A New Year usually comes with New Year resolutions. Before you change your career for whatever the reason it’s natural to start to wonder, ‘‘Isn’t there something better out there for me? Have I been here for too long? Is it time for a career change?’’
Here are 3 informative questions to help you understand whether your urge for change is an emotive one or a sign that needs to be taken seriously.
What are your current yearly goals, and are they in line with your current career path?
Career choices have a huge influence on 3 very important areas of our lives: our mental fulfilment, our financial health and our personal time/well-being. While we all want to be happy, affluent and healthy, career choices often involve concessions. If you had to order these three important elements in terms of ranking, how would they rank? There is no right or wrong answer to this, but it’s just a matter of personal preference.
Are your issues specific to the work environment or are they related to the actual career path that you took?
Issues that are specific to a work environment could include poor leadership or an unsustainable culture of double crossing. Contrast these issues with a bigger picture misalignment, like having to continuously face customers when you need time to think, or being uninterested by the subject matter you work with every day.
Whether the issue you’re having is environmental or industry-wide, these issues should help you factor into the size of the change you decide to take on. Environmental issues are more easily fixed with changing your job within the same industry. Universal issues can be tackled by changing the career path you have chosen.
What are you willing to do to get the change you want?
If you have identified a divergence between your priorities and your current profession, and your issue with the career path you have chosen relates to a core element of the job you’re doing, then a career change is in order. Your career is out of alignment with who you are and what you want in life, so switching to something that is a better fit will be a positive change for you.
However, before you go charging off in a new direction, stop and consider your commitment level to improving your career. Making a change from one career path to another takes effort. Specifically, you’ll need to willing devote time to exploring potential career ideas, and to be persistent as you put yourself into new environments.
Before you get too overwhelmed by the prospect of the road ahead, remember the end goal.
The first step in any journey is to make a decision about whether or not you want to take the journey. Are you ready to step up and work to improve your career? Or are you mostly satisfied with where you are career-wise? Are you happy with your current work-life balance? Listening to your answers will help you determine whether or not it is time to invest your time and energy into a career change.
For guidance about your career and to discuss any new career path you would like to pursue, please do not hesitate to contact our VacancyCentre team on [email protected], today.