“How Do I Change Careers?” 7 Steps To Take To Ensure Your Career Change Begins With Clarity Not Confusion
7 Steps To Take To Ensure Your Career Change Begins With Clarity, Not Confusion
Work through these steps BEFORE you update your CV!
What’s the first piece of advice I would give to someone who’s considering a career change?
Raise your self-awareness.
Ask yourself questions that encourage and develop a deeper understanding of..
🔎 Who you are currently, both personally and professionally and
🔎 Who you’re looking to become – what do you want for yourself in life and while you're at work?
The reason for starting here?
Having greater self-awareness underpins and supports each step of the career change process, from ‘what do I want to do next?’ all the way through to ‘so, tell me why you’d be a good fit for this role?'
Think of it like conducting research on yourself. You’re gathering facts and information ready to use later to…
➡ Clarify the direction you want your career to go
➡ Create an action plan to take you there
➡ Inform important decisions along the way*
➡ Promote yourself articulately during an interview*
*If you’re prone to overthinking your decisions (like me), or feel uneasy with self-promotion, investing your time now to increase your self-awareness, will help you make swift decisions and feel more interview-ready, further down the line!
When it comes to self-awareness, there’s so much you can learn about yourself that it can be tricky to know where to begin.
As a starting point, here are 7 steps I recommend you take (before you update your CV) to ensure your career change begins with clarity, not confusion.
Step One - Have a vision for your ideal life.
Ask Yourself;
‘If everything in my life could be exactly as I wanted it to be, what would be happening?’
➡ Start by describing the lifestyle you would like to be living 12 months from now
➡ What does a successful, happy, fulfilled life look like to you?
Be sure to read my next blog for more details on this step!
Step Two - Reflect on your current values and priorities.
Ask Yourself;
‘Which values are most important to who I am today?’
➡ Family?
➡ Freedom?
➡ Health?
➡ Achievement?
➡ Flexibility? Etc..
‘What are my main priorities day to day?’
Step Three - Understand the working preferences of your personality.
Ask Yourself;
‘What type of work best suits my personality?’
➡ Task focused
➡ People focused
➡ Routine
➡ Creative
➡ Detail orientated? Etc..
‘Which working environments make me feel the most at ease?’
➡ Fast paced
➡ Customer facing
➡ Behind the scenes
➡ Outdoors? Etc..
Step Four - Explore your hobbies and interests.
Ask Yourself;
‘What are my interests/hobbies outside of work?’
‘Which activities would I like to take up or do more often?’
‘Which subjects/topics do I find the most interesting or care deeply about?’
Step Five - Know your strengths and the difference they make.
Ask Yourself;
‘What are you naturally good at/ what comes easy to you?’
‘Where have you developed strength over time through practice?’
‘What benefits do these strengths make to the work you do?’
Step Six - Be clear on your reason for moving on.
Ask Yourself;
‘What aspects of my current role am I hoping to leave behind?’
‘What has been causing me the most frustration, resentment, dissatisfaction, unhappiness?’
Step Seven - Create a career wish list.
Ask Yourself;
What are all the things I want from my next role?
➡ Which criteria would be on my ‘must have’ vs ‘nice to have’ list?
➡ What type of responsibilities, tasks or projects do I want to be working on?
➡ Where am I looking to gain experience or exposure?
What does my new role need to offer to help my vision for an ideal life (step 2), become more of a reality?
Whether you’re already going for interviews or just know a career change will be on the cards, it’s never too early or too late to get the support you need to make it happen.
Please contact me to arrange a complimentary, 30-minute call to discuss how we can get your career change moving forward!