As a Learning Designer, I cannot help but notice that, contrary to popular belief, it’s quite hard to learn from other people’s experiences. Mine have always turned out different from what I could expect after listening to other people’s stories about somewhat similar circumstances or situations. However, other people’s experiences, especially when well-narrated, can be helpful on the irrational level — they may inspire and motivate. Here is my experience of changing countries and careers — without having a plan, understanding myself and having enough experience.
In November 2016, I found myself in London, not the foggiest idea about what I was going to do with myself in the UK. Why I came to London and didn’t have a plan or career lined up is irrelevant, this is just how it was. The only thing I knew for sure was that I didn’t want to continue doing what I had been doing back in Russia — being a teacher of English.
For a while, I was pondering hard where I could apply my experience and expertise, which didn’t seem very sexy to me as I was most experienced in the teaching field and couldn’t boast any jazzy skills like project management, client relations, product design or the ultimate sexy skill — coding. Or so I believed.
For starters, I secured a seasonal two-week contract job as an ESL Teacher for an international language camp — just in case, and to confirm that I was as fed up with teaching as one can get, and a little bit more.
I didn’t know where and how to begin looking for a new career, so, to do at least something, I was attending talks and classes in General Assembly from time to time and browsing LinkedIn, reading through various job descriptions.
And then I stumbled upon a job advert for a learning designer. Boom!
It was then when I realised that I had known all along what I wanted to do. What I didn’t know was that what I had invented in my head, already existed and was in demand. Long story short, in about 2 months I got hired as a (Senior) Learning Design Consultant and started my new career in a busy buzzy start-up in central London.
Entering an industry that you have only an idea of, paired with learning to work in a startup environment in a language that is not your native is indeed a lot of fun, but sometimes can be just a little too much. I’ve had my ups and downs, and this is what I have to say.*
*The ideas below echo the talk “Find Work that Matters in 2017” that I attended in General Assembly at the beginning of 2017.
The Passion Myth
There is a widespread belief that you need to do what you’re really passionate about for a living and only then will you be happy with your work and your life. It is only partly true because, in fact,
passion can be cultivated.
I had a natural inclination to instructional and learning design, plus additional interest in visual and UX design, but I learnt to be passionate about learning new things regularly (I suspect, it’s the Stockholm syndrome in my case as I basically have no choice) so that I could help other people learn in a better way. I chose to become passionate about learning in a broader sense because this mindset stimulates me to create learner-centric learning experiences to the best of my ability, enjoy doing so and thus bring value to companies and their people.
There are plenty of moments in this profession that can be tedious or frustrating–but this is no different from any other profession. Cultivating a passion for the fun bits, and taking care of keeping this passion renewed makes dealing with less fun situations an excellent conversation topic for the after-work drinks.
There is the Only One
No, there is not. I used to believe, too, that there is the job or the career for me and when I find it, I’ll live happily ever after.
With this belief, you inevitably get stuck in the question: How does one stumble across this radically right thing for you to do? Will you recognise it when you see it? Will you feel butterflies in your stomach?… Oops, that’s a different story. Wait, is it though?…
The thing is, there is more than one thing that you could enjoy. Unfortunately, quite often even the most self-aware people don’t know what they don’t know — about themselves, their abilities and what what makes them happy. And this can a positive thing as long as we’re aware of it since it creates space for self-exploration and some breakthrough discoveries about oneself. There are yet many passions to be discovered and cultivated — for everyone who’s looking.
To break out of this myth, you need to do what every single motivation, self-development and the how-to-become-super-successful book tells you: Go out of your comfort zone. And if now you’re thinking now that this is all good and well, but first, you need to get in your comfort zone and yours is nowhere to be seen, so this advice is overused and doesn’t help.
Fair enough. But arguably, where you are now most likely is your comfort zone already. Comfort zone is not about feeling completely happy and satisfied.
It’s about the level of familiarity with your battles — all of them.
If these battles give you grief but you know what they’re bringing — you are in your comfort zone. You might not like the battles, you might dread them coming — but this is happening because you know. I don’t know for sure how to succeed in getting out of where you feel drained by these tedious joyless everyday battles and engaging in new, unfamiliar battles to conquer new, unknown realms. I can only speak for myself.
When I got myself out there on the frontline, it felt neither exciting nor comfortable. But I was rewarded as I found not only a career that I assumed was right for me, but like-minded people who supported me in my pursuit of this career (and the first sign of their like-mindedness was them hiring me despite the formal lack of experience). People matter the most.
I think that, unfortunately, there is no panacea or one-size-fits-all solution on how to find a career that matters to you, makes you happy and opens new possibilities. But you’ll never know what it is until you at least try finding it. Or maybe you already have one — your passion for it just needs a little bit more time and encouragement to grow strong.
