You feel you need a drastic career change.
For one, you aren’t psychologically attached to your job. Two, you drag your feet to work and struggle to keep your productivity levels up.
Yet, your salary and perks can’t quite make up for your dissatisfaction.
But—
How do you know if you need a career shift or if you’re just experiencing routine ups and downs?
The answer is in this post.
Keep scrolling to see the most critical clues you’re in the wrong career and find out the next steps you need to take to live a more healthy, fulfilling professional life.
Take the Pulse of Your Mental, Emotional, and Physical State
Your emotional and mental state is the starting point in this process. Ask yourself how you act on an emotional and mental level while on the job. Here are a few pointers:
- Apathetic—you’re generally cynical and critical at work.
- Jealous—you dislike hearing co-workers praised for doing a good job.
- Bored—you find it hard to focus and have no energy to be productive.
- Irritable—you’re impatient with your direct manager, co-workers, clients, or customers.
These emotional states are warning flags that something is not right. More so, if you carry these emotions from the (home) office to your personal life. If your job affects your mental well-being, it’s serious and can lead down the path to depression.
So—
A change might be necessary.
Throw Under the Microscope Your Current Role
You used to love your current company.
Back in the day, you thrived in your role. Your values aligned with those of the company. And you were ecstatic when you landed your first sale, wrote a piece for the company’s blog, or otherwise made a tangible impact on the company’s bottom line.
But—
The thrill is gone. You feel empty and apathetic. You dread getting out of bed every morning to go to work, even if it means going into your study and turning on your work laptop.
That’s when you should stop and think about why you feel that way. Ask yourself these three hard questions:
- Do you lack satisfaction from your wins?
- Are you unable to focus on tasks?
- Have your productivity levels dipped?
Here are the reasons why this might be the case:
- Work takes up so much time that you never feel like you have a life outside of it.
- You don’t feel your manager, boss, or co-workers care. You feel isolated at work and have no support, especially so after you started working remotely.
- The dynamic at work is toxic, from an office bully to a micro-managing boss.
- Promised paths of career development, raises are fantastical.
Taken together, these signs indicate that a career change might be the best option for you.
Moving Forward
By now, you’ve probably figured you need a career shift.
But—
You don’t know what the next steps are to move forward in your career development.
Don’t worry.
First, sit down and look toward your passions to come up with a viable career path. Think about what has made you happy in your job. Look back at projects you were passionate about. Think about your skills that made these projects succeed. Think of when you felt fulfilled.
Another way to find a new career path is to run the following Google search: ‘list of jobs for’ + (your passion). It’ll help you find unusual career paths you never knew existed.
Second, research the new skills needed to make a jump to another industry: assess what transferable skills you’ve accumulated and see if they are applicable in another field. For help, check out different resume examples for the positions you’d be interested in.
Third, tap into your LinkedIn network. Reach out to those who work in your desired field and ask them questions about the prospects of working with them. Not everyone will get back to you, but some will.
Lastly, commit to the change and get some tangible work experience in your chosen field. Do volunteer or freelance work on the side or, if possible, do an internship to ease the transition.
Stacking It All Up
Changing careers is never easy, especially if you’re late in the game.
But—
Your physical, emotional, and psychological well-being depends upon it. You don’t have to suffer each day.
So, look inward and take the next steps to a more healthy and fulfilling career!
