In this guest post, Alyson Tyler who is a LIS researcher, web editor, and also a yoga and meditation teacher, discusses why she believes having a plan B is important and can help us remain flexible in the career market. 

How a plan B can help your career

Some years ago I was having dinner with some colleagues and a friend of one of them. She was dismayed that two of the group were, in effect, on rolling 12 month contracts. “You must have a back-up plan!” she exclaimed. She was worried how they would cope financially and career-wise if the jobs weren’t renewed.

Being prepared

Along with the sensible advice of having up to six months of living costs set aside for emergencies, having a back-up plan or plan B for your job means you can be more resilient during difficult times, like a global pandemic. 

Even before Covid-19, careers or jobs were becoming more flexible and less ‘permanent for life’. Social and technological changes have contributed to a more fluid job market. In addition, jobs can be vulnerable to external influences such as global pandemics, fluctuating organisational finances, changing trends, and the challenges and opportunities that automation brings. 

As well as external influences, we make personal decisions that affect our job or career such as having children or becoming a carer for a relative, and can also suffer from illnesses that force us to adapt e.g. to part-time working or even to leave a  job. 

Whether it’s something we’ve chosen, or out of our control, if we need a new job it can be handy to have a plan B or a back-up plan, so that we’re not out of work for longer than our circumstances can support.

 

What is a plan B?

What happened to your job, or those of friends and family, when the global pandemic hit? Did the nature of your job radically change? Were you redeployed from front-line in-person work to something quite different? Some people were unable to be redeployed and they may have lost their jobs. Or they may have been redeployed into something they really didn’t enjoy doing. 

Of course this doesn’t just happen during a pandemic. Which is why it’s helpful to plan for if something happened and have a few options as to what you would do in these circumstances. Having options is what I think of as a ‘plan B’ (or C, D, E…) or a back-up plan.

Sometimes plan B is the thing you would do if you suddenly lost your job (for whatever reason). 

Sometimes plan B is being able to ‘pivot’ your current job, which remains broadly the same, but slightly different. This has happened to many people/organisations during the pandemic e.g. taking their in-person businesses online, as seen in many cafes turning to home delivery.

Sometimes plan B can be your pie-in-the-sky dream job of what you really, really want to do. This is a more positive plan B and you can gradually work towards it over time.

How to come up with a plan B

A good place to start when working out your plan B is to write a list of all your skills, and another list of your interests or hobbies. 

If your skills are current and quite broad your plan B job could be in a slightly different sector. This might be considered a sideways move, as you may not be progressing along a specific career path or ladder, or with an increase in salary, but it gives you options in a larger field. 

Information professionals have a range of skills which can be relevant to a number of different jobs/industries. If library jobs are thin on the ground, can you broaden your search to some slightly different sectors? Look at your list of skills and see if any of them have crossover with other industries. You may have more transferable skills than you realise when you start making the list. 

If you have an interest in a few different areas, you could formalise these skills with some online learning certificates/qualifications. There are several high quality free introductory courses e.g. with the Open University, or you might look into MOOCs (Massive Open Online Course), which will also look good on a CV. 

If you have drawn up a list of alternative ‘plan B’ jobs or sectors, remember to search the main websites or papers where these jobs are advertised and/or sign up to relevant mailing lists. 

Also think about current or previous volunteer roles you’ve held – did you enjoy these enough to want to look for a job in this area? Again, can you capitalise on your skills and/or formalise them with a short course or a qualification?

 

Turning a hobby into a job or side hustle

If you have several personal interests or hobbies, including those which require skills, do any of these lend themselves to jobs, either for a company or for yourself? Do you have any qualifications related to your hobbies or could you formalise your skills with a course? As with your professional skills, if you can formally demonstrate a level of competence and knowledge within your personal interests, this will be helpful if building a career out of your hobbies.

Let’s take the example of an imagined personal interest in family history. 

Perhaps you’ve researched your maternal and paternal family histories and also completed histories for your partner and their family. You do this in your spare time using skills you’ve acquired as a library worker. 

A lot of people don’t have the time, skills, or patience to research their own family history, but they might be willing to pay a fee for someone else to undertake the research. You’ve already done this for free for your partner and their family. What if you began to charge for your time and skills? 

You may start off with a couple of friends of the family, but this builds up through word of mouth. You could keep it small and manageable within your spare time or … if you needed to, this could be your back-up plan for a part-time or even full-time job.

This is unlikely to happen overnight, which is why it’s important to start thinking about your plan B now. You may want to take a qualification in your hobby/interest area and this might take a year or more part-time. 

The idea of possibly being able to earn income from your personal interests or hobbies can also keep you going as a daydream if your regular job is getting you down. 

NB If you do earn money from any self-employed work, remember to declare your income according to the tax rules of where you live. 

 

From theory into practice

What do I know about having a plan B? Well in 2018 I put my plan B into action. 

After 13 years in library policy working for the Welsh Government I became fully self-employed, from three different jobs: freelance library research, teaching yoga, and massages.

Since my master’s degree and doctorate at Aberystwyth University I’ve had an interest in library research, and had a period of time when I undertook part-time research project work for lecturers. When I was making my plan B I knew I could work on my own, that I could work to deadlines, and that I enjoyed doing research work. I thought this could make up part of my income. 

My yoga and massage jobs were also created out of personal interest.

My ‘dream job’ is to own a retreat centre in the hills somewhere. I have been practising yoga for nearly 30 years, and in 2007-10 studied part-time to gain a yoga teaching qualification. At that point in time I didn’t have a clear plan of where I was going, but it was a step towards my dream job. I began teaching one class a week, then two classes a week whilst working full-time. 

Time went on. And the desire to change career became stronger and I decided it would be good to have more skills to build a career out of (sometimes referred to as a portfolio career, and increasingly popular.)

I have enjoyed massages for a long time, and had been to some informal workshops on how to give massages. I thought if I were to run a retreat centre, or become fully self-employed, then being a massage therapist would be useful. So I found a local part-time course and became qualified and began a small-scale massage business. 

My plan B was put into action in 2018, and as a result I needed a new back-up plan. I decided if I couldn’t make enough from my self-employed jobs then I would look for a part-time paid job.

All was going well until the Covid-19 pandemic happened in early 2020. This led me to pivot one of my jobs and activate my ‘new’ plan B. 

My yoga teaching went online, and the advantage of this was that people who’d come to my classes where I used to live were able to join my classes again! I have kept the online yoga classes going even when in-person classes started up again, as the two are different audiences for me. 

In looking for a part-time job I considered all my skills, interests and personal and professional experience and applied for a part-time remote position as ‘digital editorial assistant’ (aka web editor) with Ethical Consumer, and got the job. My personal experience of blogging and running my own website, being the volunteer editor of a membership magazine, along with transferable skills I’d built up in my library role (including writing for different audiences, marketing, social media etc) were probably beneficial in being shortlisted and then awarded the job. (Along with my personal commitment to ethical living!)

Having activated my ‘new’ plan B, I need to have another plan B for future unforeseen circumstances, whilst also keeping in mind my ultimate ‘dream job’ plan B. Keeping your options open and flexible can keep you engaged with your skills, career and keep you motivated to learn more or try new things. 

 

In conclusion

If I can offer advice it’s to be as flexible as your circumstances allow, be open to new opportunities, formalise your skills from your interests and hobbies, and always have a plan B. And then a plan C just in case! 

 

About guest blogger

Dr Alyson Tyler is a yoga and meditation teacher, massage therapist, freelance LIS researcher and former colleague. She lived in Wales for 20 years, graduating from Aberystwyth University and worked for the Welsh Government for 13 years in library policy. She now lives in Scotland and works part time for Ethical Consumer as the web editor. Click here to read the article Alyson has written on mindfulness for libraryreturners.com