If you are satisfied with your work, just change environment. But if you feel the need for something different, if your current job no longer satisfies you, it’s time to think about a change.
Statistics say that the average American changes careers 3-7 times in their lifetime. A career, not a job. Speaking in terms of percentages, surveys show that around 32% of the working population, aged 25-44, are seriously considering a career change, while 29% have already done so. In fact, due to the rhythms of life, the speed of change and above all the ever-expanding work field, these percentages are expected to increase.
Career is not what we do for a living. Career is something bigger and broader in meaning: it is the professional career with steady steps, our ability to perform exceptionally in one field, the satisfaction of deeper psychological needs through what we do, the pleasure we derive after each success, the need to perform and produce that particular work, and more.
All of this goes beyond just “I have a job.” Changing a career, and not just a work environment, is a complex process. One needs to ask oneself and be sure which of the two one needs. If you are satisfied with your work, just change environment. But if you feel the need for something different, if your current job no longer satisfies you, it’s time to think about a change.
How do you know you need a career change?
The signs that something is not right are already there, you just need to observe them carefully and in the second year do an introspection:
- You don’t find pleasure in what you do
You force yourself to go to the office every day and struggle to find the motivation or inspiration to keep going. Your every day is the same repetitive routine, projects are no longer interesting and colleagues seem more and more boring.
- Your energy has dried up
Your dissatisfaction with your current career choice leaves its mark physically and psychologically. You are tired and “heavy” every day, sleepy at work, find it difficult to concentrate and often look at your watch waiting for how and how to leave.
- You’ve lost your enthusiasm
You notice more and more that what you are doing does not represent you and you do not find satisfaction. You feel less and less that you work with passion and most of the time you don’t even like it!
- You are jealous of your friends’ jobs
The job you do is something other people chose for you and you’ve often wondered how you could do a friend’s job How many times have you caught yourself daydreaming about that career or saying what a great job it is? Perhaps something of what you see in others motivates you.
- You feel stagnant
You feel that you have nothing more to give or take in the professional field you are in, as if your tenure there has ended. You feel like you are no longer evolving.
- Are you depressed or feeling down?
Strong dissatisfaction in the professional part of life creates disappointment, which can often reach the level of depression due to the stagnation of the situation.
- Your only motivation is money
You get up every day and go to work just for the money. You wait until the end of the month to see your paycheck in the bank and you end up feeling like a robot working mechanically to get paid.
How to smoothly transition from one condition to another
Observing the above signs, you become convinced that you are at this pivotal point in your life where you need to decide whether you will change and move forward or whether you will choose to remain in a dead-end routine. After all, if you could change careers, would you?
Changing careers is a big decision and requires thought so that you take the right steps and get the best possible results. It is something that needs to be done carefully and methodically. It takes research and study.
The need may exist, but in order to satisfy it, it is good to go through a series of processes, so that, this time, we arrive at a satisfactory result, the one with the greatest chance of success. It is very important after you choose to make a change to invest mentally, time and physically to do it right.
The basic steps for a correct choice
- Step #1: Take the test
Finding the right ‘fit’ between profession and person is of primary importance. I mean, what are you good at?
This is a question that will be answered if you include a vocational orientation test in the career change process – it’s not just for kids – and ask for the corresponding career counseling.
Such a psychometric test is based on criteria of personality and interests and thus its results give directions based on skills, innate tendencies, abilities, talents and character.
- Step #2: Do your research
Next, you need to do some research on what is practically needed to pursue your new career. Do you need to study? Need to upgrade your resume, learn a craft? What are the educational and professional requirements of your new choice?
- Step #3: Methodize the change
The next step is to schedule how you will proceed with the change. For example, will you need to work at your current job for a while while you study again or complete a master’s degree?
If you still can’t stand your current job at all, try anything that can help you make ends meet until you complete the qualification for your new choice.
- Step #4: Ask for help
Try to commit to yourself and keep your eyes on your goal. While you are doing the necessary things, remember to study the workplace you will be moving to and activate the network of friends and colleagues you already have.
At the moment in Greece there are several organizations and counselors dealing with the career and you will be able to find information and even mentors to help you in your first steps, which is very important.
It is certain that if we organize the transition from one career to the next and proceed with steady and methodical steps, the goal will be achieved and the new choice will justify us. After all, don’t they say that if you do what you love every day, you’ll never have to work?
Source: ow.gr/Christiana Germanou, psychologist-mental health consultant
