Money. Meaning. Work-life balance. These are common reasons for changing careers. But the journey to career fulfilment can be confusing if you do not understand why or how you want to change your work. You might make a shift, experience doubt, and then convince yourself that it’s easier to keep things as they are. The right awareness, however, can be enough to keep you on track.
As a Career Transition Coach, I have noticed that the numerous reasons for changing careers can be distilled into two core motivations. Read on for their descriptions below, with key questions to help you on your career transition journey.
1.) ‘Negative’ motivation
The first common motivation for changing careers is the desire to avoid something in your work. It could be that you have been in the same job for a while with a strong awareness of what you don’t enjoy. There could be specific unpleasant aspects of your role, the team or the environment, that cause you to seek elsewhere. Or it could be that you can’t determine what you need to change, but you experience a general feeling of dissatisfaction and lack of fulfilment in what you do.
These examples demonstrate a motivation from negative experience and the desire to avoid it. If you resonate with this, then you already know what you don’t like. Your career transition challenge is to identify what you would like to experience instead of what you don’t want (top tip: it might be the exact opposite!).
Good questions for you are:
• Are there career ideas that interest me?
• What do I want to experience in my next role?
• Do I need to change my working conditions or work-life balance?
• What are my strengths?
2.) ‘Positive’ motivation
The second common motivation for changing careers is a desire to expand and fulfil your personal potential. It could be as simple as wanting to develop your skills and qualities, or perhaps to achieve a specific long-term aspiration. You may have a sense of what you are capable of, or have a strong belief in your professional potential.
These examples show a positive motivation towards growth – whether the individual knows the end goal or not. If this sounds like you, you may be keen to get started on your ideas. That’s great! Your career change challenge may be to keep yourself grounded with positive action and notice any blind spots in your plans. Good questions to ask yourself in this process are:
• What has worked and what hasn’t worked in my career so far?
• Are there any personal boundaries I need to account for, before committing to a course of action?
• Do I have enough clarity about what I want to do, or do I need support to make a plan?
• What information or resources do I need to carry out my plan?
Be true to yourself
Both types of motivation are valid reasons for wanting to change careers. And, as you may have discovered reading this, both can be present at the same time! Sometimes we can have positive and negative motivations for wanting to make a change in our life, and that’s ok. Be true to who you are, and take it one day at a time, step by step.
© Katie Brown 2022
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