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Turning a Career Crisis Into an Opportunity

Marco Araldi was working as a mechanical engineer when he and his friend Keng Wai Lee began selling lampshades and other handmade products at London's Portobello Road market on Saturdays as a hobby. In 2002, the friends branched out into designing and making handbags.

So in 2004, when Mr. Araldi's employer closed its London office and he was laid off, he already had an idea that he wanted a change from engineering. "It was kind of a blessing in disguise because I was already contemplating the idea to do this professionally and we were devoting more and more time to it," Mr. Araldi says.

Mr. Lee left his job as a restaurant manager and, in 2004, the pair invested all their savings and set up their own company, called Bagman and Robin. They moved from their market stall to a small shared office in a building supporting artists and craftsmen, and eventually to a larger shop in Central London, where the company has been based for the past five years.

James Yang

From the two partners sharing one "toy-like" sewing machine, Bagman and Robin grew and now employs another person full-time and one more part-time, using nine professional-grade sewing machines. Mr. Araldi says that though he works seven days a week instead of 9-5, Monday to Friday. he has no regrets about his decision.

In the U.K., more than 830,000 people have now been unemployed for more than a year, according to job data released last month . And the situation is worse in the European Union as whole, where 3.9% of the working-age population was out of work for 12 months or more last year, compared with 2.5% in the U.K., according to the most recent statistics from EU statistical agency Eurostat.

"Being unemployed for one year or more can reduce chances of finding work, as well as having a negative impact on one's health and well being," the Institute for Public Policy Research said out in an analysis of long-term unemployment published at the end of May.

In this age of long-term unemployment, many people are adjusting to the realities of the work force by starting their own businesses or retraining and changing careers completely.

Stories like Mr. Araldi's are becoming more and more common, says Catherine Roan, managing director and founder of Careershifters, a company that helps people contemplating career changes in the U.K. by providing workshops, online courses and printed guides.

"In the past we had many people who wanted to change careers but were in safe and secure jobs. But with the recent problems with people losing their jobs…they are seeing the job loss as an opportunity," Ms. Roan says.

Nigel Crossman is one such person who has turned unemployment into an opportunity. He spent 30 years working his way up the career ladder in the retail industry and was a manager on a team opening new stores when his company was restructured and he was made redundant.

His first thought wasn't to start his own business. "Immediately, you try to do the same sort of thing," Mr. Crossman says. But after a few weeks of searching, he realized it would be extremely difficult to find a job similar to the one he previously had without taking a significant pay cut.

"Since I didn't have a job, why do the same thing again? Why not take the opportunity to restart?" he says.

So, at the age of 46, using the redundancy payment from his former employer, Mr. Crossman enrolled in an electrical training course at a company called New Career Skills, a company that specializes in helping older workers retraining into new careers.

His company, Blue Lightning Electrical, has now been operating for four years and Mr. Crossman says many of the skills he acquired in the retail industry were highly relevant to his new business. When he made the decision to be an electrician, he says, he sat down and listed all the skills he had acquired in retail and considered how they could be used in his new career.

"It's amazing how many things can be adapted. Sales, marketing, it's exactly the same if you are employed or running your own business," Mr. Crossman says.

Ms. Roan says two themes of successful job changes she has seen over the years are the people who turn their hobby or passion into a full-time career and those who apply their former job function into a different industry or job field—more of a career transition than a complete change.

Simon Broomer, a qualified lawyer, was 40 when he lost his job in 2000 as a sales manager for a U.K. training company. He knew he didn't want to work for either a large corporation or a very small business. He took temporary work while he decided what he would like to do, which he decided was career counseling.

He went from networking and volunteering at career centers to signing up for a course in career management, and in 2001 set up his own company, Career Balance, which specializes in giving career advice to professionals in fields such as law and medicine. His past experience and network of contacts were useful and valuable, he says. Career Balance now employs five consultants and has helped hundreds of professionals change careers over the past 10 years. "I was an ex-lawyer, and that was very valuable; there are not many ex-lawyers who are career counselors," he says.

Mr. Broomer says he was lucky to get a break before his finances ran out. "The thing is getting that first break when you have financial pressures.…People don't have a lot of time, it puts pressure [on them] to make a decision," Mr. Broomer said.

But Steven Wines, chief executive of New Career Skills, the company that helped Mr. Crossman retrain as an electrician, says unemployment can actually help people change careers because the severance payment can often pay for retraining programs. New Career Skills' programs cost between £5,000 and £6,000 ($8,100 and $9,700).

Both Mr. Broomer and Ms. Roan of Careershifters say support from family members is a key factor in successfully changing jobs or fields. Mr. Broomer says spouses often have reservations about a career change, especially when it puts the family's financial stability at risk. "Sometimes it's quite risky for them, too," he says.

Ms. Roan says some of her clients have had to make tough decisions and have moved into smaller homes and cut their spending, but clear communication with families can yield surprising results. For example, she says, children can be understanding and supportive that spending has to be limited if it's explained to them that it will help their mother or father to be happier at work. "It's amazing how supportive they can be," she says.

Career consultants say one of the biggest battles people switching careers can face is against their own negative thoughts, especially if unemployment has dented their confidence.

Most people spend so much time at work, their identities are often strongly linked with their careers, says Mr. Wines of New Career Skills, and people who have done one thing for a long time can have a hard time seeing themselves in a different field.

However, Mr. Wines says it is perfectly possible for people to move into completely new areas, irrespective of what they did previously. "We get lots of people from all walks of life, people working in finance in the City, airline pilots and bankers…people with military backgrounds," he says.

People also put their reputations on the line when trying something new. "There's the threat of losing social status, trying something that might not work and looking stupid," says Josh Kaufman, author of "The Personal MBA," a book that aims to impart the key skills learned at business school.

Mr. Broomer notes that after a period of unemployment, former business contacts and professional networks can start to fade away. And some may even question the reason for the job change. "People will say 'he has to do this because he can't get anything else' and…why can't you get a job doing what you were doing," Mr. Broomer says.

Nonetheless, the career experts say most obstacles can be overcome if people really commit to doing extensive research about the new career and really understand as much as possible about an industry. Being an expert in the new area can make the switch less daunting and be a huge help in getting through those difficult times.

"What is next is probably not like what is happening now and that's uncomfortable. Looking at moving into a new career, you have to do what you can to understand what that would look like and turn it into something more manageable," Mr. Kaufman says.

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