Until recently, you could say with confidence: I love my job. And now you are bored, you make an effort every morning, forcing yourself to get ready for the office. Perhaps you have reached a ceiling in your career and are bored, tired working on your last project, or even “burned out” – there may be a lot of reasons, and the consequence is that you are thinking about changing not only the company, but the field of activity in general.
But how do you know if you need such a radical change? And what if you are not a 20-year-old student for a long time, and starting to work as an assistant with a meager salary will definitely not suit you, because you have a mortgage, a teenage child and a cat?
1. Think well
Listen to yourself. This is important in order to understand what the problem is: you are tired because you have not been on vacation for a long time, you are uncomfortable in the company where you work now, or the reason is more global – in principle, you no longer like what you are doing now.
In order to understand yourself, take a vacation for at least two weeks and go to a place where cellular communication and the Internet will not work. Disable gadgets. In the first week, the brain will include a hysterics – “What am I going to do without work!” When you return to the office, you will most likely already understand what needs to be changed: the company, the industry, or nothing at all, because you are well rested and ready to work here further.
2. Define criteria
Let’s say you find out that you are not satisfied with the company. We are adults and we understand that you cannot get everything, so decide on the criteria: what is more important to you – no dress code or a big salary? Free schedule or career growth? And based on the answers, look for a company that suits you.
3. Highlight your strengths
No, it is not “sociable” or “active” – because these qualities say practically nothing about you. Find several cross-platform qualities that are valued equally across industries. For example: I can win tenders, I am good at making presentations.
4. Select the industry you want to work in
If you decide on a radical change of activity, choose three or four industries that you like. Find people who already work there, talk to them. Ask them simple things: how much do you get? What’s the most annoying thing about work? Why do you get a raise? Are they fired? Adults are often engaged in myth-making – they idealize the sphere into which they want to move.
For example, a girl comes to our project “Anti-Slavery” and says: “I want to work in culture.” And we send her, say, to a music school in Yuzhny Butovo – to check if the walls are well painted over there. This is what the Ministry of Culture is also doing, but it turns out that this is not at all what the girl wanted. Therefore, interview at least three or four people, based on their words, select two industries – and go there.
5. Ask your friends to recommend you
You need to send your resume, having previously emphasized your cross-platform qualities in it. But an adult without work experience in the required field is extremely rarely even invited to interviews “through a resume”. Reach out to acquaintances who work in the industry you are interested in. As a rule, 10 out of 10 people who are approached with such a request promise to recommend, but in reality only one does it. Therefore, contact 50 people – this will give about two or three calls from the HR.
6. Get the support of a career counselor
This is a very important point. Don’t change jobs without a career counselor. Of course, there are also their own successful transitions of adult specialists from industry to industry, but there are few of them. A career consultant will advise you and help you understand if you are really ready to change your profession? Maybe if you are a successful economist who loves to cook, you should leave cooking as a hobby?
7. Be prepared to lose 20% of your income
The transition to a new industry will take you six months to a year. You will lose 20 to 50% of your income and move one or two steps down the career ladder. It is not easy for an adult, including psychologically. Therefore, firstly, you should look for a new job without leaving the old one, and secondly, you must have a financial cushion – at least for six months. That is why it is worth thinking carefully about where we started: do you really need a change of activity or are you just tired?