Presto Change-O!

On average, you will have at leas three careers in your lifetime. With the right preparation, the transitions can be like magic.

I've always thought it absurd that people were expected to make a decision early on about a career and then stick with her. True, some people have clear gals and pursue them throughout their Lives. But others go from experience to experience, not always where it is leading them, but trusting that there is a next step. For these peple, there is no one goal in life.

-- Carol Pomerantz, career counselor

Ahh! How simple it was in grade school when you daydreamed about the various jobs you'd have when you grew up. Perhaps you fantasized about being an astronaut or a nurse, maybe even a painter, lawyer or tram conductor. Sadly, though, you may find that your career expectations have been whittled down to one, and maybe not even the one you really wanted.

Over the years, you got caught up in making that one career happen by going to the right schools and working for the right companies. Now, some 10 or 20 years later, the unpredictable workplace, the encroachment of technology and your own insatiable spirit remind you that change is imminent. You ignore it and put up roadblocks: "I have a family now," "I can't afford to change jobs," "I'm too old." In other words, you settle.

"When you have invested so much time in one career and society says you've made it, there is a fear of failure," says organizational consultant Marti D. Smye, Ph.D. "People crave change, but are afraid of leaving behind the familiar and each day feel more boxed in by life. Change may be scary, but just putting in time or being bored it your career is deadly to the soul."

Many seem to agree. In fact, a 1998 American Management Association survey of more than 4,500 executives found that 71% had held two or more positions in the 1990s. Of those, 39% had held three or more positions. Managers 35 and trader showed the most mobility, with 90% of them having had more than one job (the average number was three).

Let's face it, we'll alt go through at least one career overhaul in our lifetime. Some will go happily while others will be wrangled into submission. Smye, who wrote Is It Too Late to Run Away and Join the Circus?, says the successful career changer must be information-oriented and self-responsible, with good people skills. The important things are your willingness to accept change, the support system you've developed and your focus on making your dream a reality.

In the end, your determination and sacrifices will lead to new levels of satisfaction in this crazy thing called work.

PREPARE FOR CHANGE

Through derring-do, pluck or accident, Stephen James learned these things early on. "I became a 'roads scholar'-- a black guy who grew up in the South Bronx, went to Harvard and got a Ph.D.," he says of the winding road that led him to a professorship at Lehman College, part of the City University of New York. "People think that's a big transition. For me, it was a transformation."

As a child, James found more comfort in the cello, gymnastics and his mother's collection of mail-order books than in the rigors of the classroom. In 1969, when he was 17, he dropped out of high school and became one with the socio-political movement of the day. He sold the Black Panther newspaper along Bronx streets as a community worker for the nationalist organization, often landing on the steps of local college campuses. Lehman College, one of the many colleges that make up the City University of New York, would later play a pivotal in James' life.

In 1971, he traded his Panther black combat boots for the hard hat of a carpenter's trainee. "Construction was the best hiding place for a radical," says James, who had just married. "I had been politically active and had no plans of going back to school." Yet, as much as he tried to hide, "school" found him as construction sites became his classrooms. "When you work with your hands, you get to use your mind," says James, now 46. "There is a lot of opportunity to think and talk." He also became a student of tai chi, the ancient Chinese discipline of meditative movement that helped him to relax, especially during the times to come.

By 1978, construction jobs had diminished and his marriage had ended in divorce. He was a driver for a commuter bus line, working three- hour stints during the morning and evening rush hours. On his second day at work, he drove to his familiar haunt, Lehman Colege, and registered for classes right on the spot. "I was driven to finish what I didn't when I was younger," says James, who attended classes in between his runs.

"The first part of preparing for change is figuring out what burns inside of you and pursuing that goal" notes Marilyn Greist of Career Systems International, a career development consulting firm. Although James had shunned his early schooling, it turned out that he had a passion for education.

Nine years later, James earned his degree in English and applied graduate school, He checked the box on the GRE exam to have his scores sent to universities he was interested in, but never imagined Harvard would respond. Not only had Harvard accepted him, but as well, With a stipend in hand, James was off to Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1987 to study English and American literature.

A Dexter Fellowship from Harvard took him to England in 1989. He also traveled throughout Switzerland. France and Spain. The experience was enough to prompt the knowledge-hungry academic to take a four-year break in his formal studies to hang out in Europe and immerse himself in African American literature and language. A visiting professorship at Columbia University and his daughter Joy's high school graduation finally lured him back to the States in 1992. Four years later, after completing his dissertation, he was hired by Lehman College.

James' strategy was different because he had none. "All my career decisions were arbitrary," says the assistant professor of English and black studies. "I wouldn't tell someone to necessarily do what in certain things and pursued them. But I sacrificed my family to get here," says James, who has three children-including sons Robert and Elliot -- from two marriages. Nonetheless, James echoes the sentiment of so many multiple careerists. "I don't know if I'm finished yet. This profession suits me now, but at some point, I may decide to do something else."

SEEK OPPORTUNITY AND ADVICE

In 1974, R. Lucia Riddle and her husband moved to Des Moines, Iowa, and the medical technologist had a hard time finding a job in her field. When she saw the classified ad for an insurance claims processor at what was then Bankers Life of Iowa, her wheels started turning. "i thought health claims and medical technology fit, and so did they," recalls the University of Missouri graduate. She was hired, and her experience supervising a lab as a chief chemistry technologist catapulted her into the management trainee program.

"I noticed that many people in my department had titles. I asked my supervisor what title I should use," recalls Riddle. "He laughed, but then told me about the corporate structure, to become involved in the community and what he would expect of me in order to promote me. It turned out to be some of the best advice I'd ever gotten."

Even when one has the drive to thrive, they also need a little help from the outside: mentors, confidantes, coaches. "You need a board of advisors who can lead the way and help you overcome your fears," notes Smye. "Choose people who can offer you new skills and perspectives. It you want to go from accounting to sales, you'll want the kind of backup that mentors in sales, marketing, advertising and distribution can give you."

In 1974, when Riddle's company changed its name to the Principal Financial Group, she was ready for change and set her sights on being a manager, then an officer and then a second vice president. She kept a log of her goals and accomplishments and set up a time frame in which these successions would occur. After becoming an assistant manager in 1977, she gave herself two years to become a manager. When she hit that landmark, she factored in five years for a junior officer position and three more before she'd be a director. By 1997, with an M.B.A. from Drake University in Des Moines, Riddle had moved across customer service and operations to become vice president of government relations.

"I had been working in Washington, D.C., on public policy when I started to seriously think about being a lobbyist," says Riddle, 50. When you're considering changing positions it's important to know what others think of you, says Greist. "If people don't like you in your current position they won't give you a shot at another."

Company CEO David Drury recognized Riddle's ability to instill trust, persuade and influence others and soon promoted her to vice president of government relations. Riddle has been working as a Washington representative on behalf of her company, occupying a seat usually reserved for lawyers and ex-staffers from Capitol Hill or the State Department. Her days are filled with writing policy, papers, galvanizing grassroots efforts and stumping for or against policies that affect everything from healthcare to Y2K liability.

Like James, Riddle's success did not come without some sacrifice. "My greatest challenge has been finding time for myself and loved ones," says Riddle, who is divorced and splits her time between Washington, D.C., and Des Moines. "I've also had to contend with people unaccustomed to seeing an African American woman in authority." All in all, says Riddle, "When presented with opportunity, be careful about turning it down. Some lateral moves can make the best transitions "Greist whatever direction you're facing. Don't be as concerned with moving up as with moving toward your goal."

LIVE YOUR DREAM ON THE SIDE

Years ago, Shirley Hailstock wanted to follow one career path to the U.S. space program. Instead, she followed four, becoming an accountant, sales manager, college professor and author.

While a chemistry major at Howard University, she joined the ROTC to help open the doors to NASA. But when she graduated in 1971, no jobs in space were to be had. A national wage freeze had dried up government jobs, and not even chemical companies were recruiting. "People with Ph.D.s were driving cabs and there was nowhere to go, so I got a job in accounting," says the Plainsboro, New Jersey, resident.

With an associate's degree in accounting from Benjamin Franklin University in Washington, D.C., she crunched numbers at an insurance broker. In 1975, she joined the pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

While there, Hailstock really got to work. Within five years, she had earned an M.B.A. in chemical marketing from Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, New Jersey, was teaching accounting at Rutgers University in the evenings and had switched jobs to Squibb (which later merged with Bristol Myers). She stayed in accounting until the 1980s, all the while continuing to broaden her skills. "I learned financial systems and as much as I could about computer programs, so instead of having others write in COBOL for me, I wrote it myself. Since it was new and no one was saying I couldn't do it, I just did it." When her company wanted people with knowledge of both systems experience for a new financial Hailstock.

By 1991 given birth to her children Ashleigh and Christopher Coles, now ages 16 and 15, respectively, and weathered a divorce. Her division, which produces products for MRI use, was sold. It became Bracco Diagnostics, and she became the senior sales systems manager in charge of consolidating and developing sales systems. Yet, through these transitions, the creativity of a romance writer lurked deep beneath the analytic skills required for her day job. In her spare time she wrote, took writing classes and joined organizations such as the International Women's ',Writers Guild, Women Writers of Color and Romance Writers of America.

Such part-time or voluntary experience allows you to explore your dreams and have a safety net, notes Smye. Let's say, for example, that you dream of working in a bed-and-breakfast. If you don't have the time to work at one during the summers on weekends, then do informationa1 interviews to find out more about the field. Harlequin Books, the largest publisher of romance novels, rejected Hailstock's first manuscript, but gave her valuable writing advice. Her 1994 debut novel, Whispers of Love, and later Clara's Promise were greeted with critical acclaim and awards. Hailstock, who serves on the board of the Romance Writers of America, has seven novels and three novellas to her name all published by Pinnacle Books (just recently purchased by BET). She also finds time to teach novel writing at Middlesex County College. "For me, professional fulfillment has been the freedom to do what I've wan ted and not be boxed in. I also never set unattainable goals," says Hailstock who hopes to be able to write full time one day.

To ensure that you too can make the transitions, organize your work around satisfaction, serenity and self-esteem. "You don't have to be at the mercy of technology, economic decisions made five time zones away, or someone else's Manifest Destiny," says Smye. "Whatever happened in your first life, you can plan for a successful second life. And you better do your planning now, because the future is going to happen whether you're ready or not."

Resources for Career Changers

* Survival lobs: 154 Ways to Make Money While Pursuing Your Dreams by Deborah Jacobson (Broadway Books, $14). Details all the specs on everything from karaoke performer to English-as-a-second-language teacher. Helps you decide what job to take while you wait for your big break.

* 1999 Career Resource Directory by Mark Patton (MGC Publications, $14.95; 800-531-9874). Lists 250 trade associations, government agencies and organizations to help you start out or start over in the career or business of your dreams.

* Is It Too Late to Run Away and join the Circus? A Guide for Your Second Life by Marti Smye, Ph.D. (Macmillan, $14.95. Guide tohelp you decide what career change is best for you with self-help tests and anecdotal stories about people who have made the shift.

* Reinventing Yourself: How to Become the Person You've Always Wanted to Be by Steve Chandler (Career Press, $18.99). Offers tips to help you uncover your hidden potential and succeed in both your professional and personal lives.

* Jobs' 98 by Kathryn Petras, Ross Petras and George Petras (Fireside, $16). Provides comprehensive information on salaries, top companies and working conditions, plus forecasts on today's changing job market.