I follow my fellow career change bloggers (favorites include Pam Slim at Escape from Cubicle Nation and Marci Albohor at Shifting Careers) to stay in tune with the pulse of what’s going on in our space. The big story, of course, has been coping with the economic downturn (which Marci just fell victim to, as explained in this post). Jonathan Fields of Awake at the Wheel (another blog favorite) has written a great paper called the Fire Fly Manifesto, that calls us to use the meltdown as a ‘free pass’ to pursue our passion. Here are a few paragraphs from the intro:

What feels like the end of the the world to you now may, in fact, be the window you’ve dreamed of for decades. How many of you have spent months or years secretly praying to win the lottery so you could stop doing what you were doing and finally do what you loved? How many of you have felt locked into a tired, life-sucking career by a suffocating marriage of golden or lead handcuffs, fear that you’d be judged or ridiculed for changing paths and a life-stifling lack of belief in your ability to make a living doing what you love?

Thing is, if that’s you…

The economy has just served you up a big, fat opportunity!

In fact, you may never get an opening like this again. A chance to make a bold change, take a shot at doing what you love, and not be judged for trying. Not that it’s impossible to change paths anytime, it is. I’ve done it many times. But, you’ve got a once-in-a-lifetime window here created by a once-in-a-lifetime event.

Download the paper for free here. And have a happy, joy-filled Thanksgiving!

Was on the phone with a recruiter today, let’s call him Recruiter X.  We were talking about career changers, and X said to me: I can’t present someone who is changing careers to a client!  The client would say to me, X, are you on crack?  I am not paying you 50 grand to bring me someone with no experience in this industry!

X went on to say: If a career changer comes to me, I tell them to try and approach the company directly.  I can’t get involved.

X’s comments are proof that recruiters will not help you reinvent your career.  Scratch them off your reinvention networking list….

More magazine’s first annual Reinvention Convention is this Tuesday October 9th in New York City!  It promises to be an exciting event, with Ann Curry from NBC News, makeup guru Bobbi Brown, financial expert Jean Chatzky, health correspondent Pamela Peeke, M.D., and other guest speakers and More magazine editors. If you’re a woman looking for real world strategies and advice to help you reinvent your life in the area of work, money, health or style, this is the event for you!  For more information, click here.

I’ll be there as a guest expert on columnist Mary Lou Quinlan’s career reinvention panel (our panel is at 9:00am).   If you’re attending, come up to me afterwards and say hello!