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The Library Vacation™
By Nick Corcodilos

Part 1

People often make the mistake of asking a headhunter, "What new career should I pursue?" It's important to understand why that question will lead a headhunter to hang up the phone.

Headhunters rarely recruit people from one career to another. Headhunters' clients would never stand for it. A headhunter's clients want the best people who are already doing a particular kind of work to come do it for them. Consequently, headhunters usually move people within a career domain, not outside it.

Nonetheless, when I offer to let people "ask the headhunter", this question comes up all the time. (Too often, people ask it after they've spent thousands of dollars on career counseling.)

Pack a suitcase for one.
I believe the choice of a new career is a very personal decision. The best career counselors might give you some food for thought, but I believe that the motivation a person needs to tackle such an enormous, life-altering challenge lies -- almost by definition -- within himself. The search has to be self-directed. In other words, you'll never find what you're looking for if you let someone else point you toward what he thinks you're looking for.

If you want to make a profound change in your career, you've got to buck up, put on a sturdy pair of boots, and go searching on your own. There's lots of philosophizing to do on this subject, but I'd like to suggest one idea that might help you find your own way to the future.

I call this approach to career change The Library Vacation™. It's a little corny, it's very simple (though not easy), and it's so obvious that few people ever think to do it. It's also incredibly powerful because it is rooted in who you are.

Destination: Off the path.
Take at least three days off and spend them at the library. (A week is better.) Go into the periodical stacks. Forget about job hunting or careers. (This is the vacation part.) Read whatever you feel like. At first, you'll start with magazines like People, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, foreign newspapers and so on. Then, you'll start checking out various specialty and industry-related periodicals. Just read stuff that attracts you.

The best way to find a new path is to let your motivation lead you. Leave your skills, your college degree, your experience and your credentials behind. You can haul them out later, when you need them. For now, they're irrelevant.

As you follow your gut, you'll start to see trends in the sorts of industries and product areas you're reading about. That will tell you something: this might be your path.

Once you've identified an industry and product area that draws your attention, actively explore the best companies in that business. (Again, forget about jobs and careers for now.) Ask the reference librarian to help you find detailed analyses of the companies. Start digging in depth. You'll encounter the names of companies and people in the industry. Jot these down along with questions you'd ask them if you could. Keep digging and exploring. (If your target companies are privately held and there's little written about them, there's still a way to research them: Scuttlebutt: Getting the truth about private companies.)

Study what you find.
Stop and ask yourself, could I see myself working in this business? Odd as it might seem, forget about your skills at this point. Instead, figure out what kinds of work and tasks are regularly performed at these companies. What do these companies do to be successful? Study the details of the work. Break it down into the most fundamental tasks you can.

Only by understanding the industry, the business and the nitty-gritty details of the work can you really evaluate whether a certain career might be right for you. If you start by worrying about your skills (or lack of skills), your search will be doomed. Remember: old skills can be re-organized and new skills can be learned, but the motivation which drives you to success must come from within. Tap into that motivation first.

Blaze the trail with your bare hands.
Only at this point in your exploration should you take a look at who you are and what you're good at. Proceed by focusing on the business and work that you've found so interesting. Now pretend you've been challenged to do that work using only what you already know. How would you do it?

This is akin to being choppered onto a desert island to live there for a month, all by your lonesome. How would you survive, using only what you know and what's in your pockets?

Lay out a plan. (Since you're not really on a desert island, write or draw this out on a piece of paper.) Forget about your lack of specific education and training. You're on that desert island and you're hungry: how are you going to do the best you can to survive?

This is where your real skills will surface: your creativity and your problem solving abilities. Map these onto the job as you understand it. Outline how you would do the job the first day, the first week, the first month. How would your approach be profitable to the company?

Go to Part 2: Mix it up with the natives

NOTE: The Library Vacation is a trademark of North Bridge Group, Inc.

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