✦Career · 12 recordsChange career

A career change fails either by never starting or by leaping without checking. This does the checking first — conversations and one small piece of real work — and only then invests in the qualification or the portfolio.

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✦ Everything it creates

The whole plan, before you install it

Goal

Get paid for work in the new field Month 6

One real piece of paid work, however small. Not a certificate.

Test the direction Month 2

Cheap checks, before anything is committed.

  • List the questions I would need answered to commitDo firstDay 3
  • Talk to three people already doing this workDo firstWeek 4
  • Do one small piece of the actual work, unpaid if neededWeek 8

Close the gap Month 6

Only the training and evidence the conversations proved I need.

  • Decide what is genuinely missing, and what is just nervesDo firstMonth 2
  • Build one thing worth showing somebodyMonth 4
  • Apply for the first role or client in the new fieldMonth 6

Routines

  • An hour on the new directionweekly
  • Reach out to one person in the fieldweekly
✦ It comes with a note

Check before you leap

The two ways this fails are never starting and leaping without checking. The first project is the check, and it is deliberately cheap — conversations and one small piece of real work.\n\nOnly spend money on training after that. A qualification bought before the direction is tested is the most expensive way to discover you did not want it.

✦ Questions

Change career, answered.

Talk to people already doing it, then do one small piece of the actual work — a freelance job, a volunteer project, a course with a real output. Both are cheap, and together they answer the question far better than more research does.
Usually not first. The plan deliberately puts conversations and one real piece of work ahead of any training, because a qualification bought before you have checked the direction is the most expensive way to find out you did not want it.
This one is built around six months to a first paid piece of work in the new field. That is deliberately slow enough to keep earning while you do it, and fast enough that the plan does not quietly become a hobby.
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Prepare for a performance review

Your own evidence, gathered before the form arrives, and the questions you want answered.

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