4 Reasons You Need A Plan B Option In Your Career
By Selipha Kihagi
We all have our passions and that particular thing we are really good at. For you it may be that you are great in Maths or engaging customers, it could be that being a personal Assistant appeals to you or waiting tables is part of your forte. But is what you like doing palatable enough to stay as your only career? Most of the times the answer to this question is usually no since transforming a passion into a full blown career is not always easy. And even when it works out well and you get the job, sometimes the universe works against you and you are back where you started.
For these and more reasons to be discussed below, it is recommended that you always have a plan B in your Career; something you can fall back on if your main gig ever fails you. Let’s say you graduated with an Accounting degree and were too excited about starting your search, only to find yourself jobless 2 years down the line. Where do you start? Do you go back to school and start a course? Another case would be after you have worked for a couple of years but realize along the way that you don’t really like the job you are in and want to change careers. What do you do next?
In such situations, only those who had a fall back plan will know what to try out next. So, are you still wondering what I am going on about? Below are reasons why you need to have a Plan B in your career. It doesn’t have to be a totally different career, no. It can be another job in the waiting or even a side hustle.
4 Reasons You Need to Have a Plan B
1. You might encounter a change in leadership
If there is one thing that makes people get back into the job market will all the energy they got, it is a change in leadership. You are used to one boss who does things a certain way and then that suddenly changes. You get a new boss whose ideologies you don’t believe in, leadership style you don’t care for or even they start to switch up your roles – and this is if they don’t end up firing you. At such a time you are only left with one option – to quit.
But even as this decision is clear, if you never had a plan B in mind, you might be stuck in a job you hate for a very long time. They say; “fall in love with your job but not your company, because you never know when they stop loving you”. Once you get hired, do not assume that you are now settled in. Have a plan B to fall back-up plan.
2. You are in a dead-end job
Unfortunately, some professions do have a climax and a position where you cannot go any further up the ladder. The only thing you can do at that time is change between organizations, only with the same roles and nothing more to move on to. There are also those other jobs that anybody else can do and don’t require any special expertise to perform. In such a role you can be replaced anytime.
If you are in one of these roles, it may be very hard for you to know what to do next and this is how you find people who had employed at a particular time becoming jobless. Why? They never had a fall back plan. Ask yourself; if I was not in this job, what would I be doing? If your answer does not convince you, it is time to have a plan B for your career.
3. You need to have a plan B if you are in a jumpy industry
For a while now, the hotel industry has been suffering, letting go of their employees left, right and centre. The industry also experience fluctuating times where it is doing very well at a particular time, but the next time everything is falling apart. Then there are those industries that are losing interest as technology continues to advance and introduce new ways of doing things.
Ask yourself; how steady is the industry you are in? Are you in an industry that is growing or are you always looking over your shoulder expecting a tide to render you jobless? Then when you have your answer, make plans to have a plan B that promises you a way out when things get tougher.
4. You are not in the right career
Ever woken up one morning and asked yourself what you are doing in your job? Some people will confirm to having done this one time or the other and they can’t seem to find anything good in their career. At this point, you probably start realizing that you could have made a better communications person instead of an Accountant. Then you start to notice skills and passions that you never really knew existed when pursuing your degree or in the first days in your job.
If you have experienced this kind of a feeling, that is a red flag that you are in the wrong career and need to change the soonest time possible. When you have a plan B in mind, the process becomes easier. But if you don’t, then it is one complex situation you do not want to be part of.
To have a plan B is very crucial for every person, not just those who are not sure of what they want as a career. You could think you have your career all figured out, only to encounter situations out of your control that forces you to think about changing careers. The last thing you want is to deal with this later in life without a plan in mind.
Selipha is the Communications Officer at Corporate Staffing Services, a leading recruitment firm that offers CV Writing services, free job placement and Interview Coaching. Email; [email protected]
