Are you thinking of a career change ? Are you still on the fence about whether to switch professions? Well, if you are, then you’re amongst the 57% of Australians who are thinking of doing so, according to a recent SEEK study. That said, there are some important questions that need to be answered.
I Want To Change My Career Field After Years. Will I Get A job?
Well, there are no certainties in this life, however, short courses online make learning new skills super easy and convenient and career counselling can help you choose the most appropriate field. A job isn’t guaranteed - as it never is - but there’s much you can do to improve your chances.
How Do I know If I Can Handle A Career Change?
That’s essentially what this blog explores, as we look at five of the most important questions that anyone in this position needs to consider. By reading to the end, you should have a better idea about whether those opportunities you’ve seen for recruitment online are for you.
Question #1 - Do You Know What Your Career Change Entails?
So, you’ve decided that your current role isn’t offering you what you need and you’ve identified a potential new career path. The question is, are you absolutely sure that you know everything about your new field? If not, we’d recommend speaking to people who’re already in that field.
This will help you understand what life will be like once you’ve switched, giving you insight into things like promotion, pay and day-to-day expectations. This is a crucial step, as the last thing you want is to find yourself back at square one, wanting to change career again in the near future.
Question #2 - Do I Have The Aptitude For The New Role?
Something else that you should pay attention to when thinking of a career change is whether you have the aptitude for the role you’re switching to. Of course, short courses can be used to give you the necessary skills, but you also have to have the right kind of personal traits.
For instance, if you’re an introvert going for a job in sales, are you going to succeed? It doesn’t mean you won’t, but it needs to at least be considered as part of the process.
Question #3 - Am I Happy Taking A Pay Cut?
There’s no getting around the fact that when you switch fields entirely, you’re likely to be taking a pay cut - initially at least. Everyone is money-led to a certain degree, as you need to earn enough to live and pay your bills, so it’s important to consider how this might affect your life.
Given time, you might exceed your current pay, but when you’re new to a particular profession, getting paid a bit less is very common at the outset.
Question #4 - Am I Happy to Fill A Lower Position, To Begin With?
As well as taking a cut in pay, most career changers will need to start at the bottom again and work their way up. This means that while you might currently be in a management position or one with a high status, you’re probably going to have to drop down and fill a less senior role, to begin with.
If you’re giving the orders right now in your job, it can be difficult to give that up, so it’s important to give it some thought before making any career change .
Question #5 - Am I Willing To Put The Hours In To Retrain?
Learning new professional skills is easier now than it used to be, mainly down to the internet and short courses providers like ourselves, however, you still need to put the work in to retrain. Is that something you can see yourself doing? Do you have the motivation?
If you have, then great - you’ll go far! If not, you should seriously consider why it is you want to move. Is there anything you could change in your current role to improve things? You see, if you’re not excited about training for your new role - it says something about your position.
Career change success often rests upon choosing the right career to switch to. If you’re having trouble doing so, why not try this Career Quiz and see what it tells you? You never know, it might give you some insight that you hadn’t considered before.
Empower Your Career Change With OCA Short Courses
There’s a reason that all these considerations need to be made and that’s because it’s a serious decision that has big ramifications. However, if you want to get serious about retraining, however, CPD Endorsed OCA short courses represent the easiest, most flexible and cost-effective way to learn new skills.
Coming with 1-to-1 mentoring 7 days a week, our video-based training makes learning easy, with each module able to be taken at your own pace and arranged around your schedule. What’s it like to learn with OCA? Take a look at our student study demo to see for yourself or take a browse around our website www.onlinecoursesaustralia.edu.au which contains training covering 20+ professional sectors.
Alternatively, if you’re wanting to speak to us directly about your training needs, there are a couple of ways you can get in touch. Either email us at [email protected] or call our friendly team on 1300 611 404 today and you’ll get all the assistance you need.
