Career change is a pretty common thing and people go for it for various reasons – to have more flexible working hours, to make more money, to incorporate some new interest they’ve discovered at a new job, to satisfy their career values and goals that have changed, etc. Nevertheless, this change requires the investment of both time and money, so it’s crucial to be informed before you make it.
Before you reach a decision you should be absolutely certain that your present career needs a makeover. After that, you need to take some time in order to evaluate your present situation, explore various options, and ultimately choose a new career that will be more satisfying than the old one. This assessment of alternative career paths and your own interests can be a pretty complex thing, so we’ve put together some tips that will help you make the right move towards a new career.
1. The Scope of Change
As we’ve already pointed out, the first step is to make sure you need a career change. If you’re not satisfied with your current job, that doesn’t necessarily mean you need a complete change of field. You may simply need to visit several job portal sites and find a new job – that could also be quite a challenge, but still a smaller one than a complete career makeover. While dissatisfaction with your current job is not always a reason for a career change, that doesn’t mean you should hesitate – if your interests, goals, and career values say go, then go.
2. Review and Self-assessment
After you’ve made sure that a career change is in order, the next step is to review all of your past jobs, projects, successful roles, and volunteer work. This is a crucial step since it will help you to identify your skills and preferred activities. Then it’s time to dive a little deeper into the self-assessment and evaluate your interests, personality, skills, and values. This sounds a bit complex so some people choose to turn to career development professionals such as career counselors, but there are many great and free career assessment tests online that will do the job. Based on your answers to a series of questions, these tests will generate an appropriate list of occupations for you to explore.
3. Approaching the List
The list of occupations generated by the self-assessment tests will probably be lengthy, so the next step is to shorten it to either five to ten occupations. It’s wise to use a couple of different tests so you can identify the occupations which appear on multiple lists then narrow it down further by circling the ones you find appealing for further exploration. Now it’s time to start looking at the job description, earnings, advancement opportunities, but also educational and other requirements since some careers will require to put energy and time into preparing for them. Maybe you’ve always dreamed of working with children, but fostering their wellbeing and nurturing their development is not an easy task and it requires precise knowledge, education, and responsibility. Naturally, there are a lot of online courses which can prepare you for the job, but it’s advisable to find the ones that offer more advanced education through both theory and practical work placement. Having an opportunity to apply the theory in a real, working environment can ultimately give you a unique insight into the kind of challenges that are faced by those in the field, every single day.
4. Gathering Information
Now that you have only a few occupations left on your list it’s time to search for some even more in-depth information. The point is to find out all that you can about the fields you’re interested in and probably the largest pool of that information are the people who have firsthand knowledge of those occupations. In other words, people who have been there, done that, and now are able to supply you with a ton of great advice. If you’ve been considering some career choices for a while now you probably already know who to talk to, but you can also find a bunch of contacts through LinkedIn, for example. Once you identify who these people are, you should then endeavor to conduct informational interviews with them.
5. Firsthand Observation
With all the information in the world, you still can’t be certain if some career is right for you before you see it with your own eyes. But that doesn’t mean you should plunge into another job only to realize it’s not what you’ve been looking for. You can find professionals in the fields of your primary interest and observe the work firsthand by shadowing them. Job shadowing is a process that enables you to spend a couple of hours to a couple of days with people who have jobs that interest you. You simply need to find the volunteers that are willing to host job shadowers.
6. Trying it Out
Even after job shadowing, there are some additional ways you can try out a certain career before you make the final decision. You can always find freelance or volunteer activities which are related to your field and test your interest that way. Another way is to start with your new career as a side job – maybe it’ll be a bit tight and exhausting period, but you’ll certainly realize whether you like it or not.
As you can see, the process of career change can be a complex one, but all it takes is some careful consideration. You need to make a clear distinction between a job and a career, go through self-assessment, and be realistic when it comes to education and other requirements. After that, it’s all about the right amount of information, careful observation, and the trial period.
