How to Make a Career Pivot

During the Great Reshuffle, millions of people decided that it was the right moment to make a career pivot. But outside of once-in-a-lifetime global shifts, how do you know when it’s time to pivot? And how to you begin to make a change?

This week, Jenny Blake, author of the book Pivot: The Only Move that Matters is Your Next One joins Andrew to get into her own pivot-filled career journey and advice for people considering making changes of their own.

Pay Attention to Your Boredom

When you start feeling like your day-to-day workload is no longer interesting, or your attention starts to wander, take note. That is usually a sign that you need to look elsewhere in order to keep growing your skills and talents. As Jenny says, “if we could embrace that and then embrace a shared language to talk about change …then we could all relax a little bit and just have less of that external blame and shame.”

Dip a Toe with a Pivot Experiment

A good framework, suggests Jenny, is asking yourself about the 3 E’s in your current job: “Do I enjoy this? Is there room to expand (and do I want to), or can I become an expert at it?” Then, start making little changes to get yourself to a “yes” answer.

You Can Find Clues Everywhere

In order to figure out what to pivot to, keep your inspiration open. Results of personality tests, your favorite TV shows, what energizes you in your daily life – all of these can be useful for figuring out what your next move is.

Say No to Say Yes

Sometimes, Jenny points out, you need to say “no” to something that feels like a good thing in order to say “yes” to what might be next. Intelligent risk is rarely a bad call.

An Object In Motion Stays In Motion

Sometimes a first decision, or micro-pivot, can set you in motion to make future changes feel less daunting or difficult. Or at the very least, it can get you unstuck.

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