Changing careers is never a a simple process. It means taking a gamble financially, professionally and personally. It means jumping into the unknown. It means ignoring the doubts of others and totally backing yourself.
For some people, career change spells success. For others, it comes with regret.
If you feel it’s time to explore a new field of work, make sure you avoid these common career change mistakes.
Confusing the source of your dissatisfaction
When we become dissatisfied with one aspect of our life, other facets can suffer as well. Relationship issues or family conflict can be difficult to break away from, but also hard to address directly. To compensate, negativity from these areas can be focussed toward the job instead. Before swapping careers, ensure that your job really is where you need change in your life. Otherwise, your career change will ultimately be a temporary fix for the bigger problem. Eventually you will be feeling discontent again.
Not forming a mission statement
Quitting your job without a specific goal in mind can feel liberating. But, this freedom is short-lived if you can’t find another passion or pursuit. Like all projects, your career change must have a mission statement.
What field do you want to work in? What kind of people do you want to be surrounded by? Does this vision align with you skills and training? If not, what qualifications do you need to get there?
Understand exactly what you do and don’t want out of your career change before kissing your present workplace goodbye.
Trusting the heat of the moment
You have been under the pump at work since you can remember. You flopped on an important proposal. Your back is against the wall. Right now, a career change looks more appealing than an Orea and a glass of milk!
Before you jump ship, take a step back and look at your situation objectively. Is it the field of work itself that is leaving you feeling uninspired/overworked/undervalued? Or could your dissatisfaction be attributed to other factors, like your workplace itself or a difficult co-worker?
Are you moving on to bigger and better things, or running away from your present problems?
Undoubtedly, the lines between this questions can become blurred. However, it is important for you to do the best you can to analyse your position and make sure your choice is right for your future.
Not networking
When it comes to careers, who you know always trumps what you know.
Many career changers forget to make use of their most vital resource – their connections. Remember all those contacts you made in a previous position? Or that friend who knows people in high places? Well, now is the time to start making those calls.
Don’t know anyone in your chosen career change field? Good news – networking isn’t as scary as it used to be. In fact, you can do most of your networking online through sites like LinkedIn.
Not planning your money
When considering money and a career change, many energetically plan for the best case scenario, rather than the worst. In reality, a career change often entails an initial step-down the financial ladder. You may go back to study or begin a low paying entry level position in a new field. Usually, a career change will halt your income as you transition from one field to the next. Who knows for how long?
Be realistic about how much time you may take to find a new job, and how much cash you will need in the interim. Financial factors can make a seemingly perfect career change disastrous.
On the hunt for a new position? Give Seek, Careerone and Australian JobSearch a try.
