Do you Need a Career Change?

The average person changes careers 5-7 times during their working life (https://bit.ly/37P4XVc). Those aren’t just job changes; they are full blown career changes. That number seems high on the surface until you consider the ever-increasing variety of career choices and the number of specialized certificate or degree programs for the different careers. Unlike our parents and grandparents who stayed with a career or even a single job for decades, these days a career change isn’t uncommon.

That’s not to say a career change is easy. After all, you worked hard to establish and grow in your current career. It’s not that you’ll be throwing away all that hard work and learning but you will definitely be following a new path with new challenges and often a steep learning curve. It’s a big step that shouldn’t be taken lightly. If you’re thinking about making a change take some time to think it through. How do you know if it’s the right move for you? And if it is the right move, how do you know when to make the jump? Here are 5 signs that will help you decide.

1. Do you pause or deflect when people ask you what you do?

In one of my earlier careers, I was an operations manager for a manufacturing plant. I loved telling people about what I did (and who doesn’t love hearing about manufacturing?). I spent many years in the field and I enjoyed it tremendously but in the last couple of years in the industry I found myself brushing off questions about what I did for a living. I wasn’t ashamed of it but I also wasn’t excited about it anymore. I initially thought it was just because I was tired of answering the same questions but realized at some point that it was deeper than that.

2. Do you feel tired and depleted when it comes to activities outside of work?

Most of us spend the majority of our waking hours at our job. When we love what we do, we’re energized by it. Because so much of our time and focus is on our work, we can’t help but carry that into our hobbies, activities and interactions outside of work. We work hard but because we enjoy what we do, the hard work seems easier. When we stop drawing enjoyment and energy from our jobs this also carries to our private lives. Even those who are masters at compartmentalization will see some mental and physical effects in other parts of their lives when they’re doing a job they no longer enjoy.

3. Does a bad day at work feel like the end of the world?

We all have bad days. It doesn’t matter what job you do or who you are, sometimes the day just doesn’t go your way. When we’re doing a job we like or love, we tend to bounce back quickly from those rotten days. Conversely when we’re in a job we don’t enjoy we tend to magnify and generalize bad days. Instead of one bad day it becomes bigger in our minds and the issues of the day take on a life of their own. A simple single disagreement with Janet, a co-worker, for example turns into “Janet is always undermining me and it will never stop!”.

4. You don’t seem to want to learn new things anymore.

Early on in my previous career I was always raising my hand for new opportunities to learn. It barely mattered what the class, seminar or training opportunity was, I WAS ON BOARD! I loved learning about anything and everything related to my job. At some point though, I stopped raising my hand. It seemed like more effort than it was worth. It wasn’t that I felt I had learned all there was to know about my job, I simply wasn’t that interested in learning more. I knew enough to do my job competently and efficiently and that was as far as I was willing to go. 

5. Your values don’t align anymore with your career.

I spent a large portion of my career managing and mentoring employees. I enjoyed this part of my job; in fact, it was one of the things I enjoyed most about my job. I worked for many years in large corporate companies and for much of that time I felt like the corporate environment aligned with my personal values. Things change though, as much as we wish they didn’t and I realized that many large companies had shifted from a people centered culture to a profit centered culture. I get it, companies are in business to make money, that’s fine, but I believe there’s room to value people and make money. I more than believe that, it’s one of my core values and, unfortunately, I realized my core value was now out of alignment with the culture of many large companies.

This list isn’t exhaustive but it will give you a good idea if you need to seriously think about making a career or, at the very least, a job change. In the next article we’ll talk about how to prepare for that change.

About Eliza

Eliza is the owner of two successful pet related businesses; Preferred Pet Partners, a pet sitting and dog walking company, and The Pet Business Coach, offering coaching and resources to aspiring or current pet related business entrepreneurs. She maintains two awesome blogs. One for pet parents https://preferredpetpartners.com/blog/ and one for pet business owners https://thepetbusinesscoach.dog/blog-page/.  Eliza also supports various animal rescue and shelter organizations. Eliza and her husband have three furry family members. Visit her websites: www.preferredpetpartners.com or www.thepetbusinesscoach.dog.