Studio Employee Must Cast Self in New Role

“It’s time to get off the Hollywood merry-go-round,” said Brian Hayes, a Northridge resident who has held a variety of positions at Universal Studios since 1981. Currently, he’s toiling as a temporary employee there, earning $19.20 an hour.

Hayes, 51, is frustrated because he’s not using his best talents. He has a journalism degree and a master’s in English. In the 1970s and early 1980s, he wrote teleplays for the detective show “Harry-O” and did script analysis. More recently, he redesigned an entertainment organization’s budget accounting system and coordinated a Latino film project. But these days, his work isn’t very intellectually challenging, Hayes said. So he’s begun to think about other career options.

He’s ruminated about becoming a freelance editor, a public school teacher or an investigative journalist. He’s also fantasized about roaming the country, writing about the people he meets and places he visits.

For help in settling on a new career path, Hayes consulted William Bridges, a transition expert in San Francisco. After reviewing extensive biographical material that Hayes submitted, Bridges suggested that Hayes start perceiving himself as a one-man business. This doesn’t necessarily mean that Hayes will become an entrepreneur, Bridges said. But if Hayes no longer thinks of himself as a mere employee, consigned to prescribed job duties, he may find himself more receptive to opportunities.

To begin the transition from employee to free agent, Hayes can follow a series of steps that Bridges outlined. These also may help him find marketplaces where his unique mix of resources will be in demand.

* Understand your transition. Career transitions have three phases, Bridges explained. The first phase is an ending, a letting go of a familiar role, and an abandonment of old notions about one’s self. This first phase typically begins with a “dis-enchantment”--when, like Hayes, one becomes dissatisfied with one’s present career, as though a spell has suddenly worn off.

Unfortunately, the second phase of transition isn’t much more pleasant. “It is a time of lostness and emptiness before life resumes an intelligible pattern and direction,” noted Bridges in his book “Transitions: Making Sense of Life’s Changes.” During this phase, Hayes may feel some discomfort and disorientation as he sheds his role as a studio production worker, because he has not yet found a new identity to assume. But if Hayes diligently pursues his explorations, they can lead him to the final phase of his career transition: beginning anew.

“The problem is that before we can find a new something, we must deal with a time of nothing,” Bridges said in his book. “And that prospect awakens old fears and all the old fantasies about death and abandonment.”

Bridges cautioned that many people abort their transition during the second phase. They can’t tolerate the uncertainty in their lives, so they flee back to the familiarity of their former vocations, even though they admit the work is unfulfilling. Some even reject exciting new opportunities.

Hayes told Bridges that he actually is looking forward to venturing through this transition process. He accepted Bridges’ recommendation to spend several months engaged in introspection and exploration in order to find a fulfilling vocation.

* Mine your “D.A.T.A.” D.A.T.A. stands for “desires, abilities, temperament and assets,” Bridges said. Together, these form Hayes’ unique vocational profile. Hayes’ desires include solving problems, performing intellectually challenging work in an independent setting and making things run well.

Bridges cautioned Hayes not to focus exclusively on unmet needs, which are the converse of desire. “Needs are based on your lacking something,” Bridges explained, adding that they can evoke passive behavior.

Next, Hayes should inventory his abilities, the transferable skills he can use to solve people’s problems. These may include writing, budgeting and using the six different software programs he knows. After he’s done this, Hayes can evaluate his temperament. Specifically, in what situations is he most productive and satisfied?

Last, to complete his D.A.T.A., Hayes should list his assets--the life experiences, education and training that set him apart from everyone else. Hayes’ combined D.A.T.A. constitutes the unique resource package that he eventually will present to the marketplace.

* Become a market expert. All around Hayes are people with unmet needs and unsolved problems, Bridges said. They are at his workplace, in his industry and in the community at large. Their unmet needs are broadcast on television, written about in books and discussed in conversations.

Each time change occurs--be it economic, technical, regulatory or demographic--these needs change, too, bringing even more opportunities for Hayes and other D.A.T.A. miners, Bridges said. Hayes should train himself to become attuned to these needs, by keeping in mind that every person he meets is a representative of a market, Bridges said.

“Clients with unmet needs don’t pore over resumes,” Bridges added. “They worry about how to get their problems solved and look for people who can do this for them.”

Unlike many career experts, Bridges doesn’t advocate asking for informational interviews with employers. “People with opportunities are overloaded with such requests,” he said in his book “Creating You & Co.” “They know you’re actually hoping for a job . . . [and] they may feel manipulated.”

Instead, Bridges suggested that, once Hayes homes in on a new vocation, he visit the sites of potential clients to learn specifics about their needs and problems, then strategize about how to solve them. The solutions that Hayes comes up with can be considered “products,” Bridges said.

“And when you’re clear on the product, then you figure out what business it puts you in,” Bridges said. “When people look for a business first, it tends to land them back with what they’ve always done.”

Finally, after Hayes has completed all these steps, he can draw up a detailed strategic business plan and hang out his shingle.

“What you say seems to make a great deal of sense to me,” Hayes told Bridges. “What attracts me about your steps is that they may take me in a new direction, toward something I hadn’t thought of before.”

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Time for a Change

* Name: Brian Hayes

* Occupation: Hollywood production worker

* Desired occupation: Uncertain

* Quote: “Despite my education and creative interests, I’ve never broken out of the clerical mold at Universal. No doubt this is as much my fault as anyone’s.”

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Coach’s Recommendations

Do thorough self-assessment. Think of self as a free agent, not as an employee. Create a “product” based on skills and experiences. Target markets for the product.

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Meet the Coach

William Bridges is a San Francisco-based transition consultant for individuals and organizations. His books include “Transitions: Making Sense of Life’s Changes,” “Job Shift: How to Prosper in a Workplace Without Jobs” and “Creating You & Co.: Learn to Think Like the CEO of Your Own Career” (all published by Perseus Books).