Thinking about making a career change? Believe me, you are not alone. People often seek to change careers for many different reasons. Your career goals or future plans may have changed, you may have discovered a new passion that you would like to pursue, you may wish to adapt to a more suitable environment, have more flexible hours, or you may simply want to make more money. No matter what your reasons are, a carefully planned, goal-oriented career change might just be the perfect solution for you.
Don’t panic while thinking that you only have one chance to change career. You will probably change career direction several times in your life, so try to see your career change as a chance to figure out what you’d like to try next. It’s important to take an analytical look at the many possibilities and outcomes before you jump into a new industry. Don’t be afraid of changes, today, we’re going to reveal 4 secrets that can guide you through your career change smoothly.
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1. Find out why you want a career change
Having a Sunday night blue when thinking about Monday’s work is not enough reason to make a career change. Before jumping into any conclusion, you need to figure out why you started to hate or outgrow your job. Take some time and ask yourself “Why do I want to make a change of career? Why can’t I stand my current job anymore?” Is it because you hate the commute or the long working hours? Is it because you feel under-treated or deserve a higher income? Or is it because you’ve found a new and more exciting way of making a living? You’ve got to get clear on the why before you start working toward something new. Otherwise, you could end up in a new spot that you will eventually hate.
Think about not only the reasons that you hate your current job, but also look at the benefits and drawbacks of a new career. Why do you think a new career will make your life better? What are the risks of a new career? Once you’ve figured out why you want to make a career change, you’ll start to have a clearer idea of what you want in a new career. In another word, once you see why you want to leave your current job, you’ll learn to avoid the traits that you hate in a job when looking for your next one.
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2. Know your preferences and advantages
You are not going to find the perfect career for yourself without a thorough self-assessment, professionally and personally. Look back at your past work experiences, think about the things you enjoyed doing, the environment you liked to work in, the type of tasks that brought you the most sense of achievement, as well as the tasks and environment that you despised at work. Look at how you like to work, what your career values are and the things you’d gladly do even if you weren’t getting paid for This will help you identify the kind of role you should be aiming for. Review past successful roles, volunteer work, projects and jobs to identify preferred activities and skills. This way, you can determine whether your core values and skills will be addressed through a new career.
Then it’s time to look at what employers are looking for when it comes to that particular role. Check out current job postings for the role that you believe you’ll enjoy, and analyze what kind of skills are required for potential candidates. This will confirm your suitability for that level of work, while giving you some idea about the skills and qualifications that you need to acquire in order to land on this job.
3. Analyze your transferable skills
When stepping into a new industry, even though you may not have relative experience in the new field you’re aiming for, don’t be let down by it. Let’s sit down and examine your current qualifications and skill sets. Ask yourself, “what are the strengths and talents I have to bring to the market?” “what is the thing that I do better than anyone else?” This will help you figure out what skills you can take with you into your new role, and what skills you need to work on.
Strong administration, organization, and computer skills, customer service skills as well as extraordinary interpersonal skills are commonly transferable to any industry ranging from finance, marketing, to healthcare, IT, and design; while communication and problem-solving skills can be applied to any role ever existed. Don’t be afraid if your new dream job seems irrelevant from your current and past work experience. All you need to do is listing out all your strong traits, assessing how they could prove invaluable to your next employer, and filling in the gap between your current skill sets and the required skill sets of your dream job.
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4. Open a door to a new world with further education
Undertaking further study can often give you the new credentials required to make a career change. Maybe the last time you received education or training feels like a decade ago, it is actually very common for professionals who dislike their current jobs to look at going back to school for a new career as a next-step. According to National Center for Education Statistics, of the 21 million people who enrolled in post-high school education programs, 2.3 million are between the ages of 40 and 64, and about 1.5 million of them are part-time students.
You may hesitate on returning to school since you are bearing the choice of giving up salary in your prime income years. In fact, it’s not about how much you are paying for school; it’s the program you choose that truly matters. Going back to school can make even more sense for people with a lower income that are looking to reach a higher level of salary in the future; by receiving further education, you’re giving up something that doesn’t satisfy you and reaching for a better stage of life.
As the largest career college in Canada with 50 campuses across the country, Academy of Learning College attributes the growth in our success to identifying the gap between the formal education available and the realities of the working world. We fulfill the needs of learners by developing customized programs for each student, while meeting the requirements for convenient and effective training at an affordable cost. Browse our program list by province and find the best program that suits your needs!