There’s a special type of existential dread reserved only for your career, and it is far from what we should be experiencing for 8 hours of our waking lives every day. Falling into this feeling can be simply disastrous. 

The process of career selection itself relies heavily on our understanding of our ambitions from our late teens. Picking a path so early on is bound to come with some self-doubt. “What do you want to be when you grow up?” becomes a life-altering question, and staying confident in your choice is a daunting task… All of this is normal, but at what point does it overstep the boundary; when should you really do something about it? 

This article will address how to recognise if it’s time to make those big moves and how to embrace that it’s totally normal to have second thoughts and evaluate whether you’re on the right track. Your lifelong career satisfaction might rely on it, after all. 

If you relate, now might be the time to visit Generation Success’s “Jobs & Internships” page to start pursuing your new calling.

How to Know if it’s Time to Switch Careers.

So, so tired. And sooo on edge! Feeling drained.

Being tired is a part of the human experience, but always barely being able to make yourself get up, get ready, and go is not. Feeling drained and exhausted is a symptom that calls for change. Do you feel like your negative emotions are spilling into the other aspects of your life? You might not feel like grabbing that coffee with your old friends anymore because you just need to rest. Or you might just not have the energy to go to the supermarket today. Don’t underestimate this signal, as it could mean that your underlying thoughts are struggling to keep it together. 

Pass or fail? Who even cares. Feeling indifferent about the outcome

No matter what your job may be, it’s critical that you feel like a part of the process. You need to understand the impact you made on creating results as they come around. If you can’t wrap your head around what you did to help the cogs in the machine turn, it’s not likely that you’re going to feel accomplished at any other point. If this goes on for a while, you might find yourself doubting why you’re there at all. Try alleviating this by visualising the actual outcomes of your work in the big picture.

No brownie points here. Relinquishing a sense of responsibility

If you’re feeling indifferent about the outcomes, you’re probably not going to invest yourself into taking your work. After all, what difference will it make? Not taking responsibility for your tasks or their results is symptomatic of losing your career identity. Stepping back and shrugging is not ideal, but also not always avoidable. If you’re feeling this uninterested, don’t run from that step back – you might want to reevaluate where that stems from.

You were made for more. Unfulfilled potential

Do you get bored often? Are your tasks repetitive and don’t feel like a challenge? You simply know you can do more than what you’re being asked to, but you’re not even motivated enough to point that out. Don’t fret – we know you were made for big things. If you don’t feel like they’re attainable now, trust the process and check back in a while.

Ultimately, you’ll know when your job just isn’t doing what it should for you anymore. The days of working for survival have passed, and for the sake of your wellbeing, take the steps necessary to find a healthy and satisfying work environment. Even if it’s not a quick transition, set your goals and push yourself toward prosperity, one step at a time. Generation Success offers loads of resources to support this.

Our annual Making It In The City Careers Conference with will be taking place today. This careers conference is the brainchild of James Adeleke, the director and founder of Generation Success. Our organisation is a social enterprise inspired by the devastating effects of the London Riots and works towards enabling peoples of underrepresented backgrounds, such as those from black, Asian, minority ethnic and low-income groups, to acquire enhanced employment opportunities and resources.

This year the conference will offer a virtual experience like no other, allowing employers from top 100 companies such as Deloitte, PwC, SAP and BT to attend host virtual booth stands and attend via virtual avatars. This year promises to be even more exciting as additional representatives from SSE, Barclays and MoneyBox, will be in attendance and providing key learnings in our panel sessions.

The conference is designed to allow young people, students, graduates and young professionals to gain access to opportunities within the aforementioned dream 100 companies. Upwards of 20 employers, 5 industry panels composed of those in the technology, legal, consulting, banking and entrepreneurship industry as well as one to one dialogues with HR managers are just some of the features of the conference. There will be an abundance of employers looking to bring in diverse talent to their companies which provides our audience the chance of a lifetime to build vital industry connections and to gain pivotal insights into the internal mechanics of life inside some of these corporate giants. The outreach and marketing teams at GS have been actively communicating with student societies to share our marketing material on their platforms. There has been a multitude of successes found with City University of London, BPP Law School and Brunel University to name a few.

Our careers event exists as the perfect metaphor for the slow but sustained change Generation Success’ efforts have slowly evoked. As recently as last week, GS and Paul Hastings LLP launched our collaborative community engagement programme.

Over the past 60 years Paul Hastings has established itself as one of the world’s leading law firms and a leader in global diversity by creating an environment that fosters engagement, inclusion, and belonging.Part of their approach towards corporate social resposibility and sustainabilty includes collaborate with clients and the industry on innovative diversity and inclusion programming. The programme launch was held at the Paul Hastings London offce hosted by Mr Arun Birla, the chair of the London office of Paul Hastings, vice-chair of the global Tax practice and nominated as “Diversity Champion” by the UK Diversity Legal Awards 2019. The GS team were delighted with how enthusiastic the volunteers were about making a positive impact in the community. They would be doing so by mentoring and contributing towards the continued success of our success seekers. We are glad to be working alongside a firm that harnesses the insights of diversity to produce the highest possible results.

On the subject of the upcoming conference, James Adeleke had this to say;

“It gives me great pleasure to announce our Making It In the City Career Conference is available to everyone. We have created this seminar to allow young people to network and sign up to internal offerings within these companies. Each subsequent year, we are seeing more and more young people sign up to our conferences. It also fills me with pleasure to see increasing numbers of employers wanting to join as speakers and do their part in creating equal access and opportunities for all.

The Making It In The City Careers Conference is just one of numerous other offerings that Generation Success will be hosting. Further events can be found in the form of an Investment Banking seminar as well as a hackathon with SAP. For more information regarding the work our organisation does, in addition to future events, we kindly invite you to browse our website. If you or anyone would like to experience our mentoring programmes please feel free to become part of our GS community.

International Womens Day 2021- #choosetochallenge

What is international women’s day? International Women’s day is a global holiday which celebrates the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. This all started when in 1908 women in New York City went out onto the streets demanding the right vote, shorter working hours and better pay. This is then celebrated every year on the 8th March, this year’s theme is Women in Leadership – Achieving an Equal Future in a COVID-19 World. Throughout COVID-19 women and girls have been affected greatly and the pandemic has just highlighted the inequalities women face on a day to day basis. It is important that women’s voices are heard and are able to contribute to the global recovery. Unfortunately even in today’s society there is a lack of female presence in leadership roles which is what we’re trying to change every single day. 

International women’s day is just as important as it was in 1908 if not more as we are still not at the point of where we should be with women’s equality. Though we have made some progress, with women being able to vote and gaining higher positions in job roles. Sadly this has taken many years to accomplish and it has not always been smooth sailing, there have been some setbacks, still women struggle to get jobs due to their gender and also struggle to move up in their fields of work. International women’s day is a reminder to everyone that women won’t stop until they’re seen as equals and their voices will be heard. This year we are focusing on #ChooseToChallenge which is highlighting the challenges women face 

If you are wanting to show your support for International women’s day you can do this by attending our virtual event (https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/generation-success-2966421607) where you will be able hear from a panel of leading business figures, discover how they became successful and you will also get an opportunity to ask any questions you may have for them. Are men invited? Of course everyone is welcome no matter gender, ethnicity or class. Another way in which you can get involved is by getting educated all about why we have international women’s day and just how important it is. You can also educate your friends and family members too, making sure as many people are on board as possible. Also if you are in a position to do so you could donate to a feminist charity who are working their hardest to help women gain the equality they deserve.