Are You Changing Your Career?

Are You Changing Your Career?

Many people change careers due to them disliking one or more aspects of their current job. This might be their job itself, their employer or the company that they are working for. Identifying what you dislike about your job is usually the easiest part of planning a new career however you need to look at what you like about it in order to get an idea of what direction your career change should go in. This can include your hobbies, interests and generally anything that motivates you and makes you feel happy. Assessing your career is the first step in finding a new career.

Once you have found (or re-found) what you like about your job, the next step is to devote some time to researching new careers that revolve around your interests and motivation. If you feel a bit unsure about this don’t worry as it is a natural part of the process of finding a new career. The amount of research you should do will depend a lot on the level of change that you are intending to make. For example looking for promotion in your current job should in theory take less research than changing from a surgeon to a mechanic.

It might be necessary for you to gain new skills and expand your knowledge of certain employment sectors. This is something that you should approach slowly. If a skill that you need for your new career is one that could be used in your current career there is no harm in seeing if your employer will pay for any training courses that you may need. Take a few courses to ensure that you actually enjoy the subject matter that the new skill involves.

You will need to gain experience in your new career. You should consider doing temporary work in this sector or working part time hours or evenings in order to add experience while you are still in your current career.

Remember to stay flexible about almost everything. This will include your employment status and other aspects such as relocation and salary expectations. You should set positive and realistic targets for yourself but also bear in mind that there may be some problems and setbacks along the way to your new career.