Whether you are a newbie or a seasoned professional, making a career change can be a difficult decision. There are many factors to take into consideration, like whether you will need to relocate or whether you need to consider further education.

Whether you want to have flexible working, better career opportunities or a fresh start, it is still important to understand your motivation for wanting a career change. Other reasons for a career change may boil down to wanting more money, different experiences or even team difficulties.

In addition to understanding your motivation for wanting a career change, it is important to consider what is currently going well in your career. It’s important to self-evaluate if you are considering a career change due to team difficulties or the need for a new challenge. Making a career change can feel daunting yet exciting, so here are 5 simple ways to make a swift switch.

What’s your WHY?

It is important to discover your reason for making a career change and evaluate what you want from this. If you’re unsure of which career field to switch to then you will need to reflect on your strengths and weaknesses. This will enable you to discover what type of field you would enjoy and identify if you have what it takes to carry out your new job.

Identify transferable skills

Once you’ve explored your why, you need to think about which transferable skills will land you an interview in your new field. Transferable skills can be soft skills like effectively communicating or hard skills such as data-analysis or coding skills.

It might be helpful to look at the job profiles and listings that you are hoping to apply for to see what skills might be needed. When looking for a career change you need to check in with your assets and skills.

Professional interviewing

Interviewing professionals in the field you want to switch to can be super helpful. It’s important to get different perspectives because it allows you to decide whether you would like the field. LinkedIn can be a great platform for professionals to connect and explore career changes.

It may be daunting to ask a random professional what a day in their life looks like, but it does get you one step further to making that career change. You can also ask about the upsides and downsides of the work, and what transferable skills would potentially land you a job in the new field.

Create an action plan

Once you’ve discovered your why, identified your transferable skills and have interviewed a few professionals in the field you wish to switch to, it’s then time to make a plan. Think about how many jobs you may want to apply for in the day, and consider creating a standard cover letter that you edit to match the job description when necessary.

Actually apply for a new role in that new field

Self-doubt can creep up when transferring to a new field but it’s important to apply anyway. Understand that you may not always get the role, but it never hurts to interview and a bonus point is that you can ask for feedback.

In addition, applying to multiple roles will maximise your chances of changing fields swiftly and it will give you the opportunity to meet a variety of seasoned professionals along the way.

Have you ever made a career change? How did you manage to switch fields? Let us know in the comments and don’t forget to react to this post with an emoji!

Photo via Unsplash by Brooke Cagle