Reasons People Don’t Change Careers (When They Should)

5 Reasons People Don’t Change Careers (Even When They Should)

You’ve had the same career for what seems like forever. In fact, you’ve been doing it for so long that you could do it in your sleep—and frankly, sometimes it feels like you have.

You’re ready to make a career change. You’ve even started doing some research into your desired field and even scanned some job postings, but you still show up for your job every day, unhappy and disengaged.

People often dream of starting over in their careers, but many never change careers.

5 Reasons People Don’t Change Careers (Even When They Should)

Here’s why people often avoid changing careers, and how to do it anyway.

1. You’re Afraid of Starting Over

Starting a new career means starting at the bottom, right? Not necessarily. You might be surprised at how much seemingly opposite careers have in common. Take the time to go through all of the skills you’ve amassed in your career and then compare what top skills you’ll need to list on your career change resume. There are probably quite a few transferable skills that both careers require—and that you already have.

2. You’re Too Old

No matter your age, you might feel like you’re too old to start over. After all, you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. But that’s simply not the case. Once you realize that you have outgrown your career (or that you were in the wrong one all these years), that is the time to make the change. Remember, thanks to all your work in another industry, you’ll bring a lot of experience and wisdom to any new position.

Here are some tips and tricks to changing careers at any age:

3. You Don’t Know What You Want to Do

You’re feeling unsettled in your current job, but you’re clueless as to what you really should do. That’s okay. A lot of people feel the same way. One of the best ways to figure out your next step as a career changer is to look at your hobbies. What do you love to do? What makes you happy? When do you feel the most you? That is your passion, and there’s no time like the present to start pursuing it.

Once you’ve determined what interests you might want to make into a profession (and it’s okay to have more than one potential career you’d like to go after), start researching to see what types of jobs align with your passion. You might start a new job search pursuing a few of these interests until it becomes clear to you which one you really, truly want.

4. You’ll Lose Your Network

It’s taken a long time to become well-connected in your industry, and you’re afraid that if you do a career 180, you’ll lose all those contacts you’ve worked so hard to attain. While it is true that you might lose a connection to some people, you won’t lose them all. The thing is, as you go about making your career change a reality, you’ll form new connections and bonds. This new network will be more meaningful because it’s tied to your new career and affirming that you are on the right path.

5. You Won’t Make Any Money

Let’s say you’ve been a manager for many years and now are planning to go into education. You’re concerned that your career change will result in a significant decrease in the dollar amount on your paycheck. Before you panic though, you should do a little digging to see if that’s actually the case.

Sites such as Salary.com and PayScale.com have salary calculators that can help you determine how much you could potentially be making. You can also use your expanded network to set up informational interviews with people in the industry you’d like to segue into to find out more about pay.

More importantly, you need to ask yourself how much money you really need to earn. Maybe you need less than you think or can cut back on certain expenses to make this new career work. Create a career change budget to figure out how much you need during this exciting change.

Change It Up

Making a career change at any age or stage is both exciting and a little scary. But don’t talk yourself out of the career you want with excuses that don’t hold water. Remember, your future career—and your happiness—is waiting.

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