How to test drive a new career.

by Mike Kravinsky

 There are plenty of reasons to stay in a job; a regular paycheck, the benefits, the social connections. However; those same reasons can also mask the fact that for some, it's just time to move on. The passion once felt for a career is gone. It's especially tough to leave a long held secure job when kids are in college or mortgage payments are due. For all those reasons and more, many don't take a chance switching careers or launching a dream business.

Switching careers can be scary too. There's the unknown, the uncertainty of what you'll truly be getting yourself into. An interest in something doesn't automatically mean you'll learn it and be good at it. Most importantly, what if you decide that you want to turn a hobby or a fantasy job into a new career; and then realize that you don't really like it after all?

So if your current job doesn't push your buttons anymore, what do you still have there? Vacations. You can take that time and go to the Caribbean, or you can try out a new career.

Vocation Vacations, out of Portland Oregon, has found a career exploration niche. Test drive a job, new career, or business concept without leaving your current job. Experience it while on vacation.

School teaches the technical aspects of a job; but it's not really the best way to get hands on experience. How much money will you really make? What kind of hours do you have to really put in? What are the people who work in that field really like? That's what this program helps with.

Vocation Vacation founder Brian Kurth  came up with this idea after spending years in a job he was bored with. In 1999, he went online to see if there was a way to try out a new job and get some hands-on experience.  Were there any organizations out there to help him regain his professional passion by testing other jobs? There were none. It hit him that he could start a company that helped people find their dream job through a network of mentors in a variety of different fields. Kurth founded the business in 2004.

Since Vocation Vacations started, the list of people trying something new and varied has grown: airline pilot to voice over announcer, software engineers to vintners, veterinary technician to pastry chef, lawyer to cheese maker. The list goes on.

Does test driving a career mean you'll stick with it? No. But Kurth has found that when he calls former "vocationers" months later, many have indeed stuck with it: enrolling in school, relocating, setting up business plans.

The list of "dream job" mentorships, which include careers like chocolatier, Alpaca rancher, event planner, comedian, kennel owner, florist - almost 175 in all - generally last two days. The cost is in the five hundred to two thousand dollar range and the participant pays for travel and accommodations.  If you don't want to spend the money, there are phone mentorships. Those cost roughly three hundred dollars. If that's too much, or if your dream job isn't on the list, there's also a book. It's a mix of facts and motivational stories of others who took the leap.

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I asked Brian Kurth a few questions about Vocation Vacations. Here are his answers;

Q. What type of person takes advantage of Vocation Vacations?

A. There isn't a single type. That's the beauty of it. It is really across the board. Most of the time the 18 year old or 19 year old, the Vocation Vacation is being paid for by their parents. They want them to explore during the gap year, gap semester kind of thing. And we've had clients as old as 80. A woman who test drove being a bed and breakfast owner with her daughter who was retiring from the military and was asking her mom for some investment money. Her mom said OK but (she told her daughter) "before I just write out a check to help buy the B&B, I think you should really test drive it first." Lo and behold, the retiring daughter, 50 something, ended up not buying a bed and breakfast. She just saved herself hundreds of thousands of dollars.

But our typical client, most clients, are in their 30's, 40's, early 50's, and they're either laid off or more so, simply burned out. They're in corporate they're in non-profit, they work for the state, they work for higher education, but the bottom line is, they don't necessarily hate what they're doing, they're just not fulfilled. And (Vocation Vacations) gives them the tools to test drive your dream job for a couple of days.

Q. Do some people see this as more of a lark or do most people actually want to change careers?

A. Half are pretty serious about changing careers. A quarter are in a very preliminary exploratory stage. And then another quarter are just doing it for fun. They may love what they do, but they're just doing it as the path not taken.

Q. Do the participants more have professional jobs like lawyer or engineer or are they say hourly workers like cashiers etc. 

A. It goes back to not being fulfilled in your job. We have a Vocation alum who's back at school (UC Davis) studying to become a brewmaster. He never went to college. He was a skilled laborer at a grocery store managing the grocery department for years. // On the other end of the spectrum, we have the high end corporate litigating attorney, and the Manhattan banker who's burned out or unemployed because of the great recession. And everything in between.  It's for everybody. It's truly for everybody.

Q. What is the most popular "vocation" that people take?

A. There isn't just one. There are like twenty that are neck and neck. Areas of culinary. Not just being a chef, but chocolatier, baker, wine maker.  Working with animals. Dog daycare owner. Acting is popular, music. Non profit is a growing area of interest. Sports. So, those are some of the most popular categories.

Q. How many people stick with what they learned on vacation?

A. Well, the number's growing. We're six years old going on seven and the career transition does not happen overnight. It's not like they take a Vocation Vacation on Thursday and Friday, think about it over the weekend and quit on Monday.

We're completing a study with Michigan State and the University of South Florida with some of our past alums. I think the average length of time is actually going to be somewhere about a year and a half to career transition. We have about a quarter of our folks who are now in their dream job, back in school, what have you. But, that number's going to grow.  It will probably hit more than fifty percent, because that's the beauty of a Vocation Vacation. It's not like everyone's going to take it and say, "Oh my God, this is truly it." It's equally important // to say, "Oh my God, this is so not it."

And a final thought from Kurth;

This is exactly the time you should be planning for the future and be ahead of your competitive curve. It doesn't happen overnight. Plan now. Use this time during the great recession to figure it out, so you can be in your dream job in a year or two from now.