Tips to Successfully Make a Career Shift (Guest Post)

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Are you bored or simply burned out with your current job? Are you losing the will to get out of bed every morning and get ready for work? How did this happen? The reasons could be many. Perhaps you started to lose interest, the work doesn’t excite you any more or your company may be downsizing. Whatever may be the reason, good news is that you just might be ready to make a career change. But before you make the big move, carefully study your options to avoid the same situation from arising again in the future.

Making a career change is a challenging task. It gets even more challenging when the economy is uncertain and you don’t know what is it that you would like to do. Some people succumb to the challenges and continue with the jobs they hate. But it doesn’t have to be like this. You will feel frustrated and miserable. This will ultimately affect your professional and personal life.

What seems impossible today can be made possible if you take the right action. To give you a head start, here are a few tips that will help you make a smooth career transition to a job that you love:

1. Get some perspective on yourself:

The first thing you must do is to introspect. Most people want to change their job because they either dislike their job, boss or company. This is easier to identify. Difficult to figure out is what career you should choose next. For this, you need to rise above your current situation. This will help you in understanding yourself on a much deeper level. You will start observing your life, career and the work you do. You will discover the things that you once loved doing or certain parts of your job that you enjoy. Once you have this knowledge, you will have the direction to move forward with your career change plan.

2. Don’t let yourself get in the way:

As we grow old, our minds get conditioned. We find it difficult to think beyond the limitations set by our own mind. This will not help you if you want to change your career. To successfully transition into a new career, you have to be ready and willing to take risks. When you are working in a certain kind of job for long it is natural that you might find some things outside of your comfort zone. You need to unlearn to re-learn a new way of thinking.

3. Find out what you would love to do:

A lot of time will go into thinking and digging deep into finding out what career you would like to pursue next. The best way to start is by making a list of all the things you love to do in your spare time as well as at your job. Next, research about the job prospects and skills required for each and every career option on the list. See if your current skills are transferable for the career you are planning to choose next or not. If yes, great! If not, make an action plan to acquire the skills needed for the new career.

4. Be open to new things:

Only when you take risks and try new things, will you be able to figure out what you like and what you don’t. The idea here is not to just leave your current job and start with a new career path. The idea is to take calculated risk. If your current job has scope for your desired career path, ask for additional responsibilities in that area. It is going to be risky as you may not be able to produce results overnight. You will also have to stretch yourself at work to accommodate additional responsibilities. However, that’s the safest way to try your hands at the new work and learn new skills. Once you get good at the new job role, you can think about making a career shift permanently.

5. Network:

While you are doing all the thinking and introspection, start identifying passionate and successful people working within your new field of interest. Once, you have identified them, out your networking skills to good use. These people will help you find information regarding jobs, introduce you to more people in the field of your interest, advice you on career and even give information about a particular company. Basically, your network will make your career transition a smooth ride. So, don’t underestimate its importance.

A career change won’t happen overnight. It is going to be a lot of work. But if you’re ready to do the work, then successfully making a career change is possible for you too. Those who feel strongly about doing something meaningful and something that they love must not fear the hard work and they will undoubtedly see the success.

Image courtesy: Pixabay

About Megha Raizada

Megha Raizada is a professional writer working with the premium job portal Naukrigulf.com. She has a keen interest in the global job market, but also loves to keep a track of everything interesting happening around the globe. When not writing or browsing the Internet, you will find her creating furniture out of used tires. You can reach her at Twitter and Google+.