Have you ever been hopelessly lost? You thought you knew where you were going, and you kept making turns trying to find your way only to find yourself in a completely unknown location where not even Google Maps or Siri can find you?
That’s what changing careers can feel like.
You step out of a career field with a plan, and it seems like every career move you make just makes you more confused than you were before. Before you know it, you are lost, disillusioned, and questioning your own judgment.
It takes courage to step out into the relative unknown and try something completely new in a world where we are judged just as much for successes and failures – and maybe more for our failures. Stepping out to do something new looks downright insane and poorly judged to many onlookers, and it can feel as if no one is offering support. Changing careers is not for the faint of heart, and it is so easy to want to throw in the towel when you keep running into one challenge after another.
But don’t give up just yet!
My brother recently told me that he knew someone who decided to make a career transition, and it took her about three years to find where she belonged. Instead of discouraging me, this actually gave me a boost. All at once, I didn’t feel like such a failure. I’ve had two jobs since leaving my previous career field, and neither have turned out to be what I was looking for in a new career. However, they have both been good learning experiences for either learning new skills or learning my weaknesses and making new friends.
Trying a new job is like picking out a new winter coat. You put the coat on and find that the material is too tight across the shoulders in the way that a new job can be restricting to your creativity. You go to zip a new coat and find unwieldy buttons instead in the same way that certain tasks in a new job don’t fit your skill set. Maybe you go to wear the new coat outside and find that it doesn’t offer enough protection from the rain just as a new job doesn’t quite meet your expectations.
I am finding that changing careers is about beginning again…over and over and over and over until you find that new career that fits. It’s okay to “try on” new jobs to learn new skills. It’s also okay to “try on” a new job and realize that you have skills that need work or that you just don’t actually possess the skill at all. I’ve already gone through What Color Is Your Parachute? once before, but I’m considering going through it again simply because I’m refining my skills and preferences even more as I search.
If you find yourself beginning again all over again, that’s okay. Don’t let it discourage you. It took years for me to become a good librarian, and it will take a while for me to find a new career with writing as the emphasis. I’ve been writing for decades now, but I’ve only just begun looking into a career using those skills as the center point. Yes, I may have to try a few ill-fitting jobs, but it’s all part of the process. I’m still trying to look at it as an adventure because that’s way more exciting than pretending I’m trying on coats.
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Inspirational Verses for the Day:
Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters, […] “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” Isaiah 43:16, 18-19 (ESV)
All Things Subject to Change 