Are you thinking about changing your career? If you are, you are not alone. Every year, thousands of people retrain in order to do something new – and it’s no surprise when you think a lot of people are doing what they have been doing since they finished their education.
In today’s world, retraining and changing your career has never been easier. With technology giving people access to so much information, you can easily swap from being a personal trainer to a maths teacher, or a marketing guru to becoming a financial analyst – the possibilities are endless!
So how do you go about changing your career? From signing up for online courses and volunteering in your free time to open university, rewriting your CV, and upgrading your skills, we have put together our guide on three ways to help change your career.
Sign up for online courses
Online courses are one of the best ways to learn new skills that you can apply to the new career path that you are interested in. Online courses cover a whole range of subjects, from marketing courses (such as an SEO course) and finance courses to graphic design and everything in between. The best thing about doing an online course is that you can do it from the comfort of your own home, all you need is a steady internet connection and some free time to study.
Depending on the provider you choose, the price and length of the courses will vary, with some providers offering free courses – the paid course can include professional qualifications whereas the free ones often don’t. Why not sign up for a course and give online learning a try, if you don’t enjoy learning online you just stop, some companies will refund you your money if it’s requested within a certain amount of time of the course starting (this is often 14 days or 30 days).
Volunteer in your free time
When looking to start a new career in a different field, one of the best ways to do this is to volunteer in your free time. Reach out to a few companies that offer what you would like to do and see if you can volunteer on the weekend or in the evenings a day or two a week. Volunteering gives you the chance to see what the job actually entails – some jobs seem more glamorous from the outside when in reality they are not as good at they look.
Volunteering also gives you the chance to get some experience which you can use to help you land a job in the future. It also means that you put yourself on the top of the list, if the company you are volunteering for, starts recruiting for the role you are doing for them.
Volunteering doesn’t have to be forever, if you try it and don’t like it, you can simply stop and try a different career move or go back to what you were doing before. In a lot of cases, people love to volunteer as volunteering often gives you less responsibility than doing the official job.
Consider open University
An alternative option to signing up for an online course would be to consider open University. Open University, similar to an online course lets you study online and in the comfort of your own home. The difference comes when you look into the level of qualification you will get after. A university degree is a lot higher than most online courses and is useful if you are looking into a higher-level career change, such as becoming a doctor or a psychologist. For these sorts of jobs, you are required to have a degree and even a master’s in some cases.
Studying for a degree online can take a lot longer, with a lot of courses taking 4 or 5 years before you graduate, so it’s a serious consideration before enrolling in a degree-level qualification – they are also a lot more expensive than online courses! When studying for a degree, the longer you are on the course, the easier a career change can be.
A lot of companies will consider hiring you while you are studying, this way you learn on the job and while being educated in the field. If you are unsure of whether to go down the university route for a career change, we would recommend reaching out to friends and family members who you know have done this, as their feedback can be very useful. If you don’t know someone who has, look up online reviews as this can also be very useful.
The Summary
Just from our guide above, we hope you’ll find some inspiration and know that there are so many ways to change your career. What will work for you, may be different to another person, so try a variety of methods and see which one gives you the best chance for a career change. With a quick Google, you’ll find a plethora of other ways in case the above aren’t as effective for you,
Another tip that we didn’t include which is also very useful is to reach out to friends and family members and ask them if they can help with your career change. A lot of jobs are given because of the people you know. You never know by asking a friend or family member, they may be able to offer you a job within the career you would like to do. If they aren’t able to, they may know the right people to speak to within their company to give you a step in the right direction – it’s never harmful asking anyway!
Are you looking to change career and what type of job are you looking to do? Are there any tips that you would recommend to our readers that will help them change careers? Which of the above tips did you find most useful? Let us know in the comment box below, we look forward to hearing from you.
