6 Questions To Ask Before Changing Careers
Guest post by Rachel Eddins, Therapist and Career Counselor in Houston, TX
Are you considering a career change? Many people believe that they need a career change when often they may just need a change within their current career path. There are multiple ways to make a change in your career path without making a complete career change. Some examples include, changing industries, changing roles within the same industry, finding creative ways to utilize the skills and knowledge you already have, or even building on a hobby. Before moving forward, assess what areas in your career you are dissatisfied with and what you would prefer instead. This can help you determine the next steps in your career transition.Consider each of the following areas of your career and reflect on the prompting questions to gain greater insight about your career needs. For the areas that you are dissatisfied with, ask yourself, “What would I prefer instead?”
1) Am I interested in my work tasks?
Are you bored with your current work tasks (lacking challenge), have you recently experienced a change in responsibilities or promotion (i.e., from functional position to managing people)?Areas to explore: You may no longer be interested in your primary work tasks. Perhaps they are no longer a challenge for you or you are simply not interested in them. First, consider opportunities to increase work tasks that you do enjoy, whether internal or external to your organization. Examples might include, collaborating on a project with another department or team (i.e., an engineer helping the marketing department by providing data in a marketing format), attending training and adding a new skill, taking on a leadership or mentoring role, taking initiative to identify other tasks/projects that need attention, volunteering, or experimenting with hobbies.If this does not feel like “enough”, you may have to experiment more to discover which type of activities you would like to spend the majority of your time doing. Ultimately, this could involve a change in function or role within your career, but not necessarily complete career change. Pay attention throughout your week and notice when you light up, get excited, or have some energy around what you are doing. This indicates the type of activities that may better suit you.If your dissatisfaction with work tasks is resulting from a recent promotion, ask yourself whether this situation causes you to feel out of your comfort zone? In what ways is this a good stretch for you? For example, “I’ve been promoted to manager and I don’t have good people skills. I could benefit by both working on my people skills and identify project team leaders in my team to help with the management tasks.”
2) How do I feel about my work environment?
Think about your day to day function. Are you sitting in an office all day? Working outside all day? What would you prefer? Do you need a window to connect you to the outdoors, more time moving about, or less time on your feet? How would you prefer your day to day environment to be (hint: don’t rule things out because you don’t think it’s an option)?Areas to explore: Experiment with small ways to add change to your routine or schedule. For example, if you prefer some outdoor activity, try taking a walk during lunch and notice if this makes a difference in your day. Find out about opportunities to work from home or change your environment in another way. If you don’t like sitting at a desk all day, find out about opportunities to get out of the office while supporting your job – perhaps scheduled meetings with contacts or clients or getting out for lunch. Notice how these small changes impact your energy and motivation before making a major change.
3) Am I working with my "tribe"?
In career counseling, we often talk about “finding our tribe”. Are you working with your tribe? Do you relate well with your colleagues? Do you share similar interests (even if different personalities)? Or are you working alone and would prefer to have greater collaboration with others? Perhaps you need more support from colleagues than you currently have, how could you create this? How is your relationship with your supervisor/manager? Is this a pattern in your life or a one-time situation? In your ideal job, what would be different for you in this category?Areas to explore: Birds of a feather flock together. While we all have different personalities, when you’re in a career field of interest, generally those work “interests” form a similar personality pattern of their own. For examples, most counselors will tell you that they’re genuinely interested in people. Many engineers might say they enjoy problem solving. If you really feel like an “outsider” in your field, it may be that you’re not actually working in your primary interest area. For example, a colleague of mine has “analytical and organizational” interests. As a young person, she was guided to the computer industry, where she did well, but felt like a fish out of water. Later in her career she took a personality test and found the missing piece, she loves helping people! Now she works more directly with people to analyze their problems and concerns and help them identify workable solutions.As an experienced therapist I will also let you know that your career often mirrors your relationships. If you’re having difficulty with colleagues, it’s a good idea to ask yourself whether this pattern exists in your family of origin or other relationships. Be on the lookout for colleagues that may also trigger interpersonal buttons you already have. Sometimes it’s really not about our colleagues, but our own buttons.
4) How does my work impact my lifestyle?
How does your career impact your lifestyle? Do deadlines keep you at work late? Do billable hours stress you out? Do you need greater flexibility for health or life demands?Areas to explore: Would having the same career in a different industry have an impact? For example, an accountant working for a public accounting firm may work billable hours while an accountant working internal to a public or private institution is salaried. Consider the different ways that people with your background and training work. Visit your professional organization to find out if additional information on career paths is available, or just google “what can I do with (training)?” The O*Net Online, a career database organized by the federal government, shows related careers by job title and skills. This can be a good way to find alternate yet related careers using your current skill set.
5) Have I experienced major life changes?
Has there recently been a major change in your life (new baby, divorce, loss of partner’s job, illness, etc.)? How might this be impacting your current career situation? What needs to change?Areas to explore: Often when we experience a major life event, what was workable in the past becomes no longer workable. Make a list of your priorities in your career and personal life and identify where the problem lies. It might also be that you just need to slow down and take time to make your personal life your priority right now. It can be helpful to talk to a counselor to help you work through the impact of the change and sort out your feelings and priorities before making any major decisions.
6) What do I value most in life?
How does your work currently stack up against your important life values? Consider each of the major domains in your life: career, relationships, leisure, and health. For each domain, identify what is most important to you, i.e., what kind of person do you want to be, what do you want your life to stand for, and how you want to be in your relationships with others? Your values are your heart’s deepest desires.Areas to explore: when there is a conflict between our values and our career, it can create stress and dissatisfaction. Ask yourself what needs to change here, honestly? What is contributing to that conflict? Sometimes it’s ourselves and not the work situation. For example, not setting good boundaries initially and now feeling “expected” to work late hours. Identify very small changes you could undertake to move closer in the direction of your values.Now that you’ve asked yourself these questions, what is the problem with your current career situation? What do you want instead? Let yourself dream big to start with. Watch out for the yeah but’s, there will time for that later when you’re making decisions. Right now, you’re allowing yourself to imagine what you really want. This provides initial clues as to what a better fit would look like.
For more help with finding the right career for you, join us in an 8-week online group career coaching program, “Create Your Inspired Career Group Coaching Program.” Discover what’s next in your career and create an action plan for moving forward.Rachel Eddins is a Therapist and Career Counselor in Houston, TX. Rachel helps people find their inner worth, overcome emotional and food related issues and find meaning and purpose in both life and career. She offers career coaching programs to help people find and create a more meaningful career.