Page 112 - Marky Stein - Fearless Career Change_ The Fast Track to Success in a New Field (2004)

Fearless Career Change

dreamed about. If he could potentially have all this and work with
people almost 75 percent of the time, he would certainly thrive!
When Miguel made up his mind about changing directions,
he called several of the major finance and brokerage companies
in his area to see if any of them had training programs for new
brokers. One, a Fortune 500 company, brought him in for inter-
views and testing and then offered him a spot in their 12-week
training program.
Although he was paid only minimum wage to complete the
training program (as was everyone), his wife’s salary as a social
worker was more than enough for them to get by for a few months.
When he finished the course, he took a state-administered licens-
ing exam to become qualified to sell various financial services. He
was then formally offered the position.
Miguel reports that he has loved his first year at the job. “It’s
really about helping people reach their full potential. Once they
take control of their finances, their whole lives turn around. I love
being part of that.” Miguel was able to use his transferable talents
of teaching and advising from his last job as a project manager and
his math skills from engineering.
Most important, Miguel tells me that he is living up to his own
potential and purpose—and getting a lot better at skiing.
To sum up, let’s take a closer look at Miguel’s use of the fear-
less career change strategies:

1. Transferable talents Yes Math and people skills.
2. On-the-job training Yes First year of job involved closely
supervised training. Miguel was
given a mentor at work with
whom he studied sales tech-
niques for several hours a day.
3. Strategic education No
4. Short-term education Yes 12-week intensive paid train-
ing program
5. Internship No
6. Volunteering No
7. Just Dive In! No
8. Entrepreneurship No

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