We’ve all heard those stories of people who make dramatic career shifts and wonder how they did it. One of my friends was a marine, then retrained as a physio, then as a barrister and is now a Senior Partner in a global law firm.
These career changes entailed some significant periods of study, simultaneously accumulating debt whilst having no income and periods of being on the bottom rung of the ladder and having to work their way up.
The dedication, commitment and sacrifice is mind-blowing.
If you’d like to change career but you’re worried that you’ll never have that level of commitment or simply that you’d never be able to make those sacrifices, then you’re not alone.
I wouldn’t have done it either.
The reality is that most career changes are more of an evolution than a complete revolution of career.
You may find yourself working on two careers simultaneously, like I did, with one foot in my marketing job whilst building up my business on the side.
Or you may find yourself moving industry with a similar job title or skillset.
Or doing something new but within the same field.
This is why I encourage my clients to look at the skills they have and enjoy using, the interests they have or would like to develop and the values that are important to them. And then see how they can create new possibilities with them.
You can start by brainstorming the possibilities with a simple mind map like the one below.
Let’s say you’re currently a classroom teacher. You put that in the middle.
First of all you might want to think about the possibilities of staying within the school environment. Some of the branches coming out of the middle might include Learning Support teacher, School counsellor, careers advisor, school lab technician, school librarian.
You might think it’s time to move on from working with children so some other branches might be adult education teacher, learning & development facilitator for a corporate, running workshops for an educational NGO.
Or you might decide you want to work more at an educational policy or program management level. Maybe working for Department of Education but in a non-teaching role, something like learning design. Or perhaps being an inspector of schools.
The important thing at this stage is not to worry too much about the how. That comes next. For now, it’s about getting creative and thinking about how your current skills or context can be stretched.
Once you’ve got a shortlist of ideas you can start to do some research or speak to others in similar roles to find out how they did it.
And if you find yourself completely stuck then download my toolkit Six Simple Steps to get Started on your Career Change before you sign up for that Nursing Degree.
Happy brainstorming.
Denny