Blog Post 18: Your career story sucks: here’s why and how to change it

The best job search strategies in the world won't work without the right mindset. 

Yes, you are the one that wants to make a change. But you are also your own biggest obstacle. 

Your mindset is what's holding you back from achieving what you want, or even from knowing what you want to achieve. 

This is GREAT news though, because it means that YOU are in control of the results you create in your career and your life. 

So how do you get into the right mindset when it comes to your career? 

There are so many strategies and techniques that you can use to cultivate a mindset that serves you when you are looking for a new job or wanting to change careers. 

One of my favourite ones that I help all my clients with, is asking them what they think about themselves and their previous work experience and training. 

What do you think about your own previous work experience? What is your career story?

I guarantee you that if you’re feeling stuck about what you want to do next in your career, or you’re feeling unsatisfied in your career but don’t know what you can do next, it’s because your thoughts about your previous work experience are holding you back from exploring the possibilities of what you can create and the career you can have.

Most of my clients come to me and they almost unknowingly and unconsciously have negative thoughts about their previous work experience.

They will say things such as “I feel like I have a really scattered work experience. I didn't really ‘fit’ in any one career. So I was switching from role to role and industry to industry.” What’s so interesting about this is that I also have other clients that are the total opposite in terms of their work experience, some that have had 10 years in the same role, in the same industry, like in the legal profession, and yet they also have negative thoughts about that.

So what you're thinking about your past experience and what you are making it mean is likely holding you back from being able to really open yourself up to exploring all of the opportunities and possibilities out there and knowing what you can create in the future.

I’ll give you an example of a pervasive thought I had when I was considering a career change and I didn't know what I wanted to do next. 

When I finished up as CEO of a non-profit, and I had already had two previous career reinventions - first as an Executive Recruiter and then another as a Lawyer, my thought about my past experience was that “I have jumped from career to career. I know a little about a lot but I am not an expert in any one thing.” 

Although this thought might seem OK on the surface, when I had that thought I felt insecure, not confident in myself or my abilities. It was generating those feelings that did not serve me when I was trying to discover what I wanted my next career move to be.

It brought up thoughts of not knowing enough, not being enough.

When I learnt how powerful and ESSENTIAL it is to have the right mindset, I realised just how much those thoughts were not serving me.

Dan Sullivan, the founder of The Strategic Coach and the author of many amazing entrepreneurial books including The Gap and The Gain, says “Your past is your property.”

YOU can make it mean whatever you want. You can create the story of your past. You can either create a story that serves you or that doesn’t. It’s your choice.

The same facts can be looked at in many different ways. If you’re looking at your past experience in a way that is negative and makes you doubt yourself and your abilities, you are hurting yourself.

If you are looking at your past experience in a way that serve you, that helps you move forward, you are 

So I could look at my previous work experience and think I jumped around and never settled. OR I can look at the exact same facts and think “Wow, I have been successful in multiple different industries in multiple different professions. I am multi-passionate, which is an amazing trait that most entrepreneurs have. It shows that I can do hard things. That I love learning and growing, and that I’m a fast learner. I’m adaptable. Maybe I don’t have 15 years of direct HR experience, but I have hired many people as a recruiter plus as a hiring manager as a lawyer and in the non-profit. I have worked in an agency, on the client side and in both corporate and the non-profit worlds. I have knowledge from all angels. I know how to help others with successful career reinventions because, not only have I helped others within my career, but I have had several of my own successful and fulfilling career reinventions.”

YOU can create your own story about your past. Why make it something that puts you down and holds you back?

Don’t make your past mean that you can’t do something. Rather, look at it and say “I did this, I learnt this, so I CAN do something else.”

I believe that nothing in your past is never a waste. 

I use the analogy of a toolbox. Your life, your work experiences, your education, your skills, your strengths are all tools that you have that you can put into your toolbox. You are building the tools in your toolbox as you go through your career, which is amazing. So why don't you look at your tools as things that serve you, that can help your next employer or help you if you're starting your own business, rather than as things that are just weighing you down.

So this week I want you to ask yourself the question, “What am I thinking about my past work experience?”

Be honest with yourself, because what you make your past mean will affect what you create in your future.

Remember, your past is your property. 

You can create whatever story you want about it.

It's yours, but I recommend that you create that story to serve you in moving forward.

Love Loren x