Stepping Off the Curb

Redefining Your Career Path

By Mary Dixon Lebeau

You've been on a career path for one year or five. You're doing OK, making decent money and moving up the corporate ladder.

Then something happens. It could be a major tragedy, like the events of September 11. It could be a blessed event, like the birth of a child. Or, it could be an uncontrollable shake-up, like being caught in a downsizing trap.

Whatever the reason, you step off the curb on your defined career path. Maybe your previous career path is closed to you permanently, or maybe you've decided that where it leads isn't the best way for you to be happy in life. You're not sure what you want to do next, but you know one thing: You don't want to do it again.

So where do you go from here?

If you're a dad, you know that you'll have to do something. You have a family depending on you. And, if you're a husband, you'll want to discuss your career change with your wife. After all, you're in this together. You may be surprised to learn that your family will be supportive of the change.

"I decided to change the type of work I do because of my family," says Peter Hidalgo, a Los Angeles, Calif. dad of two. "My children are young and my commitment to my wife was beginning to suffer. After reflecting on the important things in life, I decided that my family had to be number one."

Hidalgo felt his job as press secretary to the mayor of Los Angeles amounted to "long hours virtually every day of the week," he says. "My quality of life was deteriorating. But the conflict was that, professionally, I was improving, and that felt good. The challenge (became) work or family."

Hidalgo and his wife, Juliet, decided that family had to come first. But how does someone go from the fast-paced world of politics to something more regimented, more calculated and more conducive to raising two sons?

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