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I remember one day being on a treadmill, squinting and panting towards a sunlit window. I’m no elite athlete, so I probably looked galumpy. But it was a good day. My pace felt decent; so did my heart and lungs. And since it was a challenge workout, I hit the speed-up button.
But at some point in all the galumping, I felt a disconcerting twitch in the treadmill, a momentary slippage between the rubber track and the machinery beneath. It wasn’t a loss of traction or a stumble. I wasn’t tripping on my shoelaces. But the machine itself, for the briefest second, lost its grip. I started imagining myself shooting backwards off the treadmill and into an emergency room.
That’s how the thought of career transition feels to me—like a slippage in the taken-for-granted reality beneath my feet. And the truth is, as institutions struggle for footing in a janky and unpredictable economy, career shock is a not-unlikely future.
Here’s the thing about career shock: it compels you to rethink your life and work—and that can be a gift. A difficult gift. But a gift all the same.
This week, the Mode/Switchers do some vocational round-tabling in the company of career-transition expert Gina Riley, author of the forthcoming book Qualified Isn’t Enough. Gina is a career strategist, who draws on a quarter century of business experience and an MA in Whole Systems Designs. You’ll find that her kind manner and frank advice make room for hope.
Join us for an idea-generating intergenerational conversation. As our Gen Z co-host, Jake Aupperlee, notes this week moving between jobs can feel like you’re running through fog. Here’s a conversation to clear the air for you.
-craig
Are you looking for career transition help?
You can find Gina Riley easily on LinkedIn, where she has an active and thoughtful presence. You can also learn about her life and work, as well as her forthcoming book, on her website GinaRileyConsulting.com. She’s very good at thinking across generational lines—so shoot her an email!
Updates on my book Digital Overwhelm
Much Podcasts: This has been the late winter and the early spring of guesting on other people’s podcasts. As John Ball recently noted on LinkedIn, “was on a podcast” is “not technically a personality type.” Being a pod guest is a lot more fun (and a lot less work) than running your own podcast. And it’s a terrific lot of fun to chat with strangers about digital overwhelm and…
ADHD,
Book Talks: Besides events at Calvin University and Schuler Books here in Grand Rapids, I’ve also enjoyed speaking to the good folks at Trinity Christian College in the greater Chicagoland and at the About Time bookstore in Libertyville, IL. This week, I spoke at Kuyper College after a power outage made us all more aware of the role that digital technology usually plays in our working lives.
Doing these talks has changed my mind about something: I’m not building relationships to sell books; I’m writing books to build relationships. (Not that I object to selling books.)
I was also grateful to join this esteemed panel of presenters at Calvin University to discuss what is for many communication professions today a species of digiwhelm: AI in the field of communication. That’s Lori Green onscreen (formerly of Netflix), and on the panel, Sharon Nieuwenhuis (Calvin’s Master of Media & Strategic Communication), Rich Evenhouse (Next Creative), and La’Leatha Spillers (Calvin) and, at the end of the line, yours truly taking notes. Ours was a conversation about keeping effective and staying human in strategic communication spaces today.
Intrigued to learn about digiwhelm but not a reader? Find the book on Audible (free with trial).
You can purchase a hard copy of my book on AbeBooks.com or (sigh) on Amazon or on Thrift Books.
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