Picking Your Next Halloween Costume

Halloween’s over, but your search is not

Halloween’s over—my neighbor has finally removed the skeleton football display from his front yard.
This year I had a particularly difficult time deciding on a costume—lamely went as a cowboy without no
side shooter. Or maybe I was a lumberjack with a cowboy hat. My adorable M&M daughter’s family put
me to shame. So I’m already thinking about next year.

As I methodically considered the art of picking a costume, it dawned on me that the process is similar for
picking a career. Wait, what? No, really. Hang with me a moment. Before the process, a few caveats that
apply to picking a costume and picking a career:

It won’t be the last time you pick a costume (or a career). Yes, it’s nice for this year’s costume to build
on last year’s successes but take some of the pressure off this year’s choice, because you’ll get to do it
again next year. Same for your career: this won’t be the last time you change, so take some of the
pressure off yourself.

What you went as in college really doesn’t matter anymore. It’s what you’ve been since then. When
picking your costume, you don’t try to relive the glory days of college when you could get away with that
skintight batman costume. You’ve grown since then—your criteria for success have changed. Same with
your career. Your college MAJOR doesn’t matter any longer—it probably never mattered. Major doesn’t
equal career choice.

Okay with those two caveats, here’s the process I’m going to use for picking my next year’s costume
(and you might use for picking your next career).

Start with what you’re good at. I’m no good at sewing—homemade, last-minute options are out. I’m not
the slasher type, so Halloween movie-themed costumes are no good. But I am good at problem-solving
with creative, clever solutions (I wore 50 different paint chips of gray back in 2012.) And I am really
good at helping others with their career (maybe a scary Career Center director??). So, it goes with your
career. What are you good at? What skills do you like to use or have you used in the past which made
you happy and successful? Any hard skills, like AI or Excel or Tableau or Salesforce? Were you good at
any of those?

Next, gravitate toward something you are interested in. For my costume search, I like funny, maybe
sarcastic, maybe political, maybe job-related. Notice I didn’t say I was passionate about these
things—just interested. Research shows that if you are interested in your work, you will be more
engaged at work.

Let me sum up these two points in an example: I’m working with a client right now who sells bus
capacity to school districts. Is he passionate about bus capacity? No, not really. But he is good at
sales—building relationships, solving problems, meeting quotas, handling pressure, delivering on time.
He is interested in helping others. He is interested in education. And it pays pretty good. So, this job works for now—he is getting excellent experience in a good environment, using and perfecting skills he
will need in his next job, and being part of helping people and education. To me, it meets a lot of
criteria. And sets him up for his next job, which can be one step closer to his interests.

In my coaching practice, I use tried and true tools and new design-thinking and group processing
exercises to help you find what you are good at and what you are interested in. I help you take a strong,
important next step in your career, but maybe not your last one.

Oh, so you are probably wondering what I’m going to be next year for Halloween. I’m still working on it,
but here’s my rough draft.