Considering a Career Change? Follow these Simple Steps

It’s easy to feel stuck in your career. Maybe you’ve been in the same role for years, or maybe you’ve been jumping between jobs with no aim in mind. A career change can be a very challenging time, but it can also be exciting, rewarding, and reinvigorate your motivation. We’re going to break down the process and help you get the most out of your next path in life with these simple steps.

Your Personality

In order for your job to be fulfilling and fun, it should suit your personality. You can find out more about your drives and motivations using the Myers-Briggs test. This easy quiz asks you a range of questions about your habits and preferences and uses your answers to determine your personality type from 16 potential categories.

If you’re considering a career change, then there’s a chance you’re in the INTJ personality category. This signifies somebody who is driven by purpose and problem solving, which means INTJs take great pride in their work and can struggle to find the correct paths. You can find out more about the best jobs for INTJs and other personality types. 

Complete the test yourself and see if the results resonate with you. It might suggest a career that stands out to you or confirm your ambitions in life. 

Seek Advice 

Planning your next steps in your career can seem like an isolated and daunting challenge. Thankfully, there are many professional careers advice services available online. You can talk to a qualified career coach who will listen to your aspirations and suggest a suitable role for you. 

These sessions can be incredibly valuable as a coach can present many options which you may never have considered before, and they will help you to identify the next steps you need to take to achieve your goals.

Determine your Goals

It can be easy to forget about your dream job or to struggle to identify it from so many career paths. You should spend some time reflecting on your goals and what makes you tick. Think back to previous roles and pick out the areas you enjoyed the most. Consider your hobbies and passions and ask yourself whether you can incorporate those into your decision.

Get all of your ideas down using a mind map app that can help you to visualize your goals. Once you’ve got all of your ideas in one place, take a step back and think about how they all connect together. If you connect enough dots, you should have a clearer idea of what you’d like to aim for. 

Research

Once you’ve got some ideas for your new path in life, you should thoroughly research all of your options. Find job listings that fit your new criteria from far and wide. These don’t have to be jobs you’re able to apply for, instead just take note of the requirements, expectations, wages, and locations. 

You need to know whether your dream role is achievable or feasible right now. Maybe you need a qualification or specific experience to apply, maybe you need to consider relocating to follow your dreams, or maybe the descriptions didn’t appeal to you as much as you’d hoped, in which case it’s time to go back to the drawing board. You’ll never truly know if you’re searching for the right job until you understand all of the advantages and disadvantages that come with it.

Try it out

If you’re still unsure, or if you’re worried the job you’ve decided on may disappoint you, then try it out! There are plenty of volunteering opportunities available to anyone, and this can be the perfect way to give your new career a trial run, test out the tasks that you might be given, or build some great experience to make that application shine! 

Even if you volunteer for a similar role to your new dream job, and then decide against it, you’ll still have gained fantastic experience which may affect your decisions going forward. Any experience is good experience and the more various roles you try, the better your chances will be of finding that dream job.

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After following all of these steps, you should have a far better understanding of what you want and what drives you to succeed. You may have found out that your dream career is just out of reach for now, and that’s a good thing. You can move forward with motivation and purpose as you work towards your goal. It’s never too early or late to think about a career change, so go and find the dream role for you.