Career change is a dynamic process that requires a variety of personality characteristics to accomplish successfully. Odds are you possess all of these to some degree.
Of critical importance in navigating career change is the need to use flexible thinking while at the same time maintaining discipline in going through the career decision-making and planning process.
Can you be both flexible and disciplined at the same time? Yes! Discipline and flexiblity can go hand in hand when dealing with career change. You must be flexible in your thinking and approach in order to ensure you consider all options, but disciplined to a degree to ensure you don’t waiver from techniques and considerations that will increase the likelihood of a successful outcome. For example, you might consider yourself to be a “helping” person and would like a career where you can interact with people and make a difference in their lives, and believe teaching is the only option. To make your thinking more “flexible,” consider other careers where you can make a difference, such as healthcare and public service. Being “disciplined” in your approach entails actually taking steps to identify and thoroughly evaluate these other options.
What are the elements of flexibility and discipline that you can use to ensure success in managing career change? Here are a few to consider:
Resiliency
This is a critical component, as you will face many challenges in changing your career, particularly the effects the change can have on you and your family. You must be resilient in sticking with the process and working through the ups and downs on your road to a successful career change. If you’re a single parent with limited time and financial resources, for example, resiliency could mean meeting the challenges of funding your education and child-care expenses by maintaining contact with financial aid counselors who can identify resources and provide assistance in using these resources to the fullest extent.
Consistency
You must be consistent in your approach to career change. Consistency is an essential aspect of discipline, in that a consistent approach in researching yourself and your career options will add a measure of regularity essential to ultimate success. A career changer runs the risk of losing consistency when he or she grows tired of evaluating career options and skims or skips available information. This could lead to making a mistake in choosing or declining a career option.
Patience
You need patience to allow the career change process to unfold naturally, and not let doubt, worry, or anxiety consume you and rush you to a premature decision or resolution. For example, don’t rush your decision on a major by skipping essential steps in the career decision-making and planning process.
Oranized, systematic, and structured (but not overly so)
Being organized and systematic and giving structure to your career change is important to your success. The truth is that career change can be scary—you will increase your comfort level if you develop a system and structure for handling your career change and give yourself a structure to work with.
At the same time, you do need to be careful not to be so structured in your approach to career change that you miss out on opportunities to that could lead to future success.
Introspection and analysis
Being able to look at yourself and understand what you see are perhaps the two most important abilities you can bring to a successful career change. As a first step, take personal stock of yourself. Use “checklists” available through your career center to help you identify your interests, values, competencies, and strengths. Work with a career counselor who can recommend and guide you through the effective use of various assessment tools to identify interests, skills, competencies, personality, and temperament, and then match them to career options. Write down enjoyable work, family, and leisure experiences you have had.
Look beyond what you have done (or not done) so far in your life. Consider what you can do. A career changer who is interested in computer careers but has little experience with computers might mistakenly assume that because he or she has no existing computer skills, such a career is not possible. A better approach would be to realize that all careers require education and training to develop skills, and rarely do individuals possess all the required skills for immediate entry. Realize that you can obtain the skills you need.
Challenge stereotypes and negative thinking. Our society has come a long way in changing stereotypes based on gender and race. However, some career changers may still be influenced by erroneous perceptions, for example, “girls aren’t good at math,” and therefore would never pursue careers in a field such as engineering. Others may believe that potential obstacles such as poor organizational skills can’t be overcome, when such effectiveness is required in a business or management career. These skills can be developed through education, training, and discipline. A positive, can-do approach will help you overcome potentially paralyzing real and perceived obstacles. A positive attitude is essential to managing a career change.
Experiment with various activities to get a better understanding of what you might like if you are not sure. Take classes at a local community college or recreation center to explore various options. If you’re creative and want to consider artistic careers, take a class in flower design or arrangement, or something similar. Visit professionals in career fields that interest you, to see what work in that career is really like. For example, if you’re considering a career as a physical therapist, find one in your community and ask to talk to him or her about the job. Arrange for a visit and ask questions to help you gain a better understanding of the tasks and duties, and to see if they would satisfy your interests and values. True professionals are always willing to share information about what they do.
Career change is a dynamic, exciting process that requires organization, strength, discipline, and flexibility. A flexible approach and consideration of the elements therein will go a long way to ensuring a successful outcome.
Don’t get caught up in the necessity of a plan.
Although being organized, systematic, and structured is essential in your approach to career change, be careful not to experience “paralysis by analysis.” In other words: Don’t become so caught up in the process that you lose sight of the ultimate goal—making a change. Sometimes you just have to begin the journey and figure out the direction to take as you travel. Over-reliance on planning can lead to stagnation and missed opportunities. Just experiencing life and its many opportunities often leads to answers to career questions.
Make sure you consider the impact potential career change will have on other elements of your life, such as family and leisure time.
Sometimes, the best decision for you might have a challenging or possibly unbearable impact on family members and other areas of your life. Time requirements for work in a new career as well as the time and money needed to obtain education and training will come from other areas of your life. For example, a 60-hour work week or a demanding school schedule will take time away from other parts of your life, e.g., parent and spouse roles. A systematic, thorough approach to evaluating career options will help you determine if a career under consideration might “fit” other areas of your life.
Sometimes the best career change may be no change at all.
Many people mistake dissatisfaction with their current job or employer as an indication of a need to change careers. You might very well be in the right career field but in the wrong job. Take a look at whether your current career meets your interests and values; if so, a change of job/employer—not career field—may be what you need. Ensure your occupation-specific values (those that are characteristic of your career field) are being met, and if so a job change may be all you need. For example, a social worker may consider a career change because of a demanding supervisor and difficult co-workers. If this individual still believes his or her interests and values are still being met by being a social worker, then perhaps a job with a different supervisor/coworker match is the more appropriate change.