Do you have a dearth of ideas for how to create a career you love? Take my advice, hang out with your career crush. I did...

And here I am, sharing a moment with her whilst exploring my alternative career...

Whose Career Do You Covet?

This is one of the questions I ask clients to get them thinking about career possibilities that fall outside their current career path or imagination. These are the careers that we dismiss because they're "for someone else" or we're "not qualified for it" or we "wouldn't know where to start".

So, I reached out to someone whose job I have coveted for the last 15 years. I invited her for a Zoom coffee (sorry, I'm not getting on board with the "Zoomoffee" - ugly word!) and spent such an enjoyable 30 minutes talking to her, I was walking on air for the rest of the day.

So, who is she?

Well, this is Jenny Walters and she is the Features Editor for Country Walking Magazine. I've been a subscriber for nearly 20 years and, for many of those years, I've enviously seen Jenny go on long multi-day hikes in beautiful scenery with a cameraman and her notepad. She comes home, writes about her trip and plans the next one. Or so I imagined.

Talking to Jenny about her job was fascinating. She certainly does the bit I've described above. She also does a lot of planning features for the magazine (hence her job title). This is not only short-term planning for the coming issue but also planning for issues 12 months from now (as they need the seasonal weather in the magazine shots to be congruent with the current season).

Things I Learned from Talking to Jenny

I'm not going to go into her job in too much depth on the assumption that it may not be quite as fascinating for you as it is for me! But, I did learn a few things from speaking to Jenny.

The first thing was - "don't judge a job (book) by its cover". Not all jobs are really how they appear on the outside. Talking to Jenny, it became clear that, whilst the walking / writing piece would be a sweet spot for me, the planning piece might not come so easily or be so enjoyable (come on, you know about my planning weakness by now!).

Also, Jenny is a shining example that you don't always need experience to change career. She applied for her role 15 years ago with no writing experience. She was formerly a librarian who loved walking. Clearly, she demonstrated her writing prowess and passion for walking during the interview process, but she feels that the magazine took a chance on her being inexperienced.

BUT, my biggest learning was this: exploring career possibilities gives you so much more than just a potential career path. Before talking to Jenny, I knew that I was already in a career that I love and that I didn't want to change. But, after talking to Jenny, I realised that I could potentially explore that bit of her job that I like the sound of (walking / writing) and do something with it.

This is what I'm going to do: I'm going to start writing about my walks. Writing is something I'm good at and that gives me energy and I love walking. So, this is something that I'm going to do for me. At the end of November, I'm undertaking a personal pilgrimage (this was already planned) and my goal now is to write a piece about it. Who knows, I may send it to Country Walking Magazine - they use freelancers and I have a good connection there now!

So What?

Thank you for indulging me and allowing me to tell you the story of my career crush. Here is what I'd like you to do:

• Who is your career crush (past, present or future)?
• Send them an email, tell them you're really interested in their job and would love to chat to them about it. Seriously, do this. Jenny was so lovely and really flattered by my approach.
• Have the conversation.
• What have you learned? Is this a potential career for you now or in the future? If it's not, are there any bits of it you could cherry pick and incorporate into your current job or life?
• Tell me what you've learned - and send me a photo of your Zoom coffee!

I hope that's given you some inspiration to explore your own career crush.

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