resonates with you. Amongst all the many paid opportunities. And there are really well-paying options associated with almost every point of curiosity.

00;30;49;29 – 00;31;07;28
Unknown
So yeah, that’s your starting point. Follow that spark. And it’s also okay for it. Like, you might have a giant spark for the world of theater, but not want to work in that all the time. So think about your vocation and your avocation as you think about all of your all of your, career related activities.

00;31;07;28 – 00;31;11;14
Unknown
what we didn’t really talk about is the role for dreaming in your career planning.

00;31;11;14 – 00;31;47;02
Unknown
Right? And so the one that I did, really by accident, so it’s this is people, people who know me laugh when I start talking about how my dream is to be a hobby farmer, or to have a small farm business to go into an agritourism, something somewhere down the line. Long way in the future. The job that I held that I honestly talk to everyone about as being my happiest job ever, was the summer I spent picking asparagus on a small farm in Cambridge, Ontario, with some friends of mine who were getting married who invited me to join them in the field for the summer.

00;31;47;02 – 00;32;11;16
Unknown
So I was a I was a field hand for a summer. It was the happiest thing I have ever done. It was very concrete. It was at the end of the day I had made food and there were gross things about it, and it was physical work. And, you know, my gloves were they were so crusted with asparagus juice that they would stand up by themselves at the end of my shift, and I was tired and get up really early, like with the sun work all day.

00;32;11;18 – 00;32;41;09
Unknown
But it was very rewarding. And I think somewhere in the back of my head that created the seed of my hobby farm dream. And so that’s something that I did pretty accidentally on a word of mouth recommendation that I wouldn’t have done otherwise. I don’t think I would have applied to that ad otherwise, because I was looking for teaching jobs at that time, and I was playing the occasional gig, and I was not like I was not thinking about labor in that way.

00;32;41;09 – 00;33;01;26
Unknown
I was thinking about professional work or educator’s work. And, that labor job was one of the best things I could have done. And has sparked a dream that I could come back to that kind of work, actually, later on when, when I’m ready to invest in a small farm and enjoy that at all. And maybe someday.

00;33;01;29 – 00;33;02;21
Unknown
Maybe someday.

00;33;05;06 – 00;33;13;26
Unknown
After this conversation, we felt really at peace with the idea of accepting change and moving through change when it comes to careers.

00;33;13;26 – 00;33;17;21
Unknown
It’s really nice to know that there are people there that care and want to help.

00;33;17;21 – 00;33;24;18
Unknown
All the nuggets of information that Jessica shared with us have been so valuable, and we hope that they’re valuable to you, too.

00;33;25;08 – 00;33;44;25
Unknown
Thank you for listening to the entire episode. All the links and info you heard in this conversation will be featured in the show notes on our website. If you’d like to know more about anything we mentioned in this episode, make sure to check Villager Magazine Talks Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you’re listening from.

00;33;44;27 – 00;33;53;19
Unknown
If you’d like to help this podcast grow, consider subscribing to our podcast channels like YouTube or Spotify so you never miss an episode. Thanks again and I’ll see you next time.