What additional training or education might I need?
And how to find out
I asked ChatGPT what the first 10 questions are that career changers ask. Number five on the list: What additional training or education might I need?
I’m currently in a pivot in my business (want to know more? Go here: A scary roller-coaster (x2), and also: scroll down to the bottom of this post). My inspiration for these posts comes therefore directly from ChatGPT.
UNLESS - of course - YOU tell me what YOUR burning questions are about changing your career!
Next week: How do I update my resume/CV for a new career path?
What questions would YOU like me to give my take on in this newsletter?
So let’s get started …
What additional training or education might you need?
Psychology. Organisational psychology. Spanish. French. Fine art. Illustration.
Over the years I’ve literally considered ALL of these degree choices. I’ve ordered the brochures, read the blurb online, looked for courses close by, considered the finances.
And then there’s the learning I’ve actually DONE:
The ICF (International Coach Federation) accredited coach training and ongoing learning. Creativity Coaching. Positive Intelligence Coaching. Graphic Facilitation. More courses and coaching programmes than I care to remember on how to build and market a business.
And before that: a law degree, courses on feminist classics (you’re not surprised, are you?), qualifications on estate agency and real estate development (yes, really), qualifications on change management and community leadership, courses on communications, presentations, facilitation, equality and diversity and performance management.
Alongside YEARS of evening and weekend classes in painting and creativity.
If you start to add it all up for even ONE person, there’s a LOT of learning in that big head. And THAT’s only the - if you want - formal learning. Which doesn’t come NEAR the amount of learning you do experientially. When on the job. When actually DOING it. When you learned from books, TV, courses online, webinars.
Good girl conditioning
It’s often the first thing we think of. That we need to learn something different. That we haven’t got the skills. We feel like impostors. That if we turn up with our current set of skills we will be (made to) feel horribly inadequate.
We’re all GOOD girls, you see? We’ve been told that if we do our best at school we will do well at work. Girls in schools and universities outshine boys. Have been doing so for years.
Except we’ve been told a lie. Because - as it turns out - our hard work in schools and universities doesn’t help us overcome the (considerable) hurdles in the workplace and society.
Yes, when it comes to hiring people, women are still being recruited on their past experience (have they done the job before?), whilst men are being hired based on their future promise (will they be able to do the job?).
So learning a new skill? Embarking on new learning? Sounds like a GREAT strategy, right? But is it? Or is there something else going on?
(And if you want to learn more about good girl conditioning, you *may* want to read TWO books: Women are angry by Jennifer Cox and Good girl deprogramming by Michelle Minnikin)
Love of learning
I wrote a post on LinkedIn, a long time ago now. In it I talked about my philosophy around learning. When you most definitely SHOULD and when you might want to think again. (Read my philosophy on learning - or rather, embarking on a time, money and energy intensive journey of a new Masters, a PhD, an MBA or university study - here: I’m about to save you money).
I got one angry reaction to that. An indignant lady said: how DARE I restrict her right to embark on a new study! She had done so-and-so study, spent three years enjoying herself enormously, learned so much about learning itself (even though she was ambivalent about the topic itself) and about HERself.
We LOVE learning! Of course we do! We spend the best part of our developing years doing it. We’re good at it. There are set parameters. We know when we’re succeeding. We expand our brains. We learn new material. We meet new people.
I’m not - ever - going to tell you to stop learning.
What I AM saying though is this.
Know what you want - FIRST
Sometimes I come across this phenomenon. Where women KNOW they don’t want to move forward on their career path. But - get this - then decide to embark on studies (an MBA, a Masters) that firmly pushes them forward on that very same career path. Sometimes even paid for by their employer. That same employer they say they no longer want to work for.
They say it’s because they HOPE to find new inspiration in this study, to meet new friends, make new connections, get inspired to do something different.
Hope as a strategy for defining your career trajectory.
You won’t be surprised to learn I’m not a fan.
No, instead I’d like to advocate (say it with me) that you find out what you WANT first. BEFORE you embark on an MBA, a Masters, a new study. If you have to embark on it at all.
Your skills
But say, for argument’s sake that you HAVE done that. You’ve identified you’d like to go down a certain career path, go for a certain (type of) job.
What do you do then?
First of all, there is a reason why I rattled off ALL the formal learning I have done in my career, when I started to write this article. Not to in any way impress you. I have no doubt your qualifications are much more impressive than mine.
But to show you what an enormous list of qualifications and learning you collect over the years. Worth thousands, TENS of thousands of pounds worth of learning. (Not including the tons spent on books. Best not to think about that.) Not that a number like that impresses me much. But what it illustrates is the ENORMOUS amount of learning you do over a lifetime.
As one of the key tasks in my Career Freedom coaching programme, you get to do an inventory of YOUR learning, your skills. Formal and informal. Hard and ‘soft’ skills (read my articles about skills here and here). Gained in your professional or your personal life.
Because - and this is a KEY thing - I believe you already know LOTS! You’ve already got LOTS of skills.
So running off to learn new skills, gain new knowledge? Spend thousands of pounds and LOTS of time again to learn something new? Hang on. Hang on for JUST a moment.
Isn’t it time to start TRUSTING ourselves first? Feel safe with ALL that experience and learning you’ve gained over the years?
Isn’t it time we recognised we already know LOADS? That literally EVERYONE feels like an impostor if they embark on something new? That that is the whole point of LEARNING something?
Is it THIS issue you’re truly grappling with?
What would happen if you trusted, believed in and relied on your own skills and experience?
Would you be so quick to reach for MORE learning, more courses, more degrees and qualifications?
Finding out the true path to your chosen career
‘Finally!’, I can hear you think. ‘She is finally coming round to answering the actual question!’
So, what additional learning and education DO you actually need?
The answer, of course, is: it depends.
By identifying your existing skills and strengths you’ve got a solid basis from which to explore.
And - regardless of the feelings the words ‘career change’ might bring about for you - LOTS of women who go through career changes choose to
Stay in their profession - even though their employer, or contractual relationships change
Make a slight career pivot - using their existing skills and strengths to carve a different path for themselves, or even
Stay in their jobs - but have the tools and techniques to create a better working environment for themselves, so that they can be happier at work
However, if your career change leads to a totally DIFFERENT career path it’s a sound strategy to go and find out what that actually entails. You can do that like this:
Ask AI - Be VERY specific in your prompt to (for instance) ChatGPT. Enter your skills and experience and ask it to compare it to the job description of <enter job title>
Job description - Collect job descriptions and compare YOUR skills set with that required in the job and person description
Talk to people - And yes, my favourite of all, go and TALK to people. Ask them how THEY got there. The path THEY took. What qualifications they needed (and which ones get you nowhere). How LONG it took.
Embarking on years of training or education requires an informed decision about the time, energy and money investment required. Which in turn informs how LONG it will take until you will have MADE that transition.
If you want to change careers quickly you *may* want to consider in-between steps that will take you into your chosen direction. With or without the need for formal learning.
If you have got longer or if a formal study is imperative (architects and doctors anyone?) you know what to do.
And if your chosen career path takes too long for you, you may want to consider alternatives that would give you the same fulfilment and happiness. But in a fraction of the time.
Because I believe that there are MANY jobs, careers and professions you would be GREAT at, would LOVE and be happy in.
The trick is to choose which paths towards these careers fit you and your timescales, your financial situation or your energy levels.
So that you can be happy with the choices you’ve made. Until you make the next one.
THAT, my friends, is my take on additional training and education.
And if you want to get clear on what YOU want, let’s talk!
Ready?
Tineke X
Get involved
Doodle your Journey
What are you doing next Saturday 30 November at 2 pm UK time? I LOVE being creative in the weekends. What I love even more is being creative TOGETHER!
So come and join me in my ‘Doodle your (career) journey’ workshop in which we’re going to do literally that: talk about our journey, learn to draw some basic icons and draw YOUR career journey.
More info here: Doodle YOUR journey
The Artist’s Way Group
It’s one of the Six books that shaped my life: The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. It’s why I started The Artist’s Way Group back in 2023.
The waiting list for my The Artist’s Way Group is filling up week by week.
Do YOU want to experience the power of this life-changing book and discover and recover YOUR creativity?
If there’s enough interest I *might* start our 2025 group earlier than planned, in January instead!
Join the waiting list and I’ll keep you informed.
Other things of interest
Books
Read the latest book review here: Women are angry by Jennifer Cox
Article
Read this (timely!) article in which I contribute to a discussion on how learning can be beneficial to your career (oh, and a lot of FUN too!). You can read it here ‘Today I learned’
And a sneak preview:
I am building something new!
It’s a community, which I have called ‘Change Artists’. A community that you get DIRECT access to when you sign up to my PAID version of this newsletter from January 2025.
You’ll get access to the community, to our monthly Ideas Club and the online Book Club (all to be revealed over the coming weeks).
During 2025 the REST of the Change Artists community will become the home of ALL my programmes and courses, with a flexible set up in which you can decide to sign up to ONE (or more) programmes or sign up for the full membership.
But I’m saying too much! For now? Don’t want to miss out? Pledge your support for this newsletter and you’ll be IN when we get started with the Clubs in the Change Artists Community next year. Just hit the Subscribe button to pledge.
See you there?
🔴🟡🟠
Tineke Tammes is a Career & Creativity Coach and supports professional women in making successful transitions to careers of Freedom, Flexibility and Fulfilment! Besides that she is also a lifelong feminist, part-time portrait artist, never-only-read-one-book-at-any-time reader, and obsessive doodler.
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