MAKING THE RIGHT MOVES

Changing careers can be daunting, but it’s doable if you plan well. Career counsellor MONALISA SINGH shares tips on making the change with Radhika Sathe-Patwardhan

- Radhika Sathe-Patwardhan

Change is scary, and it can affect you quite drastically. A career change can be all the more intimidating because it affects your financial stability, your life possibilities, and status. It is easy to stay in your comfort zone, but making big shifts over the course of your career isn’t uncommon today. More people are making career changes. As the perceived comfort of lifelong job security has unravelled over the last year, expectations have grown, as has dissatisfaction. The temptation to change careers is now more widespread, and it can involve moving sectors, firms and occupations for better opportunities and in pursuit of new challenges.

There are certain factors that drive one to make a career change, ranging from the need for a new work environment, for career progression and to meet new interests; it could also simply be that you need a new boss. Changing your career might make you happier at work, it might boost your salary prospects, and it can prove to be a good decision for your professional life and overall well-being.

QUESTION YOURSELF

Do you find your current job boring? Is there no growth potential? Is work-life balance hampered? Do you not get along with your manager or colleagues? Do you not find respect and trust at your workplace? Ask yourself these questions first and answer honestly. Ask yourself this additional question: is this job adding any value to your life? The answers that arise to these questions will make it easier to make a decision. Analyse your reasons, review your values, interests, your personality traits, and skill sets, and only then take the plunge.

FACE YOUR FEARS