December-15-2017 - onrec.com
Do you think you cant make a career switch in your 30s? Well, youre wrong. The idea that were too old and have to stick it out is completely inaccurate. In fact, their people who have switched careers a bunch of times have a wider skill set and are more capable than those who stick to one career path. Posted in News archive on 15 Dec 2017 And really, thats not that surprising. After all, every time you switch jobs youre forced to learn new skills, new rules, new ways of working and how to interact with a new set of people. And so you learn a whole new set of ideas and enhance your brain plasticity to boot. So thats the good news. Now lets focus on what skills you should actually learn to help you make the switch. First, the soft skills The first thing youre going to need is to boost your soft skills. Because lets face it, those will be useful not just when youre in your new career but also when youre looking for the job. Now, soft skills are a broad category. They include: Self-awareness Emotional regulation Communication skills Writing and presenting skills Problem-solving and critical thinking Teamwork skills Time management There are two strategies youll want to take in terms of these kinds of skills. The first one is to boost the ones youre already particularly good at. This will be helpful as youll be able to stress these abilities at interviews and use them during jobs. Whats more, as its enjoyable to do things were good at, this can be quite enjoyable. Thats not enough, however. Youll also need to take steps to improve at the ones youre worst at. Now, this will be a lot less fun. At the same time, its essential you deal with your shortcomings. The reason being that bad is stronger than good and when you lack an essential skill this will weigh far more heavily against you than you being able to demonstrate you have a bunch of others. So, you might be a great rewarded essays writer but if you can never hit a deadline, youll probably not be hired by an agency. Self-assessment Next, youll want to self-assess. This is a skill all its own and its vital if youre going to be able to make a switch. Why? Because if youre good at self-assessing then youll have a good idea of what kind of job you could do. More importantly, youll have a good idea of how your attempted change will be interpreted in the sector you want to move into. Will they see you and think okay, we can work with this or will they think thats not going to happen? Based on this youll be able to assess if that will actually be a feasible career change. Note, if youre not that hot at self-assessment thats not the end of the world. Just dont do it alone. Ask other people what they think might be good options for you. Even better, go get some career counseling. These people will give you a good idea if youre on the right path or if youre going to have to reconsider the career change you have in mind. And yes, that might not be nice to hear, but its better to do so before youve made the switch than after youve failed at making it. Find out the skills you need and focus on them Once youve got a good idea of whether its actually possible to go for the job youre interested in, start picking up the skills youll need. This is much easier today than it was in the past, through such online teaching opportunities like edX and other institutes like it. There, youll be able to follow courses many of them for free which will give you a serious leg up, without having to go back to school. Even better, by taking these courses youve got a final opportunity to see if this is really for you. Do you enjoy the courses or are they not what you imagined? So, take that vacation time youve saved up and spend them on finishing some of these courses. In that way, youll get paid while youll learn and youll be in a much better position when you do quit. Last words Career changes can be scary when youre at the start. Theyll require a lot of adjustment and there might be a period where your pay takes a hit. At the same time, they are far from impossible in your 30s or even in your 40s. So go for it. Dont let yourself be held back. After all, if you try it for a few years and it doesnt work out, you can always go back to what you were doing before a lot wiser and with a bunch of different perspectives that might give you a whole range of new insights.