Case Study: Emma needs career direction
Emma quit her job on the spot. Even though she feels it was the right decision for her, she's lost about what to do next.
She already received a few offers to work for other companies but thinks that the experience will be exactly the same as the job she just left.
On the other hand, she's toyed with the idea of going out on her own, but she's the primary breadwinner and worries about making ends meet, and doesn't have the heart to tell her son that he would need to quit his trumpet lessons.
Emma is really struggling with where to go from here. What should she do?
Scroll to see responses from others and my analysis!
Here are your responses
Anonymous Responder #1:
She should think about what is best for all affected parties that she cares about—including herself. Step one is to identify those parties. Step two is to list the pros and cons for each person (ideally after discussing the situation with each party rather than assuming). Step 3 is weighting those pros and cons and the importance of the options of each party. I would suggest that she weight her own well-being highly, because if she gets burned out or worse, it will likely affect her earnings potential and her ability to take care of her child and herself. Once she’s weighed all of the pros and cons and has a numeric value for and against working for a corporate, she can decide what to do. I would also recommend that she search for ALL other solutions—like working part-time in a corporate environment to provide stability but without as many demands— even if they doesn’t seem possible. Then she can decide whether to stay corporate, go solo or push her luck and try for out-of-the-box options.
Katheryn’s input: The benefit of thinking of what’s best for all affected parties is to have more understanding of the scope of the situation - however, starting from here may distract Emma from her needs, and it can be difficult to please everyone. I agree that considering options beyond two (working for herself or working for someone else) is essential!
Anonymous Responder #2:
Absolutely take a suitable job offer and ensure financial stability. First and foremost, the responsibility of being a parent trumps everything as your child/children depend on you. Secondly, running your own business requires a lot of determination and someone that quits on the spot without a plan (again whilst having dependent children), may not be ready for the challenges and rigor required to carve out a sustainable living from scratch. As onerous as it may seem, in my opinion, the ideal way forward would be to take a job and more gradually try to start up her business, and eventually transition to a self-made business once it can truly be something that provides the financial support and stability needed.
Katheryn’s input: There are two assumptions here:
that working for a company yields financial stability, whereas working for oneself does not yield financial stability (while this holds merit, one could also say that there is higher earning potential in working for oneself, or a more lucrative earning timeline where money comes in more frequently than monthly salaried stipends)
that a person who quits a job will quit entrepreneurship (the opposite argument is that one might soar in a different environment)
Having said that, as an entrepeneur myself…I agree that the gradual transition is a good financial strategy! There does come a point though where there’s a need to jump ship because the hours dedicated to working for someone else will make it difficult to boost revenue to where it needs to be to comfortably go on your own.
Here’s what Emma decided (and how, through coaching)
Emma decided to trial working for herself. Her next steps included, negotiating job offers into contracted work, discussing with her financial adviser about how to approach her finances as an entrepreneur, and joining a coworking space to surround herself with likeminded people.
Here’s how we got there:
One of the most important things in coaching is to hear a scenario from a neutral perspective. The goal is to help her have more clarity (and not necessarily about having a definitive answer, especially when there are many unknowns).
There are three things that are important in this scenario that we’ll work through in coaching:
Identifying what it is that Emma wants
Getting clarity around the facts of her situation
Identifying action steps to move forward
Here’s how it works:
Coaching Goal #1: Find evidence to support or reject her assumptions.
Assumption #1: Going to work for another company will result in the same stress that led her to quit
It turns out that Emma has worked for different employers in her industry for 20 years, and she has always felt the same pattern of stress. While not all employers are the same, the evidence she has accumulated from her experience is enough for her to feel strongly that working for another employer is not for her. One thing she identified as well is that she loves the work she does - just not the corporate environments she has been in.
Assumption #2: Her son will need to quit his trumpet lessons because she won’t have money as the breadwinner to cover expenses
While Emma feels the stress of not knowing when her next income will arrive, her mindset is geared towards eliminating expenses other than necessities.
I asked her how much money she needs and how long she feels it’ll take to receive that income. Through this, she realized that she is confident in receiving income within 4 months, and that they have plenty of savings to cover that time even if they didn’t cut out any expenses.
While it’s good to err on the side of caution towards spending until she secures revenue, she realized that her financial standing is in a relatively strong place.
Coaching Goal #2: Identify what Emma is curious about.
At this point, Emma now realizes that she has a 4 month time period to experiment with being her own boss and making money on her own. Even though she is entering a world of unknown, she feels a sense of motivation (as opposed to a sense of dread to work for other people).
But she still has questions…how can she be an entrepreneur? What needs to be in place to get started? What tasks should she prioritize that have the best chance for her to make money asap?
Goal #3: Create concrete, tangible tasks that will help her continue to gain clarity
Right now, it’s time for Emma to think as if her only option is to be her own boss (this helps us look for solutions instead of being caught up in emotions wondering which path to take).
Key coaching questions: What do you need? What opportunities are available to you? Who could help?
She realizes she’ll need some basic things to get started, such as registering as a business and creating her own business email address. She’ll need to notify people that she’s working for herself. And she’ll need to position herself around potential clients.
As far as opportunities, since she’s already being recruited by some companies, she decided to see if she can negotiate with them to do contracted work - that way she can work for herself while taking advantage of how quickly receiving income.
And finally, as far as who can help, she decides to call her financial adviser to ask for advice on how to manage her finances as an entrepeneur as opposed to a salaried worker.
What about you?
If you were to re-read this dilemma again with coaching questions in mind, would you still take the same path you originally thought?
It’s interesting to see what people decide, isn’t it? Every person is different, so even the same coaching sequence can lead to a different result - as long as the participant feels they are moving forward in alignment with their needs, it’s a win!