It's crucial that you take time to evaluate your present situation and explore career options to choose a more satisfying job. And because we spend so much of our lives at work, it's very important that we must get it right.
With that in mind, here are some of the most important questions to ask yourself when considering a career change.
1. Do you have problems with your existing job? Can you fix it?
When considering a career change, it's great to try to fix current problems with your existing job instead of moving into an unknown new one. Are you dissatisfied with the work itself or it has something to do with your boss or are you just being attacked by boredom? Are there some ways you could do to deal with that? Could you ask for promotion to keep you engaged or a pay raise to increase your feeling of being valued? It's good to ask yourself these questions first before you decide to make a career change.
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2. Do you have the right skills needed to succeed in a new career?
Some of your skills might from your current job might be transferable but there are some skills you need to gain in order to succeed in a new career.
Are you ready to start as a trainee to gain relevant experience? Can you support yourself in terms of finance if your salary decreases?
3. Do you have a development plan in place?
If you're going ahead with a career change, it's important to develop a development plan that helps you understand exactly what you need to do at every stage of your career change journey. By setting clear career goals and the steps you need to do to get where you want to be, you can easily navigate yourself towards your ultimate goal.
Review these tips in making the move in changing careers.
- Analyze your current job satisfaction. Keep a note of your daily reactions and feelings on your job situation. What are the things you like and dislike? Is your dissatisfaction related to your work, company culture or the people you work with?
- Determine your interests and skills. Review past experiences and identify preferred activities and roles.
- Contemplate alternative careers. Research for career options and brainstorm for ideas for career alternatives.
- Check out career options. Evaluate several fields to identify few targets for a research. You can find a lot of information online by simple Googling jobs of your interest.
- Find contacts. Search out as much as you can about those fields and reach out to personal contacts in those fields. A good source of contacts for informational interviewers is your alumni career network.
- Try it out. Look for freelance activities related to your target field to test your interest.
- Develop new skills. Look for new ways to upgrade your skills in your current job which would open the way for a change. If your company offers trainings, sign up and attend for many classes as you can.
- Consider alternative roles in your industry. Consider a new job in the same industry which would expand the knowledge on the industry you already have.
When you're ready to start applying for jobs in your new industry, make sure to have a resume and a cover letter that reflects your aspirations and are based on your new goals.