There is no easy way to change careers but you can make it easier on yourself
by avoiding these 10 following mistakes number one is to quit your job and
leaving behind your existing career without having a concrete plan in place
some people just hate their job so much that they want to leave it right away on
the spot one of the obvious things that could happen if you don't have another
income source or job lined up is that you just run out of money but I think
that the biggest risk actually relates to your self-confidence let's say that
right now you're a teacher and your goal is to become a full-time musician and
you've been doing a lot of music but you're not really a professional
musician yet so you're kind of in between but if right now you leave your
job as a teacher what happens is that you can't call yourself a teacher
anymore but on the other hand you're not really a professional full-time musician
yet either so for some people that could work but for many other people's that
could cause quite a lot of stress number two is expecting career change to happen
in a single move in reality it doesn't work like that
in reality it's much more like a chess game it requires multiple moves in order
to win the game and it's the exact same with your career so if you're just about
to start changing your career and you expect that you will achieve your final
career goal in a single move hopping from job age your job your career a to
career B then it is likely that you will quickly become frustrated because that
is not how it works rather than everything happening within one single
move what usually happens with people is that they pivot within their existing
career and they make several job shifts until they finally arrive at their dream
career if you will let's take for example someone who works in marketing
and banking who wants to become a web designer chances are that that wouldn't
happen overnight or even in a matter of a few months what is likely to happen
for example is that that person while working in marketing and banking took an
evening course on the side learning web design and maybe also taking on a few
freelance projects then perhaps even getting involved working on
project doing web design at the bank they work for and then little by little
moving into the direction of finally becoming a full-time web designer number
three is not testing enough before starting your career change process well
some people have really clear career goals for example there are people who
just know for sure without a doubt that they want to become a surgeon other
people might have multiple interests and they are not really sure yet what they
want to pursue seriously and on a professional level let's say for example
someone doesn't like their current career their existing job and they think
that they're really interested in psychology maybe they want to become a
psychotherapist but they're also kind of interested in nutrition but also
interested in art so there are so many things and the problem with this is that
the person doesn't have a clear vision for themselves yet and the reason for
that is because they might not have done enough testing and self evaluating so
what does testing out a career mean testing means that you try to get hands
on and perform those kinds of activities that come closest to those that you
would need to perform in your target career so let's take for example
psychotherapist of course it's a regulated career and without a degree
you are not going to be able to dabble in it but what you could do is pick up
for example a scientific research paper on a topic in psychology and read and
see how long you can stick to it if you can't even finish one paper if you can't
even spend half an hour let's say reading it then perhaps it's really not
for you or let's say that you think you like counselling have you ever spent
more than half an hour or an hour talking through difficult and serious
issues with maybe a friend an acquaintance or someone in your family
I'm not saying at all that this covers the whole breadth of being a
psychotherapist but at least by trying out these small things and testing
yourself you can get kind of the hunch of whether or not this could be the
right thing for you or not now before is rushing into getting a
second bachelor's degree and not exploring enough other options if you
want to become a doctor have a degree in journalism then by all
means go ahead and study medicine just don't end up taking a second bachelor's
degree for the wrong reasons don't take a second bachelor's degree
just because you are feeling lost because you don't really know what you
want to do just because you feel or you think that you're really interested in
nutrition or psychology etc it's simply too much time and cost while in order to
perform regulated jobs such as medicine law etc you definitely need a degree
there are many other kind of unregulated degrees for example in design acting
life coaching and many other things where you don't necessarily need a
bachelor's degree in many cases simply taking a diploma or even a one-year
postgraduate course or just courses will be sufficient by the way this is a
question for you are you changing careers at the moment and if you are do
you relate to any of the things that I said here in this video please let me
know in the comments below number five is not having enough money
saved up before you start your career change process ideally before you start
changing your career you would have already built up a second income stream
this could be passive income from your property or a side job and so on and
what would be even better is that you build your new career while you are
still in your existing career but let's just say that you just want to leave
your old job and career behind you don't want to wait any longer and you just
want to start in that case you will have to rely on your emergency funds or on
your savings and many people do have unrealistic expectations about this
there are people who prepare an emergency fund for six months or even 12
months and they have the expectation that in the thirteenth month they will
break into their new career or their new business that they set up will start
making money but in many cases that is not the case of course we want to remain
optimistic we want to believe that we can start making money in our new career
from our new endeavor as soon as possible but we do have to prepare for
the worst it could take much longer it
could take two years to break even three years or even five years and what you
want to avoid is that in the middle of your way you suddenly can continue
because you're out of cash and at that point it will be game over meaning that
at that point you might be forced to go back to your old job or career and I
think that that is the worst thing that could happen or if you don't go back to
your old job you might be forced to take on any kind of random job just to stay
afloat and that kind of sucks mistake number six is to expect to start at the
same level in your new career some people really really want a career
change but they just can't bear the thought of possibly having to start at a
lower level in their new career some people just can't let go and they are so
fixated on their old title let's say in their old career in their existing
career their title used to be VP or head or manager or assistant manager or
whatever and now they start working on getting into their new career and they
realize that oh it seems that I can't just start at the same level although my
title was VP before I might not be able to start at that exact same level and
it's so dangerous to have that kind of mindset because what it does is that it
glues you to your place it makes you unable to move because you are so
disappointed that in the new career you will have to start from the bottom I'm
not saying that if you start in your career you have to completely start over
that is normally not the case but usually you would need to start at a
more junior level at a relatively more junior level and of course if we're
talking about more minor career changes for example you're switching from a
position of marketing and banking to marketing and insurance you you might be
able to retain your same title and stay at that same level but as soon as you
want to change your career in a more drastic way then normally you would need
to step down before you can work yourself up again let's say that
previously you were a teacher and now you want to get into acting chances are
very small that you will be able to immediately get the main role on
Broadway what is likely to happen is that you will either get a supporting
roles or you will start in community smaller
theaters and work in the supporting role or work on a student film or even work
as an extra and that is totally fine that is how it works for most people
there's nothing to be ashamed of if you are serious about career change
then you need to trust the process you need to be aware of the fact that it is
going to take you some time but it doesn't matter because perhaps you might
be moving slower but at least you are climbing up the right ladder number
seven is not discussing options with experienced people of course you can do
career change on your own you can completely do that you can Google your
way through career change watch youtube videos like this one read blog posts etc
but chances are that you might be wasting a lot of time you might be going
back and forth you might be going on the wrong path you'll just be wasting a lot
of time and money if you know someone who is already working in the area in
the career the job that you want to break in then it's a really good idea to
reach out to them ask them for some time to talk to them try to learn from them
and ask them many questions how did they get into the career that
they are in now what do they like about it what do they hate about it how long
did it take them what kind of education did they get and how much did it cost
and also if you can trust them try sharing with them your plans to change
careers and ask them about their honest opinion about it they might be able to
provide you some very important feedback by the way if you liked this video and
you want to get more videos similar to this one then please give it a thumbs up
subscribe and most importantly please hit the little alarm bell number eight
is not communicating your career change plan with your family or your spouse if
you work on a career change and you don't tell them about it it can lead to
a lot of misunderstandings they might for example not understand why all of
the sudden you don't have any time to spend with them on the weekends why not
on Sundays you go to the public library and bury yourself in books why all of
the sudden you need three thousand dollars to go to an
illustration course or nutrition course or whatever the thing is that a career
change process will affect the people around you in some way it will affect
the amount of time that you have available to spend with them your family
finances and so on so what you want to do as soon as you get really serious
about this career change thing is to talk it through with some to ask them
about their opinion to try to get them on board because what you really want to
get is their support nothing is more valuable if you ask me
if your family has your back if they're on board with your plans they understand
where you're coming from and they support you all the way number nine is
giving up too fast I am a believer that quitting is always an option for example
if five years ago you had certain career goals but now at this point it's no
longer relevant to your vision and your personal goals then scrap it then it's
okay to quit but don't give up for the wrong reasons don't give up the whole
thing Midway just because you're frustrated because you're impatient
because you feel so tired or you think that you can't just can't do this
anymore it there's no point to it it will not
work out and so on maybe you've been working on setting up your own business
for one or two years and until this point your product still hasn't launched
it you haven't broken even you haven't found investors and you're starting to
become very frustrated with the whole process so before you quit give it
another chance take a step back and try to review and assess your situation
give yourself honest feedback or get the feedback of someone else where you're at
what progress you've made so far and what other creative steps that you might
need to take to finally get to where you want to be it might even be the case
that you only need one more year or it only takes one more creative step to get
to where you want to be when I was producing my independent feature film
there was a point where I was about to give up I met with so many potential
investors and no one signed on so I met the 40th person the 41st person for you
second-person and so on and I started to become very very tired but it was only
until I met I think around the fifty years or fifty something person that it
finally worked out so could you imagine how different everything would have been
if I hadn't continued that process and I had given up after I met the 45th
potential investor then I wouldn't be where I am right now mistake number ten
is expecting that your career goals will remain constant throughout your entire
life this is a recipe for disappointment it is unrealistic to expect that what
you want in terms of an ideal career let's say is the same at the age of
eighteen at the age of thirty five fifty and so on that's not the way it works it
makes sense that as your life changes as you become older your priority changes
and with that your career goals might also change of course there are some
people who follow a very straight and focused career path from the age of
eighteen until they are 70 for example at the age of eighteen they started
doing music for example playing classical piano and became a pianist and
professional pianist and continued doing that until they were 70 and I think it's
awesome that there are those kind of people out there because those are the
kind of people who become a master in their area they become an expert and
they become very specialized but the thing is that not all people are built
that way there are other kinds of people who perhaps have more varied interests
they have interests in different kind of areas which they want to pursue in a
professional setting and as lifespans become longer and longer now and the
quality of life is increasing health is increasing overall people have the
opportunity to keep on working even into their 70s or sometimes even 80s so you
don't have to follow one single career path throughout your entire life for 60
years but rather you can tweak and adjust your career according to what is
relevant at your current stage of life so instead of deciding upfront one time
in your life what you want to do for your entire life you have to regularly
review your career assess it honestly and adapt so no
matter whether you're in the midst of a career change or you're just about to
start changing your career just remember these 10 mistakes to avoid and I'm
certain that your path will be smoother and you'll make progress faster I hope
this video was useful to you as always I thank you so much for watching
especially to those of you who stuck with me to the very end I wish you an
awesome day all the best with your career plans and I hope to see you again
soon