When is the right time to make a career switch? This is a question that often makes us wonder. How many years later into a job, is the right time to start looking beyond for greener pastures? Deciding on when to make the next career move undoubtedly requires careful planning, but there is more to the seeded thought for exploration.
Also once we fall into habits of the feel-at-home workplace culture, it is very difficult to step out of comfort zones and take calculated risks for the next big leap. While the thought of another year in the same job role with no significant salary increase is as scary, as the horrifying leap.
Here are some things you should bear in mind before you up the game for a career change:
- Do not self-doubt. Feeding negative thoughts into your system can automatically drain you out of positive energies and impede progress. Just be positive and optimistic about your thoughts and actions. Believe with complete conviction that everything you do will work right. When you believe in yourself, your actions automatically translate to reflect your beliefs, thus transforming challenges into opportunities.
- Train and retrain your mind. Preparation is the key to success. Train and retrain your mind to think positive and analyze the consequences of your actions or decisions. Learn from mistakes constantly.
- Keep moving and grappling with change in all facets of life. Do not allow fear to control your life; instead use resilience, courage, grit and focus on overcoming all obstacles.
- Executing a career change in isolation can only increase your fears to make the process more daunting and painful. Instead, take external help and support from your family, friends, and near and dear ones, whom you think can ease your struggles, worries and make the experience more enjoyable.
- Overcome the fear of failure, regrets, wrong decisions and looking foolish in front of family and friends to cripple your focused efforts. A state of paralysis exists to experience a pit in the stomach and head seems noisy with thoughts overcrowding your mind. It becomes too hard to think straight and rational. The experience can be frustrating to make you believe this saga of making wrong choices and holding onto it for too long, as with life or career challenges is a never-ending battle.
- Practice clarity of vision and purpose. Vision and focus help deal with hardships, initial hiccups, and pain with complacency. When you are relaxed, you sound more confident and articulate in your commitment to accomplish the goal.
- Consider your fear as an ally. It can be a great motivator to inspire and conquer. Learn from your mistakes and keep evolving to unlearn as well during the growth transition. Failure should not dent your confidence, but if you look at it as a learning experience, you are much prepared for bigger opportunities.
- Weigh in the pros and cons of making the career change. The most common fear plaguing people from trying out new careers or changing jobs is the feeling of insecurity to be left with no income to support themselves during the transition, and what if things didn’t work out as per the plan? How will they support their living and take care of their family? These are some questions that stop us from venturing into the path of exploration
- Embrace change. Going into something new will bring some initial hiccups and hardships to get adjusted to a new company culture, work environment, colleagues, styles of working and superiors. Change is inevitable and resounds with our very nature of being human. As is human to err so is it human to change, if we do not embrace change, we never learn and grow. Do not let a great business opportunity pass by, because of ingrained fear and pessimistic beliefs overshadowing the positives.
Did you ever give this a thought – In a state of volatility across markets, what if your current company starts downsizing operations soon? Then you will be forced to start seeking new pastures for self-development, even if you may like it or not.
The only way to grow is to take risks and outgrow yourself, build confidence, take charge and responsibility for all the repercussions of your actions – be it good or bad. So, why wait until disaster strikes? It’s time you unleash a new side to your personality, perhaps an undiscovered talent still in the making.
While evolution is the key to coping with the momentum of change, do not get swept by the current industry whirlwinds to lose the sense of direction and purpose along the journey. Stable footing with careful assessment of your strengths and weaknesses will lead you right towards accomplishing long-term goals with resilience, confidence, and brevity.
Read: How to Get Your Resume Past the ATS into the Hands of a Recruiter?