Have you been doing the same role for years and feel like a change?
Or are you feeling utterly unfulfilled by your current career and want to shake things up?
Firstly, don’t panic. Yearning for a career change but having little to no idea what to do next is so common.
The great news is that there are practical steps you can take to make finding your next role more enjoyable, and less frustrating and time-consuming!
In this blog, I’ll walk you through my three top tips.
1. Be patient and open-minded
A common sign that you’re ready for a career change is that you struggle to picture yourself in the same position moving forward. You’ve no appetite to progress into a more senior role, and you can’t imagine yourself looking back at your retirement party thinking you did exactly what you wanted to do!
The chances are though, you’re in a comfortable position career-wise. Your salary is good, there are attractive benefits and your work-life balance is ok. You’re comfortably uncomfortable!
Finding something new that ticks all the boxes can take time. As they say… Rome wasn’t built in a day! It could take months, sometimes even years, to find a career that aligns with your aspirations, values, and key requirements.
When it comes to carving out a new career path, patience and flexibility are essential!
2. Beware of analysis paralysis
Feeling unfulfilled and uninspired inevitably leaves us spending a lot of time in our own heads! But your next dream role isn’t going to come by constantly analysing your current situation, writing endless pros and cons lists, or mindlessly scrolling through job adverts.
In fact, the latter is likely to leave you even more demoralised as two primary feelings emerge:
The first being… “Argh! All I can find are roles similar to what I’m doing now… what’s the point?”
And the other… “I don’t have the skills or experience to do anything different. This is hopeless!”
But what’s the alternative? I hear you cry.
You need to take action!
Get out there and learn more about different roles and industries. This could be by attending seminars and networking events, shadowing friends to learn more about their careers or taking online courses to increase your knowledge and skills.
It may seem like a LOT of hard work, but it’s all progress towards your end goal… a new and exciting career.
Sure, you may feel like you hit a lot of dead ends and realise all those other roles just aren’t for you. But that’s a good thing! You’ll be crossing things off your list that may have stayed in your mind and niggled away at you. You can sleep easy knowing you’ve explored options and can definitely say they’re not your cup of tea!
3. Find new people, not a new job
If you’ve worked in the same field for a long time, you may have become slightly blinkered about what else is out there. Whether that’s different industries you could work in or roles that have emerged since you last did any significant job hunting.
Surrounding yourself with a diverse mix of people can help you widen your perspective, develop alternative avenues to pursue, help you gain new knowledge, and broaden your circle of contacts. Perhaps it will lead to some unique opportunities, or maybe it won’t, but you’re gaining more and more insight into the wider working world.
You may also pick up some additional soft skills along the way, which will help you with interview preparation and performance when the time comes.
If you’re more of an introvert and shudder at the thought of approaching people to network with, then LinkedIn is a great place to start! See one of my previous blogs ‘How to use LinkedIn to find a job’ for tips on networking on LinkedIn.
Ready to start making moves to change your career?
You’ve read the blog, so now what are you going to do? What actions are you going to take?
Utilising the skills and experience of a career coach is a good idea when trying to map out your next career move. If you’d like to find out how I can help, let’s grab a virtual coffee and a chat.
It would also be great to connect with you on LinkedIn and Facebook!
