Updated April 19, 2023
Career Change Option
A career change option refers to the possibility of transitioning from one occupation to another, often involving an effective shift in job duties, skills, and sometimes even industries. A career change may be driven by various factors, such as a desire for personal growth, job dissatisfaction, changes in the job market or enterprise, or pursuing a long-held passion or curiosity.
Career change option is always overwhelming. It typically happens when you are in the middle of your career and want to shift. But you don’t know what to do and where to start. If you get stuck thinking, here’s an article to help you take that baby step. This article explains to you how to change careers.
Best Career Test for Successful Career Change Option
In this article, we will discuss 34 baby steps you can take immediately and don’t feel overwhelmed about. Sit back, relax, and take a plunge, yes, and just one baby step at a time. And guess what? You will be able to make a successful career change.
- Be grateful: Before you begin the process of any career change option, relax and write down three things you’ve done because of your current career. First, say thank you, and then with that feeling, get started.
- Be clear about what career you want: You don’t need to worry about a successful career change option now. Just think about what job you would like to make the transition to. Just think for about 10 minutes and write five possible career changes you can make.
- Sequence your career choices: You cannot have all five careers you have chosen for yourself. Write down according to your liking, marketability, and growth potential. Start with something with the most marketability and potential, and you like it too.
- What are your core values? Your core values have a lot to do with what careers you would like. Before making any effort to make any career change, take a piece of paper and write about the qualities you want in people. Make a list of 30. And then take some time to make it a mere 5. These 5 are the core values on which you make all your decisions.
- Find out why? If asked why you would like to make a career change, you may give many answers. But you want to make a career change because of only one primary cause. Find that out.
- Scan the current job: Do a scanning of your current job. Take some time. Sit for 30 minutes and write down everything you like or dislike about your current job. Being clear about
- Do a SWOT: It’s the best investment in yourself for making a career change. Find out your strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities. Knowing yourself is the beginning of all success.
- Talk to someone in the same profession: Talk to a colleague or someone in the same job. Share why you would like to make a career change option. Get their input. Please write it down.
- Are you doing the right thing? The most important question is – Do you think the decision to change careers is right to do as per your current circumstances and scenarios? Write down your answers.
- Find some facts: You may find other professionals who feel the same. Please find out about them. What are they doing? How are they making the shift?
- Do a skill-set check: You may have some skills you’re overlooking. Write down all the skills you have which are marketable. Even include the skill of being organized (it’s marketable)! It will take you just a few minutes.
- What skills do you need to earn your first buck? Go back to No. 3. Start with the first career choice. What skills do you need to earn your first money from the career? Do you have them? If not, go to the next one and do the check.
- Check your savings: You need an emergency fund set aside to make a successful career change option. What if you start your new career and it doesn’t yield enough benefits? What then? Check your savings and set aside at least one year’s worth of living money for you and your family. Then take a plunge.
- If you don’t have much savings, the first plan is to take a plunge only when you’ve at least one year of living cost set aside. Plan for the entire year’s living cost plus more, and then think ahead. If you don’t have, plan to save before making any career change option.
- Set a date: While saving for the future, you may get into the trap of keeping on going in your existing career. So, set a tentative date when you will make a career change. The date is not for taking baby steps but for the particular time you start your new career.
- Know about the market: You can’t take this baby step until you do No. 2. You’ve already chosen five possible careers. Pick one and find out its market, its trends, what jobs are available, whether your current skills match the desired ones, etc. Then do the same with the other 4. By doing this, you will get the hang of the market and understand the reality of making a career change option.
- Meet people from the industry: If done with the above step, you will know your possible career choice now. Once done, go to LinkedIn, find people in the same industry, and look at their profiles. If possible, talk to them and meet them. Ask them questions if you’ve any.
- Don’t think full-time in the beginning: The fatal mistake most mid-level professionals make while going for a career change option is to go full-time. Don’t go for full-time in the beginning. If you think you’re smart enough to start immediately, go for a few part-time projects. See how things work, how much money you can make, and how much growth you can have if you do it for your lifetime.
- Tweak your resume: Take 15 minutes out and update your resume. Discard excess words, and add new skills and experiences.
- Check your oral communication: To check, take a word and start speaking about it randomly. Are you able to communicate well? If not, do the same thing more often. Every day five random topics will do the needful.
- Examine your written communication: You may have excellent written and verbal communication to make a career change option.
- Have a plan for your personal development: Without developing yourself, you can’t do much in your new career. So, plan to develop skills you’re not good at. And hone the other ones that are marketable now.
- Know your core competency: Ask yourself – “What one thing I have or can I offer that is not replicable and add tremendous value to whatever I do?” And once you find out to add it to everything you do, even in your part-time gig.
- Talk to your family: If you make a career change option other than you, your family will get affected directly. So before making any changes, talk to them about your plans and how you want to implement them.
- Take a day off: Take a day off from your current job and reflect. Ask questions, journal, read a book on a career change, and take a nap. You can also set a primary structure for a successful career change. Taking a day off will help you rejuvenate, and you can get some time to begin the career change process.
- Drop some of your responsibilities: You may be a very busy person. But see whether you can drop or delegate some responsibilities here and there to get some room for yourself.
- Set a particular time of a specific day for yourself: You may not realize the value of this now. But if you want to think about your future and transition into a successful career change option, you must schedule a 1-2 hour weekly slot. For example, you can set 2 hours slot for yourself every Tuesday in the afternoon every week.
- Learn: There is no age to learn more. To know anything that you can about your future career. There are a ton of resources available on the internet. Just be willing and learn.
- Keep your day job: When you get too excited about a career change, you may let go of your day job before transitioning into your new career. Please keep your day job and do whatever you can about a successful career change option.
- Set an income goal: If you start your new career part-time and want to make it full-time, begin with ultimate career goals. How much is enough to quit your day job and do your part-time gig full-time? Ask yourself and your family. Then set a goal and set a deadline.
- Find out about the lifestyle of professionals in the profession you want to be in: Everything that glitters is not gold. Whatever you seem to know from the outside may not be the truth. So, if you need to change your career because you want to change your lifestyle, think again. Enquire, find out the reality and then make a concrete decision.
- Check the growth curve: Growth is the only evidence of success. So, if you don’t grow professionally, there’s no point in making a career change option. To know about this, check any veteran’s career graph. You will have an idea.
- Get rid of false beliefs: Your dream career is not all play and no work. It would be best to put in a lot of hard work initially. So if you have any false beliefs that make you think it’s easier than your current job, you may not be on the right track.
- Hire a professional coach: If you can afford it, please hire a coach who can help you with your career goal and will make things easy for the career change option. There are many things you invest in; why not for a successful career change?
Conclusion
While browsing the above steps, you may find that some are not baby steps. But don’t worry. You can chunk them down and make them sub-baby steps. If any of the above steps take longer than 30 minutes, divide it into a few sub-steps and take the first one. Quite often than not, recognizing something ‘big enough’ is a resistance we all have when we wish to make any change in our life. But don’t worry. Start with something that seems super easy. You can start by tweaking the resume or taking a day off to structure your new career possibility. No matter what you do, the most important thing is to start right away toward a successful career change. Are you on it?
I hope this little career counseling has helped you. All the best for your career assessment test!
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