three ways to increase your confidence in your career transition decision
“What if I change careers and still find myself unhappy?”
I’ve heard this concern expressed many times in conversations with people who are unhappy in their careers.
Oftentimes when people are unhappy in their careers, they can find themselves jumping from company to company, role to role, boss to boss, in search of greener pastures.
The truth is, it’s impossible to be 100% certain that you’re going to love your new career. But here are three ways you can increase your confidence in your career transition decision.
Get clear on what you want
Before seeking something new, you need to first reflect and find clarity on what is working and what isn’t where you are now. If you haven’t read my earlier blog about career reflection, that’s a great place to start. What are your greatest skills? What type of work gives you energy? What type of work is difficult or training to you? Eventually, you can piece together what specifically you need in a new role, and what the specific existing issues are in your career.
Once you have a clear view of what you want out of your career (I call this Career Design), you can begin identifying what types of careers fit what you’ve outlined.
have conversations and informational interviews
Once you’ve identified potential careers of interest, find people who work in those fields. Leverage your network. Are you acquainted with anyone working in these careers? Ask people within your circle if they know of anyone working in that field, and ask for introductions.
Spend time having conversations. Ask questions about what it takes to be successful in that career. What do they love most about it? What’s most challenging about it? A great bonus with having these conversations is that you might just make the right connections to get you in for interviews!
If you’re hesitant about asking people for conversations, you can find some guidance here in this previous blog entry.
be a sponge
Outside of these conversations, find other ways to soak up industry information. Where do people in this career go to for information? What podcasts do they listen to? What social media accounts do they follow? What industry events are they attending? Hang out where they hang out.
Let’s use software development as an example. You might begin to read Hacker News for 30 minutes a day, start following Sophie Novati, listen to Software Engineering Daily, and join the local software development and tech meet ups in your city.
As you soak up information, take what you’ve learned from your reflection on you want/don’t want in your next career. How well does the information you’ve learned align with with what you believe you need in your next career move?
sometimes you just have to take a chance
Doing these things can help you gain confidence in your decision to make a career pivot. But keep in mind, your career will (or at least should!) always be evolving. You might break into the work of project management, and later decide you want to do something else. Your time in project management will never be wasted. You’ll take those skills with you to your next career move.
It’s estimated that our current and future generations will change careers 5-7 times in their lifetime, compared to previous generations who changed careers far less. Don’t get caught up in thinking you have to “pick” what you’re going to do for the rest of your life. Having an expanding career portfolio is an asset.
And if you need someone to guide you through the process, reach out to me. I’d love to partner with you.
