Half-baked Musings #11

Confessions of a serial job switcher: Part 3

Dear Readers,

By my late twenties, my pattern of jumping jobs and changing career paths had become almost predictable. Yet the most unexpected swerve came when my husband’s company relocated him to London last year, a move that had always been on the cards, but materialized earlier than expected. This time change had sought me. And the irony only intensified when my job search was interrupted and then entirely derailed by the pandemic, resulting in my most recent -  this time entirely accidental - career change. 

My switch was, in a sense, serendipitous as my latest gig as an education counselor was in a field I had briefly traversed some years back and even considered turning into a full-fledged career. Now coming back full circle, the role almost felt tailor-made for me in an industry that was a fertile ground for career changers. 

Six months in, when offered the opportunity to turn what began as an eight-month stint into a full-time job, it felt wise to heed the same advice I had so often doled out to others and dive in fully. But as exciting as the initial foray had been, my new path demanded a degree of reinvention that even I, the career-chameleon, was not prepared for.

Part of this was because of the existential vacuum that big life changes often create, but I had somehow escaped despite my many pivots. Maybe it was just a matter of time, or in this case timing, since the end of my first application cycle coincided with London’s most frigid lockdown. With no impending deadlines and complete autonomy over my days, my newly vacant mind had many a place to wander and the headspace to entertain self-doubting questions that I had seldom contemplated before.

The other part was the optics surrounding my new profession, as I had essentially quit the corporate world and all the prestige that came with it to join a one-person outfit with virtually no recognition outside the sector it operates in. And while such labels mean little to me (something I dwelled on in my last post), it was hard to not internalize the voices of skeptics in the midst of my looming impostor syndrome. The feeling that I had settled for something less ambitious, because its growth path was less defined. Or that I had deviated too far from my previous worlds and given up a shot at carving any real niche for myself. 

This is the point where you may expect the life-affirming lessons that helped me to break through my self-invented career wall. But waiting for this epiphanic moment is precisely why I held off on sharing this series in the first place, believing that this story would be unsubstantial without some LinkedIn-style feel-good advice or realization. The simple and somewhat amusing reality is that after spending an entire career spinning stories, in some form or another, the one I struggled most to make sense of was my own. And while it has been a journey with more curves than straight lines, it is a mess that I can now recognize, accept and find solace in sharing.

Happy reading, reflecting and overcoming all your career and mid-life crises (but hopefully not having them at all!)

Yours half-baked,
Saanya