What do you do? Its such a straightforward question, asking about our jobs, our careers. At least it ought to be straightforward right?

I’m a lecturer, teaching HR and management at a further and higher education college in Scotland. I’ve been describing this as my new career as I retrained and prior to returning to education at 30, worked as a legal secretary.

Its surprising how life creeps up on you.  In the past few weeks it hit me that I’ve been doing this new job, changing my career path, now for 20 years. So its not really new any more and hasn’t really been that way for a long time. As I came to this realisation, it also dawned on me that as I’d only worked as a secretary for 13 years, I have actually been a lecturer for longer than I was a secretary. This led to some reflections about identity. I think I see myself as a lecturer and a HR professional, but why is it hard to let go of the past, of my life as a secretary. After all, its not something I wish to return to. I’m happy in my current role and all being well, I’ll continue in this role until retirement.

I don’t have the answers and this post is really just me exploring and sharing my thoughts. Perhaps encouraging discussion, and for others to share their insights, experiences and/or perspectives.

Internal Conflicts

Is there some kind of internal conflict between my previous and current careers. There could be an element of imposter syndrome. I sometimes feel in awe of myself, of what I’ve achieved and what I do. It scares me that I shape and influence the thinking of others and that I’m responsible for their learning. That said, I don’t doubt my abilities, I think its more seeing the distance I’ve travelled. Maybe keeping a hold of my previous career keeps me anchored.

Connections

Alternatively, it could be that there’s a connection between that first career and what I’m doing now. About 8 years of my secretarial career (the final 8) I was employed in the Litigation Department, working primarily with employment lawyers. When deciding to pursue an alternative career, it was this work that set my future direction. An interest in working in HR – helping organisations avoid Employment Tribunal cases. I’d spent too many Friday nights and weekends working because employers were going to be at a Tribunal on the Monday morning.

Although the careers are different, they are connected through employment law and the protection of employers and employees. This would explain why I still see a connection to my previous career, but it doesn’t explain why, even after 20 years, I still describe my teaching career as “new”.

Changing career patterns

Entering the job market in 1982, the idea of a job for life was still quite common (although this didn’t apply to either of my parents) so I wonder if there might also be something attached to the idea that we’re supposed to have our careers set when we leave education. However, jump forward a few years and with the closure of heavy industries in the UK (and elsewhere) it was becoming more normal to see people who’d been made redundant retraining for new careers. By the turn of the 21st Century, the concept of a job for life was disappearing and according to some reviews, is now dead. By 2019 it was not uncommon for those between 24-35 to have had 5 jobs by the time they were 35. For those of us now in our 50s, the average is 7 jobs. Ironically, I must have been ahead of my time as when I turned 30, I’d had 6 different jobs. 

I used to worry about all those jobs when I was younger, but I guess I was an early adopter of what we’d now call a portfolio career.  In total, including self-employment, I’ve held 12 different jobs since leaving secretarial college in 1982.

Changing Mindset

As I write, I’m wondering if referring to my teaching career as new has just become habit and has only endured this long because until now I hadn’t been aware of doing it. Realising that I’ve spent about two thirds of my working life in this career tells me I need to stop seeing it as new, as a second career and start viewing it as being my career. I guess it will require a change of mindset for me, but a question that occurs is whether anyone else who has changed their careers has experienced similar situations, or is it just me?

Thank you for bearing with me and my meandering reflections. Over on Curiosities, Castles and Coffee Shops today I have a guest providing a post about the related subject of Imposter Syndrome. I hope you’ll pop across and have a read there too.

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