Switching your Career — The Ultimate Guide
Passionate about a different career other than what you are currently doing? People tend to switch jobs because of company downsizing and restricting, for a raise in payroll, to improve work-life balance, the environment at work, or unhealthy relationships with coworkers or managers.
According to Joblist’s Mid Life Career Crisis survey, People tend to switch career for the following reasons:
· Better Pay: 47%
· Too Stressful: 39%
· Better Work-Life Balance: 37%
· Wanted a New Challenge: 25%
· No Longer Passionate About Field: 23%
Here are a few tips on how to move to a different career:
· Evaluate the reason for switching — First, you need to evaluate if you are discontent with the type of work that you are doing or is it because of the people, environment, or your manager. If this is because of factors other than the sort of work you are doing then you do not need to switch career, you need to switch organization.
· What excites you — Assess your interests by looking at previous work you did that satisfies you that may include any volunteer work or any informative seminar you attended on any topics and then evaluate what gives you more joy and what you are passionate about more.
· Have a more personal conversation — Connect with people in those sectors to understand more about the field and skills required for the career. Search for similar kinds of jobs that you are interested in and evaluate what sort of skill they do require in the candidate. If possible, reach out to a career coach for expert advice.
· Try things out — Do a different kind of volunteer activity in the target field to understand more if it still kindles the passion in you.
· Upskill your career — Look for ways to build skills for the new career. Take online classes, follow online tutorials, or look for any opportunity that your company provides to gain knowledge in that field.
· Stop seeking, Start finding — Look for any opportunity in the industry by applying to different jobs in the field and be flexible about the salary as career switching generally means payroll for an entry-level.
In conclusion, switching careers is not easy as it requires a few steps to focus on before actually starting yet it is possible. All you need is confidence, patience, career coaching, and research for building skills for the right career.
