Self-Awareness: The First Step to a Successful Career Transition

Starting a career transition is an important decision, often accompanied by uncertainties yet brimming with enthusiasm and a search for purpose. I believe that at the heart of a true career change is self-awareness—a deep understanding of your strengths, values, and aspirations. By dedicating time to self-discovery, you can make decisions that align with who you really are, leading to a more fulfilling and resilient professional path.

In this article, we’ll explore the importance of self-awareness in career transitions and guide you through practical steps to unlock your true potential.

Reflecting on Your Skills and Interests

Self-awareness begins with evaluating your skills and interests. Knowing your strengths and what you enjoy doing is essential for choosing a career that brings both satisfaction and growth.

Tips to Get Started:

• Identify Your Strengths: Create a list of your core skills and ask for feedback from colleagues or friends who know your work well.
• Conduct a Personal SWOT Analysis: Carry out a personal SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis to understand where you excel and where development might be needed.

When I first tried this exercise, I discovered strengths in the commercial area that I hadn’t paid attention to before (in other words, I was selling without realising I was a salesperson!). I also identified areas for improvement that led me to seek additional knowledge in specific sales techniques and methods, such as SPIN or MEDDPICC (classic methods in the SaaS B2B industry). Studying these areas opened up a path to enter the industry I’d been aiming for, but previously had no clear idea how to transition into.

With this simple exercise, you can begin to create a clearer view of the types of fields or industries that best suit your profile.

Identifying Your Values and Purpose

Understanding your core values helps guide your career choices with greater coherence and depth. A lack of alignment with personal values can lead to internal conflicts, dissatisfaction, and frustration. However, when we align our career with our values, we gain a greater sense of purpose and belonging.

Tips to Get Started:

• Define Your Values: Reflect on what truly matters to you. Is it innovation, collaboration, work-life balance, or social impact? Only you can say!
• Explore Your Purpose: Think about the legacy you want to leave or the impact you wish to make in your environment or society as a whole. These reflections can provide valuable insights into career paths that offer genuine fulfillment for you.

I have moved out from cities and even countries several times. I’ve resigned from high-level positions and changed fields at different points in my life, always striving to align my professional life with my purpose. To achieve this, I’ve always kept my compass guiding me based on my values, which serve as my foundation: transparency, courage, faith, and unconditional dedication to what I choose to do.

Knowing your values and understanding your purpose allows you to seek roles, companies, and positions that align with your personal mission, creating a career that makes sense in the long run.

Recognising Behaviour Patterns

How you respond to change, challenges, and stress indicates how you’ll handle a career transition. Recognising behavioural patterns can help you prepare for potential obstacles and build resilience.

Tips to Get Started:

• Observe Your Reactions: Notice how you respond to stress and feedback. Do you like to face and overcome challenges, or do you prefer more stability and security?
• Behavioural Tests: Tools like the DISC assessment can provide insights into your natural tendencies, helping you plan how to navigate the highs and lows of a career change.

Understanding your behavioural patterns enables you to manage this transition more smoothly, recognising how you’re likely to respond in uncertain moments and finding ways to navigate these periods without missing the changes necessary for growth.

Accepting Limitations and Preparing to Overcome Them

Self-awareness is not just about understanding your strengths, but also recognising your limitations. Acknowledging areas where you may lack expertise or confidence can help you prepare and bridge these gaps before making a big change.

Tips to Get Started:

• Identify Knowledge Gaps: Be honest about the skills or knowledge you need to learn or develop to reach your desired position.
• Create a Development Plan: Change doesn’t happen overnight. Begin building new skills gradually through courses, mentorship, or hands-on projects. Have patience with yourself—these changes are gradual and require time and dedication.

Knowing where you need to grow and proactively working on these areas helps build a solid foundation for an effective career transition. When I decided to gain in-depth knowledge of CRM marketing, I dedicated six months to complete my Salesforce certification. I understood that there was no shortcut, as it involved many new skills across a broad topic. I instilled discipline in myself, and ultimately, it became one of the most valuable skills I acquired in recent years, completely changing the course of my career.

Self-awareness is the foundation of any successful career transition. By investing time in understanding your strengths, values, behaviours, and limitations, you open the door to a career change that is both rewarding and sustainable. Remember: the more you invest in understanding yourself, the more confident and prepared you will be to embark on new paths.