Navigating Change – Careers in Transition. Vancouver Chapter January Event Recap

Over 60 attendees joined us at our January 23rd event tailored for women who are looking to make a change in their careers. Speaker Darelle Odo, Co-op Coordinator and Instructor with SFU’s Beedie School of Business, shared the 4 key steps to planning a career transition.

 

They are:

1. Finding Your Path. Goals become much easier when you know where you are going. In this section, we had attendees fill in concrete steps they have or will take towards reaching their career goals.
2. How to Get There. Evaluate your current resources! Darelle defines the two main categories as People and Capabilities, who’s in your network who can help you, and when the opportunity comes, do you have the skills/capabilities to capture it?
3. Weighing Your Options. Attendees selected the various factors that go into their decision-making process when evaluating a prospective new job/career to create a weighted matrix. From the commute to the benefits, salary to growth potential, different things appeal to different people, but it’s important to define what your must-haves are.
4. Taking the Leap. Often the hardest thing to do because most of us get stuck at step 3 and end up evaluating our options for an extended, really extended, period of time. Here, we added an element of accountability at the roundtables by asking attendees to exchange business cards with another person at their table and write down a commitment they must do by April 23rd. Great way to make new connections and have someone to hold you accountable!

 

Throughout the 1-hour workshop, attendees shared useful tips with each other, leaning into the spirit of the cause, where women are there to empower other women. Here are some nuggets of wisdom shared by our attendees.

 

“One mentorship opened up a world of opportunities and an entire network to me.”

 

“No one ever told me we have to be firm with what you want when meeting with a recruiter, because some of them do take advantage of you.”

 

“I experimented by taking on a role for half a year in an industry I thought I wanted to be in, and it turned out after 6 months that while the industry wasn’t for me, I discovered new skills I loved doing which helped in my eventual transition.”

 

“Make it known to your company what you want because they want to keep staff in the company, and you can transition between departments, where you gain valuable insight into the workings of both departments and add even more value to the company.”

 

“I quit my job two weeks ago with nothing else lined up. I didn’t have the mental space to think about all the things we are going over now, so I am really glad I did it.”

 

Darelle wrapped her presentation with an impactful quote, which we would love to share with those of you who are still on the fence about whether or not to make your move.

 

“There are people out there less qualified than you doing the things you want to do simply because they believed in themselves. Period.”

 

So, what are you going to do?