A career transition can be a huge change. If you haven’t prepared properly, different aspects of your life can start to unravel. After that, you could start to experience great stress and a general decline in your mental well-being.
It’s perfectly valid to want to switch up your professional life. You should have a full belief that you can reach your aspirations, regardless of your age or career path thus far. That said, your dreams mustn’t eclipse reality, especially when mapping the logistics of reorganising your life.
To remove stress from the career transition, you need to have a practical mindset. Here are some things you should consider doing to make your chances of success more likely.
Revisit Your Education
There can be a misconception that switching careers means starting from the beginning. However, that’s not always the case, and you may already have a strong educational foundation from which you can build.
For example, if you have a degree, dismiss the notion that your achievement was in vain now that you want to switch careers. If you’re interested in psychology, you can take an intensive Masters conversion course in psychology designed for students with a degree in one subject who wish to switch to another. You can study part-time or full-time, helping you ease these efforts into your schedule. An MSC psychology conversion could be exactly what you’re looking for.
Try not to worry about meeting the academic requirement for these courses either. There are also various preparation programs you can enroll on that can qualify you for entry. Knowing that you have these options at your disposal can relieve a lot of stress at the start of your career transition.
Consider Financial Management
A career transition can be especially stressful if you have money concerns already. It may be worth resolving those problems first to ease the switch without additional worries.
Consult an accountant or financial advisor if your spending habits need to be overhauled somewhat. Discuss your career aspirations with them so they can advise you on any changes to make. They should also be able to give you a rough timeline of when you can expect improvements and under what financial conditions a career change can be managed.
Set a strict budget for yourself too. Get more out of your money and make purchases in line with deals and discounts where necessary. Resist the urge to borrow funds from elsewhere for any reason before during the career change. Financial pressures can be anxiety-inducing at the best of times, so don’t make things harder for yourself during a career change.
Try not to view your career change as the sole answer to your financial problems. It can distort the reality of your situation and apply unnecessary pressure. See your career change as a way to enrich your skills and improve your level of job satisfaction. It’s a healthier mindset.
Find Inspiration
Though it can be exciting, some people might feel somewhat lonely or isolated when undergoing a career transition. It’s a radical shift in one’s life, and it can feel all-consuming and almost impossible to overcome at the moment.
It’s important to know that you’re not alone in your efforts. While it’s a huge undertaking for you, it’s not an unprecedented move to make, so it may be worth engaging with others who’ve made similar decisions in their lives. After all, there was a surge in people pursuing new careers at the end of 2020, so you shouldn’t be short on people to talk to.
Whether it’s friends and family, news articles, or strangers in a topical online forum, there will be plenty of anecdotes of people who navigated their career change successfully. Let their stories inspire and motivate you. If they can succeed in a career transition, then you can too.
Of course, there’s plenty of room for error in making big changes to one’s life. Career transitions can also be a bumpy road at times, but try not to let these accounts deter you. Instead, learn from others’ mistakes and use that knowledge to avoid making your own when changing careers.
Lean on Friends and Family
Your friends and family can provide more than just relevant anecdotes. If your relationships are strong, loved ones can be supportive figures and potentially help with many of the logistic questions you face.
For example, your friends and family might be able to:
- Help with household chores and childcare: Your loved ones may be able to temporarily take over some domestic duties as you put pieces in place and acclimatise to your new role.
- Put you in touch with contacts: If your loved one’s work history is related to your field of interest, they may be able to help you get your foot in the door.
- Listen well and provide encouragement: Loved ones will offer incredible moral support and enable you to vent concerns or share your deepest career aspirations freely.
There can be a temptation to operate as a lone wolf in your career. Perhaps you feel you need to prove something to yourself about being self-sufficient and independent? However, everybody needs help sometimes, especially during a career transition. Don’t hesitate to reach out and ask for it.
Consult a Career Advisor
Career advisors aren’t just for teenagers in high school. They can help you at any stage of your professional journey, including fateful transitions.
Reaching out to these experts is easy. Fortunately, there are many ways to contact them, depending on what you’re comfortable with. You can ring, email, chat online, or even post enquiries to them. Whatever the type of counsel you require, you’ll find it with a career advisor.
Friends and family can be useful for discussing your career transition. That said, they may not be completely well-versed in every aspect of a career transition. You should talk to them for support, but you should also consider consulting a career advisor, who may be equipped to talk you through the process in a more pragmatic, step-by-step approach.
Remember, a dedicated career advisor will have heard all of your concerns before, sometimes multiple times a day. They will have answers to your deepest concerns and readily share them with you. Trust in their counsel, and allow it to instill you with yet more confidence.