No Limits Ladies.com

A Duke University poll shows that five years after graduation, their average grad had worked for 2.77 different employees. 43% of them had changed careers completely.

Me, I thought I was the Queen of job jumping, that is until I met Colleen Wainwright aka the communicatrix. She has held positions as a copywriter, screenplay writer, actress, designer, and blogger.

So what are her pro tips on job jumping painlessly (or at least less painfully)?

“Don't jump recklessly!

I see a lot of people move around for the wrong reasons, or not having done enough homework and prep. That's one thing in your early 20s, when it falls under the rubric of "finding oneself". It's quite another in your 30s, 40s and beyond, when you just start to look like a flake.

My "jumps" were all long transitions with lots of overlap: I freelanced as a copywriter until I was sure I wanted to be an actor, traveling between L.A. and Chicago to do it, because that's where my advertising contacts were. I continued acting while I ramped up my graphic design and consulting business. (I was a commercial actress--nothing glamorous, but it paid the bills.) And I plan to continue designing and consulting while I build what I think may be my final career, writing and speaking.

Also, I have always been very careful--perhaps overly so--with my finances. Money is freedom; the lack of it, tyranny. Planning and saving made these career changes possible: it's hard to get hired as anything when you're desperate, and when you're trying to get acting jobs, it's the kiss of death.

Besides, when you're pursuing something you love, it shouldn't feel like a hardship to give up frills.

Planning also slows you down enough so that you're forced (or you hope you're forced) to look at why you're shifting gears. When you rush into anything--a job, a move, a marriage--you run a much higher risk of it going south.”

I completely agree with Colleen. I, too, did the soft transitions. I took side gigs helping marketing with new product development plans while keeping my core job as a bean counter. I overlapped leading new product development projects while continuing to complete the financial parts of the plans. I worked at my own ventures after hours and kept the day job. Even now, I pop back into corporate on a temp basis while my fledging businesses learn to fly.

For more of Colleen’s thoughts, visit her blog at http://communicatrix.com