Considering a Career Change: Here’s What You’ll Need to Know

It’s easy to feel that your career has reached a dead-end, particularly if you’ve been working the same 9-5 for several years. Finding a good career mentor can do everything to change that but without that guidance many people find themselves stranded.

In this article, we’ll be discussing how to change career, the value of side hustle jobs, and what you can do to break out of the rut and revamp your work life.

Rising The Ranks

Most people start their careers in an entry level role with the hopes of proving themselves and climbing the ranks. This is a classic career path and, up to a point, if you’ve got the skills and dedication, then it can work wonders.

The problem is that the success of this approach depends a lot on two factors that are, broadly speaking, outside your control.

First of all, you’ll need to work for a company who likes to promote within rather than hire externally. While it can be possible to research this before accepting the role, in the majority of cases employees don’t have that much control over who they work for, meaning that it’s easy to find yourself stuck at a company with poor promotion practices.

The second factor is demand. The higher you climb the career ladder, the fewer roles there are available to you, meaning that even if you’re one of the best of the best, finding a job role that pays well for your level of experience may become increasingly difficult.

This second factor is the reason why many people struggle to break through into management. Most companies would like to hire people with one or two years experience in an entry level role. This means that they won’t need basic training but aren’t at the point where they can demand a higher wage. Managers are more expensive and while a good manager is absolutely vital to a functioning team, the demand is, by definition lower.

This is also a huge problem in many academic fields – particularly the sciences. The reality is that no matter how much of an expert you are, how many papers you’ve published, or how much research you’ve done, Universities only have so many tenure positions open. This leads to a situation where many highly trained professionals are stuck at a relatively low level.

If all this is sounding a bit doom and gloom, then don’t worry. We said we’d tell you how to change careers and we weren’t kidding. There are solutions for both of these problems and, while they do involve some measure of risk, the rewards are absolutely worth it in the long run.

Job Hopping

It’s no secret that we’re long past the days when people would stay at the same company for many years. The reality is that if your company is refusing to promote you, then that’s usually because they either don’t have the roles or they’re hiring from outside. If they can do it, then why can’t you?

That’s not to say you should quit your job right away, but always be on the lookout for other companies who might be interested in your experience/expertise. Keep in mind that niche experience can be a great way to get hired above your current level. Even if you haven’t worked in management, for example, three years working at a very similar company on a very similar project will go a long way to upping your chances.

Changing Field

Of course, job hopping isn’t always the silver bullet to your career woes. Sometimes, the best thing you can do is take all that experience and use it to find work in another field altogether.

For example, we mentioned earlier that many academics struggle to get promoted, even if they’re more than qualified. In recent years this has become something of a problem for universities as many researchers are choosing to shelve their dreams of working in the sciences and instead taking roles in data analytics.

Data analytics is not only an incredibly lucrative field to get into, but it’s also one that many researchers are already qualified for. Could the same situation apply in your case? Is there another field that your skills could be perfect for?

If you’re not sure about the answer to that question, then let us introduce you to the wonderful world of professional mentoring. As a mentor, you could work with people who are looking to get into your industry, becoming their career mentors. You could help them get their first role and share the experiences that were instrumental in your career path to get you where you are today.

And the best part? You can become a mentor without quitting your current job. Mentoring the perfect side hustle job, allowing you to start off in your free time before slowly transitioning to become a full time mentor.

If you’re ready to break out of that dead end and start earning the money you’re really worth then sign up with Career Navig8r and become a mentor today!