Follow Your Interests to Your Next Career with Farah Kauffman

Leap Like Me

What do you do when you’re years into a career path, having invested in an advanced degree in your field, and you’re no longer happy? Making a career leap feels risky in the best of circumstances. And it can be easy to feel stuck or overwhelmed or unsure where to start when you realize that you want out of something you’ve been doing for a long time.

Today’s guest, Farah Kauffman, loves the public health field that she worked in for 15 years, but the job and where it led no longer felt aligned with her. As she approached midlife, she was also thinking about what she wanted to be doing during the later phases of her career. The COVID-19 pandemic was a real eye opener as well for her, and a lot of people, to take the leap out of an unfulfilling career and into something that feels like the right fit.

Farah shares how she transitioned careers while staying in public health, the importance of really asking yourself what it is you’re good at and what interests you, and how being in a supportive environment has made work feel fun again for her.

In this episode, you’ll learn...

• About Farah’s previous career path and her realization that she wanted something different for her life [01:34]
• The perspective that the pandemic gave her to take a chance [09:03]
• Why Farah took the time to really think about what she wanted to do for a career and the importance of looking back at previous roles to hone in on what she enjoys [12:56]
• The action steps she took once she learned the new career path she wanted [21:21]
• How Farah went about searching for jobs and applying, even before she felt truly ready [27:36]
• Why she decided to be fully herself in her job applications [32:14]
• How her support network helped her through this transition [37:27]
• What Farah’s experience has been like pivoting into a new role [44:15]
• The joy and support she has found in supportive coworkers and staying within her area of expertise in a new role [47:51]
• Her advice for someone considering a leap of their own [53:28]

If you’re considering your own courageous career change, be sure to tune into this episode.

Get full show notes and the episode transcript: https://www.lisahoashi.com/leaplikeme/episode30

Links mentioned in this episode…

Connect with Farah on LinkedIn

Download my FREE Change Planner: https://www.lisahoashi.com/change-planner