Is it Time to Take a Small Bet on your Career?

So you are feeling stuck going around the same circle at work and in your career. Of course, everybody feels like this at some point in their working lives. There may of course be uncertainty in your job due to the fallout from the pandemic. You know you should try to figure it all out, but the big picture on what to do next is just too big. You feel deep down you want to be doing something different with your life and work – but the idea of changing jobs, (let alone a career) seems so overwhelming and a hard thing to start. The solution is to think smaller – much much smaller and learn to take a small bet every now and then with life goals and your career. Its time to think small scale, to create new networks and learn new skills.

What are Career Small Bets?

Placing a small bet is not running off to the local bookies for your annual flutter on a horse in the Grand National. It’s about asking yourself, what are the small bets or small projects I can place right now to change things. Get you moving on something you are really interested in. Something that will not drastically shift your day-to-day working life presently, just give you a lift in a particular direction. Build confidence and belief in yourself that you are moving in a direction that helps take the stress off the big picture.

So it’s all about “if I try this for a few weeks or a couple of months this could happen”. If nothing comes of it then at least you have learned something, met new people, or gained a new skill. You may want to try a new career in the area of helping people, for example, then volunteering might just a bet worth placing. Nothing to lose but your time and what’s more you know whether you like supporting people or not. At least then you can pursue the idea and cross it off your list.

Try something new

These small bets are all about trying something new that will involve utilising new or existing skills or perhaps testing an idea about something you are interested in. By planning your small career bet you can state when you start, how you are going to do it, and when it will finish. This way we get the career or personal development moving nicely by breaking the big goal down into its component parts.

Test small “bets” to see how they go.

Let’s try some examples. Perhaps you’ve occasionally had visions of writing a book on a topic that really interests you or are passionate about. Before you hand your notice in at work, spend some time researching it.  Test out the main idea by writing a guest post for a friend’s blog. Write an article for a more serious trade or industry publication. Give a talk on the topic at a local networking event. Or you could lead a series of training seminars or webinars at your workplace on the topic and ask what people for feedback.

Repeat all these steps with other ideas you’re interested in as well. The volume of small bets is key. Running several small projects (small bets) at the same time you can see which are going to emerge and fly. The point here is to take the pressure off and being overwhelmed with a big goal such as career change. This method will help you achieve small goals, count things out or in, and perhaps gain confidence by doing things differently.

Just have a go

The caveat to all this is not using these small bets as another way of procrastinating. It’s more than just reading, thinking, organising, planning, filing, emailing, or hoping this will be your job or career change silver bullet. You may just need to break cover and put something out there so that you can get some feedback on it to see if your ideas fly.

Clearly, not everything will work. That’s the very nature of placing small bets. If one small bet appears to be doing well, you can double up on it with more time and resources. After all, if your new blog post goes viral and you become an internet sensation, you’ll be able to make a good case for writing that book. Therefore building some great career capital in another area that you can use for your benefit.

Lastly………….

Even if none of your initial small bets takes off then at least you will have learned new things. Whilst finding out more about what you like and what you don’t. The very reason for trying something new is how these small bets fit into your overall career strategy. Where do you want to be and how are you going to get there. That self-knowledge can inform your next career change projects and even more small bets. Even within your current job and career, we all know that a growth mindset and trying something new will take you off in a different direction. So have a go, place a couple of small bets on your career, you never know where it might lead?

 

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