10 Step Plan to Successfully Change Career

karlmontgomery • January 22, 2018

People can look for a career change for a number of reasons. It could be as simple as you have just lost interest in your current position, your career goals have changed or perhaps you have found something interesting that you wish to incorporate into a job. These are just a few of the infinite amount of reasons there could be to change career.

To be able to successfully make a career change it will usually involve investing both time and money in yourself. With any investment, it is extremely important to be well informed before making it. If you’re facing the prospect of making a career change, take your time, make sure you truly want to make the change and finally follow this 10 step plan to ensure the transition is as smooth as possible.

Remember, change is a natural part of life and a career change is a natural life progression. The majority of studies show that the average job seeker will change career, not job, several times over the course of their employable lifetime.

1. Evaluate your current job satisfaction

Before you start thinking about changing your career, you need to decide if you actually need to, you may just need a new job which is a much easier task. The most common reasons for people making the leap is because they dislike their job, boss or their company. However, it is important to understand why you want to leave and what is causing you to leave. Keep track of what parts of your job enjoy and which parts of the job, manager and company you dislike. Once you have your likes and dislikes, analyse which are the most important to you, if there are not enough positives that are paramount to you and your job satisfaction, then it is certainly time for you to change career.

2. Create an action plan for your career change

Ok, so you have decided that a career change is right for yourself, how are you going to achieve that? Now is the time for you to set some long-term and short-term goals and plan how you will reach these milestones.

3. Identify what you’re passionate about

It is time to assess you. What makes you tick, what do you enjoy? The last thing you want to do is change career and end up in a similar position in the not too distant future. Review jobs you have liked in the past, what did you like about them? Evaluate your interests, skills and values to find out what you’re passionate about

4. Consider alternative jobs in your current industry

Try to utilise your already acquired knowledge and skills by searching for a change within your current industry. Perhaps you’re a software developer who is tired of the long hours and underappreciation, why not consider a move into a more sales lead environment within IT recruitment. If you’re still passionate about your type of work and the industry, research different avenues within that industry to stay in that area.

5. Shortlist your potential new careers

After going through what you’re interested in and identifying which relevant careers you would be interested in, it’s now time to collate them all together. This list should contain only jobs would definitely consider as a long-term career. The ideal list should contain 5 to 10 different options.

6. Explore the jobs on your shortlist

For each option on your shortlist, it is now important to thoroughly research these options even further. Do some quick job searches and read through some of the job descriptions, what are they asking for? How do they describe the role? Study the requirements for the role, what do you have? What don’t you have? Where would you need to improve? What progression lies within this area? What are the potential earnings? Following this you will be able to cut down the shortlist even further, leaving you with your list of thoroughly researched potential new careers.

7. Use your network

Networking, especially social networking, is becoming more and more important in numerous aspects and changing careers is no different. Even if you feel as though you don’t have a network, trust us, you do. Consider friends, work colleagues and family to start with. Use your network to talk to as many relevant people as you can, ask for advice and information about the career you’re looking for, perhaps certain companies you have come across. They may well be able to offer job leads you wouldn’t have come across otherwise.

8. Upgrade your skills

After reviewing some potential job descriptions you may have realised that you have transferable skills. If so, fantastic. When you change career it will nearly always involve undertaking some form of training. You could use LinkedIn to search for people who work in the field you have chosen, what qualifications and skills do they have? Is there a Chartered Institute for your new career path? If it is marketing you have the Chartered Institute of Marketing, if you want to move into Management Accountancy, then they have the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, what courses do they offer, get in touch to ask for advice on your career change.

9. Job hunt

Now we move on to the exciting part, searching for that new dream career. You have decided you definitely want to change career, you have decided if you will stay in the same industry, you have shortlisted all possible careers, now you need to find the job. Be thorough with your search, read the job description a couple of times, understand exactly what you want and whether they’re offering that. Don’t just apply because it has the job title you want.

You may well be a bit rusty on the whole job search and interview process, not to worry, you can check out some of our other blogs which will help you all the way through:

10. Say goodbye to your current career

The moment is here, you have landed your new career, your career change is almost complete. Just one more step, to quit your current job. After that is concluded it is only a matter of time until you’re sitting happily in your new career.

Recruit Mint pride themselves on offering a full service, if you’re already looking at a career change or you’re starting to ask yourself some questions, then please feel free to give one of our specialist consultants a call on 01733 802300 and we would be more than happy to have a conversation and discuss what opportunities you’re interested in and what they look for in those areas.

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