3 tips for changing jobs and successfully retraining

How to be sure before changing jobs? You want to retrain but you do not dare to start? We spoke with Soazig Barthélémy, creator of Empow’Her, to help us identify our desires. To get started, Empow’her is doing its festival this weekend!

This weekend is the second edition of the Empow’her festival, from September 17 to 19, 2021 in Pantin. The idea of ​​this second edition, with crazy speakers? “Make the voice of those who create, who campaign, who undertake, who commit to a more sustainable and inclusive world, and allow everyone to find their way to contribute to a global and positive change!” On the program: conferences, talks, workshops, events, performances and solidarity market. For 3 days, come and meet women with inspiring backgrounds, learn, get involved, have fun and leave boosted! We met the founder of the NGO Empow’her, so that she could give us her three tips before getting started. Know first that if you want to be well supported and that you are a woman, Soazig Barthélémy has launched programs with its NGO Empow’her. Several programs exist in France. A national program both physical and online, which supports impactful social entrepreneurs: Woman Act. A coaching program to help start your activity from scratch, a sort of training bootcamp in Île-de-France: Woman Dare. There are also local Empow’her communities, the Women Communities, to support each other between project leaders, to meet and do activities together.

What are the signs that you have to change jobs?

Soazig advises to listen to yourself, to be on the lookout. First you have to listen to yourself physically and mentally. There are signals: what is my desire to go to work, what motivates me: the place? Being with my colleagues? “I had physical signs of discomfort” she said as an example. However, there is a timing for everything and you have to respect this timing. “Me for example, my entourage urged me to quit my job, but for a while I did not feel ready yet. You have to take your time“.
To do this, you also need to know yourself well: what is most important to you in your work, your criteria for success, what fulfills you. “For example, I identified that I wanted to work together, to deal with questions that have meaning and impact” says Soazig. “Also know that there is not necessarily a linear progression in the reflection: there can be long moments when we stagnate and suddenly we reach a plateau”, she adds.

How to announce it to those around it?

Soazig launches like a joke: “In any case, it will never be well said. What I advise is to talk about it upstream to very close people. It was hard to talk to my family about it because I was young, I ‘still had a loan … But I told myself that anyway, I would not listen to them! My entourage has never blamed or encouraged me “. Soazig is reassuring: it is better to focus on listening to yourself, others will follow the march. To reassure loved ones, especially financially, put time limits. For example, say to yourself that you give yourself two years, six months, five years, depending on your ability, to make the project work.

And once we get started, how does it go?

Soazig advises to identify beforehand those on whom you can count, to share your anxieties and difficulties once the project has started, to share honestly with people who can listen well. When we start, we often start alone, with nothing. It is therefore necessary to be able to set safeguards so as not to get lost. It is better to have set your goals: do I work from home? Am I recruiting people already? Many solutions exist, explains Soazig: “For Empow’her, I didn’t want to be alone, and the nature of the project allowed me to recruit civic services.” Essential thing to do: put your project on paper right from the start. “You need a document, which can evolve fifteen times, which summarizes what you are doing. This document presenting the project does not have to be perfect, it can be just bullet points” but it must allow you to explain in a short time where you are.
Finally, do not hesitate to knock on all doors, to activate the network. “There are plenty of people who can bring you tips, and not necessarily when you expect it, it may be 5 years later!” Soazig prefers to prevent: “Be careful, you will eat up your walls. But you will also gain a lot of encouragement, advice, contacts”.

Missions: Mathilde is an expert in subjects related to women’s rights and health. Addicted to Instagram and Twitter, never stingy with a good …