Darcy Eikenberg, Coach and Author of “Red Cape Rescue, Save Your Career Without Leaving Your Job”, reveals how you can redefine your career path, find new opportunities within your current job, and shift your mindset to serve rather than sell yourself.
Being an employee was complicated for me. Life in Paris with a child was a real challenge. I needed space, nature and freedom. I spent too much time on the metro and at work, it was really difficult for me to see my child. Life was too expensive.
I believe ultimately everyone has a gut feeling or inkling that’s telling them what they want to do. Whether they say it out loud or in their head most people have something that when asked if they could, they would do for the rest of their lives. If that thing in your head isn’t what you’re doing right now, as successful as you maybe you’ll always be left with a what-if.
I did not consider a career change until the position became available. After seeing the increase in domestic violence cases rise on the news and social media I decided I wanted to try and help and make a difference where I could.
Hazal is a journalism postgraduate. Born and raised in London, the 24-year old was faced with a painful choice during the UK’s third lockdown, along with many other struggling graduates and realised that changing her career was her only option.
I was very underconfident for most of my life and, it was only when I studied coaching, that I became confident – in my late forties.
My first office job was fantastic. It gave me my first taste of travelling and the opportunity to experience different work cultures. But at some point something changed. I learnt meditation from a Buddhist monk as a way to deal with Multiple Sclerosis, a condition that I been living with for the last 23 years.
I believe it is essential to allow for change. There have been quite a few for me, but out of all the changes – although I remained in the arts, I have evolved and found new levels of thinking, creating and facilitating others.
Over the years, I have fostered a deep appreciation of the world and how geography influences differing cultures, physical processes and ultimately, the future of our planet. Geography is a subject that is crucial for students to understand; to learn how our world has developed, and ultimately to appreciate that they are the custodians of their own fragile inheritance.
Transitioning from a career of service based on camaraderie and teamwork to one more self-oriented, requires a shift in mentality. In the military achieving a team objective can result in a life or death outcome, something that, does not usually apply to civilian life.
My first job was as a Bank Clerk in Lisbon. I still remember the branch manager being very surprised and wanting to talk to my mom once I told her that I wanted to quit. It was very kind of her to do that because she also had kids my age and didn’t want me to make a wrong decision that I would later regret. But it was nevertheless funny that she wanted to talk to the mom of a grown-up man.
For me, what is also incredibly important, and it is also one of my biggest motivations is to set a good example for my children. I don’t want them to stay in a career that doesn’t suit them, just because it is well paid. I wanted to teach them to follow their dreams and to live a good life, full of meaning and accomplishment. The only way to teach them that is to do it myself.
I sense that we evolve over time and become interested in different things, so I feel it is natural and healthy to have new careers and new experiences in our lives. Otherwise we can get stuck and unhappy. Changing a career is not an easy process, but it has been a great journey for me.
It was while I was in the Falklands that I first experienced the stirrings of a vocation to religious life. I had only been in the WRNS for a couple of years before realising that it wasn’t what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. As I couldn’t decide what I wanted to do, I decided to stay where I was until it became clearer. I still had a couple of years of soul searching before becoming a nun.
The dance luminary Jurgen Schneider, our master teacher and also a Ballet Master at American Ballet Theatre, told me I was a born teacher. I resented this because I wanted to perform first, then teach. I also thought many teachers I had seen were bitter ex-dancers or bitter dance lovers who never got to perform. I did not want o become like that!
Imagine running something in between a marathon and an obstacle race every day of the week, five days a week. It is a very demanding physical job that in time can affect your physical health.
Even if I was enjoying the job, I was open to new opportunities. The airline office had an opening for a PR Manager role and I decided to apply, as the role was relevant to my studies, and I got the job.
I worked seven days a week, taking every overtime possible, trying to save money to be able to invest. After 18 months I opened my studio in London. It was really scary. I didn’t know anyone in the area, and I was worried about how to get my first clients.
I have been an airplane pilot and instructor for about four years. I was based in Texas, USA. The main pro is that I was paid to do what I loved, and I never felt tired or bored doing it. Probably because I was too young at that time (in my twenties), I couldn’t realize there were cons. Today I can see as cons being so far away from my family and working very long hours.
