5 Steps To A Successful Career Change

Are you unhappy in your job or perhaps just disinterested in it? Good news – you’re not alone and you "5 Steps To A Successful Career Change"

5 Steps To A Successful Career Change

Are you unhappy in your job or perhaps just disinterested in it? Good news – you’re not alone and you can do something about it. Taking the big leap and changing careers is scary, there’s no hiding that, but there are a few steps that you can take for some reassurance and help. It’s important to understand that this change will take time and won’t happen overnight.

So before you walk into your bosses office and resign, make sure you have your ducks in a row, as my mum would say. Here are some steps I recommend you consider and review before you quit your current job.

Step 1: Action plan
Write down a well thought out plan of attack to get to your dream position in life. You might find that there a quite a few steps and unfortunately some may take months or years to accomplish. Giving yourself a clear time frame for each step will allow you to be more realistic.

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This will also help you budget in case you need to go back to study full-time for a while. For instance if you’ve got a family to support, this can be a big stress for you financially and you may need to make sacrifices e.g. holidays or adjust spending habits.

Speaking of spending, make sure you have a few months of ‘rainy day’ money safely tucked away before you up-and-quit your job.

A few other things to include in the action plan should be to identify who are the key contacts you need to know in your desired industry and important networking events you should be attending.

Step 2: Talk about it
I don’t mean your co-workers or employers but your friends, family, mentors and even perhaps past bosses. Running your ideas past people whose opinions you hold in high regard can be scary because they could be brutally honest, however they also know your personality and might be able to help guide you or give you some alternative ideas to help you achieve your goal.

Your network of connections is invaluable and can help you excel much faster rather than going it alone.

Step 3: Volunteer
This might sound different, but getting involved with not-for-profit organisations will give you some great experience in your chosen field and also the side benefit of giving something back to the community.

Your future employees and peers will also see how passionate you are about where you want to be and your dedication should be taken on-board.

Step 4: Test it out – Airtasker
Perhaps your not sure if this is the direction that you really want to head in, or you want a little bit of experience without needing to adjust your lifestyle. Airtasker is a great way to get a little bit of exposure to different types of work e.g. photography, event management and web design.

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With the flexibility of using Airtasker, it allows you to complete the task when it works for you – and there’s the added bonus that you’ll get paid for your efforts and something to add to your portfolio too.

Step 5: Education
University is a huge commitment for a few years, possibly hold you back with little benefit, however there are plenty of short courses such as General Assembly or Skillshare who offer out of work hour and/or online courses which you can complete. It can never hurt to be too educated right?

Have you got any other tips when it comes to changing careers? Let me know in the comments below.