Three things that make NOW the right time to take control of your career

People think that the first step to getting a new job is brushing up their CV and sending it out.

BUT this should only come once you know what your long-term career direction is, and what makes you uniquely amazing. This combination makes it easy to influence others to help you to get that perfect next step in your journey.

If you’re one of my high-achieving, ambitious people people in the travel industry, this one is for you. It’s ok if you’re not 100% there with the plan yet, or perhaps you find it tricky to speak about your achievements without feeling boastful. Maybe you’re just so swamped, that you don’t make time to think about the bigger picture.

It’s important to do this work though, because if you don’t, you might wallow in the wrong job for too long, wasting your potential just because you haven’t made the time to think. Or you might be overlooked for promotions, with companies favouring the people who speak up. Perhaps your work won’t be valued or recognised, so you’ll feel frustrated and fed up.

Read on for three big reasons, why it is so important to be really clear on what you want and to take control of your career conversations.

1. There are layoffs happening in our industry

In economic times like these, you need to stand out from the crowd.

Some big names are letting people go: Booking.com, Expedia, Hyatt, Tripadvisor, JetStar.

Unfortunately, even your current role isn’t a guarantee, let alone your next one. Now is not the time to ‘keep your head down’.

This is why it’s important to be really clear on what your unique strengths are, and start banging on about them to anyone who will listen. Position yourself as the go-to person, the expert, the wizz.

The more you practise saying it, the more your brain will believe it too. Then when you need to speak about what you’re good at in an interview or development review, your superpower will leap off your tongue and you’ll sound convincing. Not only that, but people around you will corroborate what you are saying, because you’ve trained them to see what you are doing well.

Word will get out that you are great at these things, and people might even come to you with opportunities. Just imagine the position of strength you’ll be negotiating from.

One of my clients this year (in a senior commercial role in a hotel company) had been made redundant from his company of 10+ years, and assumed he would need to take a step down or backwards, given the current climate. We worked together to get him laser-focussed on the type of roles that would suit him, and then on defining his key strengths and values. With this, he moved confidently in his job interviews. Within 2 months, he had an offer in a highly-respected company in a senior role.

2. If you don’t, you’re less likely to get the right role for you

We often think about our careers as a series of ‘next steps’, looking up and around us to see what is available. That’s why contract managers aim to become area managers, and sales execs aim to become DOSes.

But this approach is unhelpful, significantly narrowing our chances of finding an amazing role for ourselves, AND making it less likely we will even get that role.

What the heck Emily? How can that be?!

Well, when was the last time someone got promoted just because it’s the logical next step in their career?

And, by looking only at one step up or across, you are ignoring the amazing plethora of options out there for you.

You wouldn’t plan a holiday without knowing the destination, so don’t leave your career plan to chance either.

By getting really clear on WHY you want to take your next step, as part of a bigger career plan, you will start to attract the right attention. Hiring managers can tell when people want a job just for the pay cheque or the title vs when they want it because they care and know they can make a difference.

And a bit of magic happens when you tell the universe exactly what you want… opportunities you wouldn’t have seen otherwise start to appear. (This is backed by neuroscience; your reticular activating system filters the gazillions of messages our brain receives, only allowing in the ones that fit your worldview or what you are looking out for). Maybe your next step isn’t that direct promotion, maybe a side quest that suits you much better is going to open up.

My client was facing burnout last year in his analytics role at a large OTA, working under a toxic boss and exhausting himself trying to defend his team against the environment. He was wondering if his career was ‘over’ and couldn’t see a way forward. We worked together for 6 months, redefining his purpose in life which had been lost along the way. We also got super clear on his strengths and achievements, and he realised he had been speaking about himself in a way that would keep his bad boss happy – not in a way that really reflected his amazing abilities! With that switch, he was able to articulate exactly what kind of role he needed next, and why it made sense for the company too. A few months later, he is in a newly-created bespoke role that suits him down to the ground.

3. You want to be in a different role by Christmas

Imagine this… it’s Christmas, and rather than say to Auntie Doris that yes, you’re still in that job that you’ve had for five years, you can instead pop a cork and celebrate your exciting new job with the whole family. The new year stretches ahead, full of the promise of learning new things, having a boss you actually like, and of course being paid more.

There is plenty of time to make that happen, and conversely there is not that much time left.

Think about it: if you want to start your new job on December 1st, You’ll need to hand in your notice by October 30th, get a job offer by mid-October (to allow for some negotiating, naturellement), meaning probably starting interviews in early September. Build in some slowness for summer holidays and it’s time to get your skates on!

Are you certain that your processes and approach to this job hunt will get you there in the timeframe you want?

Because if you want to get off the job conveyor belt of applying online or waiting for a role to come up in your company, something probably has to change.

You could read a blog (like mine here!) or watch a webinar, and take the time to apply what you’ve learnt. You might speak to a recruiter to get some insider knowledge.

And some of you will have the time and headspace to do it all yourselves: narrowing down which jobs to look into, sprucing up your CV, preparing for interviews, networking…

Some of you though, will want to speed this process up by using proven tools and frameworks, and working with someone who’s done it before.

In 2021 I felt like a square peg in a round hole. I’d finally got the job I’d been working towards for years and… didn’t like it very much. I was working with a really difficult boss, and of course COVID didn’t help the situation at all. I felt stuck, because the travel industry wasn’t hiring much after the pandemic, and if I didn’t like this job that I’d worked so hard to get… What was I supposed to do? I worked with an amazing career coach to work this out, and understand myself better than ever before. I finally knew what I really cared about, what I was uniquely good at, and then we made a plan for me to get there. We started in June, and by Christmas Eve I had the contract in hand, with a 50% pay increase, for a job that suited me so much better. I know you might never have spent more than £1000 on your self-development, so it might feel weird, or self-indulgent, or risky. I’m here to say, you’re worth it! If you can spend that much on a holiday that’s like a sticking plaster on your situation, you can spend it on preparing for your future and increasing your perceived value in the job market. What I spent on coaching in 2021, I recouped in a couple of months in my new role… and then I spent more. It was totally worth it.

What’s next for you?

At the end of this year, how do you want things to have turned out?

If you want to make a change, it’s fundamental to get clear on what you want to happen, and how you can bring others along on the journey to support you, by demonstrating how your unique strengths make you a great fit for that next role.

If you’re not clear on this, be prepared for your trajectory to continue in much the same way as it has for the last few years.

What’s next for us?

If you’re one of those people who would love a bit of support with this, to make it happen faster, MANIFEST is for you.

This program will take you from passenger to pilot of your career in 6 weeks or less, and you will come away with your own career plan, absolute clarity on what you’re great at, and tools to persuade others to help you. And because people making big changes often feel imposter syndrome or self-doubt (it’s normal!) We’ll also create a tool for you to calm this voice down so you are a step ahead of the game.

Click here for more information, and if you’d like to have a chat to make sure we are a good match, you can book in here.

Doors close on the 25th July 2025.