Category: Changing Careers

A Side Project to Make Extra Money? Nah. More Like Leveling Up Your Career

Travis L. Scottby Travis L. Scott

Employment in the U.S. has been one-sided for a very long time. A company hires you, and you only focus on that company, no outside projects bringing in additional income for you and your family. They’ll pay you as little as they possibly can, expect you to be grateful and loyal, then fire you the minute the economy turns bad. Unfortunately, this still holds true for many companies, but things have changed massively over the past decade-plus. The cost of living in some cities has far outpaced the 2%-3% “cost of living” income increases companies have doled out to their …

Read More

All Great Things Take Time – and the Outcomes are Sometimes Surprising

Travis L. Scottby Travis L. Scott

You’ve probably heard people say something to the effect that “Rome wasn’t built in a day” or that “all great things take time.” There’s a reason they say that – because it’s true. When it comes to our careers, you have to be willing to play the long game. You have to be interested in the journey, not the destination. After all, what is the destination of someone’s career? Retirement? Death? I don’t plan to retire in the traditional sense, so, for me, it will probably be death and, I don’t know about you, but that’s not a destination I’m …

Read More

Three Easy Things You Can Do Today to Balance Your Career, Learning, and Life

Travis L. Scottby Travis L. Scott

I say ‘easy,’ because the things I’m proposing are decisions we can make. We can either decide to do them or not. However, I realize that it may be an easy decision, executing may take some effort. But, what I’m proposing is not difficult. It’s really not difficult at all. It just takes focus and planning. For some of us, the COVID pandemic provides ample time to learn and practice getting better at things like writing, creating videos, or anything else you want to work on. For others, the opposite is true now. You now have a second job – …

Read More

5 Things You Can Do Today to Make Time for Your Career Pivot

Travis L. Scottby Travis L. Scott

This past year (2020) has been a doozy. Our worlds have been completely shaken up, our values solidified, and some things we once thought were important no longer are. You may be entering the new year contemplating a career pivot or making the leap toward starting a business. However, unless you have a sizeable amount of cash stashed aside that you don’t mind losing early on, it’s not a good idea to quit your day job and jump into your new endeavor with both feet. That means adding more time and work on top of what you’re already doing. For …

Read More

Do You Want to Make a Meaningful Career Change? Then Ditch Your Resume

Travis L. Scottby Travis L. Scott

Yep. That’s right. If you’re looking to change your career, your resume is worthless. Somehow, we’ve become so attached to the concept of a resume that we think it’s the key that will magically open doors. Get us noticed. The bad news. Resumes aren’t magic keys, and they won’t open doors. They’ll just give you a chance to go through a door that’s already opened, and then it’s only a chance. I’d like to share a story of how I landed my current role (and career change) as a Director of Marketing with a B2B company in Denver, CO without …

Read More

These 5 Things Will Ensure a Successful Career Change

Travis L. Scottby Travis L. Scott

You may have heard the phrase ‘anything good is worth waiting for.’ It’s another way of saying, “Be patient.” This also applies to making a career change. Making a career change is a big decision. There’s also a lot stacked against you when you start out.  If you want to make a career change into something you’re “passionate” about, I would caution you to give that a second thought. Passion is an emotion, and emotions are fleeting. Even the most passionate things in life can begin to feel like a ‘job’ again when done as a profession. I don’t want …

Read More

A Secret to Making a Career Change

Travis L. Scottby Travis L. Scott

When I started The Winding Road in the spring of 2019, it was really more a way to dip my toes into the water of podcasting. I didn’t know where it would go and certainly didn’t know that it would lead me to providing advice around making a career change. Podcasting was blowing up. Everyone said that you ‘had to do it’ if you were a marketer- or anyone breathing for that matter. So, I went all in. Like I usually do with anything I’m learning or want to figure out. But then, I realized that I like writing much …

Read More