You did it! You made the leap, you retrained, you sold your transferable skills, and you convinced an employer to give you a chance in a new area.
Or perhaps you even set out on your own. You set up a website, you’ve blogged your heart out and you invested in inventory.
But you’re still not happy.
After years of being miserable in a career. You shifted. Invested blood, sweat and tears. And you’re still miserable and back at square one. Only now you’ve wasted even more time and money. And your friends and family think you’re flaky.
You blame yourself. You picked the wrong career. Or there’s something wrong with you. You’re never happy. Why can’t you just figure out a way to like work. Maybe you’ll never be happy.
But I’m here to tell you that you’re amazing.
Yes, you heard right, you’re wonderful. You did something that others dream about doing but they won’t because they’re too scared. And you’re not flaky, you’re just fussy. Fussy about how you spend your time, living this one precious life.
So time to stop beating yourself up because you’ve got work to do and here’s a few things to have in mind:
You’re further along in this, honestly
Recognise that this is a learning process and you’re now even closer to the job that is right for you. While that can be incredibly frustrating if you’ve invested time and money into the process of changing career, you instead need to focus on what you’ve learned. Thomas Edison articulated this best “I have not failed. I have just found 10,000 ways that don’t work.”
Hopefully you won’t need to shift careers 10,000 times but it’s worth remembering that your life is a work in progress. How exciting that you have the opportunity to shift and grow and learn new things.
What have you learned?
So, what has this career change taught you? And be kind to yourself here.
It’s likely you will now have an even greater idea of what you want and you don’t want in your career. For example, perhaps you were a teacher and you moved out of the classroom because of the stress and long hours of teaching into a curriculum design role but you realise you miss being around the children. What has this taught you? Perhaps that you need to explore other careers where you can be around children but not as a full-time teacher? Maybe part-time or casual work is the answer? Or perhaps a learning support, trouble shooting type role using your new curriculum design skills.
Use the right process
I don’t know what process you used to go through your previous career shift but moving forward I would recommend a process that gets you reflecting on yourself, what you’ve learned from this experience and what you want for the future, before you start gathering information about other roles and making applications. I would strongly recommend talking to other people in the careers you are interested in and finding ways to try them out.
The important thing is not to panic. You have been here before and you handled it. You switched careers once and you will do it again.
Stay strong
I’m not sure what coping strategies you used in the past when you were unhappy at work but it’s important to look after yourself now.
Remember this current job is now a steppingstone to where you want to be. It’s not your whole life so don’t’ treat it as such. Make sure you do things outside of work that fill your cup. When you’re at work stay curious about the skills you are learning. Take the opportunity to learn new things that could be relevant for you moving forwards. And keep growing your network. Just because you don’t see yourself in this job long-term that is no reason to shun your workmates. The social side of things may provide much-needed relief plus you never know how your colleagues may be helpful in your job search, if not now but in the future.
If you’ve changed career and you’re still not happy then I feel for you. It’s a rotten situation to be in and I know it’s not good for your confidence but please know that you will get there. The fact that you are reading this post means you are committed to change, you will make it happen and this is just another learning opportunity along the way.
If you’d like to discuss this further and the steps you take now then please book in with me for a FREE 30-minute working mum SOS. This can be a useful sounding board on what do next and there is no obligation to book in for further coaching with me.
Denny x