When I was thinking about the next article topic on Career coaching I just came across a classic 1969 Monty Python sketch on Youtube of a career counselor.  (back then they used the term vocational guidance counsellor. ) Can a chartered accountant become a Lion tamer?

You might think that in 1969 vocational counseling was something new.

In fact, the Vocational Guidance Movement (the precursor to career counseling) originated  much earlier, in 1907, when the founding father of vocational guidance, Frank Parsons, created the first methodology of career guidance. But that’s another story.

Despite the fact I’m a big Monty Python fan since I first saw the show on TV, it’s amazing I’ve just realized that this sketch contains all the elements of a career counselling process a career coach can think of. Though I think I’ve seen it more than 20 times before. Apart from the fact the sketch is very witty, it reminds me some real life situations with career coaching clients (of course adding the exaggeration of the best British comedians).  I’m not sure if there is any other comedy that represents career counselling and the struggles of both the counsellor and the client. (If you – god forbid – have not seen it, you’ll find the sketch linked at the end of the article. In fact, you should watch first before you read on!) 

“Mr Anchovy, you asked us to advise you which job in life you were best suited for.”

Mr Anchovy (Michael Palin) goes to the counsellor (John Cleese) seeking a career change. This is a typical career coaching situation, but apart from real coaching clients Mr Anchovy already has a firm “plan B” on what to do with his career next. 

The reason to ask for career counselling is to answer the question: which job in life you were best suited for?

To rephrase it: clients wants to identify the best jobs that suits their skills, drives and personality.

It’s still common that Mr Anchovy on a career coaching is struggling to fit for a certain position and not looking inside first to identify what’s best for him. The employee is pushing himself to fit for the job instead of seeking for a job which fits his abilities and desires. The lack of self consciousness makes the person indecisive on the future career path. We must know our good and bad sides – sometimes an objective standpoint of an expert helps to face our weaknesses.

The career question

The most classical career question* reflects on your true drive for a profession that you’d do. Mr Anchovy already has a firm answer, while most people coming to career counselling do not have any alternative idea.

(For those who are not familiar with my personal favourite Officespace movie, here’s the epic dialog):

* Peter Gibbons: Our high school guidance counselor used to ask us what you’d do if you had a million dollars and you didn’t have to work. And invariably what you’d say was supposed to be your career. So, if you wanted to fix old cars then you’re supposed to be an auto mechanic.

Samir: So what did you say?

Peter Gibbons: I never had an answer. I guess that’s why I’m working at Initech.

– Office Space, 1999

The counsellor reveals that Anchovy had done an aptitude test (maybe we’d call it a career assessment  in today’s term) and that the results showed that the career Anchovy is most suited to is chartered accountancy.

This is the point where the story is twisted.  Note: even in 1969 chartered accountancy was considered to be a very boring job. And I believe this has not change since. But if you ask accountants, most of them like their jobs, so it’s just an example of professional bias society has.

However, Anchovy already is a chartered accountant, and a career he has  for the last twenty years, and still complains that he finds the job dull. Familiar?

When he is explaining how boring his job is, I could not help thinking that he shows the signs of burnout. Feeling your job being dull is a strong indicator that you are not on your place and need a change.

People can feel really desperate because of the work they hate. When the clients open to the career advisor, its like dam rupture, they will ventilate and complain. It helps them to release some stress at least. 

Personal Traits

So the client already expressed his desire for change. Based on the aptitude test – the counsellor rawly describes the client as an:

“appallingly dull fellow, unimaginative, timid, lacking in initiative, spineless, easily dominated, no sense of humour, tedious company and irrepressibly drab and awful. And whereas in most professions these would be considerable drawbacks, in chartered accountancy they are a positive boon. “

I’d really appreciate as a client to have such detailed and honest feedback from my career coach or counsellor! Still I think the assessments and personality tests are only result a “personality template” with the incomparable personaly types. All tests remain positive and avoid confrontation in any case so they would not disappoint clients to face reality. 

That is an important point. There must be a list of reasons why the employee is in his/her position, what are the personality traits and skills enabling him/her to do the job well.  If the person is in the same position for a long time, even if you’re a best fit for it – like Mr. Anchovy –  it’s no wonder you show signs of burnout and find your job terribly boring. No surprise, you need a change. As a career coach you will need the seek for the why.

“I came here to find a new job, a new life, a new meaning to my existence. Can’t you help me?”

Career change is probably one of the most difficult decisions to make in our human existence. In the old days people used to choose a profession for a lifetime. Since the technology revolution of the last decades we are required to be agile and flexible to change careers quickly as the job market demands. Clients often come for advice and a firm requirement of an exact definition of which job would be the best for them. 

But in real life people are not as determined as Mr Anchovy. They do not have the faintest clue on what they’d do if they quit their current job. As a career counselor you only could help the client to seek alternatives, and get their choice confirmed and create clarity on the decision.

And yes, it might turn out that the client does not need to quit.

“I want to be a lion tamer!”

Anchovy reveals that his dream is to be a lion tamer, saying that his qualifications for the job are having seen them at the zoo, and having his own lion taming hat. 

Well, again, it makes a counsellor’s job pretty difficult. As the counsellor very clearly explains, it doesn’t really matter if he has a hat, it’s far more important if he has relevant experience in this field.

“I do follow, Mr Anchovy, but you see the snag is… if I now call Mr Chipperfield and say to him, ‘look here, I’ve got a forty-five-year-old chartered accountant with me who wants to become a lion tamer’, his first question is not going to be ‘does he have his own hat?‘ He’s going to ask what sort of experience you’ve had with lions.”

Visiting the zoo is not a serious working experience. It is a very unstable basis for switching career.  

So there’s a big contradiction between the desires and the qualifications of the client. What can a counsellor do? He tries to convince the client: 

“it might be better if you worked your way towards lion taming, say, via banking or insurance..?”

– offering alternative career plans closer to the current role and pulling the client to the ground of realistic options.  In many cases the career change planes are so sharp and different from the current role that the transition needs padding.  Like starting with a side / project job parallel with the main job that leads to becoming an independent entrepreneur.

Still, Mr Anchovy is so fed up with his job that he insists on starting the new job immediately. It’s a very common desire of career changers – they want to shorten the transition to a new role and switch right away. They might forget that each transition is a process, not a single action. There are several phases and steps of the process, just like the simplified change curve derived from the Kübler-Ross model applied for  change management. You can’s save your personal learning curve: you can’t go to the circus straight from the office.

“Lions: lively brown furry things with short stumpy legs and great long noses?”

However, it turns out that he has misidentified an anteater as a lion. The counsellor disabuses Anchovy by telling him how fierce lions really are, and shows him a picture of a lion, which scares him. Anchovy then steps back and comes up with the idea of working his way towards lion taming via banking or insurance.

People are often  full of career misbeliefs and underestimate the hardships of a new challenge. Clients have to prepare their transition  (sometime transition to a leadership role) and make a deep evaluation of the pros and cons for stay or change and rank all the possible options.  Mr Anchovy made a mistake of missing the chance to initiate conversation with other lion tamers. He soon could have discovered that lion taming in reality is far from the ideal picture he has in his mind. Most of us think that the grass is greener at our neighbour. Let’s check and see!

The animal to tame is not a lively brown furry thing, but

“a huge savage beast, about five feet high, ten feet long, weighing about four hundred pounds, running forty miles per hour, with masses of sharp pointed teeth and nasty long razor-sharp claws that can rip your belly open before you can say ‘Eric Robinson’.”

As Mr Anchovy, career changers often back-off when they meet the first difficulty with the change. Now even banking or insurance seems too tough after accountancy. As several career clients, he will stay where he is.

Still there are some chartered accountants that really became lion tamers. Don’t believe it? Just google it. 

“Life with the lions is just what I’ve always wanted,” he said. Who wants to have a career offering more than this?

Yes, you’ll have new challenges.

Face them.

And never mix up an anteater with a lion.

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