Top Tips to Change Your Career Halfway Through Your Working Life
Many people get to the middle of their working life and realize that their career is not what they expected it to be. If you feel this way, you might think that it is too late for you to change your career and to get a career that you love and that you find fulfilling. However, when you are in the middle of your career, you still have many years of your working life left, and these should be spent doing a career that you enjoy. Then, here are some of the best steps that you can take to change your career halfway through your working life, no matter what your job is.
1. Take a New Qualification
Many employers will want to know that you have the right knowledge. Although you might have copious knowledge in many different fields, it can be difficult to prove this. Obtaining a new qualification can help you to showcase your credentials, as well as fill in the gaps in your knowledge that you might not always be able to fill on your own. If you have a specific career choice in mind, though, you should consider taking a qualification that is tailored specifically toward this job role. For instance, if you want to become an RFCE administrator, assisted living administrator certification training can help you to get all of the skills and experience that you need, even if you have had no previous experience in the field of your dreams. This can then allow you to begin your career again in a sector that you are passionate about.
2. Choose an In-Demand Career
When you are already in the middle of your working life and want to change your career, you should look at which careers are in demand. If you pick an in-demand career to follow, you are opening yourself up to numerous job opportunities, many more than if you decided to simply choose a career at random without first researching the likelihood of getting your dream job. Not only will this make it easier for you to reach your career goals, but you will likely be able to find excellent qualifications and even funding to help you to get where you need to go. It is also likely that you will be able to progress in the field of your choice much faster once you have the right skills and experience that employers are looking for.
You should also consider thinking about changing your career to a less traditional job, such as a freelancer or a remote role, which can allow you to have a better work/life balance in most cases.
3. Use Your Contacts
If you have been working for a long time, you will likely have built up a wide range of different contacts throughout your working life, whether these contacts are working within your field or not. These contacts can then come in useful if you are planning to change your career, as you can use them to find out about job opportunities that you might not hear about yourself, and they may be able to give you advice from their own experience. Using your current contacts can be especially useful if you intend to change your career but remain in the same industry as before. If you do not have any useful contacts, you should consider attending various networking events which can put you in the same room as some of the most influential people in the field of your choice.
4. Utilize Your Current Skills
There is no point in wasting the years of experience and the skills that you have already built up, though. Instead, you must utilize the current skills that you have rather than simply focus on getting new ones. You will find that, even if you currently have an extremely specialist job, you will have transferrable skills that you can apply to your new job or career. Then, before you look for a new career, it is important that you take note of your current skills set and that you highlight any skills that may be able to be applied to a different context. Soft skills can particularly come in useful when you are changing your career, as skills like compassion, being a good listener, and leadership can help you to go far in many different industries.
5. Take Risks
As you get older, it may be easier to stop challenging yourself and taking risks, and you may be reluctant to, especially if you have a lot of responsibilities, such as a family. However, to progress in a new career, you need to be open to taking measured risks. If you take risks, though, you should always make sure that you have a backup plan that will ensure that you can remain financially secure and that you will never feel as if you are working aimlessly, without a goal or target in mind.
6. Make a Plan
However, it is especially important when you decide to change your career when you are older that you make a plan for your career change before you do anything else. This plan can help you to have a guide throughout the next few turbulent months and years and will ensure that you can always return to the outline that you originally set out for yourself when you believe that you may be going off-track. Making a plan will also allow you to check that your goals are achievable and ensure that you are always moving toward them. This can prevent you from failing to successfully change your career. Therefore, to make a plan for your career change, you should consider the steps that you will need to take by researching the career in question, as well as the timeframe that it might be possible to perform these steps in.
7. Keep Track of Changes
Since it is probably years since you were in education or at least were researching your industry organically, you should make sure that you understand what is happening in the industry in question and that your ideas of it are not outdated. You should also make sure that you are constantly keeping track of these changes as you progress, or you may find that you fall behind on your career ladder and that you are unable to compete against recent graduates or younger people who may know more about the current state of the industry in question.
8. Appeal to Employers
However, the people that you need to impress are your potential employers, and it can be harder to do this as you get older. Then, you should make sure that you can present a professional front at all times by taking steps such as dressing well and having a strong handshake. You should also make sure that your resume and cover letter are up to scratch and that they highlight all of your strengths. Before you send this off to potential employers, you should read it through for yourself and decide whether you would employ the person that you are reading about on the page. You should also make sure that you find ways to stand out against other candidates, whether this is because of your experience or even the way that you format your cover letter. It is also important to be prepared for interviews, even if you have not been to an interview for a long time, and you should make sure that you practice answering the basic questions and that you give yourself a confidence boost if you are nervous.
9. Research Your New Job
You will not be able to get very far without completing ample research about the job in question, though. Rather than leaping into your new job, you should make sure that you read up about it, even if this is just by performing a few Google searches, reading reputable websites, or attending an industry conference. This will help you to find out the best ways to get into the industry of your choice and will allow you to find out what would be expected from you. This can prevent you from making a mistake when it comes to getting a career change and will allow you to find out exactly what you need to do to make a smooth career change.
Changing your career halfway through your working life can be daunting and overwhelming, especially if you have got too comfortable with your current job or have been working for the same company for years. However, changing your career can revolutionize your life for the better and can be worth the effort and time it takes to get the skills and knowledge that you need because you spend much of your waking life in the workplace in a lot of cases. Then, by using this guide, you will be able to change your career at any point, whenever you want to.
