After 15 years of doing the same thing, I've reached the conclusion I need a complete career change. I've changed company twice, one of which was only 6 months ago, to see if it was just the company or the industry as a whole that I dislike, but I've realised it's the industry. The trouble is I have no solid ideas of what to do or how to find out more information. I have a list of wants, but every time I apply for a job I feel like I'm a chancer. Has anybody else here switched careers, and if so how did you manage to get your foot in the door? I know a few people on here are/were hiring managers, if you had a career changer apply for a position what would they need to do to stand out? For reference, I'm a civil & structural engineer with a BEng (First) and various other industry-specific qualifications, but nothing related to other fields. I'm not sure how relevant these would be?
A couple of things come to mind, firstly if you haven’t got an idea of what you want to do, maybe think of where you would like to be? Maybe there is a big company you’ve always thought looks cool to work for. This may be a wholly different industry, but that isn’t necessarily a complete barrier. You could use transferable skills, for example management, projects, practical skills, like driving or fixing stuff etc to see if you can get a foot in. Nothing wrong with boldly contacting them for advice. You can also ask what’s most important to you. Is it about career progress, money or some vague wish to ‘make a difference’? Do you want a more outdoorsy life or to have your own business? Have you got any space to retrain or other skills from hobbies and interests you can bring forward? Have you got any passions, things you feel strongly about, that you would like to pursue? You could also think about where there will be jobs. I would have thought certain sectors, will be really expanding, like renewable energy. I think it’s hard at a certain point to lose status and income built up in the field you know, so the fall back position is to try and take a parallel step in the same industry and move to a different part of it. Good luck. Edit: this page is now giving me an advert for career coaching. Internet b’stards really are watching everything we do!
It sounds like you know what you don't want to do but I think it would help if you have some idea of what you do fancy doing for the next 40 or so years. If you're adamant that you've had enough your current career, just get out and do something daft. Ice cream man? Film extra? Take a succession of weird roles until you find something that might interest you. What about teaching? A chum of mine walked away from a promising legal career to become a motorbike despatch rider! He went on to be a successful journalist. Don't waste time thinking what if this or that goes wrong. Take the leap - you might fly
The most important thing is to have a clear idea of the career you want to switch to. 15 years into you career, you are at a huge disadvantage moving into another field where people your age have a one and half decades more experience than you do, so you need to know exactly what you want and where you want to get to. Once you've identified that, you can start researching required qualifications/schooling (if any) and position yourself accordingly. All jobs have transferrable skills; whether not those will transfer to your new career is will depend on what you want to do. The reality is that you'll have to work your backside off and put in a LOT of legwork to catch up in many fields, but as long as you're willing to put the effort in there's no reason you can't achieve that. If you're really good in the new field that will go a long way; lots of people just skate by with minimal effort after they get comfortable, which means truly motivated people can make rapid progress in the right situation. Step 1, though, is working out your ideal career destination. Without that you'll just flounder and with 15 years of your career behind you already, you really don't want to be coasting without a plan.
Incidentally, I've spent the day making a list of what's important to me in a new job, which ties in with your suggestions. I've recently applied to 3 jobs based on the company, one replied saying my experience wasn't sufficient for the position (fair enough), another I had a telephone interview with and was told would hear back within 48 hours, two weeks ago... The other didn't respond at all. Fairly disheartening, but I didn't expect it to be easy! Hmm, judging by the tailored adverts this career coaching industry seems to be taking off. Maybe I should become one?
There is a lot of advice online similar to this, practical experience is the best way to know if it's for you and also will help when applying to bigger companies. The trouble is salary, I could survive on a reduced salary for a while if long term I can get back to the level I need, but as it's just me and a mortgage I am somewhat restricted on that front. The part in bold is where I think I definitely have an advantage. In my first job I worked my way up from an apprentice straight out of school, to a lead engineer with people under me in 7 years - the whole progression thing really motivates me, so I'm sure once I'm in a company that encourages growth and has opportunites I'll work my way up. But as you say, it's figuring out what that career is that's the issue. Ideally I'd find a junior role which includes training etc, or at least supports it. I'd rather that than jumping into a senior role and having no clue what I'm doing! Project roles, financial analysts and accountancy seem to be the areas that fit the bill. Although they also need qualifications and experience I only vaguely have.
Completely different sides of the job spectrum, but I'll offer my two cents. I work as a software engineer but as that itself covers a variety of roles I can get bored working with the same company on the same projects. When I was first hired out of University I worked for a now defunct video game company writing back end engine scripts in Assembly and Python. It took me until the company were more or less on their knees before I jumped ship and bailed. Even with that sort of legacy behind me as a jump starer - it took me a long time to land another job. Part of that is because I am a fussy mare who won't get on board unless there is job security. Bad news for me is, computer science and software engineering are some of the hardest jobs to get hired for, and the easiest to get fired from. Anyway, after a long slog through free-ads, job postings and Internet searches I finally landed a quite unexpected job opportunity at a sister company of Tell Tale Games (they made that Walking Dead game). I never got the position however, because like I said, its not about what you know in coding, it's who you know to some extent. Nowadays I have the luxury of working from home but I still work 40+ hours a week for a company who build safety critical software. My final words of advice, after rambling about how boring my job history is, is to never give up. Keep digging, do not be afraid to try new things and keep updating your CV and job specs. One of the hardest parts of going from one job to another is the chance of rejection, especially if it's in an area you have never touched. You might be surprised to hear this, but a person with no experience in a said role is generally better than a candidate with some or loads of experience. Working off a clean slate like this, with no baggage, means you learn on the job, you may still make mistakes (we all do), but you learn very quickly from them - which makes you an all round better person for it. Good luck and keep faith.
As others have said - you need to work out what you want to do. From when I was 13 to 19 years old all I wanted to do was work in IT. At 19 I achieved that and by 25 years old I realised that I didn't enjoy it and didn't give me the job satisfaction I craved. This was helpful in finding my future career path - what do you enjoy that can be monetised in some way? For me that was football, I loved football and genuinely believed I could have a career in it, it took time and took 7 odd years to achieve (hard market to break into!) but I managed it through perseverance, offering a niche that not many others could offer and lots of networking!
Maybe put the career change plans on hold for a couple of years and have a crack at finding a wealthy husband /wife who can pay the bills while you're working out what you want to do
As others have said no one is going to pay you your current wage to do something completely unrelated to your current job skills, therefore how about, making a list of the different facets of your job, working out what would be useful for other companies and contact their HR depts to see if they have any suitable openings! You need to be able to show you have skills which others candidates don’t have to stand out!
Career choice is a tough decision as you’ve got to try to marry what interests you with earning potential and transferable skills. As others have said unless you have clearly transferable skills and experience you will be at a significant disadvantage. One thing I would say is you can’t let any of your doubts about choice of career come across in application form or interview. You’ve got to convince that you are 100% certain you are right for the job and the job is right for you …. even if you’re not ! It’s not always possible to get a job you love and a great salary. If it was I would be a full time wildlife photographer! So would many people. Not sure how many people get huge enjoyment from their job ? Advice I was given some time ago was if the job no longer gives you great satisfaction and challenge in itself, use your decent salary to fund greater achievement outside work to satisfy your desire for progression. If you like travel, travel further and have great adventures. If you love golf, get really good at golf. Like photography, buy a bigger camera and go on some courses. It’s not always possible to do a job you love for great money, but if you use the proceeds to pursue other interests you can come to appreciate your job as it enables you to really enjoy your hobbies. Just a thought.
This is the case for me. I'm pretty well paid, but the work doesn't really interest me. I'd really like to do something with football or the Balkans as my two main interests, but I know I'd be on a fraction of the pay. I've made it a point to work for companies that are at least interesting at face value - was at TfL for 14 years and that had some interesting projects - and also somewhere with a good work / life balance. I never do more than a 40 hour week and I can afford to do the stuff I want, with a relatively stress free job.
First thing I'd say is It's easier to get a job when you have a job. Stuck it out if at all possible until something else comes along. Can you go freelance, or even part time and develop something yourself? Is there an area of your industry that does interest you. Can you specialise and become an expert?
