Tips For Finding Your New Career

Coach Sue Powell shares her tips on how to change to a new career successfully and as stress-free as possible

Here are my top 10 tips to help you get started towards a new career path!

1. Spend Some Time Getting To Know Yourself Better

Think about the things you really enjoy doing and ask yourself what’s so good about them? What’s important about them? How do you feel when you’re doing them? Is it related to the sector, type of task, environment or something else? Where else could you find those types of fulfilling work experience?

2. Ask Yourself Who and What You’re Really Changing for

When it comes to your work, try to avoid doing anything that’s about other people’s ‘musts, shoulds and ought tos’ To really bring about change it has to come from you. When you know the change is what you really want and what makes it so important to you, it becomes easier to hold steady against doubts and challenges from friends, family, and to stick at going after what you want.

3. Don’t Just Dream and do Nothing!

You’ve had this dream for so many years and done nothing about it then it’s probably become an embarrassment, or a family joke! So either ditch it or change the way you think about and describe it. What would be available ifyou had/did this in your work life? Is the appeal still resonant or is it part of an old story now? What if this were in your life but not necessarily your full time work? Remember: "Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world." Joel Barker

4. Create A Vibrant, Positive Mental Picture Of Your Dream

Too often we focus on a goal as an insurmountable hurdle to be
overcome. If it’s really important to you though, then having achieved it will bring about some really positive benefits and that’s what you need to focus on. Imagine life with this in it…how would that be? Draw it, write about or paint it!

5. Set Yourself Realistic Milestones

Moving to a new career can be a big step change so make sure you have a clear action plan with smaller milestones along the way. Sometimes the route isn’t linear so be prepared that the milestones may be ways of accumulatingknowledge, expertise or contacts towards your final dream career. Remember that “a journey of a thousand miles begins with a small step” ~ Lao Tzu (570?490 BC).

6. Maintain a Sense of Balance

A major change in work stands as one of the top 20 areas most likely to
create stress. Carving out a new career path will take energy, commitment and focus so don’t try to change everything significant in your life in one go and pay attention to the things in your life that will help set you up for success. Think about activities that help you to relax or feel confident for example. Once you make changes in one area of your life, this can also alter how you feel about others.

7. Redefine the ‘F word’ – Failure

Take note how many times you give yourself a hard time for not having done something. Be gentle with yourself! Failure only means that you didn’t get that job or that place to study this time. It doesn’t mean you won’t get what you want at some point, and more importantly, it doesn’t mean you’re a failure either.

8. Notice the choices you have, and then the ones you make

Every obstacle, tough day with the kids, fight with the partner can make it hard to stick to something especially because creating change involves making brave new choices. Often we get scared and jump straight back to familiar ways of being and doing. Every time we say no to something, we also say yes to something else. Ask yourself, what are you choosing to say yes, and no to right now?

9. Celebrate success whenever you can

Clearly define what success looks like and how you’ll reward yourself when you get there. Celebrate that you finally got your CV into shape! Or that you set yourself a goal of 10 applications and completed them! Or that you finally got accepted for that loan to do the extra training you need! Celebration has many faces and forms – make sure you celebrate in ways that are meaningful for you…after all you’re doing the work!

10. Create your own support

Career change is much easier and so much more fun when you have support form people who believe in you and encourage you going after your dreams. Everyone benefits from some kind of support to boost morale. After all it’s part of being a human being. Find a buddy or a relevant professional club with the same interest, or work with a coach for a while. 

Leave a comment below: Which of thse tips have you already been using in your career change, and which ones may you need to start doing?

Sue Powell is an experienced executive and career coach who helps people to express themselves more fully and live more purposefully through their choice of, and approach to, their career and work. She believes in helping people to be able to bring themselves more fully to their work lives, and is no stranger to career change herself. Though she originally trained and worked as a dietitian in the NHS, she has changed career more than once, before discovering the work she loves nowadays as a coach, trainer and facilitator.  www.suepowell.co.uk www.eluminas.com