How to: Change your career
The idea of one lifelong career is a thing of the past, and most of us can now expect to have four of five in our lifetime. New figures suggest almost 650,000 UK workers have lost their jobs due to the pandemic, with millions furloughed and many taking the time to reflect on how they feel about their job. But how do you take the leap to actually change your career?
For the first instalment of our new ‘How to…’ life skills series, we asked Sarah Ellis from Amazing If and Squiggly Careers and Samantha Clarke - happiness consultant and author of Love It or Leave It: How to be Happy at Work - to share their best advice with Woman’s Hour.
1. Ask yourself why you want to change career
“Keep asking yourself ‘why, why, why?’,” says Samantha Clarke. “Assess your own motivations and think about what success looks like to you, not just to other people. Remember, success is nothing without happiness. Why, for example, do you want to move into law? Is it because you’re passionate about justice? Is it because you like the sound of saying, ‘I’m a lawyer’?
“Is it in the job itself, the people or the industry? If it’s the former, start to explore positions that include more tasks which get your heart racing and utilise your strengths. Maybe connect with individuals doing positions you are curious about and ask them if you could have a quick firestarter conversation.
“Assess what kind of colleagues you would like to engage with, and look for a company with a work culture that seems to correspond to that. Perhaps you don’t believe in what you’re creating, or you constantly feel like you’re battling against your values. Look at how you might be able to apply your skills to a new area that excites you.”
2. Remember your strengths
“Continually try to get to the root of who you are – your strengths, skills, passions and values,” says Samantha. “The more you understand yourself, the more you’ll be able to discover what will make you happy.
“Get comfortable with putting yourself out there. In a very noisy world, we have to be open to understanding the art of selling yourself and the art of distilling who we are. If people can't find you, it's going to be very difficult to tap into the opportunities that are available.”
“We can be our own worst critics,” adds Sarah Ellis. “We fall into the trap of focusing more on what we can't do, or don't have, than all the useful and relevant skills that make us brilliant. Practise confidently talking about two or three strengths you have that will be useful for the career change you're interested in.
“Don't forget to make sure your strengths stand out in your CV and online. If a recruiter or potential employer looked at your LinkedIn profile, could they spot your strengths from your summary, recommendations and experience? You never know what opportunities might be available or who might see your profile so give yourself the best possible chance of success.”
3. Try before you buy
“I advise against taking any big leaps – either to a different industry or to start your own business – without testing the waters first, while continuing in your current role. Live it and breathe it before you make the jump,” says Samantha.
“Spend some time investigating, whether that’s through research, meeting people for (virtual) coffee or completing mini internships using your annual leave or personal time. Now is a unique time where companies are taking people who may currently be on furlough to help out and assist, but also give them the gateway to explore different avenues.
“For me it isn't just as cut and dry as leaving your role. It's about looking at how to embrace opportunities within that career. The way that the economy is, we do need to be flexible and bendy. We have to have an anti-fragile career.”
4. Ask for help
“Lots of us find it daunting and hard to ask for help,” says Sarah. “Start by listing all the questions you need help with and make a list of all the people who you think might be able to help. Be specific, short and simple in your ask. This will make it as easy as possible for someone to help you.
“Don't feel the need to apologise. Everyone needs support during their career. You don't have to know all the answers and you don't have to pretend that you do.
“Finally, if you receive a no, or perhaps even more difficult a 'no reply', don't feel dis-heartened. There are lots of reasons why someone might not be able to help. No one has a monopoly on wisdom and there is always more than one person who can help you.”
5. Don't always jump in the deep end
If you’ve had a setback, such as being made redundant or not getting a promotion, Samantha advises investing some time addressing the emotions that come with it.
“A lot of people want to springboard into finding things, but we need to take a moment and think about how this has affected us. Our work is sometimes this core signature identity of who we are, and we have tied so much emotion to the title, company, or people we have worked with. Suddenly you might be feeling, ‘what’s wrong with me? Why wasn’t I kept, why wasn’t I allowed to stay?’.
“Address those emotions, then reflect on, ‘What might my next steps be?’ before just launching into the random job search.”
6. Focus on possibilities, not plans
“On average we're going to have four or five different types of careers during our working lives,” says Sarah. “Rather than focusing on a single career change plan, which will limit your options, I'd recommend exploring and being open to a few career change possibilities. Reignite the curiosity and passion for what you could do.
“The World Economic Forum thinks that in the next two years roughly forty percent of the skills that we have today won't be relevant, so we all need to get used to continually learning new things. When I started my career I expected to be ‘climbing the ladder’. Now the reality for most of us is that our careers are full of change and ambiguity. Lots of uncertainty and also lots of really interesting possibilities.
“Be curious and experiment with a few different ideas for what your career change could look like. In today's 'squiggly' careers there is no such thing as a straight-line to success. The best question you can ask is what will I learn?”
Listen back to the programme for more tips from Sarah Ellis, Samantha Clarke and Lucy Kellaway. You can follow us on or @bbcwomanshour.
