Research states that 58% of workers are looking for a career change citing reasons such as a better work-life balance, higher pay, the desire to do remote work and fulfillment, yet only 25% have actually made the shift https://www.hrdive.com/news/workers-want-career-changes/685986/.
Life and career changes can arouse a strong feeling of fear. This fear is stimulated because we don’t know what’s on the other side of the door. When we walk through the gateway of change, we are walking into a place we haven’t been before. We aren’t sure if the floor is present, if the light is on, or if the room exists in the first place. Some of us have the option to choose change and some of us are thrust into a life altering choice that forces us to change whether we want to or not.
This week, we will discuss how to pivot and walk through the door of change in peace.
Career Changes
I had long tenured careers in various positions that all dealt with dentistry, teaching or a combination of the two. After graduating high school, I worked as a preschool teacher for 3 years. The company I worked for got bought out and the majority of us got laid off.
At the time, preschool and children were all I knew. I wasn’t sure which direction I wanted to go in so I decided to go to a trade school and learn respiratory therapy. Unfortunately for me, the RT program was full and the only available program was the dental assisting program. I decided that I needed to do something with my life and agreed to go into dental assisting school.
I really appreciated my teachers and silently told myself that one day, I would teach at the trade school. Once I completed the program, I quickly obtained a position making double what I was making as a preschool teacher. It was new for me as I was introverted and the field required me to be immensely extroverted. In addition to that, I worked in a small predominately white city and a patient wrote a letter to the doctor stating that she would not be coming back due to him hiring a black woman in his office.
The office taught me about professionalism, having difficult conversations with others I disagree with, and how to persevere under uncomfortable circumstances. At the end of 4 years, I hadn’t received more than a .25 cent raise. As challenging as it was to leave, I had to accept a position with higher pay and a more promising future. I moved from private practice to corporate.
Once I was in corporate, I discovered a whole new way that dentistry worked. Instead of patient satisfaction, it was all about pushing the patients to accept treatments they didn’t need. We were incentivized on how many fillings, crowns, dentures, and root canals we could sell. This lead to disastrous consequences. My second week, the doctor I was assigned to informed me I had a patient waiting and warned that she may not be pleased with her service. I went into the room and the patient was indeed upset. She exclaimed that she had been numb on one side of her face for a whole month.
Soon after that, I was assisting another doctor who performed a root canal without taking x-rays throughout the procedure. This resulted in a faulty root canal and the removal of the patient’s front tooth. The remaining patients had their temporary crowns falling out every week, dentures ill fitted, and a plethora of other issues that caused our office to receive horrible reviews. After 6 months, I quit that position and went back into private practice where I obtained my certification to clean teeth and stayed for 4 years.
Toward the end of my 4-year tenure, a position became available to work at the technical college I had graduated from as a dental assistant instructor. I performed a mock lesson in my interview and received the position. I loved teaching and my students. While I was there, I also became the extern coordinator assisting students in job placement. I taught for 4 years before a horrible leadership change drove me back into field dentistry.
During my stint as a technical educator, I married my husband, went back to school to receive my BSBA, received my certification in Yoga instruction, and had a miscarriage. After suffering the miscarriage, I decided that my work environment was too toxic for me to push through, and went back into corporate dentistry.
After 1 year in corporate, I became pregnant again and decided I wanted to work from home. I prayed and asked God for a work-from-home position in order to raise my child and future children. I was searching for a position in dental insurance, but ended up in a totally different industry.
Life Changes
I applied to several positions toward the end of my pregnancy that were all work-from-home (WFH) positions. All of them with dental insurance and none of them called me back.
I happened to stumble upon a customer service position with a vision insurance company and thought it was a long shot as my whole career was in dentistry. The day after I gave birth, I got a call from the company stating that they had classes starting in 2 weeks and another wouldn’t be made available until the following year. I looked at my newborn and decided I would rather work-from-home than be away from my baby and I accepted the position without asking of pay.
Once I started the onboarding process, I asked how much the position paid and to my dismay, they paid 6 dollars less than what I was making in my previous role. I was astonished. I had a degree, I had work history, I had some knowledge of insurance and yet, none of this mattered in this industry. I was devastated. It seemed like all the hard work I had put in over the span of my career was for nothing. My degree was for nothing, all the complex and difficult work situations I endured were to no avail when it came to compensation.
I had a choice to make. The rate I had accumulated over all those years or taking the only work from home position that had given me a call back. I spoke to my husband and we both agreed that I should pursue what I wanted, and that was to be home with my baby and work from home.
After a year and a half, I moved into the retail section of the company and increased my pay by 4 dollars and became pregnant with my second child. I made another career shift working in a different sector of the company increasing my pay by a little over a dollar plus yearly bonuses, more flexibility, and a schedule that doesn’t require me to work on the weekends or past 4pm.
I am pleased to be able to do the highest thing on earth that I Love and that would be raising my children and being with my family everyday, but this didn’t come without extensive sacrifices. I had to learn how to pivot.
How to Pivot
Learning how to pivot is challenging. It requires sacrifice, leaving fear at the door, and trusting something, or rather someone, bigger than yourself.
The first step in pivoting is to understand that you can have peace instead of fear in the face of change. Modifying a lifestyle change can be difficult in that we get used to routines. We get familiar with our work environment, what we know, how we perform, and what is expected of us.
When we decide to pivot, we also decide that we are open to learning something new which is the second step in pivoting. We must trust ourselves and accept that where we are going is a place we haven’t been before, even if it is in the same industry. We may know the basics but we won’t completely understand the day to day flow of our new work environment.
The third step in pivoting is losing the dread of failure. Failure is needed in life because without it, success isn’t as sweet. We can’t fully understand our ability to learn, grow, persevere and succeed without the gift of failure. Accept that you are going to fail, but that you are also going to rise so high above the failure, you will be able to show others the way.
Finally, we pivot with gratitude. Be thankful for the strength to move into something new. Be thankful for the opportunity to fail and succeed. Open your heart up and thank God for the challenge of learning a new thing and walking strong in the unknown assurance of elevating yourself to the next level in your life.
Proverbs 3:5-7
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths.
2 Timothy 1:7
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love and of a sound mind.
With Love,
Mother Ocia
My biggest dream is to share my story. Of failures and triumphs. Of addiction and sobriety. Of children and the loss of a child. I am nothing but inspired by you and your story. Hopefully one day, I can better pivot into a space that allows me to follow my dreams.
You can do anything though Christ who strengthens you. Your story is one that can heal others who have experienced what you have and need help understanding how to navigate life. Take the change and start your writing journey babe. You got this <3 and thank you for taking the time to read and comment on this article. I Love and appreciate you.
With Love,
Mother Ocia