You’re pretty sure it’s time for a career move.
The signs are all there. You’re bored. You’re frustrated. You’re not being used to your potential. You dread every day before going to work, and it’s starting to impact your health.
You’re pretty sure it’s not just your job. It’s your entire career. You want to do something different. Maybe in a small way, maybe in a big way. Something where you can get the creative juices flowing again, make a difference, do something in the world, and see what you’ve done at the end of the day. You want to change lives, change the world, even. If not that, you want your own life to be changed – with more freedom, more creativity, and more say in what you get to do.
No matter how you look at it, your current job isn’t going to give you that. The only way you’re going to get there is with a career move.
A Career Move Is The Only Way Forward
It seems pretty clear that your current career path is not going to get you the results you’re looking for. Only a career move can put you on the path for more freedom, more creativity, and more impact.
Those things just simply don’t exist on your current path.
But you of course come away with the inevitable question – how to pull off a career move? It feels impossible.
A Career Move Isn’t What It Once Was
A number attributed to the Department of Labor Statistics says that people are likely to have between 5-7 careers (not jobs) in their lifetime. It is difficult to decide what, exactly, constitutes a career change, so this number is hard to pin down, but it seems fair to say that changing your career isn’t as outrageous an idea as it once might have been.
Given that people aren’t put off by the idea of a career changer, actually making a career move becomes much easier.
The Best Career Move Question For Work Happiness
Many people spend a long time agonizing over what they want to do next.
Sometimes, they come up blank, with no ideas of what they want.
Sometimes, the options are overwhelming. Everything under the sun looks exciting, and choosing one seems scary, because choosing one means not choosing others.
But figuring out what you want to do next is only part of your career move question. It’s actually a bit more involved than that, but hopefully this bit of complexity will help you simplify things, and narrow down your answer.
Here it is: What do I want to do next that someone will pay me for?
What the Career Move Question Means for You
Maybe that last part (that someone will pay me for) was always in your mind, but adding it onto your career move question should help you.
See, it’s not just about what you’ll like, it’s also about what you’re good enough at that you can get paid to do it.
Therefore, one of the big things you have to do is find and “sell” your transferable skills to your new employer.
I find that working with clients, there are times that finding these skills can be easier than finding what a person really wants to do next, but when you can find the skills first, it can lead back to what that person wants to be doing – they do end up being connected.
When you can find what you want to be doing that you can get paid to do – that’s work happiness!