How to: Have Radical Career Change

If you find yourself in a slump with your career or not liking your job, you cannot afford small measures of change. This post discusses how your job is directly related to your health and well being, affording your future, the gender pay gap, and why radical change is needed when jump-starting your career planning and career ambitions. 

Connection Between Your Job and Health/Well-Being 

Your career is directly related to your quality of life. How? Your job pays you an income; the higher the income, the more you can afford, translating into more options in life. More options for your health and well-being.

Money gives you access to live the life you want. Gym memberships, psychologist/counsellors, massages, vitamins, trips abroad, dining experiences … all of this is paid for from your income. Even ‘free time’ requires money because you need to be able to afford ‘free time’ - I.e. can you still make rent, afford food if you gave yourself ‘free time’?

The more you do that makes you happy, the better your life will feel. It takes money to do the things that bring you joy. 

• Lesson: earn more so you can live well.

Affording Your Future: Today’s Job, Finances Tomorrow’s Life 

Even more important is that your job today will be funding your life tomorrow, i.e.  your retirement. 

The more money you make today, the more you can afford to save, the more you have to invest. You cannot afford to stay put in your career slump, or stay at the same level of pay every year (and I didn’t even mention inflation, or how women/marginalized people statistically make less than their white male peers). 

Not only can you save and invest more, earning more means you can retire FASTER. Imagine being able to live your best retirement life 2, 5, even 10 years sooner!

Your future self will thank you for valuing career planning today. 

Gender Pay Gap 

Now, turning to the pay gap … if you are a woman, your earnings take a hit compared to a man doing the same job, statistically speaking. Statistics Canada data from the Labour Force Survey looking at a data set range of 1998 to 2020, showed that. “female employees in Ontario earned $0.89 for every dollar earned by men in 2020.” 

Source: Pay Equity Office of Ontario, https://www.payequity.gov.on.ca/en/LearnMore/GWG/Pages/default.aspx

What does this actually mean? It means it will take a woman longer to achieve any financial goal, like taking that fabulous trip, like buying a house, like how much food gets put on the table, like retirement … compared to a man. 

If you are part of a racialized group, the same type of impact applies. This is called the racialized pay gap. 

For more information, check out the Canada’s Women Foundation for more information.  

• Lesson: Because statistically in Canada, a woman earns less than a man, it becomes IMPERATIVE for women to think about earning more. Unfortunately, this is true in most countries across the globe.

Radical Change

Many people do not know where or how to start with their career planning. Others are nervous and stuck in a place of anxiety. Why? It’s easier to do what we know, than to change and do something different. What is familiar to us, is comfortable for us, even if it doesn’t benefit us. 

But if you keep doing the same, more of what you know, how will this produce different results? 

That is why radical change is needed to help you discover future opportunities through active and engaged career planning. 

Radical change looks like speaking to your own network, family and friends, and asking them how they networked in their careers? What was helpful for them? Radical change looks like reaching out to your professors or colleagues and asking them to share tips and strategies on how to network. Radical change is valuing yourself and knowing you deserve more.

Radical change looks like working with a professional and learning from them how to make your specific situation different. It is upgrading your resume, cover letter, and creating strategies on how to find and land the job you want. If you’d like help on your own radical change, you can connect with me to create an action plan that is right for you.

This is your one life … Do your best and have fun!