28: In your 20s and feeling guilty about wanting to make a career change?

If you’re in your 20s and you feel stuck in your career, this episode is for you. Perhaps you majored in a certain subject in college, got a job in that major after graduation, and you now realize it’s not the field for you. Or maybe you had limited career options because your parents expected you to follow a specific path like doctor, lawyer or engineer, and you now want to make a career switch.

In this episode of Career Switch Podcast, I speak with Delicia Alarcón, an academic and career coach who helps recent grads and young professionals with their career transitions. 

As the CEO of the coaching company Delilingo Academy, Delicia shares the three biggest challenges many 20-somethings face when making a career switch and how to work through them.


Find Delicia Alarcón at:

Website: www.deliciaalarcon.com

Instagram: @deli.the.explorer  

TikTok: @hypetiadeli

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/deliciaalarcon

YouTube: https://youtu.be/T7S0wTLBBW0

Podcast: College and Career Coffee Chats with Delicia

Revamp Your Resume mini course: www.deliciaalarcon.com/resources

1:1 Coaching: www.deliciaalarcon.com/letsworktogether

Resources: www.deliciaalarcon.com/resources

Resources mentioned in this episode:

The Alchemist by Pablo Coelho on Amazon

16personalities: www.16personalities.com

Upwork: www.upwork.com

PeoplePerHour: www.peopleperhour.com

HeyTutor: https://heytutor.com

Music credit: TimMoor from Pixabay

Podcast info:
What's your career switch? What do you think about this episode and the show? Tell us at careerswitchpod.com. Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Transcript

Lixandra: Hi, everyone. I'm Lixandra Urresta, and this is Career Switch Podcast. This show is here to encourage you to take action with whatever career change you're considering or working on. Maybe you're trying to switch industries or professions or break out on your own and start a business. In some episodes, I talk to people who've made their own career switch, whether by choice or circumstance. They share the good, the bad, and the truth about their journey, including what worked for them and what didn't. In other episodes, I speak with experts who offer their best career advice on challenges that can come up during the process of making a career change. After all, it takes guts to switch things up, and it's not easy. However, it is possible. 

So, I hope you hear something in this episode, an idea, a suggestion, a piece of advice that'll spur you into action with your own career switch, whether it's taking that first bold step or trying something new. Welcome. I'm glad you're here. 

If you're in your 20s and you feel stuck in your career, this episode is for you. Perhaps you majored in a certain subject in college, got a job in that major after graduation, and you now realize it's not the field for you. Or maybe you had limited career options since your parents expected you to follow a specific path like doctor, lawyer, or engineer, and you're now looking to make a career switch. 

I speak with Delicia Alarcon, an academic and career coach who helps recent graduates and early career professionals with their career transitions. She is the CEO and founder of Delilingo Academy, a virtual academic coaching company that supports students with their academic and career goals. 

Hi, Delicia, thanks for joining us today. Let's dive in. You're an academic and career coach for young adults ages 18 to 25, and you counsel many first generation college students. Just so we're all on the same page, what does first generation mean?

Delicia: First generation is really a broad topic, but simply I like to walk through it with my students saying that they're the first in their family, immediate family, to attend university in the United States. Technically, the textbook is just first in your family to attend a four year undergraduate institution. However, I expand that with international students because perhaps their parent might have attended university in their home country, however, have not experienced it in the United States. So I would define them as first generation as well. As an example, my parents Right before they immigrated to the United States, my mother was enrolled in law school and my dad was going to start his economics five-year degree in Paraguay, which is where my parents are from. So technically I wouldn't be considered first-gen under the US definition, but I had a very first-gen experience because they haven't experienced education in the United States. So that's kind of broadly how I navigate the conversation with my students so they're comfortable and understand that It's not only first-generation in academia, but it's first-generation in navigating systems in the United States. It kind of encompasses your whole lived experience. You're first-gen in the corporate world because you're navigating all the nuances and hierarchy and bureaucracy and red tape for the first time. If your parents maybe didn't navigate that experience for themselves. So that's kind of broadly how I navigate the conversation.

Lixandra: You also work with non first-generation young adults, right?

Delicia: Yes, I work with second gen, third gen, and even parents and communities who have been within the United States for five, 10 plus years.

Lixandra: So let's set the scene. Let's say when you were in college, you majored in a certain subject, you graduated and went on to get a job in that major. You're now in your mid-20s and you realize it's not the job you expected or hoped for. And you're considering making a career change. What challenges do your clients face when they're in this situation?

Delicia: They have imposter syndrome or just don't understand what's going on. I can give an example of some student clients I'll call a client Sarah for anonymity. She was a psychology and education major and really wanted to do education as a teacher because that's what she knew. And one of the obstacles that she experienced was really expanding her capacity to understand that with a psychology bachelor of arts, you can really do different career choices. You can do a program manager role. You can work in a nonprofit. You can even work in a corporate setting. And even in technology, you can work as program development, learning and development, business operations, human resources, and really demystify what it means to work in tech, what it means to work in corporate United States, and what does it mean to think outside the box with teaching. So it's really opening the mindset to really think about what are the options out there. Another example, I'll take one other student or client that I had. He majored in biology and was on track to go to med school. But towards the end of his undergrad experience, he realized he didn't want to be a doctor. We then did research to teach him that with the biology background, you can do a lot with occupational therapy, physical therapy. You could be a physician's assistant that maybe takes less years of school, but still have a great earning potential. And he ended up deciding that he wanted to do physical therapy to really compliment his sports background. He was an athlete, so he really, really understood the field of physical therapy and taking his bio major in a different direction and taking the test to then do his master's and then doctorate in physical therapy. So walking through those conversations with them, we talk a lot about feelings of guilt and shame that they are not following maybe what their parents are thinking that they can be a doctor, an engineer, a lawyer, or a specific degree that they had in mind for their children. So we kind of navigate, number one, not understanding the other opportunities that might be out there because of first-gen status. And we don't know what we don't know in that capacity. And number two is imposter syndrome, and number three, a lot of guilt and shame.

Lixandra: Tell us more about the guilt and shame.

Delicia: I'll generalize in the sense of We may grow up in an environment where, like I mentioned earlier, you can only major in certain things and then get a career and a job in certain areas, right? Doctor, lawyer, engineer, whatever that looks like for that conversation with your parents. So a major obstacle that students and clients that I work with deal with is really overcoming this sense that they failed at school or they're failing at finding a career because they think that they need to uphold the societal standard. And in many ways they do, right? If parents are tied to paying for their education, that's a huge power dynamic that exists and you don't want to disappoint your parents. So how do you navigate that conversation? And we talked through how we can do that. And a lot of other areas that they might deal with in terms of mental obstacle is asking for help. Sometimes they feel like they are in this dark hole and they cannot get out of it. And they don't want to ask for help because they're really ashamed of asking for help because they think they should know the answer. They think that they are disappointing someone in themselves. So we navigate kind of those feelings of doubt of their own kind of expertise and trusting their own instincts and their own process. Because at the end of the day, they're the ones who show up in this job or they have to do the thing. Everyone can say something and parents or society or friends or family members can really push someone to do something. But at the end of the day, they have to be okay with it. So those are some of the feelings that they kind of go through.

Lixandra: Do you find that your clients compare themselves to their colleagues who are thriving in whatever industry they're in?

Delicia: Oh, yes. Especially with social media now, it's really easy to see what other people are doing. And for that, it's really important to teach like social emotional skills of grounding exercises and connecting to themselves and really processing what it is they want to do. Unpacking what is their true desire in terms of a career? What is their true want? But comparison is huge, right? Especially if they're recent grads, it can become a very toxic cycle. So that's, I think, comes from the toxicity of the society we live in. And we have to really unpack that and reclaim what it means to be successful for ourselves and really think about that deeply and not fall into the rat race or the trap of chasing the next big thing.

Lixandra: Just like getting your first apartment and getting married, is making a career switch a life milestone for a young adult?

Delicia: Oh, yeah, absolutely. It's a transition, and that can bring up a lot of emotional, psychological stuff that you have to unpack in order to be okay with in that transition. Transitions are hard. They're uncomfortable, and people generally don't want to be uncomfortable, not because they don't want to be uncomfortable, but because I believe that we're not taught to really navigate that uncomfortable middle, or some people like to call it the messy middle. that some people want to bypass and they just want to like jump to the other side. But a tool that I actually like to use is recommending students or individuals in a transition to read The Alchemist because The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho talks about the journey. I won't give too much of the book. If you haven't read it, go read it. Basically, the main character wants to get to the other side, wants to get to the destination, and then he's presented with obstacles along the way. But the moral of the story is it's in the journey. It's not in the destination as cheesy as it might sound. It's really about being present and what's going on right now. And if you're in a transition, things come up economics. As a young adult and mid twenties, like you have responsibilities. In many cases, if you're a first generation child of immigrants, you might be helping parents pay the mortgage. You might be babysitting for your. younger siblings, or you might be supporting not only yourself, but like your family members financially because of the nuances that exist with immigrant families, right? So it's a lot of pressure, yes. And within that, you can hold both. You can hold the immense pressure that exists, but on the other side, you can also create space for yourself to navigate that tough situation and ground yourself. If you have health insurance to get therapy, right, demystifying what therapy looks like, for students and clients. Those are the kind of nuanced conversations that we'd go through.

Lixandra: Okay. So how do you help your clients who are in their twenties and want to make a career switch?

Delicia: I would start by asking if they have a LinkedIn. If no, then we create a LinkedIn account and start networking, start connecting with people. If you, for example, want to start working at Google, you start networking with people who work there. I think LinkedIn has groups where you can chat with people and start, um, cold, direct messaging, start a conversation and start going on inner informational interviews or informational coffee chats. Now with a zoom, it's a lot easier to connect with people because you don't physically have to go in person. You can just say, Hey, I love to connect with you on zoom. I want to hear your story. I want to learn how you got where you got right. Let's say you want to roll as a program manager at Google in their developmental department. How did they get there? How did they find that job? Who do they connect with? Who is the recruiter in that particular department? And build relationships. Job searches, job switches are all built on relationships. The second thing would be connect with your alumni association. Who in that community has a role that you may want or company you want to work at, or just curious about something. It doesn't mean that you're going to apply for the job, accept the job and go to the company. No, it's about just building a relationship. And who knows, maybe John at Google knows Sarah at Facebook because they went to college together and then he can refer you and they know the recruiter. And you just don't know until you get your foot in the door and talk to people. Another thing I work with clients is demystifying the fear around cold direct messaging. You might get 20 no's or 20 ghosts. However, it only takes one or two to really start the ball rolling. So we walk through the fear behind direct messaging someone, researching on LinkedIn, who you want to connect with and really start reading job descriptions. What gets you excited? What sounds really boring? What sounds like it's going to be too much for little pay, really researching company culture. And now we live in a technological world. I bet you someone somewhere wrote about it on Instagram, talked about it on YouTube, and you can get all sides of the story from previous employees. The crux of it is research and understanding that research. So that's kind of how we start navigating the strategic steps.

Lixandra: Going back to the example you gave about becoming a program manager at Google, how would you help a client who doesn't know what they want to do next?

Delicia: We would analyze what skills they bring, what experiences they've had, and try to match with other job descriptions. There is a really cool tool called 16personalities.com that's free. Anyone can take it online. It kind of mirrors the Myers-Briggs test. just to give you a starting point and an idea, right? So if they have no idea how to get to learning and development, we start there. That tool gives you some steps, right? It says, based on your Myers-Briggs, you might be interested in X, Y, and Z. So we start there. What does X, Y, and Z say? And sometimes that test is completely wrong. They don't like anything about it because maybe it's just a hobby and not actually a role they might be interested in. And that's OK, too. It's a starting point. Learning what you don't like is as great information as learning what you do like, because it kind of points you where you're going to go and what you're going to do.

Lixandra: What other career switch strategies do you suggest for your clients?

Delicia: If you have an idea of what you want to do and you're trying to make your exit plan to transition, Start freelancing. There are a lot of great websites like Upwork, People Per Hour, HeyTutor, that really allow you to create your own schedule with the skills that you have. And social media. If you're in your mid-20s, you're likely on social media. So this is for someone maybe who's a little bit more extroverted and they want to be out there talking about their opinions or their thoughts or their passions. or have a side passion that they want to get going, then put it on social media. That is where you're going to find people the quickest, especially in the era of the pandemic. A lot of people are hesitant to meet one-on-one still. So doing it online is the fastest way to maybe get clients if you're thinking of transitioning into entrepreneurship. Start posting online and start finding your people that connect to what you want to say, what you want to do, what you want to sell. Put yourself out there. I know it sounds easier than done because then you're up against imposter syndrome, right? Who am I to be talking about this online? Or you start feeling insecure about maybe how you, how you look, because there are societal standards that whether we know we consume that information or not, it's within our psyche, right? I know it can be a quick tip, be on social media. Yay. But I know there's nuances and layers to that. If you're more of an introverted person that doesn't want to put your face online, then you can write, you can do audio. There's a lot of great audio tools now. Like Twitter has audio rooms, there's clubhouse that's only audio based. So there's a lot of cool technological ways to start freelancing and putting yourself out there. If eventually your goal is entrepreneurship and doing your own thing and not being a part of a corporate setting or a part of a large organization.

Lixandra: What other advice do you give your young adult clients?

Delicia: In the grand scheme of life, it'll be okay. And you'll figure it out. It's kind of what I try to instill in clients. It's also the path is not linear when it comes down to career switches, right? This podcast is all about career switches is an opportunity for you to figure out more what it is you actually want to do. Sometimes out of graduation, we take the job because we need to start making money. We have student loans. We have responsibilities. Like we just get in the rat race. But then somewhere along the line, we're like, wait a minute. This is not what I want. This is not how I want to live my life. So a career change starts to percolate, or you've outgrown your company or the people that you're working around. And that's OK. You're not meant to stay somewhere for 35 years. The average employee lifecycle is two to four years now. So that's OK if you want to change, just because back in the day, people stayed for 30 plus years out of company doesn't mean that that's what modern day society is going to do. So really keep that in mind. Career switches are about reinventing yourself, having fun, and being more aligned to your authentic self and what you want to be doing. So don't be afraid of career switches. Don't be afraid of transitions. And if you are, then Anyone who wants to connect with me, I'm happy to chat through conversations. You can check out any of the services I provide, all the free resources I have. I also have my own podcast, College and Career Coffee Chats, and there I also connect with people who are in different industries, have been through career changes, and hopefully you get some nuggets from our own lived experiences.

Lixandra: Great. And as we wrap up, what kind of coaching services do you offer?

Delicia: So I do three different types of coaching. Number one is do it yourself. I have a revamp your resume mini course that you can walk through it on your own. It has all the worksheets on how to edit your resume, create a new one. And it's five modules of me coaching you through the process. That's pre-recorded so you can listen to it at your leisure. So that's tier one. Tier two is group coaching. One is for graduate students who are applying to grad school in a group setting for support and motivation. And the other one is applying to different jobs, or if you're in a career transition and you're trying to figure out how to negotiate your salary, cover letter, resume preparation, and you want more one-on-one in a group setting with other individuals. And then the third one is one-on-one. I have SOS sessions. If you need your resume or your cover letter reviewed and coached really quickly, That's an option or long-term three months or six months where we go through the transition together. So those are kind of the three tiers that you can work with me.

Lixandra: And how can listeners find you Delicia?

Delicia: For Instagram, you can follow me at Deli the Explorer. You can find me on TikTok as Hype Tia Deli. On YouTube, I'm Delicia Alarcon, Deli Legal Academy. And then LinkedIn is Delicia Alarcon. podcasts, college and career coffee chats. And my website is www.deliciaalarkon.com where you can find the resources and all the coaching packages there.

Lixandra: Thanks to Delicia Alarcon for being our guest today. You can find links to the resources mentioned in this episode and more helpful information in the show notes and on our website, careerswitchpod.com. 

So, what's your career switch? Are you motivated to take action after listening to this episode? Tell us at careerswitchpod.com. We'd love to know, along with any feedback you have about the show. Let us know too, if you'd like to be a guest. Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn at careerswitchpod. And please rate, review, and share with your friends and colleagues. It'll help get the show out there. Thanks for listening today. Till next time.