Are you in the position today you dreamed of being a decade ago? Are you discouraged from starting your day? Are you in a bad mood day after day? If you can answer that with a “no,” it might be time for a career change.
Everything you have surrounded yourself with comes with a positive and negative impact; it is totally up to you in which direction you want to see. An essential factor in making any decision is inertia. You wish for your life to change. Still, you are so afraid of making a move.
But, this pandemic has given ample time to every individual to think realistically of their current positions. Keep the following points in mind while making this vast and life-changing decision.
Explore yourself
Before making a career change decision, you must first clear your priorities, requirements, and personality type. Explore your interests, soft skills, aptitudes, values, and, most importantly, your traits to know where you exactly want to go in your life.
Gather your career options
After a self-realization assessment, you might get yourself filled with a myriad of career options to choose from. Work out the career option that you think suits and match the best with your qualities and explore thoroughly until you get a clear list of future choices.
Create a short-list
Now that you find many occupations that suit your qualities narrow down to the most suitable ones you are most likely to opt for in the future. You might want to eliminate careers with a weaker job outlook and eliminate those careers whose requirements you cannot fulfill.
Upgrade your skills
If you have narrowed down a career option in which you lack one or two skills, but you eagerly want to go ahead with that option, then you must develop the required skills. Before making any transition from your current job, try to enrich and enhance as many skills as you can.
Arrange work experience
The most effective way of enhancing your work experience is by voluntarily asking for opportunities. If not anything, try to get yourself involved in a day-to-day basis job opportunity that will accelerate your work experience for sure.
Brand new CV and cover letter
Your old CV is about the old you. Design a new one based on your new goals and objectives. Write a cover letter that emphasizes your passion and expresses the transferable skills you are willing to adopt for the new company, organization, or industry.
Informational Interview
Conducting informational interviews helps you get acquainted with the organization in which you are interested closely. This is the best way of gathering immediate knowledge about the organization in your shortlist.
Make an apt career choice
You have followed the above steps with honesty; then you are ready to make the most important decision of your life. Choose the most appropriate, appealing, and suitable job for yourself after doing in-depth and thorough research. Pick out the best career option that you think will bring the most amount of satisfaction to you. Apply for your job and ace the interview!
Once you are in your new career..
Identify your goals
Now that you have gotten into an organization or industry of your choice make a list of your short-term and long-term goals of where you see yourself in that company. Long term goals require at least three to five years to be accomplished, whereas a short term goal can be achieved within 6 months to 3 years. So work according to your goals and apply as much effort as required to accomplish those goals.
Career action plan
A career action plan is nothing but a road map that will help you reach what you wish for. Perform a SWOT analysis, interpret your career goals, and work out all the ways to achieve them.
Sometimes people step back and turn away from their desired career change because they worry about what other people might think. If you need a career change, do not bother about this social barrier. Get out there and create the future you dreamed of!
