Learning to pivot successfully in life has become a non-negotiable skill for anyone who hopes for some degree of progress throughout their career. The idea of having a single career that spans decades seems less and less likely, and to a large degree less desirable to people who are looking for their work to provide significant amounts of challenge, affirmation and identity. Continuing in a position for years on end tends to raise more questions than a person changes jobs every two or three years.

With the number of changes that you’re going to experience over the years, pivoting well is important, and your ability to articulate how your pivoting provides a degree of cohesion to your work. You’ve got to be able to have a common thread that moves through your work.

The idea of a pivot is that you’ve got one point that is firmly anchored. The other end if free to move about. Think about a ship with an anchor. The anchor stays put, but the boat if free to move with the wind, tides, and waves. The anchor is your pivot point. It remains a constant, even if you’re moving around into other positions.

Pivot in Work don’t Jump

One important point is that you need to make sure that as you transition positions you’re pivoting, not jumping. Jumping indicates a dramatic departure from what you were doing to a new position. There are nearly no transferable skills, and there is an violent change of focus. This is OK on occasion. You start as a CPA, and decide you want to become a Pastor. You start as a lawyer and decide you want to become an artist. People make these jumps in their work, but you don’t want to do this frequently. The motivation is usually passion, acknowledging an ill-fit in a career, or people finally having the economic stability to pursue a passion project. The longer you wait to make these the tougher they are to make, unless you have a natural break in your employment and life (such as retirement or hitting the lotto). 

The challenge here though is resetting your career. Starting from zero is fine if you’re financially independent. If you’ve got a trust fund, sure, go become a tree farmer in Vermont! Restarting from zero is also fine if you’re young and restarting doesn’t cost you much, and you don’t have many responsibilities. However, if you’re mid-career, have a family, or a mortgage, you don’t want to start from the bottom of the career ladder. Instead you need do take a  careful evaluation of where you’re going, and determine how much learning you’re willing to do.