Let me share a story of a gentleman named Devendra Purbiya, an engineering graduate from India’s premium college IIT Kharagpur who had a decent job with Samsung India. He had a passion for photography.
During one of his work trips to South Korea, he took some amazing photos that have created a stir in social media, he has started becoming popular on Facebook. Sometime later, he won the Kingfisher Calendar Contest that’s the time he decided to be a full-time photographer. That was the turning point for Devendra to switch his career from Engineering to Photography.
Devendra is now one of the most famous wedding photographers in the country, with a minimum asking price of INR 1 lakh for a project. This is just one story, there are plenty where repurposing was a choice that has flourished the second career.
Pandemic has a profound impact on businesses and lives. Many businesses could intelligently make up the sales & profits by aptly tweaking their offerings, reducing cost, adopting technology, etc. Many who were slow in realizing the change and got stuck in the circle of time, broke miserably. Since most of our livelihood depends on the business, needless to mention all these disruptions impacted employees severely.
The new age of digitization, Gig economy, work-from-home setup, etc are quite new for many of us. No one anticipated these to happen now. Time traversed faster amidst waves of Pandemic and these innovations in business became a reality soon to sustain and survive. AI and BOTs made life easy by eliminating many unimportant tasks in the operating process but posed a challenge before many traditional roles that did not evolve with time. Most of those roles were opted out.
The question is what a prudent employee will do besides hoping for the best to come. Do you have a plan B? Expecting all of you understood the meaning of Plan B, here I am talking about career. How relevant it is to be in a long-term role with an employer or be financially independent by monetizing your passion, abilities, and competence?
Like businesses that have visioned a new way to survive and succeed, we too, as employees ponder the idea of repurposing our career and flourish.
Let me clarify a bit, what exactly I mean by repurposing career. In simpler terms when your expertise is used for an alternative purpose that gets you enough earning to continue a second career is referred to here as repurposing. Many did the same, including me. I have turned into a Career impact Coach after drawing the curtain on my corporate career after working for more than two decades.
A plan “B” is imperative for 4 broad reasons,
(1) to secure your financial future
(2) reduce dependency on job
(3) no pressure on retirement, work as long as you prefer.
(4) able to nurture your passion. Mind shift from earning for living to start doing something that you like.
I have explained what a repurposed career means. Now, let me share 5 strategies to find success in your second career. The need for repurposing can emerge at any stage of life. Many people realize that they are misfit for the profession at an early stage of their career and switch to another. Here transition is much easier. The dilemma to restart a career comes overtly at mid and late-career stages. People with experience at their credit think twice before the switch. Several elements, mindset, liabilities & circumstances hold them back. My purpose is to energize your mind with this idea and make your career transition smoother with these 5 strategies, I am about to share.
Firstly, you must know why you intend to repurpose your career, and what compelling need or urgency is driving you. If you are clear on your goals, the journey will be much easier.
It is not that straightforward to start doing something that you like. Mostly, for the people who have over a decade of experience in jobs and that’s the only means of their livelihood. They need deep introspection before taking any call to repurpose their career.
Your second career must be a well-thought initiative rather than just an attempt to earn some extra bucks. People who are serious, curate a plan, follow the timeline, and mostly succeed to achieve financial independence by repurposing their careers.
Secondly, you must perfect the time. Repurposing a career is a serious affair. Any over-ambitious step may spoil your adventure. To be successful in your second career you must launch yourself in an apt time that does not stand at a crossroads with your present occupation.
You need to manage your involvement in the job in such a way that you find enough time to think, plan and act on the second career.
Once you churn financial output from your repurposed career, the polarity of your attention will automatically switch from the job. One needs to let the first career go without any jarks otherwise the second career never takes off.
Thirdly, you must identify your strengths, and what are you good at. These strengths must have been the levers of your successes. Many call these strengths “Niche”. In your next career, this becomes crucial as your engagement will be the best when you are confident and like what you are doing.
Technology in today’s world may work wonders by improving your brand visibility, eliminating repetitive work, and helping you engage effectively with your community.
One cause of caution, your skills, needs a constant upgrade to avoid redundancy & deliver greater results. It is imperative for individuals who nurture an idea of repurposing a career to be conscious of the fact that their niche should be adoptive of current business practices and solve a present problem. It should deliver a meaningful product or service that may trigger binge buying.
Fourthly, make your brand visible on the social platform. The brand becomes attractive when you deliver value & offer solutions to unique life problems. People buy products or services only when they trust the company or the individual.
Your consistent attempt will be to position your brand and offerings. Remain positive even when your efforts do not fetch positive results. If you build your brand rightly and your offerings are lucrative enough, your efforts will certainly pay a dividend.
Once people see you appear quite often and find your offerings useful, they will automatically be interested to get associated with you & your products.
Fifthly, build community. This is a growing concept. We have followers on social media, they are most likely to notice your photos, content, and updates. They react with comments or shares that improve your visibility. Some people have an astronomical count of followers on social media just by nurturing their community.
They grow followers count brick by brick. Followers are your community. A common saying is that “your vibes, attract your tribe” works most effectively when you start building a community. People within the community will value your offerings and start buying them.
Now, this may not happen instantaneously. One needs to put multiple efforts to earn & renew the trust of your followers to indulge in buying your services. Trust, this is the most certain way to penetrate the market and monetize your niche.
If this article inspires you to think differently, do connect with me. Share your reactions, and try to write a few words beyond like. This will inspire me.
Do connect with me on LinkedIn\coachrahulguha