Is a career change in your future? Learn more about how to change careers and things to consider as you make a career shift.
The new year can be a great time to assess your goals. If you’re not happy in your current career path, there may be no better time than the present to consider a career change.
If so, you wouldn't be the first to contemplate a career shift, and that may be even more true the earlier you are in your career. Today’s graduates routinely change jobs several times in their first 10 years in the workforce—and a recent study by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says millennials will hold between 12 and 15 jobs in their lifetime.
Considering a different career path, and wondering how to change careers? Shannon Breuer, president at West Conshohocken, Penn.-based investment advisory firm Wiley Group, offers career coaching for clients and children of clients.
There are different reasons why people change careers:
“You want to run to your next career,” Breuer says. “You don't want to run away from your previous career.”
If you’re in your 30s or 40s, it can be a challenge to carve out time to research a new career or dabble in a new venture part-time or pro bono.
But it may be better to do it then because you still have runway left with your working years, Breuer advises.
Regardless of whether you’re in your 30s or your 50s, there’s some wisdom to keep in mind: “It’s always easier to find a new job when you have a job,” she says.
A number of factors can weigh into a possible career change, says Breuer:
Circumstances like losing a job or having a bad boss or office culture can make you want to change careers, even though your current career may actually be a good fit, Breuer says.
Self-awareness is at the heart of assessing whether you need to change fields, she advises. Talking with family and friends to learn about yourself as a person and as a talent can help you identify what your true competencies are, she adds.
“The hardest work of all is to really know ourselves,” she says.