The curriculum of life is an on-the-job training program. One of the toughest lessons is Starting Over 101. It can also be the most valuable, say graduates who are downsizing their personal careers and reclaiming control of their lives.
Their message is, ”Less is more.” Less hassle. Less stress. More time. More freedom.
In short, they`ve had it. They`ve had it with career fast-tracks where they spent one day too many spinning their wheels. They`ve had it with jobs that were long on demands and short on reward. They`ve had it with companies that repay years of service with a directive to locate the nearest office exit and walk through it permanently.
These people are not career dropouts. They are career re-starters. Some are taking jobs at smaller companies. Some are starting their own companies. Some are shortening the commute to work to a few steps, setting up shop at a home-office. Some are changing careers entirely. The script varies with each individual, but the theme`s the same: My participation in the rat race ends now.
”People are reviewing their lives and saying, `I don`t want to live as hectically.` They see this as their second chance to stop and smell the roses,” said Dennis Gibson, a licensed clinical psychologist and owner of Wheaton Counseling Associated. ”They used to believe, `If I scramble and sacrifice my health and my family, I will be rewarded.` Now they`re saying,
`Wait a minute, I`m competing with a hundred other people who think the same thing. This is too high a price to pay for success.` It`s a poignant litany often accompanied by tears.”
When Miller advises clients, he brings first-hand experience to their sessions. He and his wife, Ruth, who is also a counselor, are moving their practice to their Wheaton home. They`re trading in stacks of office rent receipts for modest bills to add an office addition onto their house. The Millers are not concerned that the home-office stigma will blemish their professional image. ”We`re not getting smaller, we`re getting more personal control of our business,” Dennis said.
Career change by choice is one thing, but career change by force is another matter, say the pros who are in the business of offering emotional and financial damage control services to the unemployed. And business is booming, say employment agency executives, psychologists and counselors interviewed.
”We all have fantasies about what we want to do,” said Lolly Lederer, a licensed clinical social worker at Human Affairs Inc., Chicago, a job counseling agency with offices in Naperville and Elmhurst. ”The loss of a job can be devastating. It can be paralyzing. We help people mobilize. First we deal with the reality of their loss, and then we ask, `What are your dreams?` It`s amazing how quickly that puts a positive spin on a career change.”
”Basically you are out of control until you get the next opportunity,”
said Ellen Connell, director of Job Search Techniques, Oakbrook Terrace, an agency that counsels job seekers on ways to find employment and come to terms with career change. ”There is a definite trend toward achieving self-satisfaction. People are much more willing to explore options that will give them more control over their lives. Invariably there are tradeoffs. Maybe the salary won`t be as big, but the commute to the new job isn`t as long. Maybe leaving a large corporation for a small company will mean giving up a more impressive job title, but getting more power to call the shots.”
”If they don`t gain insight into other lifestyle and career options, they still think all they can be is what they have been,” said Jim Salerno, owner of Job Search.
Changing course in career mid-life sometimes means filling in skill gaps. As private colleges struggle to meet the demands of returning adult graduate students, business curriculum enrollment becomes an important barometer of career trends.
”Life change stimulates many people to return to school,” said Karen Swenson, director of graduate admissions at Illinois Benedictine College, Lisle, who reported a surge in graduate enrollment. Two new graduate level courses, one in entrepreneurship and another in intrapreneurship (using entrepreneurship techniques within corporate structure), are on the IBC fall course schedule.
”Many people are leaving companies to start businesses of their own. They are looking for the skills that will support their determination to be independent,” she said.
George Moskoff, 37, is a born-again entrepreneur. He operates his management consultant business, Adderly Page Group Ltd., from a loft built over a detached garage at his Batavia home. (Adderly Page was the stage name he made up in high school when he dreamed of becoming a rock star.)
The office overlooks a big back yard bordered by tall trees, which gives visitors a treehouse view of the world. It`s a back-to-basics leap from Moskoff`s posh corporate digs of a couple years ago.
He founded Telecom Resource Group Ltd., Geneva, a telecommunications consulting firm in 1982. Within six years, he had 13 employees, and annual billings exceeded $600,000. A year later, he moved the company to a 3,500-square-foot custom-designed office.
”I had grandiose thoughts about empire building. It was the heyday of the big deal,” Moskoff said.
His hefty overhead forced him to work 70 to 80 hours a week just to keep the business afloat, which left him short on time and patience for his wife, Patti, and his two stepchildren.
”I was angry and stressed out a lot of the time. Anger contaminated every relationship I had,” Moskoff said.
The imminent birth of his son Alex, he said, ”was the catalyst for re-evaluating priorities.”
Overextended and floundering in a slowing economy, he filed for bankruptcy (Chapter 7), and started Adderly Page in 1990. His life has rotated 180 degrees since.
Spending time with his family and being successful are no longer mutually exclusive goals. And being choosy about the projects he works on has replaced frantic fee chasing.
”Now I tend to work with people toward the higher end of the organization chart. That`s where powerful changes are implemented,” said Moskoff.
He said he earns about $180,000 a year and has one employee, a secretary. His customer list includes MCI, Servicemaster and Motorola.
Hosting clients in an office with treehouse ambiance and an adjacent bike trail seems to give him a certain eccentric appeal, said Moskoff.
”Sometimes I`ll take a client for a walk on the bike trail. We walk and talk. It`s amazing what we accomplish.”
The interior design of the office is a metaphor for Moskoff`s career rebirth. It`s an eclectic mix of exposed wall studs and insulation, silk plants and framed prints. Seems when the money to finish construction of the office got tight, some luxuries had to wait. Plasterboard was one of them. A greenspace view and ample natural light were deemed necessities.
”Windows are more important than walls,” Moskoff said, gazing at Alex playing in his back-yard sandbox.
