When should you change your career? A Career Change Guide

A shift in one’s career can be considered to be one of the significant changes in an individual’s life; it is not just a colossal alteration but also an extremely daunting one. It seems as if you are on the hunt for a job all over again, but nonetheless, there does come a time in a lot of people’s professional life, when they come to a saturation point. Well, there are several reasons for this, but the fact remains that a vast majority of the masses show an inclination towards a career change.

You can be confident that you need a change in your career when you see the following signs:

1. When you find yourself complaining about the current job
2. When you keep cribbing about the ambience of the workplace
3. When your boss’ behaviour seems to have become unbearable
4. When you feel extraordinarily stressed after every day’s office hours
5. When you do not find any interest in doing the work that you are assigned
6. When you have to drag yourself to work
7. When you do not see any newness in your work
8. When you keep looking for reasons to tell negative things about your job to yourself.

While intending to make a jump from one professional ship to another, the one fundamental initial task is to ‘Ask yourself.’ In other words, you are obliged to undertake a self-assessment if you wish to be on the right track. Many people are in the habit of talking to themselves; this, however, goes another step forward. It is about analyzing oneself. By putting yourself through a series of questions, you can actually figure out whether your decision to change your job is correct and, more importantly, in the right direction.

Now because this is an utterly crucial task, you cannot be asking yourself random unimportant questions – they have to be assorted questions. There are multiple areas of concern when considering a change in your career, but the particular areas that need to be seriously focused on are self-assessment tools such as:

1. Values – this is the core of your being, your beliefs. Remember, we do not only have religious beliefs, but many things in life are intrinsic to your personality, and these things should be catered to concerning your profession as well. It has been seen the individuals who do not consider their values at the time of taking up a job, turn out to be dissatisfied with it after some time. Ask yourself, what is it that you want of life in terms of your career? How would you want your work-life balance to look like? What is it that motivates you, and is it present in the industry of work you are considering? Some other questions you can ask yourself are what your purpose in taking up a job is? Do you want to make any difference at all, and what would that difference be? And in my opinion, the most crucial query is, how do you define yourself?
2. Interests – I don’t think it is difficult to understand that if you do not enjoy doing something, you won’t last long in that area. The same happens for a profession; if you are not really happy with the position you have occupied, it won’t be long when you tire out of it. So, for those who take up a job just because they need it at the moment, please do consider this aspect. Figure out what your passion is – whether you love what you do or not? Is this is a job that you want to do or one that you have to do? Do you like interacting with people more than handling data? Do you have an urge to help others or prefer to organize things? These are the kind of questions you must ask yourself when considering your interests.
3. Aptitude – your abilities in specific areas should be a guideline for you to decide the new field of work you would like to take up after a career change. Of course, you are capable of imbibing new skills required for a position, but there would be nothing like it if you could bag a job that demands the expertise that you already possess. If you are good at writing, look for a position where you can exercise this skill to the maximum potential; it will only give the best results because you will enjoy what you do. However, if you are someone who loves challenges and looking to take a profession that is entirely new to you, I would not discourage you. But in that case, the question that you need to ask yourself is, it is worth spending time on acquiring a certain skill rather than hunting a job in a skill in which you are an adept?
4. Personality – your personality plays a vital role in your career; in the lifetime of an individual, he/she spends the maximum time at his workplace, and therefore it is next to impossible to be fake. According to the research of renowned psychiatrist Carl Jung, the personality of a person is inclusive of four opposite pairs of preferences, and it is based on this that they function. They are namely –
5. decision making on the basis of thinking or feeling
6. energizing oneself on the basis of extroversion or introversion
7. comprehension of information on the basis of intuition and sensing
8. Lifestyle on the basis of judgment and perception

If you are introvert, it would be tough for you to work in an environment where you have to interact with people all the time. So be careful when assessing yourself in this category. Know yourself first and then go ahead in determining the other factors. There are several personality tests available online that you can put to use to ensure that you are making the right decision of a shift in the profession.

Apart from these significant sections of consideration, there are a few other questions that need to be answered before you attempt a career change.

1. Am I ready to travel the distance every single day to reach my workplace?
2. Will my job complement my lifestyle and my family?
3. Would I want to work from home or at an office?
4. Would I want to do a full-time home-based job?
5. Would I be able to pay for the training to acquire a new skill?

When you have answered these questions as well, then is the time to explore the various fields of career. Go through as many as you can and then short-list the ones that suit you the most; then further bring down to that one or two industries that will suit you’re the best and bring you perfect satisfaction.