#feelthefear
By: Arti Kumria
Tags: Women In Leadership, Gender Equality, Career Advice, Careers, Supreme Court

Then do it anyway. Because the best and the brightest are always the ones who took a chance when they felt fear. If they felt fear and stayed where they were, they would become one of the masses. Like everyone else. Mediocre. That’s not you. Crippling fear is good for you.

Keep at it even if you ask yourself, ‘can I do it?’ You’re better and braver than most. Credit: energepic.com/Pexels

You might think the cards are stacked against career shifting, with certain industries still demanding recent or directly relevant experience to let you get your foot in the door. But make your case for ‘transferable skills’. We’ve all heard that before — those abilities that transcend industries and are valuable in any job — but these really are assets. Communication skills, being a team player, judgment and initiative, for example, can all be taken from one professional role to the next.

I know, I know, you think that if you choose a certain path, that’s it for a few years. The pressure of time will needle in the back of your brain; your time is running out. If I choose this field, will 10 years go by and will I have wasted that crucial career-building decade if it proves not to be the field for me?

Here’s the thing: if it is the career for you, you’ll be eternally grateful you had the courage to feel the fear and do it anyway. If it isn’t completely the career for you, at a minimum, those transferable skills will have been honed, fresh contacts formed (often it is strangers who can see who we are becoming), and the hidden ability or interest that was there all along will reveal itself (see #relentlessorreinvent). You’re on the right track.

This reckoning will also have served a purpose: to show how much you’ve accomplished in a field that may not have been quite the right fit, then allowing you to realise you need something more before leaping. You can claim adaptability and resilience. You’re better and braver than most: many people fail to change — they’re either unwilling or unable — and remain stuck in their careers. You’re already one step ahead. Everything is about to get good.

Those years weren’t wasted, they were preparation for designer Vera Wang. Credit: Vera Wang

Plus, loads of peeps have come late to the game — and made it. Bridalwear designer Vera Wang was a figure skater and senior fashion editor at US Vogue before starting her label at age 40. Clearly, her sense of couture was apparent but she wasn’t in the exact place she needed to be to rise to greatness. Her 17 years at Vogue sharpened her eye, intro’d her to the right peeps and gave her cred to build her business name. Those years weren’t wasted, they were preparation.

Take heart that you’re not alone. Harvard Business Review vouches that nearly everyone who tries to figure out their next career takes a while to find one that is truly right. Most transitions take about three years. We take two steps forward and one step back, and where we end up often surprises us.

So keep at it even if you ask yourself, ‘can I do it?’ This is the most important internal conversation you’ll need to have with yourself. Everyone has this niggle at some point. Whether for a new role, promotion or career change, internal feelings of insecurity or inadequacy can creep into your head and fill it with negative thoughts. The ‘imposter syndrome’ is a thing for a reason.

Even for the unflappable Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the first Hispanic jurist appointed to the US Supreme Court. Despite over 40 years of legal experience, including nominations by President Clinton to the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and President Obama to the US Supreme Court, she readily admits to feeling like a fraud. Growing up in the Bronx in NYC, Sonia didn’t even think she was good enough for Princeton University.

In her own words: “I have spent my years since Princeton, while at law school and in my various professional jobs, not feeling completely a part of the worlds I inhabit. I am always looking over my shoulder wondering if I measure up.” That’s from someone who found her thing at an early age so it’s totes understandable and expected that the voice of doubt would sneak into the head of a career shifter.

Even if doubt creeps in, isn’t it better to be excited and terrified at the same time? Answer that voice with a firm, ‘why not me?’ Because for some peeps (like you), average is not enough. They want to be part of the crack team, the A-team that is looked upon with envy. Colleagues, juniors and headhunters come to them because they’ve become masters in the right field. They are da shit and everyone in the company and, possibly, the industry knows it. They are the ones who command more respect, more admiration and, yes, more money. Plus you want to be happier, more impactful and more skillful, right? They’re the keys to career satisfaction. That’s why it’s time to make your move.

In any case, your entire being may not let you off the hook. It’ll keep at you with the ‘is this it?’ question, which is just another way of reminding you that it’s defo time. You are craving more.