Whether you are making a career change after 20 years of work experience or after 2 years, it requires a significant amount of commitment. Career changes are both exciting and stressful. If the whole process makes you feel insecure and overwhelmed, you are not alone.
Regardless of your level of experience, job function, or industry, making a career change is very challenging. But, this doesn’t make it impossible. If you learn what specific challenges await you and how you can overcome them, this transition will be much smoother.
Lack of Confidence When It Comes to Learning New Skills
When you are considering a career change, feeling self-doubt is quite common. Focus on the strong skill set you developed so far instead of focusing on what you lack. Sure, your new career will require you to learn a new skill set. But, if you have been working in your current field for a while now, you can rest assured that you have skills your future employer will value.
We call these transferable skills. They can include skills such as leadership, critical thinking, communication, and conflict resolution. The key is to identify your transferable skills and present them to your prospective employers in an effective way.
Thinking about your shining moments can help you with this step. When did you feel really great about your work? What made you feel that way?
Let’s say your coworker or boss praised you for doing a good job on something. What skills did you use to produce such good work?
Another way to identify your transferable skills is to take a good look at your current and past job descriptions. Make a note of all the official responsibilities you have had in your work life. What skills have you had to develop in order to be able to execute these duties better?
For instance, if your current job requires you to stay on top of many meticulous tasks and protocols, chances are that you have developed great attention to detail.
Fear of the Unknown
It’s not unusual to feel anxiety when you are navigating uncharted territory. The best way to shift the focus away from what you don’t know is to do a bit of research.
If you don’t know someone who has a career in that sector, that’s okay. You can do your research in online communities such as internet forums, LinkedIn groups, or even Reddit.
This will help you gain insight and perspective on what the profession is really like, its growth potential, industry trends, and the competitive landscape.
Then, you can move on to job shadowing. Simply put, job shadowing is the activity of observing a professional while they do their work. To help you gain a better understanding of their role, they will take you to non-confidential meetings, planning sessions, brainstorming sessions, etc.
Job shadowing is really effective for jobs in administration, healthcare, product development, and manufacturing. But, how do you find someone who will invite you to shadow them?
Networking
To find the right professional to shadow, you need a network. Networking is a career change challenge in itself. The aforementioned online communities make networking easier. But it’s understandable if you still feel uncomfortable about having conversations with strangers and talking about yourself. To improve your networking skills, first, you need to work on your comfort levels.
For starters, you can reach out to those who you know well and trust the most, such as family, friends, and colleagues. Talk with them about the reasons you want to change your career and what you would like to do in the future.
The more you talk about this, the more confidence you will gain. Then, you can move on to informal gatherings of professionals, such as job clubs, where you can talk about your career change. Finally, you can participate in industry conferences and other professional events.
Finding Guidance
The next step is to find someone who will provide you with guidance and support. Networking shouldn’t be about meeting people who will just talk to you about the perfect gig, and job shadowing, as helpful and vital as it is, is just a one-time thing.
You need someone who will be your long term-ally—someone who will support you even after you land a job in your new field. Having a mentor or a career coach to lean on will help you deal with your career change and cope with new challenges.
Hiring a career coach is an expense, but, considering what you are trying to achieve, it is a cost-efficient solution.
A career coach won’t just provide you with a supportive and confidential sounding board. They will hold you to account and give you constructive criticisms if needed.
A career coach can also teach you how to present your values in the best way. Let’s say you are having trouble communicating your value to prospective employers.
By offering you their objective opinion and advice, a career coach can help you articulate your values. Because they don’t have emotional ties to your personal experiences, they will give you a different perspective on things.