Have you ever thought about making the career move; that dreading thought of doing something you love? Finally? In pandemic more people than usual have these ideas because many have found the time to reflect and decided that they really want to do what they love or always wanted to do. But where to start?
In my life I have worked in 6 different companies, since my late twenties till the late thirties. The reasons for changing my job varied, I have learned what I can require for the particular position and so I sort of “outgrown” my role. In other cases I was not valued enough for the work I was doing and once I was made redundant after 8 years which was painful I must admit.
So what is your reason for changing the job? Have you ever checked how much may your skills, as Simon Sinek call them, “hard and human skills”, can be worth somewhere else? And how about your experience and education?
Over the course of the lifetime our needs for job change vary; free time, money, variety of responsibilities, team, location, you name it. Another aspect that I have seen and experienced is when people are looking for validation or self-worth at work. I think especially when I was younger I was looking for confirmation from a workplace that what I was doing actually made me feel more confident. Some people can argue that because we spend 1/3 of our life at work, we need to work in a place where we are validated, praised, supported by all means and making sure that we feel good. Doesn’t it sound to you like a dream place? If you have such ideas and thoughts I would suggest asking yourself how much money you have saved and by when you need to find a job. There are different situations when we look for a job and finding a dream job takes time. Full stop. So, let’s go back to the basics and remind ourselves what is the minimum we want to see in our future contract first. And ask these questions: How do we want to show up every day at work? Do we want to do our job responsibly? Do we want to follow up with our colleagues? Are we creating a positive and friendly atmosphere?
After you consider these variable factors, I have prepared here three tips on how to start planning a career change the smoothest and how to do it well.
1. Get interested in the nonstandard (aka learn about the company culture)
In addition to the obvious part like checking the company profile on their website and reading the job description, I would highly recommend looking at the reviews on websites like Glaassdoor.com where employees give their feedback. Note that you can take everything 100% because people have their personal interests but after reading a few you can see the tendency; is it an exception or approach that happens often in the company. Another great tip is to search for people who work for this company on LinkedIn, see their posts and recommendations from other people.
2. Know yourself
As obvious as it sounds, taking time for a deep analysis of what you want, need and have will give you a better perspective on which direction you want your career to change. Using classic pen and paper and spending a few evenings goes far a great deal. And if you are still not sure what and how to change it, book a coaching with me to discover it.
3. Give yourself more time than you think you will need
Usually people assume that they will find a job within a certain period of time but at the end it takes longer. It is similar to finding a car or to buying a flat/house but because career change is a new relationship it has a lot of factors more factors to take into consideration, it is less obvious from the beginning whether the job we want so badly, will be eventually offered to us. There are many ways you can predict your success in the and what I would recommend the most is to focus on “what problems can you solve for your future employer” and what human skills you have.
To be honest, changing a career for the one you will be satisfied with takes a lot of time and effort but it is definitely worth it (I can confirm) to find a place you like to wake up and go for every day.
