Career Change Readiness - what to do before you switch

How do you make decisions? 

Do you ask everyone you know what they think? 

Do you write a detailed pro/con list? 

Do you contemplate for weeks, then go with your gut? 

Do you simply just pick one and go? 

Making decisions can be tough, especially when it’s about something that has such a big impact on our lives, as careers do. 

So if you’re looking for change, how do you decide what’s next? 

Many of us put off this decision until it becomes absolutely necessary because being in uncertainty is so uncomfortable.

But learning how to make empowered choices about our careers is a skill we believe everyone should strengthen. 

So in this article, we’re going to talk about five ways you can prepare for career change and improve your readiness. 

Step 1: Reflection 

They say a change is as good as a rest, but when it comes to careers we’d disagree. 

The problem with changing to escape a situation is that all too often we end up moving towards the same problems we were trying to leave. 

Yes, the first few months might be okay, but as time goes on you begin to see that you’re still in the same cycle. 

This is because we rarely give ourselves enough time to reflect on what we actually want from work. 

We start looking for jobs before we’ve fully considered the changes we want to see. 

This is why it’s essential before you hit the job board to think about what’s working and what’s not in your current role and how you’d like the next one to be different. 

Resting and reflecting in this case is far superior to a change for change's sake. 

Step 2: Goal Setting 

There can be many reasons motivating us to change careers. Sometimes our desire to change can build gradually and other times it comes out of the blue. 

But however the desire or need to change comes about it’s important not to only think about the next role but to consider the bigger picture of your future. 

Each choice leads us down a path and we need to be clear what path we want to take. Even little changes can open us up to different possibilities (think Sliding Doors!)

Using your reflections above, think about where you’d like to be in 3,5 or even 10 years. 

Are there personal, professional, financial or family goals and how does your work play into these? 

Getting ready for career change not only means thinking about the next role but developing the skills and resilience to begin to design your career. 

Step 3: Explore 

We don’t know, what we don’t know. Right? 

So how do we change careers when we don’t know what all the options could be? 

The answer, explore! We don’t need to go into change blind, in fact, we’d highly recommend that you don’t! 

The best way to explore potential career paths is to speak to people doing the things you’re interested in. 

This is called doing an ‘information interview’. You book a call with someone whose career you’re interested in exploring and you ask them all about it. 

To help you get started you can use this simple and effective format created by John Lees called the REVEAL model. 

Recap - Explain why you’ve set up the meeting and who introduced you. (I’m interested in exploring how you got into x)

Explore - Ask them loads of questions (what do you like most about/what’s most challenging/what does an average day look like?)

Vision - Explore trends and forecasts (what’s likely to happen over the next 2 years…)

Excellence - See what skills and strengths help people excel in this role/industry (what types of people do well in this…) 

Action - Next steps. (What would you recommend I do next?) 

Links - Get connected! (Who could I speak to to continue to explore this?) 

4: Personal Branding 

When was the last time you updated your CV and LinkedIn profile? 

If your answer is anything other than within the last six months, you’ve probably got some catching up to do. 

Being career change ready means staying ready. We never know when the perfect role might slide across our desks or when we might have a life-changing conversation and need to send over our CV ASAP! 

So keeping our personal profiles on point is essential. 

It also means we stay present to our skills, strengths and values which helps when looking to identify change. 

If you feel like you don’t know where to start when it comes to writing a CV or LinkedIn profile, this is your sign to return to step 1 and spend more time reflecting on what it is you want. 

Remember a CV isn’t just about appealing to the job you’re applying for, it’s about helping you get a job you actually want! 

Step 5: Making a change 

We can spend a lot of time getting ready for change, but actually committing to a decision is probably the hardest part. 

How can we tell when we’re ready? 

Well, it’s a trick question because most of us may never feel fully ready for change and really this isn’t the goal! 

Readiness is feeling like we’re making an informed and intentional decision, not that we have all the answers or know 100% what the outcomes will be before we start. 

So if you’ve reflected on your situation, set out your goals, taken time to explore your options and updated your profile…guess what…you are ready!

Test your readiness. 

Want to see how ready you are for a career change? Take this quick quiz from Flo Coaching to get your career readiness score and more tips on how to improve it. 

If you've been through the steps and feel as though you have a little more clarity about your career change, take a look at our job board or set up your personalised matches here.