“It’s insane to think that we should know what we want to do forever or that it’s somehow a better life or we’re a more successful person if we’ve done one thing. I mean, it’s really just outdated. It doesn’t make any sense. You know that’s not true.” – Alexandra, episode 5 of the 50 Conversations podcast for career changers
In my podcast for career changers, there’s a reoccurring theme when it comes to our careers: lifetime careers no longer exist. And while we all kind of know that, it’s so damn refreshing to hear people talk about it openly. It’s even better to hear how people have adapted to this new world of multiple career changes.
I’ve been slowly releasing episodes from my podcast for career changers over the past four months. The goal of the podcast is to both normalize career changes and show the many ways people make a career change.
In the podcast, I ask guests who have changed careers exactly how they did it. It’s a casual conversation, usually under 20 minutes, and perfect for a commute. We chat about the ups and downs of career changes, the many ways to learn new skills, the process of upskilling, and always end with outstanding advice for career changes.
My podcast for career changers is like having a career coach in your pocket; you’re sure to find something in these episodes that resonates with you. It’s better than taking a career assessment any day.
So I’m sharing a round up of episodes that shows you the many ways to change careers. Whether you’re the person who needs a career change but don’t know what to do or someone who just needs career change help these are the podcast episodes for you.
If you want to change careers but just don’t know where to start you’ll enjoy Kori’s advice in Create your own career opportunities: How to find the possible paths. As with all the episodes, it’s packed with advice for career changers. She nails it with this quote:
“A lot of people are like “What should I do?” as if there is a right answer.”
If you’re thinking about a midlife career change and wondering should I change careers? then listen to Don’t get too comfortable: How to make a change in the middle of your career. You’ll love how Stephanie walks through how to choose a career path.
If you are worried that making a career change at 30 or 40 is too late, definitely listen to The Twists and Turns of a Creative Career. In it Aimée talks about going back to school in her 30s.
She shares one of my favorite quotes on making a career change at any age:
“It’s like the idea of 35 being too late for you to go back to school to me is crazy because I think about life expectancy these days. It’s like, what else you’re going to do. We should be so lucky to live to seventies, 80s, nineties. 35 is a drop in the bucket for you to go figure out stuff.”
If you’re looking for the best careers to retrain for listen to Jeremy’s episode on learning data science. In it, he talks about attending a data science bootcamp and the cutting edge field of conversation design.
Check out Alexa’s episode where she talks about how to switch careers into the field of UX research. I love how she talks through how to choose a bootcamp. She drops the truth about why she chose not to go back to school for a career change:
“I realized that going back to school and getting $50,000 in debt was not for me.”
If you’re curious about coding bootcamps also have a listen to Jennifer’s story. She transitioned from a clinical psychologist to a full stack developer via a bootcamp. And if you don’t know what that means, don’t worry, she’ll tell you exactly what a full stack developer does. It’s one of the most in-demand roles in the country right now.
Also have a listen to Megan’s story about changing from flight attendant to UX/UI engineer. She gets real about what led to her career change and also challenges our lifetime career model:
People say the word careers as if it means lifetime. And it doesn’t. I think we need to change our perspective on that.”
The above episodes are good introductions to what it’s like to attend a bootcamp as a career changer. Bootcamps are popular ways to switch careers without experience.
If you’re interesting making a career change without a degree, listen to Lissa’s story. She’s become a master of business ops and found career change opportunities along the way.
If you’re curious about international careers, listen to Amy’s story about changing from a professional chef to working at the UN. You’ll get an idea about the different types of international careers that are possible, even later in life.
If you’re unsure about leaving your current field but still want to make a change, listen to the episode on boomerang careers with Kristi. The takeaway: you can always come back to what you left. Plus we burn down the career escalator metaphor.
If you’re thinking about starting a side hustle as a step towards a career change, listen to Zeba talk about her work as both a scientist and founder of a shoe-design company that she started as a side hustle.
If you’re a person who has multiple passions and can’t settle, you’ll be validated by Lindsey’s career change story. She talks about her career switch from budget finance to career coaching at a university. Her words resonated with me so much:
“You can see a pattern maybe in my story is just that I am passionate about a lot of things and I think I can do a lot of things. So, I just kind of follow my heart.”
If you’re curious how to keep learning in your career then listen to Ramesh talk about his learning mindset. You’ll hear refreshing advice like this:
“Don’t spend thousands of dollars on a masters degree immediately. There are so many cheap, fast ways to learn about an industry. Shadow somebody. Volunteer. Listen to podcasts. Read blogs. Talk to someone in the industry. Watch YouTube videos. Take Lynda courses. All of this can be accomplished with almost zero money or a few hundred dollars. It’s better than spending $50,000 in one year and realizing this isn’t what you want to do. Be creative.”
If you’re in a traditional field like teaching, listen to Megan’s story about transitioning from teaching to IT. She shares how she did it while being a mom to two kids and without going back to school.
And lastly if you’re looking for tools to use in your career change process, you’ll definitely want to hear how Lindsey changed careers from editor to international career coach. She’ll walk you through how to use one of the most powerful tools in your career change: conversations. The best part? She’s an introvert and she breaks down the idea that you have to be an extrovert to do it (you don’t!)
The podcast for career changers continues in 2020
These are only the first 15 episodes and there’s 35 more to go. Interested in sharing your story?
I start recording again in January 2020.
If you’ve changed careers, I’m looking for a more guests to share their story. In particular I’m looking for stories about:
- Learning new skills via Udemy, Coursera, or other online learning platforms
- Changing careers without going back to school
- Developing new skills at work and changing within your organization
- Recruiters who hire career changers from non-traditional backgrounds (bootcamp grads, online learners)
- Career changes in your 40s or 50s
- International career changes
- Nontraditional career paths with multiple changes
I’m particularly interested in interviewing BIPOC and LGBTQ guests.
At this time I am not interviewing people who started their own business. You are all bad ass but not my target audience for this round of interviews.
You can listen to 50 Conversations, the podcast for career changers, on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and directly at www.50conversations.com.
Plus, follow along on Instagram where I’ve got a bunch of different fun going on in 2020.