Career Change (The Ultimate Guide)
Are you thinking about changing careers? Read our Ultimate Guide to Career Change to find out more.
So, you want to change your career? It’s straightforward, right? You just think about what else you want to do and go for it …..
In theory, that’s what happens but in reality, changing a career can be more problematic. Over the years I have worked with individuals to help them change and pivot to a different career direction and it’s not always as straightforward as it seems. You are reading this article, so you may be experiencing feeling stuck or having problems moving forward to pivot in a new direction. Having worked with hundreds of different clients who want to switch careers, and having changed careers myself a few times, I know different issues tend to come up through the process. For example, you may not enjoy what you do and are looking for a change in career, but you do not know what you do want to do for work instead. You might think “I need a career change” but do not have any career change ideas. Or, you may have too many career ideas and not know how to make those life-changing career decisions between one idea and another. For many, it is difficult to know how to change career paths. This can be especially true if you have little or no experience in your new career direction.
In this article, you will discover how to change careers. We will be focussing on the following:
What is a career change?
Why do you want to make a career change?
How to change your career
Where can I get help with my career change?
Am I too old to change career?
1. What is a career change?
A career change is a process of moving to work that is different from your previous experience. It can be by choice, or involuntary. You may want to change careers because you feel dissatisfied with what you do. Or you simply want to do something else, where there are potentially more opportunities for your future career.
Different types of Career Change
Career changes can be big or small. The main types of career change are:
Promotion - you move vertically to a role, usually with more responsibility. The role content can be similar or quite different. For example, moving from a specialist engineering role to a generalist manager’s role can involve different job content and responsibilities. You can move internally or to another organisation.
External move to a similar role - you move horizontally to a different organisation but a similar role. These moves are often made to change environments or salary. This is not a career change as such, but a job change.
Internal move to a different role - you move from one type of position to another. Such as from a job in logistics to one in buying. Different organisations vary in their attitude to whether this is possible. It also depends on the qualifications and expertise involved in the different roles. For example, you are not likely to go from an occupational therapist to a doctor in the NHS as there are different qualifications required for each career type.
External move to a different role - you move from a different role and different organisation. This is arguably the trickiest move and often involves retraining and reskilling, depending on the types of roles involved.
Re-engineering your role - you change what and how you do your role. This is also referred to as crafting your role. This could mean you change your work hours from full to part-time which can have a positive impact on work-life integration. Or you may take a sabbatical, or take a course to enrich learning and expertise. Or you may do the job in a different way, such as use more technology. Reengineering your role can be ways to enrich job satisfaction.
Changing types of employment - you move from being self-employed to employed or visa versa. Or you become a contractor rather than employed or visa versa.
Portfolio career - you do more than one role at a time. Having the main job and a side project (also known as a side hustle) can be a good way of testing out a career change. For example, you build websites after work with a view to building that into a business once you have sufficient clients. Or for some, having two quite different part-time jobs can add interest and can be a career change to consider. You may find that one job is the one you feel passionate about, whilst the other pays the bills!
Change of Mindset - not strictly a career change but thinking differently can help to become happier at work. In many situations, trying to be happier at work just doesn’t cut the mustard and a full career change is required. It is, however, a good starting point. If you really cannot be happy at work, perhaps it is time to switch careers.
2. Why do you want to make a career change?
The first thing to consider is - why do you want to make a career change? This is really defining the problem. If you know what the problem is, it is easier to come up with a targeted approach to finding a solution.
What is really going on for you? Take some time to ask yourself what is not working for you at work? What are the current issues? What is missing? How long have you felt like this - is it a phase or sticky patch or is it really time for a career change?
I am not putting you off changing careers. It is perfectly possible to change career at any age. I also believe everyone should be happy at work. If you are unhappy, it can have adverse effects not only on your work but also the rest of your life. But it is good to really understand what is going on, so you can take the appropriate action. Sometimes, a small change such as moving to another job in the same environment can make big improvements to how you feel about your job.
The main reasons to know it is time for a career change are:
1. Your job is making you ill
Some tell-tale signs might be that you feel exhausted all the time and find it hard to get going, even on the weekend or days off. Or you feel emotional or weepy for no apparent reason and find it hard to control this. Or it’s hard to get to sleep, or indeed to stay awake during the day. If you feel like this and it is down to the stress of your job, it may well be time for you to think about a career change.
If your job is making you ill, it can be for a variety of reasons. This can be due to external reasons such as having a toxic boss, or the type of environment you are working in is too stressful for you. Or, it can be due to internal reasons, such as doing work that does not suit your natural abilities, your skills, your values and your personality. It helps enormously to be interested in what you do. Your mindset can affect how happy you are in general and therefore how happy you are at work. If you are resilient and optimistic, you are more likely to be happy. If you are always negative, you are more likely to be unhappy, wherever you are.
2. You dread going to work
Do you go to sleep every night dreading the next day of work? You have a Miserable Monday every Monday? You stay awake late Sundays, so the weekend is longer? Everyone has ups and downs in their work but if you truly, deeply dread those eight or so hours at the office, it is time to make plans to change what you do for work. Apparently, we work an average of 90,000 hours in our lifetime. That’s a lot of hours. Work out how many years, weeks and hours you have left before you retire ….. does that give you the motivation to empower you to switch careers to something that makes you happy and satisfied at work?
3. Your work feels meaningless
If you are counting the hours until the end of the day and you are bored and feeling you are wasting your life with pointless and meaningless work that you don’t enjoy, it’s time to find something else. One of the keys to workplace happiness and work engagement is having a sense of meaning and purpose in what you do. If you really can’t find it in your work, you might want to think about what would give you that sense of purpose elsewhere.
4. Your work doesn’t match your values
If what you do clashes with your values or if you work in a culture that doesn’t fit with who you are, that is a reason to leave the job. Values are so important to how you feel about work and it is vital to feeling your values match that of the organisation. Think about what matters to you at work. For example, if you have values such as autonomy or work/life balance and you are in the sort of job where you have to be available 24/7 – that’s not going to be a job that works for you.
5. Your negativity outweighs your positivity
Think about your conversations with friends and family members. Are you constantly complaining about your boss, co-workers, about your workplace, or about your job itself? Your job should bring positive energy into your life. Apart from anything else, it is exhausting for others too, if you constantly complain. If you find yourself constantly complaining about work, that’s a sign that you either need to think differently about your work, or it is a reason to leave the job.
6. Your workplace is constantly negative
Emotions are contagious. Having a negative boss or colleagues can be catching! A negative organisational culture can mean that complaining, negativity and a victim mentality is rife throughout the company. It is not conducive to a healthy work-life and it is a reason to leave the job. It is a good idea to question whether your environment is common to your industry or just the organisation. If just the organisation, then maybe its time to try somewhere else, rather than a new career.
7. You are being unfairly paid or treated
If you feel overqualified for your job or underpaid for what you, that can affect career satisfaction. Sometimes we do have a sense of unfairness around pay that is not necessarily founded, so do your research around the going rates for pay. When an organisation is not doing well people can be paid below the going rate. But if the company is doing well and your pay doesn’t match up with your level of expertise, with no changes to this happening on the horizon, that is a reason to leave the job. Is being poorly paid to do with the career path you have chosen or the organisation you are in. Again, is it a change of career or organisation you are seeking?
8. Your confidence is eroded by work
If you have a manager who does not bring out the best of you or give you feedback, if you are in an oppressive environment where you cannot express yourself or speak up, you may feel your confidence is being eroded. Your confidence can also be affected by the work itself if there is no room for growth or you feel you are not using the skills you have; you may feel you are being “deskilled” and your confidence is going downhill. It is a reason to leave the job and find work where you can grow and flourish.
9. Your environment does not suit who you are
Sometimes certain environments just do not suit who you are. For example, I have had clients who work offshore in the oil and gas sector. If you do not like to work offshore, being away from home for long stretches of time and are a petroleum engineer, it might be time to look for an alternative career. If you are working in a fast-moving environment such as accident and emergency and prefer to work at a slow pace, it may not be the right environment for you and you may want to consider changing careers.
10. Your career does not have a future
The impact of factors such as industrialisation, globalisation, society, culture and information technology has played a huge factor in our work-life and the sort of careers and jobs that are available to us. Over the years, we have seen job types come and go. Think about the demise of jobs in shipbuilding or coal mining. Whereas, who would have thought you could have a career as a blogger or an influencer. Not to mention the myriad of different job types in information technology and artificial intelligence. Covid-19 has played its part in changing careers and we are seeing many jobs being substituted by artificial intelligence. If the future of your career is not bright, it might be an idea to start to think about other career options.
11. You just fancy a change!
Perhaps you have just fallen out of love with what you do, or it no longer interests you. You want to explore other career options and change direction to work that appeals to you and that you feel you would love.
As we have seen, the reasons for a career change can be around being in the “wrong job or role” - meaning one where people are not suited to their role in terms of their natural abilities, motivated skills, interests, values, and personality.
Everyone is unique, so everyone needs different things from their career. A person may feel they are in the wrong job for various reasons. For example, because they are bored and not interested in what they do. Or they may feel that they are not matched because the job does not suit their values and feels meaningless and lacking in purpose. Or may feel something is missing because they are not using their abilities or motivated skills.
Other factors come into play as well. For example, people can also feel they are in the wrong job if their environment does not suit them or if they have difficult relationships at work.
Research varies as to how many people feel they are in the wrong job. In the UK, it seems to vary between 30-50% of people feeling they are in the wrong job or role. It will be interesting to see how the pandemic has affected these statistics. For some, their job has improved (e.g. less travelling, meetings, the content of the job has changed, busyness) and for some, for the same reasons, it has changed less positively.
Do you need to change your career or get a new job?
It is important to understand if it is your career or your job that needs changing. Try taking our questionnaire to see if you get clarity:
3. How to change your career
When you think about a career change, the best place to start is with you!
We have talked about your starting point - why you want to change careers and what is going on for you.
The next step is to do a personal audit around the main areas that affect career happiness. Everyone is unique, so it is essential to find out what is really important to you at work. The areas that affect career happiness are your experiences, your natural abilities, your motivated skills, your interests, your personality preferences and your values. Your mindset also comes into play as we have already discussed.
Once you have a good idea of who you are any what you need from a career, you can start to evaluate the career ideas that you have and have come out of this process. At this stage, you need to think realistically - what is possible, given your circumstances and also what is available and what you can make a living from. So you go from looking inside to evaluate what you need, to looking outside at the marketplace as to what the options are. So now, you will have an idea of the sort of work you want to do, how and where you want to do it and potentially who you want to do it with. You then research the options to find out more and evaluate those options versus your needs.
You now have direction. The next step is to think about what you need to do to follow that direction. To think about what you have that matches the job requirements and what you need to get. This may involve rewriting your CV, getting some relevant experience, networking with the relevant people, retraining or studying. Your action plan will be developed from your further research.
4. Where can you get help with my career change?
Having worked with hundreds of clients over the years, I have developed a career change programme that follows this process of a career change and takes you from not knowing what you want to do for a change in career, to being on your way to a new future career.
Find out more about The 7 Steps to Love the Work You Do Career Change Programme below or contact me now to arrange a free of charge discovery call.
The 7 Steps to Love the Work You Do, Career Change Coaching Programme
This programme includes over 7 hours of one to one coaching with Diana Dawson, an Accredited Master Coach, Coaching Psychologist and qualified Career Counsellor.
You will receive a Career Change Workbook (over 64 pages), two psychometric assessments - The Highlands Ability Battery and Myers Briggs, career exercises and career quizzes and plenty of career resources to guide you on your way. We work through a 7 step process to get to where you want to be:
Step 1: Where are You Now - why you want to change your career
Step 2: What has Bought You Here - explore your experiences
Step 3: Discover What You are Naturally Good at - find your natural abilities and motivating skills
Step 4: Explore What You Love to Do and What Motivates You - find your interests and personality type
Step 5: Create a Vision of Your Successful Future Career - bring things together to visualise and create career options
Step 6: Explore Your Options and Find Your Dream Job - research your options
Step 7: Take Your Next Steps to Where You Want to Be - your action plan going forward
Find out more about the career change programme by arranging a zoom or telephone call with Diana:
5. Am I too old to change career?
I have included this question as it is one I am asked all the time. Am I too old to change careers at 30? Too old to change career at 40? Or am I too old to change career at 50? And what about changing careers in my 60s?
The short answer is, it is never too late. There is always an opportunity to make improvements to your working life. As already mentioned, work takes up so much time in our lifetime. Being miserable at any age at work just isn’t acceptable.
Over the course of a lifetime, you change, your work changes, those you work with change. And sometimes you simply stop enjoying what you do. You may find that your priorities in life have changed. Or you realise you have never really enjoyed your chosen career path and have simply put up with career misery. Sometimes, you tell yourselves that your job pays the bills and you should just get on with it. Or, you might even feel you don’t deserve to be happy at work.
Change career at 20’s
You will make some career decisions between the ages of 17 to 25. It could be a decision to continue with further education, or to start the first job; either way, this sets you on the path of your first building stage.
Change career at 30’s
Whatever path you have chosen at the second transition point, you tend to continue on it for some five to seven years. From age 25 to age 33, you will reassess and reevaluate that path. You may make some modifications to it, to make it more satisfying. If an initial path turns out to be completely unsatisfactory, it is at this transition point that you may start over. This is often referred to as the Quarter-life Crisis. Thoughts of ‘Is this it? Have I got to do this for the rest of my life?’ may arise. There can be feelings of disillusionment or even depression.
I have worked with a number of clients who have started on a career path such as law at university. They hated it but thought things would get better when they completed their professional qualifications. When they do eventually start their first job, however, and find that things don’t improve, they continue on the same path simply because they have invested so much of themselves in going down this particular career route for so long.
A career change can, with the right support, be relatively straightforward at this age. Especially when responsibilities and ties such as children and mortgages do not have to be taken into the equation.
Change careers at 40’s
At this point, commonly known as the mid-life crisis, you may want something different from your career other than what you wanted earlier. It may be a goal or a value that was felt to be important at an earlier age but then left behind, or a goal or value that is completely new. You may want to use this opportunity to modify directions chosen earlier, or in some cases to start over again if choices were very unsatisfactory.
A career change can be more complex when there are financial aspects to consider, and ties such as children or mortgages.
Change career at 50’s and beyond
The 50’s seems to be the new 40’s, and you may realise you want to change their career at this point. In some respect, a career change may be easier if financial burdens and expectation are less. This is potentially a time of great integration, satisfaction and happiness. Some careers are more appropriate for you with life experiences. Some might feel less so if you are less in touch with technology.
I am Diana Dawson, Founder of Working Career. As a Professional Career Coach, Career Psychologist, Career Counsellor, Career Consultant, Executive Coach and Wellbeing at Work Coach, I work with organisations and individuals to help manage their careers.
I am an Accredited Master Coach with the Association for Coaching, a Coaching Psychologist and Cognitive Behavioural Hypnotherapist with nearly 20 years of experience in the field.
I work with professional people from different sectors and backgrounds to cope and flourish at work. I also run Career Workshops and Wellbeing Workshops for organisations.
I can provide one-to-one career coaching in Edinburgh or zoom sessions worldwide. I can provide Career Workshops at your organisation or remotely. Find out more about me here