As a career coach, I can confirm some people know from a young age what they want to be when they grow up. Alas, most of us aren't quite so lucky; figuring out our occupational path can involve many stressful twists and turns. Many professionals end up in employment niches that aren't necessarily an ideal fit — and reach the point when they start to consider the possibility of making a career change, however major or minor.
If you're one of these latter individuals, it's essential to recognize changing careers is fundamentally different than the typical job change most people are familiar with. When considering switching to an entirely new field of work, it's critical to do your homework and gather as much information as possible about your options. Doing so will give you an edge when it comes time to start pursuing work in the new field, help you avoid surprises and make 100% sure the path you're considering is a good fit.
Along these lines, here are four key steps I encourage people to follow if they're serious about investigating a brand-new occupational option.
1. Take Advantage of Online Resources
If you have a reasonably clear sense of the new avenues you're interested in pursuing, the recommended first step in any career change is to engage in some cyber-sleuthing. There's no shortage of digital data about virtually every occupation and you should be able to get a good grasp on any new career direction by researching for a few hours.
Start by pinning down the given occupation's required and desired educational credentials. You should also be able to find information on typical salary ranges offered, job responsibilities and whether the field in question will grow (or not) in the years ahead.
On top of this, you should be able to uncover a handful of professional associations related to the occupation or industry, which can be a gold mine of information and are often very receptive to newcomers. Finally, with a few targeted keystrokes, you should be able to turn up a wealth of relevant books, blogs, articles and podcasts that will showcase the latest developments in any given field and give you a sense of whether the subject matter interests you.
2. Network and Talk to Professionals in the Field
Once you've got the basics covered via online research, you're ready to up your game and get some more sophisticated questions answered by talking to the most important source — people who already work in the field you're targeting. If approached politely, many experienced professionals are happy to help folks interested in their line of work and to share some insider tips. What's more, LinkedIn makes it easier than ever to track such people down. In particular, hunt for "2nd Degree" connections in your target field where a mutual acquaintance might be able to make an introduction to an established professional.
The keys to the informational interviewing process, as it's commonly known? Be incredibly respectful and appreciative, have a clear agenda, and make sure you don't waste people’s time by asking basic questions you could instead have answered with web research.
Instead, leverage your initial search efforts to ask much more nuanced, subjective questions about the occupation at hand — and have experienced professionals validate (or disagree with) the data you've uncovered. For example, ask if they agree with a given website's forecast about the future viability of the career path. Or the salary ranges you turned up. Or solicit their input into which educational credentials might be most valued by real-world hiring managers.
When conducting these conversations, it's essential to remember that informational interviews aren't routine interviews or a method for getting an employer to hire you. They should focus exclusively on researching and learning more about the career path. So, make sure you communicate this to the people you're chatting with, loud and clear, to take the pressure off and make them more comfortable lending a hand. This being said, if you impress them with your knowledge and enthusiasm, there's always the chance they might consider you for a role down the road, should one materialize.
3. Avoid Romanticizing Your New Target Profession
When contemplating a career switch, it's also important to avoid falling into the "grass is greener" trap and forgetting that all professions have their downsides and challenges. No career is perfect. So, before you invest a ton of time, energy and (potentially) money trying to break into a new field, strive to obtain an accurate picture of the occupation's pros, cons and potential tradeoffs.
While you can glean some of this info from sources on the web, the best way to find out what a given career or industry is really like is to talk with the people working in it. Ask established professionals to comment on the most enjoyable aspects of their occupation as well as typical challenges and frustrations. Ask them to share common misconceptions about their work and whether they'd enter the field again. The answers you get may vary from person to person, but these insights can be critical in making your final decision and avoiding regret down the road.
I've run across tons of people who fantasize about becoming real estate agents, teachers, software engineers, and the like but then successfully break into these fields and report that the reality is remarkably different from what they expected.
4. Look for Shortcuts
With the incredible pace of change in the modern economy, another bright spot for career changers is that it's usually easier to climb the ladder in a new field than ever before — once you can get your foot in the door. Organizational needs change rapidly, new technologies emerge, and existing employees and managers jump ship more frequently than in decades past. So, advancement opportunities inevitably open up for ambitious rookies who keep their eyes open.
As you conduct research and chat with educational providers, hiring managers and recruiters about a prospective field, ask if there are any shortcuts a highly motivated individual could use to break into the occupation. Is there a new piece of software in demand that would enhance your marketability to prospective employers if you got some training in it? Are there any apprenticeships or internships in the field? Are any government agencies or employers offering incentives to help potential recruits?
You only know once you ask. As one illustration of this concept, I was working with a client interested in becoming a teacher and planning to go through the standard two-to-three-year track to get there — until one of his networking contacts asked whether he was a military veteran. It turns out he was. The contact pointed him to a special "Troops to Teachers" program that provided some accelerated training that enabled him to be in a classroom, working in the profession, within a mere nine months!
It's critical not to take the concept of career change lightly. In most cases, shifting from one career track to another doesn't happen overnight and is always the product of multiple months of patience, persistence and focused research. Do your best to frame your efforts from this perspective right out of the gate and recognize that the more you can learn about the occupational path you're considering — the faster you'll be able to break into it!