Before Shifting Careers, Ask Yourself These Questions

Changing careers is one of the most drastic decisions you'll ever make in your professional life. You can't leave anything to chance when you've decided to go with a different direction, career-wise. Before plunging into relatively unknown waters of a new career, we advise you take time out and review these questions so you won't undergo this process like a fish out of water:

Why do you want to shift careers?

You do not need to be overly philosophical or deep about your reasons, although you need to have conviction. Career changes are difficult, and if you do not have the conviction to back your decision, you may find the process overwhelming. Moreover, you wouldn't want to second-guess and doubt your decision, which is why you need to be convinced of your reasons for changing careers. The most common reasons are:

• Feeling stuck in a rut
• Feeling undervalued
• Feeling uninterested and unchallenged
• Change of role because your company has undergone restructuring
• Uneasiness in your relationships with co-workers and/or managers
• A general need for a new environment

Are you sure it's a change of career you want?

Think about your factors of wanting a change. Is it the work you've lost appetite for? Is it your company? Is it your co-workers you don't want to work with anymore? Your answer to the first question should lead you to an enlightened response to this question, as you may realize that you actually may not really want a career shift after all. You may want a change, but not a drastic one like a career shift. Depending on the factors that you have considered, you may want to consider:

• Staying in the same company but moving to another department
• Staying in the same field but moving to another company
• Switching careers

Where are you headed to after your shift?

You wouldn't want to be in a situation where you've already cut ties with your old career, only to feel lost about where you're heading. Your destination is an integral part of your career shift - you're shifting from one career to another. Thinking that "everything will be clearer once I'm free from my old career" is like diving into a pool without checking first if there's water in it - you are bound to break a lot of bones.

If you're not that specific about your next career, at least be clear about the details. Think about the ideal scenario you would want to enjoy on your next career. Do you want to:

• Deal with less paperwork?
• Work at home instead of reporting to an office?
• Be your own boss?
• Work with a more flexible schedule?
• Be less collaborative and work by yourself?

Are your skills and capabilities ready for your new career?

Think about what skills and capabilities you can use and those you lack for your new career. You may realize that you would need to invest in learning specific skills so you can actually do your new job. For example, if you have been a lawyer your entire professional life and you have this compulsion to have your own catering business, what lawyering skills can you use in this new venture? Do you even know how to bake?

What do you value most in a career?

Explore your values and take the things you hold most important into consideration. A shift in career may entail:

• A change in pace
• A change in location
• A change in status and importance
• Starting from the bottom again
• A change in income
• Changes in how you view work in general.

In the end, choosing to shift your career may end in regret - regret that you decided on pursuing it or regret that you didn't. But then, regrets can only come from things that you didn't act upon. If you did change your career and it didn't work out two, five, or ten years down the road, you can't really regret it, particularly if you learned a lot of valuable lessons from the experience. Moreover, a failed career change can only be an opportunity to either go back to your original career or stage yet another career change. A scenario that will most probably end in regret is if you don't make the change. In the future, do you foresee yourself regretting not having made a change? If yes, then that may be the only push you need to pursue the shift. But we insist, only after answering the questions above.

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