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Changing Career

Change is constant and this is especially true in the workplace. The belief is that today’s school leavers will reinvent themselves in their careers seven times in their lifetime.

When you are the main breadwinner, have a big mortgage or children to support, changing your career can be a particularly daunting prospect. However, if you stay in a job or profession you hate, it can be worse in the long run than if you face up to any fears about change. Up to two thirds of people don’t enjoy their work. This is a depressingly big number.

Often people fall into a career or profession without actually thinking it through. Unfortunately, you can receive basic or inadequate careers advice at school or college. Or others simply choose the job their parents did.

So how can changing your career be made to be more pleasure than pain? Here are some tips to help:

·          Look in book shops or libraries at the many career change books increasingly available  

·          Consider getting a career coach to help and support you through the process – often people are so close to themselves, they find it hard to look at themselves objectively or be aware of different and new possibilities for their skills and strengths, and a coach can help you to see more than you can by yourself

·          Reflect on your best skills and qualities and ask for the views of people you know and trust

·          Consider your work in the context of your life; are you happy for your work to be all-consuming or is work-life balance key? Do you want to earn lots of money, do something that you love or a combination of both?

·          Reflect on times in your life when you have felt most content and ‘in-flow;, what were you doing and what made these occasions satisfying? How could you get paid to replicate this?

·          Do a S.W.O.T. analysis to summarise your strengths (S) and weaknesses (W) and external work opportunities (O) and threats (T)

·          If you are really unsure about what career you want, consider doing some psychometric tests with a career analyst to create some options

·          Recall when you were a child and what your dreams were – what did you really want to do then?

·          If your dream career involves retraining, then it may be that you need to review your finances to enable this to happen, so ensure that you get sound financial advice and create a strategy and plan

·          Once you have some ideas for your new career, do some research e.g. a web search, look at the industry association website and chat to people who are in this line of work already

·          Take a strategic approach – think long-term; review the emerging trends and market needs

Changing your career can feel like a huge step, but it can be one of the best decisions you ever make. Staying in a job or profession that isn’t you can make you stressed. Life is too short to do something that doesn’t fit.  To make it easier on yourself, you can prepare thoroughly and break the change into manageable steps.