Essential Steps to Take When Starting Over Your Career

Posted by on Sep 3rd, 2017 in Careers | 0 comments

When it comes to your career, you should always be ready for a change. Perhaps you felt the need to try something new, or you realized that your current work isn’t really for you. Whatever your circumstances are, the point stays the same: you’re planning to make a major pivot in your professional life. The thought of starting over can be a bit overwhelming and scary, but putting the following tips to work will certainly help in making the transition a bit easier and less stressful.

1. Face the Reality
Making a career switch is always possible, but it’ll also involves a lot of hard work and compromise. You may need to endure a pay cut so you could gain entry into the new field, or start out with an internship just to gain some experience. Yes, these are some disheartening sacrifices that you might need to make, but always keep in mind that starting over requires a certain amount of hard work. You’ll eventually get to where to you want to, but it’ll require a strong commitment from you.

2. Educate Yourself
Gathering information about the new path you’re going to take is crucial. While you may already have a rough idea of what the position will require from you, informing yourself about it should still be one of your goals. Listen to podcasts, read articles or books related with your desired position or industry. Befriend professionals who also work in the same position, and learn how they got there. After all, you certainly wouldn’t want to base you next move purely on assumptions.

3. Create a Plan
After doing some research and confirming that doing a career change is the right move for you, it’s now time to use this information to determine what your next moves would be. Do you need to take certain classes to refine your skills? Should you get certified? The entire process of switching to a new job can feel overwhelming, but you’ll be able to help yourself by breaking it down to smaller and manageable action steps. You could create a roadmap of the things you still need to do so you could develop a detailed plan beforehand.

4. Put Yourself Out There
Establishing a solid network of connections is one of the best things that you can do if you’re planning to make a major switch in your career. Follow associations and industry groups on social media, and sign up to receive their newsletters so you’ll be informed of any events where you get to meet new people. Start putting yourself out there and making new connections in your new industry.

Starting over in your career can be both exciting and terrifying. Fortunately, making such a huge change is completely possible these days. Simply follow the aforementioned steps, and you’ll be able to make a career change with less stress and anxiety.