Why all Career Changers Should Consider Location in Their Plans

By Sab

Whether you plan to move abroad as part of your career change, or are happy to stay in your current country, it is important to consider where you physically live with regards to your career. For some of us, where we live is intrinsically linked to how we choose our career.  Alongside considering skills, activities we like to do, and type of work environments we desire from work, we can also consider lifestyle more broadly and whether our career support the lifestyle we want.

How do you want to Shape Your Life?

How do we make decisions about whether to ‘follow the money’ (and/or your work bliss) if it means uprooting yourself to another town or country if you‘re not really happy about doing so?  Do we decide that where and how we live our lives is more important than letting a job or career dictate where we live?

I know that those were laden-questions - that you shouldn’t let work be the defining factor for where you live. For some people, their passion (in the form of work) is absolutely worth moving to other places. Those involved in adventure, travel and action activities are happy to move to where they need to be. A ski instructor would be happy to move to the Alps! Likewise somebody passionate about french cuisine would happily relocate to work in a top level hotel restaurant in Paris, or a chateau in the French countryside.

A Marriage of Lifestyle and Work

The principle applies to all of us, whether we're chefs, teachers, or officeworkers. The best thing would be to have a marriage of the lifestyle you want (that suits your personality), and the type of work you want to do (again, that suits your personality!).

If you love your work, you’re living in a place where you’re with the right kind of people you like to be with, and have the leisure opportunities you want accessible to you, then that’s the ideal.

So if you are planning on moving to a new place (city, rural, country) or taking on a job which will impact your lifestyle in a big way (perhaps a lot of travelling, or one that means you have to be located in one certain place) consider how you want to shape your life. Outside of work, what would you like to be spending your time doing, and with whom? Does the place you’re moving to provide you with that?

I'm off to plot my relocation plan!


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"The Careershifters workshop helped me realise that it’s never too late to change your career, that these advances take time and, I am confident that if I stick with my ‘plan’ I won’t make another wrong career move."

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"Careershifters helped me realise that there were many small steps I could take towards improving my job satisfaction. Gaining greater focus has given me a renewed enthusiasm for my work, giving me the confidence to negotiate a one year sabbatical."



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