Career "clarity"? is only the beginning. Overcome these 3 common obstacles and make a "career change"?!

Career "clarity" is only the beginning. Overcome these 3 common obstacles and make a "career change"!

Everyone has dreams of leaving an unsatisfying job and having a job of their dreams.

What makes an "ideal job" varies by each individual:

  • Stability
  • Higher pay
  • Generous/unlimited PTO
  • Flexible work schedule
  • Premium fringe benefits
  • More influence
  • Higher career advancement

"Career clarity" is dependent upon an individual and depends on their unique circumstances, such as health, finance, future goals, family situation, etc.

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It is one thing to have clarity and a person understanding what type of career they want, but it's an entirely different battle to actually change careers.

What is stopping everybody from making a plunge?

It is easier said than done, as there are many obstacles in the way for established workers attempting to turn their "career clarity" into a "career change".

Let's dive deep into some common struggles with transitioning career professionals!

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I'm way too old to be making these moves!

This is a MYTH! Age is just a number!

It's naive to say that there is no age discrimination, as all companies have an incentive to cut costs and higher young and cheap.

However, being an older professional making a huge in your 40s and 50s is indeed possible:

  • Milton Lee started out working in Wall Street, then became an executive for an NBA franchise, the Brooklyn Nets
  • Jeff Foxworthy majored in computers at Georgia Tech, then worked at IBM before becoming a comedian
  • Dr. Ken Jeong worked as a Physician until his late 30s, then became a full-time actor

Age is not a deal-breaker, but some additional work and sacrifices will need to be made to overcome the disadvantages of being a late-career professional.

"Starting over" with no experience or seniority will be inevitable, so training will need to be done to make up the skill gap to a reasonable baseline level.

Transferable skills from a previous career, as well as being realistic with initial expectations for compensation and development is key.

Leveraging prior intangibles and maturity will eventually allow folks who are driven to climb the latter even faster than new-grad or junior talent!

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Who would take a risk on me? I've never worked in this field! Am I out of place?

It's important to remember that when applying as a candidate with zero formal experience, this company is taking a calculated risk on them.

The company would have to hire this candidate under the assumption that they are at developmental "ground zero".

This is not a unique struggle, as new graduates and junior talent also are starting from the very beginning. This can be taken advantage of, as these groups are in competition for the same role.

Career experience would be considered an advantage in this case, as ramping up and acclimating to the pace of a new role is easier for a mature professional!

In addition, there might be doubt by the employer that an industry outsider is truly serious about switching to an entirely new field and may question commitment.

In this scenario, going above and beyond with projects, internships, certifications, write-ups, etc. in addition to already existing skills is the way to establish serious intent for changing professions!

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This is impossible, where would I find roles that would even consider me?

Chances are folks coming from a prior industry already have a strong, large professional network.

The big obstacle here is that the existing network might not have any direct relevant connections that align with the desired career change.

This does not mean that one should start completely over with their existing professional relationships. Instead of discarding an existing network, current connections can be leveraged to find out if their expanded network might have new professionals to meet and request advice and opportunities.

Getting active on Twitter and LinkedIn is important because a different professional network needs to be built to find opportunities.

All opportunities are behind people, and even if a prospective candidate is perfect in every way, they must be known to exist first.

Grow your connections, post frequent content, and contribute to conversations going on in the industry that may lead to unforeseen opportunities!

If you want to learn more about the strategies we implement in our program, let's get you on a call now!

https://calendly.com/level-up-in-tech/15min

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written by Christian Talavera

Adedamola Olaofe

Business Development Manager

3 年

Thank you so much.. The piece is actually very timely for me. ??

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Princess B.

Vulnerability Management | Cloud Security | Terraform | Containerization | AWS | Bash | Linux | CI/CD | Docker | Jenkins

3 年

This speaks to our convo the other day. I appreciate your honesty. Definitely been asking myself more questions.

Tara Orchard

Career Strategist ?? Job Search ?? Entrepreneur coach ?? Infusing psychology, neuro/cognitive science, HI/AI to guide quality of career, life, job improvements ?? Branding strategy 4 LinkedIn, Resumes, Social Media

3 年

Working for years as a career coach I know many people who asked all the questions and had all the concerns Broadus Palmer outlined in this post. Those that took the career change plunge with both thoughtfulness and tenacity made it through to a new career. Do your home work and consider well what is right for you, then make a plan for change because the future is comings whether you are prepared for it or not.

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