For this blog series, I’m going to focus on a coaching client of mine who has seen the highest highs and lowest lows in the past year. In Part One, Todd was fired from his job as an animator with a major movie studio. In the last installment, he began a job search that would bring him back to his roots as someone who drew for a living.
Apparently, there was a time in the world when almost every newspaper had their own editorial cartoonist. Todd thought it would be a wonderful change of pace to draw political cartoons for an adult audience. Then he found out with the exception of a small handful of major newspapers, that job was all but extinct.
Sticking with the newspaper world, Todd submitted a comic strip he had been brainstorming on the side for years. Every newspaper told him they purchased their comics from a distributor and when Todd contacted one of them, he was told of the audition process. Only one out of around 2,000 submissions ever became a comic strip. Todd didn’t like those odds.
The odds of acceptance were much better at the greeting card companies, but considering they would only pay $500 for the rights to art on a card, Todd knew he couldn’t afford that job. He had no interest in fashion design and didn’t have the certification to become a high school art teacher.
After two months of learning the hard way that the old-fashioned way of drawing was not going to pay his bills, he realized that he had to find another line of work. As his coach, I was excited because I knew his drawing days were behind him before he did. It was time for him to explore other passions. Todd and I went to work brainstorming what he cares deeply about. We looked at a few other variables as well. Here is a brief template we used to determine his next step:
List your passions: I knew that Todd liked to draw and he’d mentioned different fishing trips to Northern California to me in the past, but I had no idea what Todd really cared about. We talked about what he wanted to do as a child, and different things that had piqued his interest while he was busy as an animator. We talked about his values and ethics and if social justice should play any role in his next move. I actually got to know him so much better as a person.
Research, research, research: Once Todd established a basic list of things that excited him, he went to work learning more about positions in that field. For instance, with the fishing, there are dozens of jobs that could utilize his skills from opening a bait and tackle shop to being a guide for tourists looking to fish. Todd looked at organizations and companies he was interested in and researched different employment opportunities. Since one of this non-negotiables was that he didn’t want to return to school, he had to research what skills and training were part of every job, too.
Identify goals: There’s nothing wrong with deciding that you want to make a boatload of money and there’s nothing wrong with deciding you want to right the ills of the world. Your goals are uniquely yours. Where would you like to be in a year, five years, or ten years. Are the choices that you’re making now going to help deliver you there or will they sidetrack you? Keeping your eye on the prize, whatever that may be, will help guide the search for a job.