When you’re younger, you often believe that you’ll start a job and stick with it for life. But, for one reason or another, that isn’t always the case. There are so many reasons as to why one career isn’t suitable for you anymore. Whether you never really wanted to work in that particular field in the first place, or your priorities have changed, you may find that you’re desperately in need of making a move. And when you get to this point, want are you meant to do? It can be scary to realize that you need to make a change. You can also feel as if it’s going to be impossible to execute, but it doesn’t have to be.

So, what you’re going to want to do once you’ve started to think about making a change, is step back and follow a foolproof plan than can make the process easier for you should you choose to take action. Because everyone deserves to be happy in their career. You’re a long time working, so it’s not a good idea to be miserable at work. Let’s take a look at whether or not you’re ready to make a change, and the steps you should follow when you’re ready to embark on a brand new career path.

Assess Your Situation

Consider Why You Want To Make A Change

The first thing that’s going to help you to decide on whether or not you want to make the change in the first place is to consider the reasons why. Every job has its frustrations, but some of them can be more severe than others. If you’ve got an issue at work such as unfair treatment, you may even need someone like Lawsuit Legal to step in as well as a career change. However, you should also consider things like enjoyment, pay, relocation, or pursuing a passion as legitimate reasons to make a career change.

Look At Your Current Position Objectively

Next, you need to look at your current role. Serious reasons aside, you want to work out the things you do and do not like about your career. These points can often help you to find the right path that you should be following instead, so be very honest with yourself.

Consider Your Skills

Then you should consider your skill set. You need to identify your strengths and weaknesses, as these will help you to decide what new career path is more suitable for you. Combined with your job likes and dislikes, your skills can help you uncover a perfect career.

Do Your Research

Get Online

With your mind racing about your likes and skills, you’re then going to want to look into the different career paths available to you. To do this, you need to get online and research your career options. This process can be as in depth or as simple as you want it to be. Just make sure that you consider lots of different angles if you want to be sure to make the right choice.

Speak To People

But doing secondary research isn’t always enough. Sometimes, if you’re really going to be able to figure out whether a career choice is right for you, you’re going to want to conduct an informal interview with someone in that field. That way, you can ask them about their career and work out whether it is a job that you can see yourself doing.

Create A Shortlist

Then, as your research is coming together, you should have a bunch of different options in front of you. Sometimes, you have too many. So, you’re going to want to narrow down your career choices and make a shortlist. You may even want to try and get some experience or observe some roles to help to make that final choice.

Write A Plan

Start With Some Objectives

When you have made your choice, you’re then going to want to start working towards that career. First, you should aim to write out some objectives for yourself. It’s important for you to know what you want to achieve out of that career choice, and writing down some goals and clear objectives can help you to visualize what you want.

Create An Action Plan

But visualizing what you want is only the first step. You’re then going to want to come up with an action plan for yourself. Writing a career action plan can often be a lot easier than you’d first think. It gives you clear step by step points on what you need to do next to get into your chosen new career and also gives you something to work towards.

Know Where You Need To Start

Then, as the final part of your action plan, you’re going to need to work out your first steps. This can often be the hardest part. Coming up with an idea and putting it into motion requires confidence and courage in conviction. So you’re going to need to work out whether you should prepare while in your current job, or take the leap right into your new career.

Train & Prepare

Identify What You Do Have

Most career changes will require you to retrain or at least prepare yourself for doing something completely different. However, you may also find that you have transferable skills that will help you to succeed in the new role and industry. So, you’re going to want to look at the required skills and see what strengths you do already have.

Get The Education You Need

Next, you’re going to need to fill in the gaps. This could mean that you have to go back to school and get a degree or your master’s, study online, or take some industrial training within your new sector. Either way, you need to know the required education standards for the career you want to go into, so you can get all of the training you need to have.

Get Some Experience

Alongside the educational aspects and the skills you already have, you may find that you need to get some experience. Even if you did a taster session to find out whether you’d like the career choice or not, you may find that you need to get experience in a new field before you can get started. So look into your options and dedicate some evenings or weekends to volunteering, interning or working on your own thing.

Get Started & Settled

Nail The Interviews

When you’re ready to apply, you’re going to want to ensure that you can nail any interview that you have. It’s especially important when you’re changing careers as you can often find that you need to prove yourself more. So, ensure that you can demonstrate that you’re what the recruiters are looking for and that you’d be a good match for the company too.

Get Yourself Ready

When you’ve managed to crush it at an interview, and you’re offered a new job of your dreams, you’re going to want to prepare yourself for your first day at work. Make sure you’re early and that you can get to know the place quickly. But relax, introduce yourself to your new colleagues and remember to be yourself.

And Enjoy!

Above all else, you’re going to want to make sure that you enjoy your new career and the path that you’ve found yourself on. When you follow each step, you should find that your new path feels right and it’s where you should be. So enjoy every step of the way from now on!