A career change is a great way to go towards a career that are more aligned with your interests. The majority of employees are disengaged from their jobs and it shows in the numbers, polls, and statistics. The most important thing to do is to always trust your gut.
I’ve done a career change twice in the past six years so far. I completely changed industries ranging from tech, financial services, and insurance. Each change came with a learning curve in the first couple of months. The depth of different careers I got to experience was a net positive for me.
With the invention of the internet and the ability to learn information for free, more people can change careers than ever before. We can teach ourselves how to code by going to bootcamps or learning from YouTube. There are many free ways we can do so.
The internet made the playing field almost equal in terms of the knowledge base. YouTube, podcasts, blogs, and the like make it possible for us to learn without going through the formal college education process. If you’re thinking about a career change, you can absolutely make it a successful one.
Even if the new career didn’t turn out the way you envisioned it to be, there’s nothing wrong with trying and finding out that answer. One of my friends actually went from being a banker to being a baker. That was a pretty interesting move that turned out well for her.
It’s possible to make a career change successful.
What is a Career Change?
A career change can be anything from changing industries to changing to a completely new line of field. It can be moving from the finance field in investment banking to the tech field in coding. Or it can be from moving industries from the oil and gas industry to the banking industry.
A career change has a broad range of definition that always comes with one thing in common: change. You are changing your current environment to a completely new one. It can absolutely be nerve wracking and it’s a huge risk. You have no idea if you’ll like your new boss.
You also have no idea if you’ll fit in with your new team either. With change comes growth. Take a decision and make it right. it is completely up to you to make the right decision and you can absolutely make it happen. You don’t let yourself fail by taking away the option to fail.
There are many ways to mitigate the risk of a career change. One way is to create more than one source of income. When there’s multiple sources of income coming in that’ll pay for all of your living expenses, then you don’t mind if one income source fails.
However, if you take away the option to fail, you motivate yourself to succeed, without fail.
One of my prior Vice Presidents moved to a completely new group for a 50%+ raise in salary. However, the new group was so bad she even changed jobs after 6 months. It’s always possible to pivot away from the career change if it turns out to be a bad one.
How to Make a Career Change Successful
Below are the nine ways to make a career change successful. At the end of the day, it’s up to you to make it a success.
1) Truly be OK Giving Up the Money if It’s a Pay Cut
Some people do a career change knowing that they’ll get paid less. The banker who turned to be a baker wanted to make some delicious baked goods for customers to enjoy. However, that came with a massive pay cut from her six figure, $100k banker job.
Even then, she still enjoyed it so much that she’s still a baker 3 years later. She was OK giving up the money as long as she got to do what she loved. If you’re giving up the money, truly be OK with it. Giving up money may not have been the best move for you.
I once had a chance to get a 30% pay cut to my current job but would have had a better work environment.
I hated my current job so much that I thought it was worth it. In the end, I declined the job for another job that paid 10% more. Even the 10% raise didn’t seem worth it for the amount of work I did! I can’t imagine how much a 30% pay cut would have added to my mental anguish.
It wouldn’t have been worth it.
If the new industry comes with a pay cut, make sure to be OK with it. Changing careers is not as simple as people think. Even taking a pay cut for less stress isn’t worth it.
2) Talk to People in the Industry
If you talk to people in the industry in a formal job interview setting, they may promise the moon during the interview process. If you talk to people in the industry in an informal setting, they will be more honest with you. You don’t want anything from them and they don’t want anything from you.
Now is the time to hustle and utilize the resources that you have. No one really takes advantage of the alumni network that your alma mater provides. I’ve never been contacted by anybody to get information on the best way to break into my industry. And my industry pays very well!
The people in the industry can honestly guide you through the best ways to break in and/or if they think it’s worth it or not. There’s a reason why lawyers don’t recommend being a lawyer. Yes, you get paid very well. However, the stress isn’t worth it.
High pay will only be worth it for a year or two, at max. Afterwards, you realize just how much stress deteriorates your body down. Money isn’t everything.
3) Research the New Industry
Now that you’ve talked to real life people working in the industry, now it’s time to research the new industry. Reddit posts can be honest. There are also many real life people working in the industry going to Twitter and sharing their experiences.
It’s important to read the experiences of people who aren’t trying to sell you anything and who actually works in the industry themselves. Otherwise, they may be telling you a fairy tale story just so they can sell you something and get something in return.
Many college students wants to get into investment banking because of the high starting salary of almost $160k+ these days. However, there’s a reason why many burn out after just 2 years on the job. The money isn’t worth after just a couple of years.
A career change means the need to research the new industry. It is your career, after all.
4) Truly be OK with Leaving Your Current Industry
I actually regret leaving my first industry and thought I left 2 – 3 years earlier than I should have. The industry is booming right now and I can’t imagine just how big their bonuses swelled up to be. I didn’t leave my old industry because I didn’t like it, I left because I didn’t like my boss.
That contributed a lot to my regret to leaving the industry. When I tried to go back, no one wanted to hire me. That’s why a career change has to be carefully crafted and well thought out. You just have no idea if you’ll ever regret leaving the old industry behind.
It’s not going to be that simple to go back to the old industry. No matter how much others try to sell you on the idea that it’s simple. They’re just trying to sell you on that idea because they want to look like they have confidence. Not because it actually is that simple.
Carefully consider your options. Changing your mind is difficult.
5) Trust Your Gut at the Interview
You just know at the interview whether the new company or industry is a good fit or not. You can’t quite explain or put your finger on it, but you just know that you’re not going to be a good fit. Don’t ignore that feeling. That feeling is there for a reason.
A gut feeling will guide you well through your life better than any other research, data, or thinking you can do. Your intuition is powerful. When you don’t think that you’ll be a good fit at the new company, then you really won’t be a good fit at the new company.
The time that I ignored that feeling was when I was filled with regrets later down the road. Then I had to go through a miserable job for 2 years before I found the opportunity of a lifetime. Your interview is going to be very telling for how they’re going to treat you down the road.
The negotiation process will be very telling as well. Exploding job offers and strong arm tactics are red flags.
6) Truly Make Sure the New Industry is Better in a Career Change
There are times when you just think that the new industry is better. That’s dangerous. You have to pull out all the stops to make sure that the new industry is better. Do the people seem happy? Can you envision working there for 5+ years?
If you can’t envision working at the new company for more than 3 years, then it’s not a good opportunity to consider. You don’t want to move around often. It’s a giant hassle to change companies and to change careers. Truly do your due diligence to make sure the new industry is better.
A career change requires you to carefully consider all factors, not just the money. There are many aspects to your career that goes beyond money. It’s your coworkers, boss, job responsibilities, money, career growth, commute, brand name of the company, and many more.
7) Keep in Contact With Your Old Colleagues After a Career Change
I have a bad habit of cutting off all contact with my old colleagues. The years that I spent cultivating the relationships were all gone in a second. This was one of my biggest career regrets. Not keeping in touch with my old colleagues. Your old coworkers will come in handy more than you know.
A career change doesn’t mean you have to cut off all contact with them. It means strengthening the relationship even further by catching up with them once a year or once in a while. Your dormant contacts will help you more than your warm contacts.
You can ask your dormant contacts, “oh, what have you been up to? How have you been?”. That’s not so simple and easy to do with someone who you’ve been seeing weekly for a while now. Your old colleagues will matter to you more than you know.
I had an old colleague refer me for a job. I didn’t get the job but the fact that he even referred me was very helpful and touching.
8) Do Everything You Can to Make Sure You Succeed
It’s your life. You’re not going to fail. If you have to change jobs, you’re motivated to change jobs. If you have to endure a bad boss for a year before you switch to another one, then you’re going to make it happen. It’s your life.
You are more than capable to succeed and make it a success. You are more resilient and have more grit in you than you give yourself credit for. The path to success is always there. Excuses don’t win championships. You win championships.
A career change is frightening and hard because it’s uncharted territory. But you are tough as well to tackle any challenges that are out there. You didn’t come this far to only come this far. There’s much more game left to play and for you to make the game winning jump shot.
You are more than capable than you give yourself credit for.
9) You Can Always Change Careers Again
This is the last resort but if all else fails, you can change careers for a second time. Even a third time. Barbara Corcoran had 21 jobs before she found the one that would make her rich. All of the truly successful people’s stories came with some sort of setbacks and failures.
Many entrepreneurs got fired before they made their last venture a successful one. Changing jobs after six months may not be a good look, resume wise, but if it’s what you need to do before you get to that successful place, then it’s time to implement that step.
You don’t have to have everything figured out from the get-go. You can try different things, succeed and fail at a couple of things, before you come out on top. Getting through hardships is the key to success. A career change is to figure out what jobs are a good fit for you or not.
You are figuring things out as time passes.
It’s Possible to Successfully Change Careers
Many people are changing careers today. It’s becoming more normal than ever before. In the old days, people stayed with one company their entire lives and the company rewarded employees with a pension that takes care of them and their families for the rest of their lives.
Those times are long gone. There’s no benefit to staying loyal to a company for the rest of your life. Kindness is taken advantage of. The same goes for company loyalty. More employees than ever are implementing a career change to their benefit.
Someone who specializes in one area of expertise is only good at one thing only. Sometimes, we need that career change to learn something different and experience a completely different and new job. It makes all the difference in the world later down the road.
Meeting new people and working on different projects and diversifying your skillset can actually be a net benefit to a future prospective employer. I don’t know how attractive of a candidate I would be if I worked at the same company for the rest of my life, doing the same thing day in and day out.
Life is more than just doing the same things over and over again, punching the same clock. Your life is worth more than that. A career change just may be what you need in order to propel yourself upwards and forwards.
It’s how people get ahead in the modern world.
How to Make a Career Change Successful Shortlist:
- Truly be OK giving up the money
- Talk to people in the industry
- Research the new industry
- Truly be OK with leaving your current industry
- Trust your gut at the interview
- Truly make sure the new industry is better
- Keep in contact with your old colleagues
- Do everything you can to make sure you succeed
- You can always change careers again
“Someone who specializes in one area of expertise is a master of none”
i dont think thats right, theyd be a master of ONE not NONE
You’re right! It should be someone who specializes in one area of expertise is a master of only one thing.
Changed!