5 Biggest Mistakes Career Changers Make and How To Avoid Them

Part of Kathy Caprino's series "Living and Working Better"

As a career coach and a career reinventer myself, I can confidently say that changing your career to something that is more suited to your values, needs, skills, and interests, is doable today, even in these challenging and ever-shifting times.?But to switch careers effectively and achieve a positive outcome, you need a lot of things to go right and a big dose of these five ingredients: clarity, courage, confidence, commitment, and competence.?Without these, you’ll most likely struggle hard and fail.?Further, there are core?steps you must take?to ensure you are emotionally, financially, and professionally ready for this next step and for the eight?important stages?that you’ll undergo.

Step one to successful career change is to take off your rose-colored glasses, and get hip to your own trip about what you’ve created so far, and how you’ve potentially contributed to the challenges you face.?Start to hold yourself more accountable than ever before for what’s in front of you.?If chucking your career is appealing, certainly explore career change, but make sure you take concrete steps necessary to avoid the five top blunders so many experience.?These missteps will wreak havoc on your life, relationships, health, your checkbook, and your future. (I know because I made all of these when I began transitioning away from my corporate VP role into the helping professions.)

To hear all about these 5 big mistakes, tune into my Finding Brave podcast episode this week:

And below is some additional information you need to know about the 5 biggest mistakes career changers make and how to bypass them:

#1: “The Pendulum Effect”?– Running from your career because you've broken down in it

If you're struggling and you’ve waited too long to make changes in your current situation, you’ve most likely grown to hate your job, or your colleagues, the work you do and skills you use, and you want to run as far away as possible.??This was me 20 years ago?– I really couldn’t stand any longer what I was doing for a living or who I was doing it for and with, so I ran to the farthest corner of the professional world I could find. And that was becoming a marriage and family therapist.?I believed that becoming a therapist would heal me and heal what had been so wrong in my 18-year corporate life. But that wasn't exactly what happened. As some time passed after going out on my own in a new therapy private practice, I found that a number of the same damaging problems and experiences began re-emerging, just with a different cast of people.

In hindsight, I can say that my training as a therapist was an extremely powerful and life-changing endeavor for me and I'm so grateful for it. It gave me transformational skills, insights and experiences that I draw on every day now in my current work as a coach and writer.?But living the professional “identity” and reality of the life and career of a family therapist – and dealing as I did with clients who were experiencing many dark (and harrowing) facets of human life including rape, incest, pedophilia, suicidality, drug addiction, substance abuse and even attempted murder -- was, in the end, not what I wanted to be focusing on as a professional.?I needed a second reinvention to arrive at what truly worked for me.

What I learned is that there is a way out of this blunder which is this:

Don’t wait until you are desperately unhappy and want to flee your current situation to make a change.?Do it before the breakdown happens.

And definitely don’t leap to the other ends of the earth to a completely new career until you've worked on improving your current situation and who you are in dealing with difficult situations. Wherever you are today, reclaim your power in it.?Make your situation better by repairing broken relationships, building more self-respect, finding your voice, speaking up for what you need and want, growing your skills, developing stronger boundaries, and becoming more competent.?In short, work to close your power gaps, or they will continue to thwart your success in the next chapter and next career.

After you've taken proactive steps to strengthen and empower yourself in your current situation, then when you do leave, you’ll be able to achieve a new level of success and you’ll have made clear, rational decisions that will move you forward successfully.?Running away will not solve your problems. Unfortunately, if the inner work isn't done to improve your life and situation even just a little, the same problems often repeat again and again.

#2: Not developing a sound financial plan that will support your transition

Folks come to coaching help wanting a total career change, but many do not have any available money – either in the bank or accessible through other avenues – to make those desired changes.?They simply don’t know or haven’t researched how long their desired transition will take, and they don’t have funds to support them during the change.?

Unfortunately, most of us can't go from making $75,000 in one career to replicating that salary in a completely new career right away, without it taking time, effort and work and often new education and training.?And for many people, outside help and guidance is needed to make the right career change.?

Do engage in solid research and explore the financial aspects and other educational, training, and requirements of your desired change with your accountant and financial consultant and with experts in that specific career, to help you understand clearly – without emotion and without relying solely on a “build it and they will come” mentality – what is necessary to make it through your transition while remaining financially afloat.

If there’s no money available, you'll have to create a new plan with the help of a sound financial advisor (including perhaps finding ways to earn more, borrowing from someone you trust, drawing on your bonus, reducing your expenses, revising your lifestyle, etc.) to sock away the money that you'll need to make this change.

#3: Glomming onto the wrong “form” of work

In deciding to make a career change, you must first identify the “essence” of what you want and then you can begin identifying the right "form" (job, role, career, etc.) of it. In other words, many people fantasize about pursuing a brand new, exciting direction (writing a bestselling book, leaving finance to become a coach, pursuing teaching, etc.), but actually know nothing about the living reality of that direction or what it will require of them.

Before you say, "I want this new career!" do your research and "try on" this new work in any ways you can (volunteer, shadow, intern, take on a small project in that field, etc.). And before you take that step, get in closer connection to who you really are, what you want deep down, and ways you would enjoy leveraging your natural skills and talents to build the life and career that aligns with your true values, needs and goals.

Some preliminary questions you need to answer are:

-?What skills and talents do I want to utilize every day in my new work?

-?What business outcomes do I wish to support?

-?What type of people, environments and cultures do I thrive best with/in?

-?Which values, standards of integrity and needs must be supported through this work?

-?What types of challenges do I want to face in my work?

-?What financial compensation and benefits and other aspects of work are non-negotiables for me? (For more about how to negotiate now for what you want now, click here.)

Once you’ve dimensionalized the “essence” of what you want, then you have to find the right “form” of work that fits you, your lifestyle, your family and your needs.?This is where folks trip up the most.??Because they want independence, freedom and flexibility, for instance, they might assume that running their own business is right for them.?Yet for thousands, it isn’t (read?The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What To Do About?It, by Michael Gerber, for more).??Figure out exactly what living that career will demand of you, and make sure it’s what you truly want, not just something that appears glamorous or thrilling from the outside.

#4:?Not digging deep enough

Let’s say you’ve been in TV production for 10 years and you are hankering to move into teaching a foreign language at a high school or university.?I’d ask you to explore deeply and honestly all the reasons behind your wish to teach. These may include wanting to bring your language skills forward, or helping young adults become more successful, or mentoring people to communicate more effectively, or leaving toxic corporate politics behind, etc.??

But is this switch to teaching a language truly going to bring you the satisfaction and contentment you're wanting, or can you fulfill these longings in a different way that suits your needs without changing careers???Are you sure you’ll be happy with all the other professional dimensions involved with being a teacher??I personally know many teachers who find the work fulfilling and rewarding, but many others who can't wait until they can retire and leave teaching behind for good.

Make sure you’re digging deep enough to understand what you really want from this career change, and don't chuck everything out when, in fact, a smaller type of career adjustment may be more advantageous for you.

Do as much research and exploration as possible, and dig as deeply as you can to determine what you want, and?what you really want?from this career change.?Perhaps you don’t want a different career at all, but long to bring new aspects of yourself, your talents, creativity and skills forward in ways you enjoy and can be proud of.? And perhaps that's best done through pursuing a hobby or passion outside of your full-time work rather than walking away from your current profession.

The question is: What professional?identity?will make you the happiest?

#5: Giving up too quickly

Finally, failed career changes often involve throwing in the towel too quickly.?You can’t make life or career change without significant effort, time, commitment, and usually some substantial money. I’m stunned when people expect major change to happen overnight – or within a few months.?They’re so eager (or desperate) to leave behind what’s made them miserable, that they simply can’t tough it out long enough to get to the destination they want.

For instance, I've had clients who want to give up their full-time high-level (and lucrative) corporate careers and transition to being a full-time coach, and they believe that doing that will be easy and they can earn $100,000 within a year of starting as a coach. The truth is that that is highly unlikely and very rare.

If?recent studies?are right, during the months of April, May, and June?2021,?a total of 11.5 million workers?quit their jobs and it's likely not over. According to Gallup's State of the Global Workplace 2021 report, "following a steady rise over the last decade, employee engagement decreased globally by two percentage points, from 22% in 2019 to 20% in 2020. Leaders will need to address this decrease and the business impact on workplace culture, employee retention and performance."

It’s a phenomenon of huge proportion. If it's impacting you and encouraging you to dream of making a huge career change, certainly get on a path to exploring it in every way you can and "trying on" physically and emotionally some new directions.

But do it smart. Don't let your emotions, anger and frustration lead you to simply run away.

Take the right steps to make well-founded decisions about what you want to change and what you want to keep, so that you can avoid these top mistakes and make a true success of your new life and direction.

In the end, address your life and career change with eyes wide open, and with the seriousness, rigor, commitment and emotional balance that your career – and you – deserve.

Which of these career change mistakes may be impacting you today? Share them below.

Kathy Caprino, M.A. is a career and leadership coach, speaker, educator, and author of?The Most Powerful You: 7 Bravery-Boosting Paths to Career Bliss. She helps professionals build their most rewarding and successful careers through her?Career & Leadership Breakthrough?coaching?programs,?Finding Brave?podcast,?assessments?and?training, and her courses?The Amazing career Project?and the new?The Most Powerful You?course.

For monthly career growth guidance, inspiration and support, subscribe to Kathy's new digital newsletter Your Path to Career Bliss here.