Ready for A Career Change But Have No Idea Where to Start?
People seek career changes due to many various reasons. Either their career objectives or values might have deviated or they may want to include their newly discovered interests in their jobs or they desire to earn more or might prefer flexible working hours, are just a few reasons to name.
Before deciding a career change, it’s crucially essential to sit down and calmly assess and evaluate your current circumstances. In order to decide whether your career needs a changeover and select a career that is more satisfying, you need to explore your career options.
Why People Change Careers?
As aforementioned, people change careers for several various different reasons. Changing career is a personal decision revolving around many internal and external factors, but the usual major reasons of changing career path are: better pay, current job and career are too stressful, individuals lose passion in their current field or either want a better balance in their work and life or they want to face new challenges in their career.
Benefits of Career Change
Career is a huge part of an individual’s life. Also as the saying goes ‘Do what you love, love what you do’, one must always work peacefully. According to a survey report, most people after making the career change got happier, less stressed and more satisfied and fulfilled. Other than that those people earned more than their previous positions.
7 Steps to Transition from One Career to Another
Here is how you can make the move to change your career path:
1- Evaluate Current Job Satisfaction
Maintain a journal-keeping a track of your regular reactions in the current job scenario while looking out for recurring ones. Assess which aspects you like or dislike about your present job. Determine whether your dissatisfaction is associated with either the content of your work or company culture or your coworkers. Answer tough questions like these and then reflect on them. You will eventually see the bigger picture and also would come to what your job satisfaction looks like.
2- Assess Interests, Values & Skills
Build an inventory regarding your values, skills and interests relatable to your current job. Think about all those times when you were successful — be it an internship, volunteer work or anything else and analyze the situation during those times. Figure out which skills helped in achieving those successes and how those skills can be further applied to the different roles of your interest.
3- Consider Alternative Careers
Ideas for alternative careers can be brainstormed either through thorough research regarding career options or by having a conversation with either your mentor or friends and family or your coworkers and colleagues. And still, if the difficulty remains and ideas aren’t coming easily then you can consider taking a career counselor’s professional advice.
4- Check Out Job Options
Perform a prior comparative evaluation of various fields to determine some targets for intensively thorough research. Brainstorm potential careers and shortlist them for further research. This preliminary phase prior to the thorough research will help get your focus narrowed for the next phases.
5- Get Personal
Start reaching out to the professionals in the respective sectors through your network to gain more information through informational interviews. But be strategic. Speak with the professional you trust will put a good word out there and will also keep you aware of the opportunities. The college alumni career network is a decent source of acquiring contacts for informational interviews. Other than that professional social networking platform LinkedIn is the best resource to connect with the professionals in the specific fields of interest.
6- Upgrade Skills
At your current job, always be on the lookout for opportunities in order to gain skills required to make the career change. If your company offers, then sign up for as many as possible in house training sessions. Seizing opportunities is helpful but remember to put the newly learned and developed skills onto your resume and cover letter. Ensure that the opportunities you take are honing your skillset while you are documenting them where it matters the most.
7- Track Your Progress
At times making a career switch can take time. Therefore to keep yourself motivated to successfully make the career change when the time comes and the opportunity presents itself until then keep a track of your progress. Maintain a spreadsheet, track the milestones leading to the full career change. Acknowledging small victories gives a sense of accomplishment while making the switch in career.
