Motivation Ignites Change: 6 Signs You're Prepared for a Career Shift - Part 1

People pursue various paths for different reasons. I strongly believe that when individuals engage in work that sustains them financially and makes them happy, it feels almost divine.

Switching careers sometimes needs you to look inside yourself for the courage to take that big step. It's not usually just one thing that pushes you—it could be a plan you've thought about, a stroke of good luck, changes in the economy, or being ready for an opportunity that shows up unexpectedly. These reasons and more make people want to change careers. Some do it for professional reasons, others for personal ones. But the main hope is to find something you really enjoy.

I went through this too, driven by some quiet motivations. Here are the first three things that ignited my change:

Discovering Passion: Unveiling my Love for Tech Post-Graduation

My ideas about science and digitalisation changed a lot while working in my first job after graduation. I started in the Applied Mathematics department as a trainee right after university and later became a Research Engineer and Programmer.

Back in university, we learned languages like QBasic and FORTRAN, but they faded from my memory quickly without real life application. At my first job, they tested us with tricky math problems to solve and asked us to write simple computer programs for the answers. I got into it and found joy in working with concepts like Newton Raphson, Navier stokes equation and other fun numerical transforms. We even made our own Maths and fluid flow libraries using languages like C# and Matlab.

I was amazed at how much fun it was. I made great friends there. We were young and ready to try new things. We'd brainstorm ideas and quickly turn them into cool programs.

From that intense training, I learned something important: with imagination and a team, you can make any app.

My interest in automation and making apps grew a lot. I dug deeper into fluid dynamics, doing research on things like vertical lift performance (VLP) and inflow performance relationship (IPR) curves, learning about flow, fluid, and rock stuff. We did all the coding ourselves, exploring new things. But my love for Math and programming kept me going. I fell in love with using IT tools for making things simpler. This experience made me love problem-solving.

Passion isn't just what starts a career change—it's what keeps you going and doing well in a new job.

Embracing New Horizons: Exciting Opportunities in IT

The world is swiftly evolving, and a key catalyst in this transformation is digitalization. As AI pushes boundaries and profoundly shapes our civilization, the monumental changes driven by the IT industry cannot be overlooked.

Personally, I enjoy the constant evolution in the tech realm. Knowledge becomes outdated swiftly, necessitating continuous learning and adaptation. Witnessing the digital shift in numerous roles over the past decade and foreseeing more in the future, I spotted an opportunity to swiftly immerse myself in this domain. I realised that even within Engineering, I can become a digital expert or venture into entirely different spheres while leveraging my IT skills. The flexibility and wealth of opportunities from the digital trend motivated my shift to tech.

For someone moving completely into a new field, this also provides a fresh challenge which I found motivating.

Transitioning from a production engineering role to the realm of IT, one striking disparity is the agile nature of IT projects. Engineering decisions, understandably due to their potential impact on process safety and heavy investment, demand a more traditional approach. For people like me who are more inclined towards a fast paced way of working, it was an opportunity to do something different, move from my comfort zone and face an exciting challenge of learning about AI and other emerging technologies.

Citizen Development: My Shortcut to Enter the IT World

I really love making things simpler, faster, and more efficient—getting more done with less work. When I wanted to switch careers, I deliberately sought out the easiest way, and that's where citizen development came in. Companies like 微软 , Salesforce , Mendix , ServiceNow , OutSystems etc have made it easier for anyone to add value using simple tools. With AI and Automation, learning to shift into tech has never been smoother. You can learn to make your first app in just a day at a bootcamp. When I was in my last years in Production, I made lots of products using these easy tools. They not only got me awards but also gave me the confidence to make the switch.

Citizen Development became my way into the IT world. You can keep your current job and still learn about tech using this method. It helps you understand tech better, manage projects, and make your tasks easier—all at once.

Finding shortcuts to switch to a new job while you're still in your current one can be really helpful.

If you feel these three things:

1. Passion for what you want to do.
2. Seeing opportunities in that field or team.
3. Finding a quick way into the new job using your old skills.

You're in a good spot to try a new career, job or role!

There are three more things that made me switch jobs, and I'll share them in my next article. for now;

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