Some change isn’t instigated by the organization at all, but by the organizational member who decides to change careers, an increasingly common phenomenon. In listing 21st-century human-resources trends, nonprofit CEO John McMorrow predicted that career change would become the rule rather than the exception, in part because of the “erosion of the implied good-faith contract between employer and employee.” Career-changers, too, should be prepared to tell deft stories of why they made the change and how they’ve adapted, as in the example in the extended entry:
Tell Me About Yourself: Storytelling that Propels Careers, Quintessential Careers Press, ISBN-10: 1-934689-00-9. Find out the ways you can own the entire book.
I made the huge change from litigation to transactional work and from private practice to being an in-house attorney. I was previously doing high-stakes litigation, most of it out of state. I did all the behind-the-scenes work - all the drafting, all the research - which I didn’t find exciting. I would have liked to be in court arguing, but I was spending 11 hours a day or so in front of my computer researching and writing. I didn’t like writing those long memoranda and motions. Transactional work is different. I like it better because I deal with discrete issues. I meet with clients almost every day to see what their needs are for a particular transaction. They are internal clients, such as people in the marketing department. I haven’t gotten bored. I’m very happy. This may be one of the first times I’ve felt excited about going to work.
