Best question to ask yourself before making career change
Hoda Kotb knows what it’s like to completely overhaul her career and start fresh in a brand new industry.
The longtime journalist left NBC’s “TODAY” show in January after 26 years with NBC and started his own company. Joy 101 – In May. He said that becoming a CEO for the first time at the age of 60 seemed impossible to him, which is exactly why he decided to do it. 8 December episode “The Mel Robbins Podcast.”
Whether you’re 20, 40, 60 or 80, you can determine whether such a radical career change is right for you by asking yourself one important question, said Kotb, now 61: Is this job giving me what I deserve?
In Kotb’s case, he was ready for a new challenge and realized it during the 60th live broadcast. birthday celebration He said pursuing a career in journalism probably wouldn’t meet that need. “I was almost out of my body [experience]” he said. “I thought… This is the crest of the wave. “I could feel it… This is the best it’s ever been.”
Others may go through a more frustrating process and come to a similar conclusion: Maybe you worked at a job where you didn’t get enough positive feedback, or the company lacked opportunities for you to learn and grow.
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If you feel like you’re facing a professional roadblock, you should sit down and figure out what you think you deserve, Kotb said. This self-control should not come from jealousy or “FOMO” about what someone else has, he noted. And this doesn’t always lead to a complete reset of your career; for example, you might seek a pay raise or promotion at work instead.
“Look at your life, look at it from 35,000 feet and decide, do I want to change it?” he said. “And I’m here to tell you: I feel alive, breathing, proof that you can change it whenever you want. Things you think are impossible are not.”
Kotb previously said his decision to leave “TODAY” was also influenced by his desire to spend more time with his family. This was made difficult by waking up at 3:15 a.m. every day to get to work on time. I told people In May.
Entrepreneurship now presents Kotb with a different kind of challenge, he said. Kotb “Being an entrepreneur is difficult” he told Variety In May. “I didn’t realize how many hats you wear as an entrepreneur… I’m learning how to be a boss.”
To make building a new career from scratch less intimidating, Kotb suggested, you can start small: Spend 30 minutes a day doing something that will help you make progress, from working on your resume to creating a business plan or learning a new skill. For example, after a month, instead of making a sudden decision and leaving work without a plan, you will have 900 minutes of preparation work.
“The baby is taking steps toward jumping,” Kotb said. “Sometimes we think we want this, and you say, ‘I’m going to run and jump off a cliff’… Don’t do that. We’re not stupid. We need our paychecks. We need our insurance. We need these things, but we can also explore the possibilities.”
Disclosure: NBC and CNBC are divisions of NBCUniversal.
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