How to choose your career: Interview with Dr. Cathy Goodwin
In 2018, I published a book about how to choose your career. In 2024, I moved the content to this site. Below is the interview with Dr. Cathy Goodwin.
Why do you think so many people have such difficulty with career decision-making?
People are placed in situations that are completely new to them. Career choices today differ from what their parents had and they’re even different from a few years ago.
Also, career change is a totally different process from career progress in a company. Most people know the rules for achieving career success, but they don’t know how to change careers, and often there aren’t any rules.
If someone hires you to help them with their career, what process do you use to assist them?
People hire me for one of two reasons.
Reason #1: They're in a crisis, such as an imminent layoff or performance review.
For example: Bill has been working for the same company for over ten years, getting nice raises and reviews each year. Then last year he gets surprised with a low performance review and soon after he's placed on a Performance Improvement Plan.
Step 1: Play detective. When a crisis happens, we need to explore what's really going on. Has Bill suddenly stopped performing well? Did the job requirements change with no warning? Did the company experience a transition, such as a big loss or a merger? Did he get a new boss who comes with a new set of expectations?
Almost always, there's an agenda. Once we know the agenda, we can move on.
Step 2: Find the client's long-term goals. Does Bill want to stay with the company? Has he been secretly hoping something like this would happen so he'd have an excuse to leave the corporate world and move to Tahiti? Does he want to stay but with a different job? Or does he just want the whole thing to go away and return to "life as we knew it?"
Some of these options will be more realistic than others. But we need to know this before doing other things. Ideally, Bill will call me early in the process—within days or weeks of a negative review. The earlier we begin, the more options he'll have. One client called a full year after getting a performance review; by then she was on a plan and her options were severely curtailed.
Step 3: Analyze the client's position within the company. I've had clients who ignored their reviews, after we talked. One client had been recruited by the CEO at great expense. Everyone knew her supervisor was impossible to please. She was well-connected, and she easily negotiated a transfer to a new department, which soon led to more promotions. At the other extreme, some clients need to plan an exit strategy.
Step 4: Make an action plan, based on Step 3.
I wrote an entire book about what to do if you receive a negative performance review. The goal is to read between the lines of a bad review and sort out the implications for your long-term career goals.
Reason #2: The client's under no pressure but starts to feel restless.
For example: Miranda's tired of being a lawyer; her particular specialty has a lot of boring, repetitious grunt work. It's not realistic for her to change fields and she's thinking of running from the law, she says.
Step 1: Most likely Miranda has some ideas and inklings of what she'd like to do. Our first step is to identify what those are. Some will be ruled out immediately (airline pilot? beach bum?) as soon as Miranda says them aloud. We also look at the limits on Miranda's options, such as family, children, location and her own temperament.
Step 2: Miranda makes up a list of three top choices to explore first. We set up a plan of exploration, which might include informational interviewing. If we have just one session, we stop here; there's some email follow-up built into each call, and many clients are just fine on their own after this. Sometimes Miranda and I will work together to define her next step.
Step 3: If Miranda wants additional support, we review her progress through her exploration. If she's stuck, often it's just a matter of tweaking her approach. As she rules out one option, we replace them.
While going through this process, clients who have an open mindset and a genuine motivation almost always have something fall into their lap or cross their path. It's not overnight; the process can take months (although some people find answers quickly).
For clients who don’t want to hire a career consultant, it is possible to use books to work through this process on their own. For example, I published a 21-day career makeover that outlines the steps.
You also wrote a book about intuition in career decision-making. How can someone know when their intuition is trustworthy instead of just wishful thinking?
Great question. The simple answer is that first, your intuition speaks in code. It's tricky because your code is unique to you. Keep track of your intuitions and inklings and see how they turn out. For instance, let's say you usually have trouble sleeping the night after you just made a big decision. For some people, that's a sign you're headed for disaster; for others, it just means you're taking a big step. And for some, it's actually a sign you made a good decision.
Second, your intuition comes from you. When you hear, "My intuition for you is ... " start running for the nearest exit.
If you could wave a magic wand and have everyone follow two pieces of your career advice, what would they be?
Advice #1: Don't expect a linear path to career change; be open to serendipity.
For example, I once knew someone we'll call Susan. When I met her, she was doing graduate work in religious studies at a top university. She left that program to move to the Southwest U.S. and build a career as a massage therapist. Back then, the state she chose didn't require a license. However, Susan eventually became licensed and achieved great success. We lost touch for several years, and I saw on the internet that she had somehow gone to law school and was now practicing corporate law in a large northeastern city.
Research shows that people are more likely to fall into careers than to plan them. My dog walker began teaching elementary school; she started walking the neighbor's dogs for extra money and because she just liked animals. Today she runs a little dog walking empire, and she earns far more than she did as a teacher.
Of course, you don't have to give up on all career planning and leave everything to chance. When you actively begin searching for a new career, you'll keep bumping into things. And when you recognize your own needs and desires, you'll appreciate serendipitous events.
Advice #2: Recognize that unwritten rules are more important than written rules.
When you're getting ready to change careers, you'll hear a lot of advice to find out about different fields. Often you'll get the party line: "We look for people with degrees," or, “There's a lot of demand for people in that field." But the reality will be quite different. Some companies and some career fields have unwritten rules about who gets hired—where they went to school, a certain style, or knowing how to dress. And nobody will tell you, "They hire no one over 40," or, "They'll never bring a woman into that position."
You'll also see stereotypes, such as, "Accountants are introverts," and "You have to be extraverted to go into sales." Or, "Your test scores say you don't have an aptitude for math." Ignore all that kind of advice.
The same holds for challenges within a company. Often the party line is, "Ask your supervisor," or, "Go to HR." Sometimes that's good advice. But your challenge involves figuring out how things are really done. Who's got the power? Who makes the decisions? What's considered normal?
For example, when you get a negative performance review, you have to look at the informal rules. In some organizations, new people always get negative reviews because some misguided manager thinks it's motivational. In some organizations, it's a good idea to write a legalistic rebuttal to your review; in others, you're rewarded for “taking it on the chin." Some words on your review will be code for "about to be fired." Others will be, "This is just the way we talk around here; ignore it." Sometimes you get a negative review because you're the highest paid person in your department and the manager can't give you a raise, so they save the good reviews for your colleagues. They'll rarely admit it.
In your own career, is there anything you wish you could go back and do differently?
It’s hard to say because I wish I’d done some things earlier, but we forget that some career paths were not open to women when I started out. I’d have gotten a doctorate earlier and been more entrepreneurial, but I had no role models for either.
Any other advice for readers of this book?
Your intuition is your best career guide.
And if you really hate your job, pay attention! You will sabotage your success. I am not saying taking a big leap and quit: Just take notice.
Dr. Cathy Goodwin, a strategic storyteller, former marketing professor, and copywriting expert, provides career planning, career advice, and career information to midlife professionals, business owners, and executives.
