Hello and welcome to the aligned achiever podcast.

I’m your host, Siobhan Barnes, and this week, we’re diving into the five career paths that you need to know about, because there’s more than one way up.

As this podcast is going to air, it’s going to be International Women’s Day week. And it got me thinking about how, as women, we obviously, with the theme of International Women’s Day, we’re talking about leadership. We’re talking about, you know, taking action. We’re talking about changing the numbers when it comes to C-suite, representation, etc, etc.

And off the back of last week’s podcast episode 124, where I shared the five career pivots that shape a woman’s journey, I really wanted to speak this week to the five career paths that you need to know about, because I do not believe that there is one linear path up. I do not believe that all of us are meant to climb the corporate ladder.

For some, this is the right path for the others, it’s not.

So today, we’re going to be talking about how to identify the path that is right for you, we’re answering that question of what might be next for you and how you can intentionally design your career based on what feels right.

The truth is, women today have more career options than ever, yet, so many of us feel trapped in the either or mindset, stay in corporate and climb or leave and do something totally different. The truth is, there’s more than one way up. When I say up, I mean, if you’re listening to this podcast, you’re an ambitious woman who wants to do great work, make an impact what she’s doing, earn a great income, you know, step into your leadership potential, live a full life all of those good things, and when I say up, I’m talking about whatever that next level might look like for you, right?

Whether you want to go all in on leadership, or launch something of your own, or craft something more flexible and meaningful, there is a path for you.

And so today, I’ll be explaining the five career paths that are possible for you, because within all the different variations, there are five key paths, and I want to give you that information so that you can understand what way you might want to go next.

Or maybe you’re thinking five to 10 years time as well, when your kids are older, or when you are starting to have kids, and you’re thinking, Okay, well, what might life look like then?

Now, before we dive into these five different paths, I want to take a moment to introduce a framework that I use inside the Pivot Pathfinders Collective. This is my group program, my membership program, designed to help professional women navigate their what’s next question with confidence and to really realign their ladders against the right wall, making sure that they’re working towards whatever success looks like for them.

So there are three core phases to figuring out your next career move, and these core phases actually stay with you time and time again, because, as we explored in last week’s episode when we were talking about the different types of pivots that we can face in our life and career, we’re always changing, right? We’re always moving. We are not the same person today as who we were 10 years ago, right? And we won’t be the same person in 10 years as well. We’re here to learn, grow and evolve, and our values and our priorities are going to shift and change as we move forward in life, learn lessons, experience different things, and perhaps see things from another perspective and also mature a bit, you know.

So the three core areas, the three core pillars that I wanted to speak to.

I want to share this with you as a frame of reference, so that you can see how they apply to these five different career paths. And no matter what you choose, these three skills are going to be foundational for you, no matter what you know, whether you do want to climb the corporate ladder, whether you want to launch something of your own, or you’re looking to scale and like flex a little bit more.

So the first pillar is really rewiring and coming back to your personal mastery.

This is understanding yourself, understanding your mindset, your strengths, your values, how you best show up and operate. It’s really about self leadership and understanding yourself.

So to give you a tangible example of this, it’s really about understanding, okay, how do you value certain things in your life? Are you are you valuing in this season of your life, flexibility? Because you’ve got a young family, and actually, you kind of don’t want to accelerate your career as fast for this season, and you might want to have a bit more time with your kids while they’re young, or perhaps you know you value achievement, accomplishment and challenge, in which case you know you are ready to drive and move forward once you can understand your values and what’s motivating you, you also want to look at, you know, some of the beliefs, the mindsets, the the patterns of behaviour that are operating, that are going to support you in stepping into that next level mindset comes up time and time again.

What the thoughts and the feelings that you have, what you believe to be true about yourself, they create your reality, right? Like your thoughts, your feelings, they drive your behaviour, which then ultimately impacts your outcome.

So let’s say, for example, if we took this into a very basic scenario, let’s say you are looking to pivot into another company. Maybe you feel like you’re in the right industry, but the company you work for isn’t quite the right fit. So if you go into the job search process thinking it’s going to be really hard, feeling a bit defeated, like, oh, you know, maybe this is as good as it gets at my existing organisation. I don’t know if this is really going to going to work. Then your behaviour is going to be lacklustre, right? You’re not going to go all in on this job search. You’re not going to give it your best energy, and then what’s the result going to be? Well, you’re probably not going to get many job interviews, right? You’re not going to get many call-backs, and that’s only going to reinforce your original thinking and beliefs of like, yeah, it’s going to be hard. It’s going to be difficult. So it almost becomes this self fulfilling prophecy.

So this personal mastery, understanding some of the limitations you put on yourself, your beliefs that you have about yourself, this is really important, because as we pivot and as we step into that next level, whatever that looks like for us, we’re going to be bumping up against our comfort zones. And bumping up against our comfort zones is going to require us to do things differently, to take risks and to move forward.

So this personal mastery piece is so, so important, and I’ll be honest, with my coaching, I’ve been coaching now for over a decade with women. This is the majority of where we spend our time, the strategy and the action taking. Sometimes that can be a little unknown.

It can be a little bit unsure, but whenever I see my client come back to what matters to her, what she believes to be true, what’s a priority for her, and she has the headspace to really think that through, then suddenly the strategy becomes easier. And you know, obviously with coaching, gonna be supported to take that broad, bold action to move forward into that next level.

So, personal mastery, this rewiring of I like to think of it as kind of upgrading your operating system like you do on your phone, right? Not that we are machines, but, you know, we run our operating system based on programming that we learn from the ages of zero to seven, and sometimes we need that upgrade. So if we can do that personal upgrade to our best selves, right, our most evolved, our most, you know, in tune and up to date version, that’s the person that we want in the driving seat.

That’s the person we want making the decisions. And I call that part of you, your chief, sole officer. So personal mastery super important.

The second pillar that’s really important is when you’re fired, right? You’re thinking about, Okay, I’ve rewired to my most upgraded, truest self. Now, what’s my strategy? What am I going to do?

This is your career strategy.

So this is when you want to craft a smart strategic plan that leverages your skills and experience. So this is the the what, right?

And then the final pillar is the reimagine.

This is when you take intentional action towards building out what you want. This is where you take bold, deliberate steps towards what’s next.

So let’s go back to that example. You’re in your current job. You’re in an industry you like, but the company isn’t quite the right fit. Maybe it’s the culture, maybe it’s the team, maybe it’s the the direction of the company. And you know, you want to get out. This is where you want to get clear on what your strengths are, what you’re good at.

Have that really positive mindset that you’re an asset, and the right job is out there waiting for you. Then you want to think about your strategy. You know, how are you going to do this?

So you might start networking with people, or reaching out to your network to see if any introductions can be made to those organisations you’ve researched that you think are going to be the right fit. And you do those little interviews, and you kind of figure it out exactly what you want to do.

And you take that intentional action you do the hard things, right? Of course, nobody wants to spend time outside of work reworking the CV or having to have coffees and those sorts of things. But when you know that it’s serving a greater purpose, then you can take that intentional action and do the hard things.

And when you align all three of these things, your personal mastery, your career strategy, intentional action. That’s when you find that kind of pivot, sweet spot, if you know what to do, or you’re in your career sweet spot.

And that’s where purpose, confidence and impact meet.

You feel purposeful because you’re actually showing up as who you are. You feel confident because you’ve got a game plan and you’re coming from the right place, and you’re creating impact because you’re aligning those strengths to a place that you feel like you want to make a difference.

So that’s the three pillar framework that I work with in my Pivot Pathfinders Collective. And with that being said, let’s talk about how this can apply to the five career paths that are available to you, because there is more than one way up.

Okay, so the first career path is going to be the most obvious. This is full time employment.

So this is when you are working in a full time job, and that is your path. And typically when you are in full time employment, there is a career trajectory in front of you. There is a well worn path, and you know, it could be that when you’re in full time employment, you know that you want to ascend and climb that ladder.

So this is best for women who thrive in like structured environments, who want to drive change from within, and they’re committed to shaping the future of their industry. So you know, once you align yourself to that personal mastery of like I am a leader or an aspiring leader, then you can take that career strategy to say, you know what, I want to advance to senior leadership. And you might be clear that, okay, you need to hone your executive presence, your influence skills, maybe strategic decision making, and then the intentional action piece is that you actually go and get the trainings, you find the mentor, you find the sponsorship, you start being visible, maybe you work with a coach, and you take those actions to move forward.

So growth can come from climbing the ladder and stepping into leadership. So that’s when you’re in full time employment. So you might be in the right role, and you’re like, yeah, this is where I want to go. Or you might be like, I want to pivot. I still want to stay in full time employment, but I want to pivot into another industry, you know, or another company, that is also possible as well.

And you know, you could be working in a fortune 500 company, if you’re following this path, you know, some people I see, want more meaning and purpose. You could be doing this full time for a non profit or, you know, a social enterprise or something, if you wanted to have that kind of mission driven aspect to your work, right?

So there’s absolutely that as a path where you’re working full time for someone, and that is your path. Now, interestingly, the other day, we’re having this conversation in the Pivot Pathfinders Collective about about work and what it has to mean. And you know, for some of you, perhaps you know working your nine to five or working in a full time employment, it might simply just be that. It might simply just be a job, and you might find that you get your fulfillment, your impact and your meaning with what you do outside of your job.

So if you are into the slow life, and you know you are wanting to garden, make your sourdough, paint, do those lovely, beautiful things like that might be an option for you. Yes, you’ve got the full time employment, but you have your satisfaction and that richness that comes from outside of work.

So I share that with you, because even within the full time employment path, there are many different ways to find meaning and purpose, whether that’s climbing the ladder and being a leader, whether that’s working for a non profit or social impact, or finding that meaning and purpose outside of the day job that you have. Okay, so that’s path number one.

Path number two is entrepreneurship and business ownership.

So this is where you might decide to launch your own product based business or service based business, and this requires, from a personal mastery perspective, a very self driven mindset, resilience and a tolerance for uncertainty. From a career strategy perspective, it requires leveraging your industry expertise, or those skills that you have, or the willingness to learn new skills to create a business that’s aligned with your your strengths and impact goals, and from the aligned action perspective, it requires you testing business ideas like building your brand and creating an intentional revenue model.

So that is another career path that may be available for you. You might decide that you want to be an entrepreneur, and you might to start, want to start your own business. For me personally, I obviously have my own business. My business is more on a solopreneur scale. I am not a huge, huge company with many employees, that’s not the direction that I see my company going in. But for you, you might want that, right?

And you know, I’ve thought long and hard about my career path several times within my own journey, and I’ll be honest at some points, I’m like, Hmm, maybe full time employment would be better. I could use these same skills. I would be connected to, you know, colleagues, and have that camaraderie and teamwork, which I really miss. I really love that aspect.

And so you get to consider which path feels right and true for you. I believe there’s no one set path, and you know, I’m a bit of an experimenter, so it’s always good to try these things out. But I wanted to share this with you so that you so that you understand what different paths are available to you. And in the Pivot Pathfinders Collective, I work with you to support you, to test out your ideas, figure out which path is right for you, so that you can actually take those intentional steps to move towards that okay.

The third career path that is an option is more independent and flexible work.

So this is where you might consult. You might be a freelancer. Fractional leadership is becoming more of a thing whereby, let’s say you have the skill set in accounting, you might be a fractional CFO. So rather than being the CFO for one business, you might be a fractional CFO that works with a number of different businesses. And this fractional leadership role, this is coming more and more popular and more and more of a thing as more people go into entrepreneurship and business, because the barriers to entry have never been as low as they are now. Right? So these are an opportunity as well, and from a personal mastery perspective, it’s really best for those who want autonomy and want the flexibility, but don’t necessarily want full business ownership.

The career strategy here is to monetise skills through project based work, advisory roles or fractional leadership, and the intentional action that you would take here is to really build a strong thought leadership presence and network strategically in order to attract those high value opportunities. So this is actually really perfect for senior professionals who want that high impact work without the nine to five commitment. And as companies continually increase, increasingly hire experts for demand instead of like full time roles. So you’re not on their head count, right? So it can be a little bit more flexible.

So it often combines like strategy, work, leadership, advisory and mentorship. So this would require a shift from, you know, employee to expert for hire. You position yourself as an authority in your field, and you might start doing this on the side to build your credibility, but that is a potential path that is open to you as well.

The fourth path that’s available is the portfolio, or multi stream career path.

So this is really great for those who are multi passionate and who thrive on variety. So you might create multiple income streams, you might consult, you might speak, you might write, you might have a board role, you might teach. So this is really thinking about how you might layer additional revenue streams alongside your current role. And it’s really though for those people who love variety and flexibility, and the benefits are you get, like that diversified income.

You get the creativity, you have the autonomy you obviously need to have that personal brand and market your expertise, but it’s a great way to be able to have a number of different interests and monetize those and you know, see where they take you.

Essentially requires excellent time management skills, because we get pulled in a million different directions on this path. But as with every path, there are the things to be mindful of, and again, this is hopefully you can see why the personal mastery bit is so important in that you want to understand how you work.

So let’s say, for example, you are somebody who craves and thrives on financial stability and security, then maybe the portfolio multi stream career isn’t for you, because it’s less predictable and you don’t know where it’s going to come from, and a full time job might actually be better suited to you.

So can you see how there are different paths that work based on how you’re wired and what’s important for you in each season of life? I hope that makes sense.

All right, the five and final, the fifth and final career path is the career pause and the transitional phases.

And I don’t think people talk about this enough, actually, because it is something that is a path. There’s a beautiful Instagram account that I love to follow. It’s called Mother Untitled, and the founder talks a lot about intentionally taking a break away from work to look after the children and.

And I love the work that she’s doing, because she’s kind of rewiring this mindset around it being a setback or something negative, right, like but seeing it as something that’s really beautiful and something to be valued.

So with the taking a career pause and transitional phase, this is really about you saying, you know what, I’m going to take some time to step back and regroup. For many, if you’ve been burnt out, this can be a great option, just to kind of hit the reset button, bring yourself back to life a little bit before you then think about what that next step is.

So it’s really about from a personal mastery perspective, understanding that your worth is not valued to all that you do, and knowing that you’re allowed to take a break, right? And then, from the strategy perspective, using that time off intentionally to reflect gain clarity or re skill, using that time however, which way you feel is best for you travel, for example.

And then the intentional action piece is really about exploring new possibilities through short term projects, skill building or passion projects and self confidence, like self confidence during a career pause and transitional phase. I’ve seen that it can really take a dive, but remember, it’s the long game. It’s all about intention.

So there you have it. Those are the five career paths that you need to know about.

Number one is full time employment that might look like you owning it and saying, I want to get a seat at the table, and wanting to be a leader, it might look like you wanting to work full time at a social enterprise or non profit if you’re maximising for impact and meaning, it might look like you saying, You know what my job is, my job and I’ll, I’ll put in my best work. But you know what? I’m really making sure that I optimize for time outside of work and making sure I enjoy life there, because that’s what matters to me. So there’s a lot of bandwidth within that particular path.

The second, entrepreneurship and business, this is where you own a business, you have a product, you have a service that you’re offering, and that is where you’re going. So that’s one option.

And then final thirdly, you have independent and flexible work. So this is consulting, fractional leadership, freelancing. This is where you are working part time. You’re working with different clients to provide a service.

The fourth is the portfolio and multi stream careers, which I know could seem a bit similar to the independent and flexible work, but this means that your portfolio could be really, really different. You could have quite a varied income stream, right? You could have very, very different, different opportunities available to you.

And then finally, the career pause and the transitional phases.

So those are the five. And for me, look, I’ve done all a lot of these. I have done full time employment. When I started my career, I started in commercial and corporate real estate, and I was wanting to climb the ladder and wanting to move forward and really drive things forward. Then when I took a sabbatical from full time corporate work, I had that little bit of a break. I had a career pause, and that was a transitional phase, and I thought I wanted to start a skincare business. So I thought I wanted to go into entrepreneurship and business ownership, selling products. And whilst I was building that out, or thinking about that, I was like, I enrolled in a cosmetic science course, and I was like, You know what? I’d like to earn some income. So I went to independent and flexible work, and I went back to Consulting at JLL and did some strategic consulting there, and you know, then just had discovered coaching and actually established my business in coaching. But whilst I’ve been a coach, I went back and also worked as a master coach and head trainer facilitator with the coaching school that I was a part of so that was kind of like my portfolio multi stream career.

And look, now I’m partnering with my beautiful friend and colleague, Elaine Champion, and we’re offering retreats in Hong Kong and corporate workshops and leadership development programs. And you know that’s ending up being more of a portfolio and multi stream career as well.

So I share all of this with you to say that there is no one way to do your career. I think the linear career path is going to become less and less common with AI, with the development in the future of work, and the trends that are happening there where, you know, are we back in the office? Are we not back in the office? And all the different options that are available to us.

Understanding these five career paths that you have is really important so that you know which way you might lean or which way you might want to explore and think about and there is no right path, only the one that aligns with who you are and where you want to go.

That’s the thing that’s really important.

That’s why I’ve called this podcast the Aligned Achiever podcast.

So as I have been speaking, I’m curious to know which career path speaks to you the most right now, and for you, of all the pillars I mentioned, like your personal mastery, having your career strategy, or actually getting your button to gear so that you’re taking intentional action. Which of those three fillers do you need to focus on the most?

And if we’re connected on LinkedIn or Instagram, or you’re on my email newsletter list, just hit reply and let me know. I would absolutely love to hear where you are, and just know that you don’t have to navigate this alone.

As I mentioned in the at the beginning, I have this program called the Pivot Pathfinders Collective, where I guide professional women through career transitions, helping you find your next step to own it with confidence and to take the strategic action towards what’s next. So if you’re interested, and you’re like, What is this program? And you don’t want to do this on your own, I’d love to invite you to join the wait list for the Pivot Pathfinders Collective.

The doors aren’t open right now, but you can go ahead and sign up for the wait list, and you’ll be able to be the first to know when we start enrolling again, you’ll also get exclusive insights and resources to help you gain clarity and confidence on your next career move.

So if you would like to sign up and register your seat for the wait list or just your interest, come on over to the show notes over at siobhanbarnes.com/125, and you’ll get the link to register and put your name on the wait list.

Thank you so much for tuning in.

My intention is that this serves you and gives you some clarity as you are thinking about your career trajectory and where it is that you want to go. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend or leave a review. It helps more women find this work and design a career that truly fits.

And before we go, please remember you are here for a reason beyond merely hustling, grinding and merely surviving. You matter.