When we think of a career-change, what is the first thing that comes to mind? Negative stigma often is attached to a career change. Was my first career a failure? Am I destined to repeat the same mistakes in my next career? Will there be mobility for advancement? Will I become bored?
The keywords-analytical techniques and technological skills. Sleep technologist work with sleep software and work with the analysis of sleep studies. Actuaries model risk using programming languages, such as excel VBA. Another aspect that is common to both fields: people-skills! Both fields need to be well-versed in their interactions with various types of people. For instance, a sleep technologist must be able to assuage any worries that the patient has. An actuary must speak and present difficult concepts to accountants, stakeholders and upper management. Let us continue on this journey.
Making Sense of Career Change
In spite of the anxieties of a career change, I am truly excited to take on this challenge as an opening to a world of opportunities. I am glad that I have the opportunity to study mathematics and learn about this exciting field. A parallel to sleep technology: technology! Sleep technologists deal with different acquiring software, therapeutic devices and electrical technologies in general. Actuaries need to be comfortable with different types of software and programming languages always come in handy. Transferability of skills are absolutely essential for a successful actuary; a transition that I welcome with open arms.
In a report titled Actuaries, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (2011) stated that in 2012, there was a large growth in the profession as compared to other occupations. Listening to actuary society meetings and visiting the society of actuaries website, I know this is no longer true. In recent years, jobs in the actuarial field slowly tapered. It is gradually picking up again. How to best apply what you know to a new career is a reality we must realize.“Many academics and career counselors observe this inertia and conclude that the problem lies in basic human motives: We fear change, lack readiness, are unwilling to make sacrifices, sabotage ourselves” (Ibarra,2002).
When I first started my career as a sleep technologist, I was thoroughly excited and eager to learn whatever I can about the field. I had my share of trouble with learning the proper technique of hooking up the patient with the electrodes needed for a sleep study. However, through experience and help from my peers, this hurdle was overcome. About five years down the line, I was becoming exhausted by the night shift and generally became bored with the tedium of it all. What do I do now?
I decided that I have to return back to the brick and mortar construct known as Stony Brook University. “The numbers of people making major career changes, not to mention those just thinking about it, have risen significantly over the last decade and continue to grow”(Ibarra, 2002). Ibarra makes a very astute observation with the preceding citation. Career-change is on the rise and no longer viewed as destructive to one’s reputation. Ibarra makes a salient point. I went through that very ‘inertia’. I was ready for a radical change.
The difference the latter and former situations: the development of intellectual entrepreneurship. I have an analytical background in laboratory science, which I never knew would be transferable to the possible career-change to actuary science. In this case that ‘inertia’ is reversed into a constructive motion. “More than a specific program or a particular vehicle for delivering professional development, intellectual entrepreneurship is a philosophy of graduate education” (Cherowitz and Sullivan, (2002). The preceding quote does not only apply to graduate school. Intellectual entrepreneurship is about continually reinvent yourself to become more marketable in the business world today. A career-change, therefore, can be considered as a part of one’s ever-changing intellectual entrepreneurship.
The merging of one career with another is METEORIC! In particular, analysis is a catalyst of this career merger. Stony Brook University has exposed me to various laboratory experiences to supplement what we learned in class as Biology majors. In sleep technology, we are analyzing sleep patterns via. brainwave active, electrical activity, electrical muscle activity (in the chin and tibial area) and the therapeutic CPAP pressure to ensure that the patient’s airway remains patent. Can you envision it? A series of analytical techniques synergize into intellectual entrepreneurship; a butterfly-effect of sorts.
Defeat is never an option and a career-change is a beginning to new things; not a recycling of the old career. In the next section, I explore how career development and identity form an intellectual portfolio.
Transition from school into a New Workplace
I am back in school, so it’s like I am back to square one. However, I come as a professional looking to develop my skills to make the ideal actuary. I see this young folks and remember what it was like: the uncertainty, the transition into working society, and the ambition to reach the limits of one’s being. A few years in the working world gives me a much-needed reality check.
Nearly thirty-years of age, I feel like I’m getting up there in my age but in my prime. I then look at my father. He didn’t finish residency until he was 40. So, better now than later! We always hear those stories of career-changers going back to medical school at fifty years of age. I see my parents and realize things really start to slow down.
So, my focus will be transitioning, once more, from university back to the actuarial workplace. Bures, (2012) reflects on the pressure that is put on student. This sentiment is reflected in the previous paragraph. Even now parental pressure to pick a career and get married is there in the background.
“Students may seek majors that will lead to well-paid careers rather than those that fit students’ interests and abilities…”(2012). Bures reveals a all-too-true, but a large demographic; really a sad state of affairs. Yes, we need to make money to meet our basic needs and have some extra for the comforts in life. But, we need to appreciate the subtle niceties within a career that will bring us a feeling of fulfillment.
In particular, a good work/life balance is healthy and necessary for having a careful balance from making work your life. I believe it is the one thing a sleep technologist did not have. You sleep during the day and work at night. On the days you are off, it is not a guarantee you will be awake.
Is this the right career for me? As the title of Bures’s, (2012) blog, Why Choosing a Major is Not Choosing a Career (…and not the end of the world) suggests, a major in university years does not mean you are limited to that particular field. I was a Biology major, became a sleep technologist and came back to study mathematics. It is prime example of transitioning from school to the workplace and repeating the process with a career change. I know that the transition will be difficult. However, I am confident that with hard work and networking in the right crowd will ease this transition.
One group of note is the veterans entering the workforce. They have certain difficulties when they enter the workforce. In particular, combat veterans have to deal with post-traumatic stress disorder from the horrors they have encountered. One issue, is age discrimination. Most of the veterans I’ve taken care of are from the Vietnam War era. So, they are in their sixties. Block (2013), interviewed a career-change counselor, Mary Eileen WIlliams, who stated “…it’s not as pervasive as some older workers believe.. the key is to overcoming stereotypes about older workers is to get your foot in the door through personal referral.” In particular, networking is particularly important for older folks. The veterans have a huge network!
Robertson and Brott (2014), state that veterans that had the most control and confidence over their career transition correlated with life satisfaction. They go further by describing the veterans as ‘ready’ and ‘motivated’; a sentiment I share.
Career Development and Identity Formation
After working a few years in a chosen trade, the job starts to become part of who you are. Even now, I am giving sleep-related advice to peers and even professors! What are the ties between career-development and identity?
Kunnen, (2013), “found a significant and clinically relevant increase in commitment strength in all three target domains following the program.” When one does whatever it takes to get into that new career, the paradigm governing one’s identity is fundamentally shifted. I noticed this myself. As an undergraduate student, I lacked the focus to thrive in a challenging university environment. Now, I am working hard and strive to do well in university, to better prepare for the actuarial workplace.
Kunnen, (2013) expounds on how participants had high ‘exploration score in the vocational domain’. This means that they were not necessarily focused on one pursuit. Why would this be an issue? Kunnen, (2013) explains that the participants are worried about failure after finishing their area of study. Failure: one of our greatest fears is realized is such an experiment. In my mind, there is that voice saying, “You are not good enough. You will fail.” I totally relate to how these thoughts can destroy our chance to bolster our identities as intellectual entrepreneurs.
Vaillant and Milofsky, (1985) states that young adulthood is the formative time where career and family building emerge as central focal points. As part of the young adult demographic, I find that these I spend the most time thinking about these issues. Deja vu, I say. Back in school taking undergraduate classes and spending most of my waking time thinking about the actuarial career, continually molds my identity to an amorphous blob of change.
Sokol, (2009) uses Erikson’s psychosocial theory and how it best suits identity formation over a lifetime. Erikson’s eight stages of development deals with a ‘crisis’ or ‘conflict’ in each progressive stage (2009). Sokol, (2009) states that the process of identity formation is a process that continues throughout adulthood. From a career standpoint, I feel that this is totally true. We are not static beings. As an actuary-bound, sleep technologist, my identity is a dynamic and wonderfully diverse entity.
Conclusion
The research into the dynamicity of career-change, has thoroughly boggled my mind. The transferability of skillsets, identity formation and intellectual entrepreneurship are realities that need to always be in the back of my mind as I move forward with my goal of becoming an actuary. I am ready and waiting for that the day that my dream becomes a reality!
References
Actuaries,. (2011). Bureau of Labor Statisitics Occupational Outlook Handbook.
Block, Sandra,. (2013) “Off to A Fresh Start”. Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, p. 52-57.
Bureau of Labor Statistics. US Department of Labor. Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2014-2015 Edition, Actuaries. Retrieved 10/4, 2015 from http://www.bls.gov/ooh/math/actuaries.htm
Bures, K. (2011). Why choosing a major is not choosing A career (…and not the end of the world). Retrieved 9/30, 2015, from https://www.nacada.ksu.edu/Resources/Academic-Advising-Today/View-Articles/Why-Choosing-a-Major-is-Not-Choosing-a-Career-(and-not-the-end-of-the-world).aspx.
Cherowitz, Richard A.,. & Sullivan, Charlotte A.,.(2002). Intellectual Entrepreneurship A Vision of Graduate Education. Change The Magazine of Higher Learning 11/2002; 34(6):22-27. DOI: 10.1080/00091380209605565. Retrieved 10/4, 2015 from
Ibarra, H. (2002). Managing people: How to stay stuck in the wrong career. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from: https://hbr.org/2002/12/how-to-stay-stuck-in-the-wrong-career
Kunnen, E. S.,. (2013). The effects of career choice guidance on identity development. Educational Research International, 2013(Article ID 901718). Retrieved 9/30, 2015, from http://www.hindawi.com/journals/edri/2013/901718/.
Robertson, Heather C.,. & Brott, Pamela E.,. Military Veterans Midlife Career Transition and Life Satisfaction. Retrieved 10/5 2015 from http://tpcjournal.nbcc.org/military-veterans-midlife-career-transition-and-life-satisfaction/
Sokol, Justin T. (2009) “Identity Development Throughout the Lifetime: An Examination of Eriksonian Theory,” Graduate Journal of Counseling Psychology: Vol. 1: Iss. 2, Article 14. Available at: http://epublications.marquette.edu/gjcp/vol1/iss2/14 .
Vaillant, G. E., & Milofsky, E. (1980). Natural history of male psychological health: IX. Empirical evidence for Erikson’s model of the life cycle. American Journal of Psychiatry, 137, 1348‐1359.