If you’ve been looking for a sign to take the plunge and change your career in 2022, this is it. Yes, making the change is tough but we spend too much of our lives at work feeling miserable. Plus, finding a career path that you enjoy can be an extremely fulfilling exercise.
I’ve been where you are now. Maybe your job has sent you into a spiral more times than you could count and you just need out, immediately (if not sooner), or perhaps you don’t despise your current role but have a nagging feeling that something’s missing. For me, it was a combination of the two, where I generally enjoyed spending my days with my colleagues but the work itself left me feeling unfulfilled and generally quite sad.
Going to a job every day where you feel like something’s missing can wear you down. The good news is twofold: first, you have options (more on that later), and second, there has never been a better time to change your career path. Allow me to tell you why.
Take Advantage of the Current State of Upheaval
If the past two years have taught us anything, it’s that not only is change inevitable, but we all have newfound resilience (that many of us never knew we had) that we can tap into when we need it. If you feel like right now isn’t the right time to make a change because you just can’t take any more upheaval, that is totally reasonable.
But I’d like to offer a counter-argument. Do you really want to wait for your life to completely calm down, only to shake things up with a big career change? I’m going to guess not. The old saying that if you need something done, ask a busy busy person is an accurate one. Taking the time to make big changes in your life is scary, but since you’re already wading through the waters of change, this could actually be the perfect time to have a change.
It’s Time to Take Action on Our Goals
The increased amount of time spent at home in 2020 and 2021 has caused many of us to take stock of our lives and re-evaluate our goals. For some, that’s meant scaling back at work, and for others, it’s inspired them to push harder and kick bigger goals. I have a feeling you probably fall into the latter camp and I am right there with you.
As I worked through my intention setting for 2022 over the festive break and really honed in on the way I wanted to feel through the year and set goals on what I’d like to have ticked off my list by the time the year closes out, I realised that I want to make some big moves. Instead of feeling overwhelmed (as I tend to default to), I’ve decided that there’s never been a better time to take action. The world is still in a state of upheaval, as I mentioned above, so before the world fully wakes up from its years-long hibernation, I’ll be pushing to achieve these long-dreamt-of goals.
Retraining Has Never Been More Accessible Than it Is Right Now
If your dream career change involves retraining, you’re in luck. There are universities that offer completely online learning (and always have, even pre-COVID) and additional support to scale up and down between part-time and full-time study when life’s inevitable stressors pop up.
A few things to keep an eye out for when selecting the right course for you is to ensure you will be job-ready by the time you graduate, can study online (even for courses like teaching, law, health, nursing, and more), plus, that you’ll receive enough support from the university to help you balance work with family and study.
The Truth Is: There’s No Right Time
Making a huge career change can feel really scary – take it from me – but I guarantee you that it will also be the most fulfilling thing you ever do for your career. In the five years that I spent in my first career, always searching for the right industry to pivot to, I constantly felt like I was also waiting for the “right” time to make a shift. The right time to potentially take a pay dip, or suck it up and start over – but then I realised that there truly is no right time.
What got me to finally take those first, scary steps towards my current career in media was realising one thing: this time next year, I’ll wish I’d started today. So, I started. And the next year, I was so glad that I had. And seven years on, I’m even more glad that I had the courage to do it, so I’m telling you, too. Start today, your future self will thank you for it.
If you are ready to take the plunge and make a career change, head to the Charles Darwin University website to check out their range of accessible courses.
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