It is important to remember that if you are not happy in your career- you can change it! However, doing
so is not something to be done on a whim. Today we are going to look at which motives for changing
careers are good, and which motives may end up doing you more harm than good. We are also going to
provide some tips for having a smooth transition from one career to the next. So, if you do decide to
change careers, it will go swimmingly.
One of the first things to consider is how you physically feel when you are working. If you constantly feel
sluggish and exhausted, you may not be working in the right field. If you are constantly challenged but
energized- then you may be right where you should be. Remember that your career is only one aspect of
your life, so if it is zapping all of your energy, this may not be the career for you.
That being said, when looking for a new career you want to find yourself moving forward instead of
running away. My dad once had a job at a fish processing plant where he would gut fish for 8 hours at a
time. Needless to say, he didn’t like it much. One day he was complaining to a co-worker about it, and
the co-worker offered to trade jobs with him. Thinking nothing could be worse than the fish job, my dad
said sure. The next day went in and had the "crab" job instead. Now, instead of gutting fish, he was
killing crabs on a spike -- even worse! What did my dad do wrong? He moved to a new job on the basis
of "It isn’t my old job." Don’t make the same mistake.
When you look for a new career, pick a career that you are excited about, not a career that sounds
marginally better than the one you have now. How do we do this? First off you need to do some soul
and value searching. Look for your core values, and then look for careers that align with them. This is a
fairly in-depth process. Start by figuring out how you value four things: money, time, purpose, and
stress. If you are driven more by a sense of purpose than a paycheck, look for a career that aligns with
that. We will be providing more tips on this in the coming weeks.
Then, I recommend finding a mentor. Someone in your life who either works in a career that you could
see yourself doing, or someone in your life who just moves through the working world in a way that you
would like to. Start buying them coffee once a week and chatting about what you could do to make your
career path look more like theirs.
Next, you want to start test-running your new idea for a career. Look into volunteer positions that are
related to the field. For more information on this read our post from October 13th- "Learning New Ways
to Learn New Skills." Making a career change is a big decision. Follow this advice and you will know if
you are making the right decision to make the big jump. And if so, you will be well prepared!