In the past, when someone had a job, they tended to stay in it for many years, perhaps even for life. If the job changed, then the career didn’t; whatever they started out as was what they retired as, no matter what that might be.

Today things are different. Today, if you want to change your career because you don’t like the one you have found yourself in, you’ve changed your mind, your priorities or circumstances are different, or simply because you want to try something new, it is not only possible but relatively easy to do so.

Maybe you’ve recently been wondering whether a new career would suit you. After all, it’s that time of year when people tend to start thinking about making changes, and if you’ve considered changing jobs but you’re still not completely sure, just read on – you might discover exactly why this is what you should be doing next.

Your Life Has Changed

When you chose your original career, you were a different person, doing different things, possibly living a different life altogether. As time goes on, we all change. A small change might not register, but big changes happen too, and with them, anything can happen. For example, when you chose your career, you may have been single, but now you have a partner and a family to think about. Those long hours that didn’t make any difference at the start are now causing you to miss time with your children.

Or perhaps you have become unwell, and the travel that you need to do for your work means that you can never fully rest. In that case, you will want to be looking out for a job that offers a better work-life balance.

No Progression

At the start of your working life, progressing in your career may not have been something you really thought about. You had a job that you (hopefully) enjoyed, and you did what you were asked to do, and sometimes more. However, over time you may well have come to realize that you do want to move on and gain promotions and progress only to discover that the career you’re in has very little room for it. If that’s the case, you will become frustrated and stressed working in the same job, doing the same thing, even if you have dreams of doing and being something more.

On the same note, it might be that the career you have gone into doesn’t have many open positions anymore. So when you look for a way to advance in a different company to the one you are working in, you won’t find much at all.

If that’s the case, then you will need to consider looking for a career that has good prospects and a better career outlook in general – something that is moving fast and becoming what everyone wants rather than something outdated that technology is making obsolete.

You Want To Do It Yourself

For some people, there will come a time when they are just no longer happy working for someone else. At this point, you could consider starting your own business. It doesn’t have to be in the sector that you have already been working in; you can train to do anything that you want to. You might choose to be a personal trainer through OriGym, a tutor, a dog walker, a baker, or anything else that has always been a passion.

Get the right training while you’re still working in your current job, and research what it takes to build up a business. Starting it part-time, on the side, is usually the best way to go. You can then test the market and make sure that you will be able to make money and be a success. Once you reach a point where you can quit your day job and work on your own business full time, you can go ahead and do it, and be much happier for it.

Burnout Is Affecting You

Burnout is a very real problem that affects many people, and it can happen no matter what career you are in, whether it is generally considered to be ‘stressful’ or not. Even if it is a career you once truly loved, burnout can affect you and make you dislike it, or even hate it. If you can’t stand the idea of heading into work every day and you yearn to do something else, take some time off so that you can look at the situation objectively.

Really pay attention to what you want in life. If your current job can give that to you, it might be that you simply needed a rest and a break away from it. If it can’t, then it could be time to start looking for something else before you become ill and unhappy. Work takes up so much of our lives that you need to enjoy it, or you will be miserable, and that will affect your free time too.

You’re Bored

If you feel bored at work, then it’s time for a new challenge. Being bored won’t make you happy, and having new and interesting things to do will help you enjoy life a lot more. Therefore if your work is boring, you should look for something new to do. It’s a good idea to work out whether it’s the career as a whole that bores you or your particular place within it. It might be that you can stay in the same sector but move to another place within it, either staying with the same company or with a different.

It might be that you need to look at doing something completely different. This can be a scary feeling, but a freeing one if it’s truly what will help you. Remember that you will have transferable skills such as:

• Communication
• Customer service
• Organization
• Management
• Financial knowledge

These skills, and many others, will help you to gain a job that is different to what you are doing now, even if you don’t have direct experience in that sector.