11,567 Career Changers Shared Their Experiences. Here's What It Means For You

You know something needs to change. You've known for a while. And yet here you are, still in the same situation, still feeling lost, still reading career change articles online.

You're not alone in that – and you're not alone in being stuck. 

In April 2026, we at Careershifters released the biggest piece of research we’ve done in 20 years of helping people to find and move into more fulfilling work. 

We surveyed 11,567 career changers to find out what was driving you to want to shift, and what was holding you back.

We're living and working longer, industries are shifting faster, and more people are rethinking their careers than ever before. But while careers have changed, many of the systems and support structures around careers and career change have not.

What emerged from our research was a picture of a crisis of clarity: people who are struggling at work – really struggling, for long periods of time – and who know they need to change, but have no map for how. 

Here's what we found, and what it means for you.

​The reasons you want to leave aren't unrealistic or unreasonable. 

In the back of your mind, you may have wondered if you’re being unreasonable to want to change.

Is it selfish to want work to be more fulfilling? Are you being starry-eyed and flighty? Especially in today’s job market and economic climate, shouldn’t you be grateful to have a job at all? 

If you’re anything like the report respondents, the answer is likely to be ‘no’.

The people who took part in our research told us that the biggest reasons they want to shift are unsupportive or unhealthy work environments (43%), poor work-life balance or wellbeing (41%), and values or purpose misalignment (40%)

73% of our career changers told us that work damages their life satisfaction. Life, both inside and outside of work, feels duller, less enjoyable, less hopeful.

Of those, 91% say it also harms their mental health. We see this across the board in the people we work with – more and more disclosures of burnout, anxiety, depression, or simply people telling us “I don’t feel like myself any more.” 

These are not insignificant reasons for wanting to shift, nor signs of being fickle or chasing a fantasy. You're responding rationally to conditions that genuinely aren't working.

And this has been going on for a long time. 74% have been considering a change for over a year. 26% for three years or more.

Three years means 156 Sunday evenings with that feeling of dread rising in your chest. Three years of meetings that are somehow both stressful and boring. Three years of scrolling job boards without knowing what you're even looking for, or lying awake spinning chaotic circles inside your head.

This isn't a bad mood or a challenging few weeks. You’re struggling, on multiple levels, in environments that are damaging the way you feel about life in general, and you’re spending a long time looking for a way to fix it.

You don’t know where you’re going (yet)

Contrary to what you might imagine, it's not fear keeping most career changers stuck. 

Yes, of course you’re scared of the uncertainty, and worried about what might happen if you take a wrong step, but that’s not the biggest thing in the way. 

It's not money, either – many of you do feel trapped by your salary, or worried about the potential costs of retraining, but only 12% of you said that finances was your absolute number one obstacle.

The primary challenge that career changers face (49%) is that you don’t know what you want to do next. 

In fact, nearly 60% of the people we heard from say they want to move into a different industry entirely, yet 36% of those have no idea which industry or role they’re aiming for.

You’re feeling lost, uncertain, and trapped by a lack of clarity about what kind of work would actually be fulfilling. 

All you know for sure is that you want out.

You’re trying to do this (mostly) on your own

Have you asked for help with your career change? 

Sought out expert guidance, hired a professional, or joined a community for support?

If not, you’re not the only one.

47% of career changers told us they were navigating the process completely alone. 

Perhaps you’re not talking about how you’re feeling at all. You don’t want to burden anyone. You don’t want to seem ungrateful, or dramatic, and you don’t want people to get sick of hearing you complain about a problem you don’t know how to fix.

Maybe you’re even a little ashamed of where you’re at. Admitting you’re in the wrong career can feel like a failure, and asking for help would mean that you’re not as capable as you should be.

So when you do ask for help, you tend to go to the people who feel safest – which isn't always the same as the people who are best placed to help.

Of those who have sought help with their shift, the most common source is friends and family (38%), not professional guidance. 

Now, there’s nothing wrong with asking for help from your loved ones. They care about you, and (when they’re supportive) they can be a great source of encouragement and motivation. But they’re not experts, and they rarely know any more about how to navigate a sideways move than you do.

So you're left returning to the same lonely conversation inside your head, cycling through the same ideas and discarding them over and over again, occasionally picking up a book or doing an online personality test, and hoping that at some point something will just ‘click’.

Why the standard responses aren't working 

Taking all of this together, we’re looking at potentially millions of people feeling trapped in stressful, damaging working environments; with no idea where they want to go next, no idea how to work it out, and who are struggling to ask for help. 

That's a lot to be carrying. And the systems around you haven't made it any easier.

The social ‘scripts’ most of us are taught about career change (follow your passion, take a leap of faith) are largely designed for people who already know where they're going. They don't speak to the 49% of you who are primarily stuck on the question of what you even want. 

Employers are investing more than ever in workplace wellbeing, and that effort is often genuine and well-intentioned. But engagement surveys, wellbeing campaigns, and flexible Fridays can only go so far without tackling the underlying issues that are driving people like you to want to leave.

And public policy largely still focuses on early-career transitions and unemployment – leaving millions of people in the middle of their working lives, rethinking what comes next, largely without a map, a guide, or a safety net.

You’re not broken, or lazy, or lacking courage. You simply don’t have a map for how to tackle this, and (almost) no one is helping you draw one.

What actually helps 

In our twenty years’ of experience supporting career changers to find and move into more fulfilling work, we’ve found everything changes when you have three things: 

1. Structured support for figuring out what you want, 
2. Community so you’re not doing it alone, and
3. Permission to treat career change as a normal part of life, rather than a crisis or an indulgence. 

Now – some of this, ideally, would come from policymakers and organisations. 

But you don't have to wait for the systems to catch up.

• Educate yourself on what works for making a career change – because it’s not the same as a normal job hunt, and treating it the same might be what’s keeping you stuck. 

This might be in the form of workshops or courses like those we offer at Careershifters, but it doesn’t have to be paid-for. Seek out people in your life who have made successful shifts and talk to them about their experiences; what worked for them, and what advice do they have for you?

If you're not sure where to start, we've put together the core principles here – it's a good first read.

• Put a support team around you – to provide the motivation, validation, and accountability you need (and yes, you do need it). 

This should consist of a range of people, including other career changers, mentors, accountability buddies, and cheerleaders. Important: they should not be your parents or closest friends, and you may need to go out and meet new people in order to populate your support team effectively. 

We've written a practical guide to building your support team here, including what to do if you feel like you don't know anyone who could help.

• Start before you feel ‘ready’ – because career change happens in small steps, not big leaps. 

Don’t allow even more time to pass while you wait for clarity to hit. Insight, ideas, and real-world data come through action, not thinking. This doesn’t mean handing in your resignation with nowhere to go – instead, start exploring your interests and curiosities through small experiments alongside your current work. 

Here's what small experiments actually look like in practice – and how to fit them around a job and a life.

The ‘State of Career Change Report’ 2026 is the output of the stories and experiences of 11,567 people; real people who are out there right now, feeling the same things as you’re feeling. 

But keep this in mind: the voices in the report are those of career changers who are still in the thick of things, still searching. 

Just as real are the voices and experiences of the people who found their way through, and who are now in work that feels like it fits who they are. 

It was possible for them. And with the right support, it is for you too. 

Read the full ‘State of Career Change’ 2026 report here

Want hands-on, personalised help with your career change? Join our online workshop