Finding a New Fulfilling Career Path
Are you unhappy at your job? Do you leave work feeling drained? Are you stressed out even on your days off? There are many reasons why people feel unsatisfied with their current careers. In this article, we will focus on deciding when to find a new job and finding a career right for you.
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Finding a New Career: Advice and Tips
Finding a new career can be stressful and intimidating. Sometimes it feels easier and more manageable to continue with our typical patterns and routines. We all have bills and responsibilities, and our jobs offer us security. It’s always hard to leave a job behind, regardless of whether or not you like it, and what’s more, you don’t always know how to find a new career.
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Finding a career test or finding a career counselor may be worth pursuing as you consider alternative career paths as you move forward. There are plenty of resources as you research alternative career paths as well as tests and quizzes for finding a new career.
Unhappy at Your Current Job?
There are lots of valid reasons to decide to leave your job and start thinking about finding a new career. Perhaps you are experiencing interpersonal difficulties with your coworkers or boss. Not everyone is well-suited to work together. If you are finding it difficult to connect with others and struggle to collaborate meaningfully, perhaps it’s time to start thinking about when to find a new job.
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Reasons to Leave Your Current Job
Workplace Culture
There are just as many workplace cultures as there are jobs. If you don’t feel comfortable in your current workplace, know that there are plenty of workplace cultures that will be a better fit. A “workplace culture” is simply a term that describes how individuals interact with one another in the workplace. Some workplaces are strict and professional. Others are more laid-back and casual. Perhaps everyone is friends outside of work. Or perhaps people struggle to get along.
Generally speaking, a workplace culture depends on official policies, the overall atmosphere, communication standards, and how different personalities blend and interact with one another. How would you describe your current workplace culture? When you go to work, how do you feel? How do you feel around your coworkers? Your boss? Customers, clients?
Matters of Trust
Matters of Trust: You deserve to feel safe, respected, and comfortable while you are at work. Trust is crucial within any successful workplace dynamic. Without trust, you will not be able to collaborate and work meaningfully with others. It’s important to feel like you can trust your boss and coworkers. Otherwise, it might be time to focus on finding a new career path.
Navigating a workplace with trust issues can be stressful. Your sense of safety, professionalism, finances and credentials could be at risk if you are in an unsafe work environment where you feel you cannot trust others. You deserve to be able to trust the people you work with and for. If you don’t, perhaps it’s time to move on and focus on finding a new career.
Finances and More
Finances and More: People consider a wide variety of factors when they choose their careers and different people have different priorities. Everyone, though, has financial concerns – regardless of what the specifics may be. Many people may decide to leave their current job because of their pay, or a lack of opportunities for professional growth. Perhaps you feel like you deserve a raise but aren’t qualified for one or don’t know how to ask for one.
Other
Other reasons people may decide to leave their jobs include physical and mental health reasons. Sometimes people are not able to achieve the work-life balance they would like in their current career.
Or perhaps, you have found a new passion and are excited to pursue a new career!
Whatever the reason, know that there are countless reasons to decide to leave your job. If you feel unsatisfied in any way, know that you deserve better and that with passion, research, networking, and perseverance, you can find a new more fulfilling career. Start by researching how to best prepare for a job interview and the proper steps to take afterwards.
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Questions To Ask Yourself When Searching for a New Career
When you are searching for a new career, it’s important to reflect on your past employment. What jobs have you liked? What jobs have you disliked? What job made you feel the most energized and fulfilled?
Everyone has different workplace priorities and it’s important to actively reflect on what you would like from a job before you can find your ideal career. Take a moment to brainstorm some of your workplace priorities.
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What Do You Like About Work?
Of course, no one enjoys their job all of the time. Even if they love their career.
As the popular saying goes: that’s why it’s called “work.”
It’s important to be realistic when we reflect on our ideal careers. Yes, we should give ourselves time and space to dream up our ideal scenarios. We deserved to indulge ourselves and our fantasies every once in a while. But try to remain grounded as well as you consider finding a career right for you.
There will be good days and bad days wherever you are and whatever you are doing. There will always be challenges and coworkers you don’t like and tasks you’d rather not do. But in order to find your ideal career, you have to accept that nothing is perfect. Your ideal career is out there, but in order to find it, you need to be realistic.
What Do You Want From Your Ideal Job?
Everyone has different priorities. Some of these priorities depend on personal preferences and some of these priorities are affected by our families, health, finances, and upbrings. Try not to judge yourself too much as you reflect on your professional priorities. Everyone is different. But make an effort to be thorough and realistic when brainstorming. This will help you later on in your job search as you compare job offers.
Your Ideal Career for Your Ideal Lifestyle
Schedule
Some people need strict schedules and routines in order to stay organized and to maximize productivity. Others need flexibility and creative freedom. Work schedules play a huge role in our lives. They affect when we go to bed and wake up, what our social lives look like, and more.
Some questions to ask yourself as you think about finding a new career and your ideal work schedule are: Are you a morning person? Night person? Do you have a passion, hobby, or second career that you want to prioritize? Do you have a family? Do you have scheduling conflicts at your current job you’d like to avoid?
Location
This one is a bit more straightforward. Where do you want to live and work? Do you like cities or more rural areas? How long of a commute are you comfortable with? What is your ideal mode of transportation?
Income
What are your financial needs and goals? Make a list or spreadsheet of all your bills and financial responsibilities. Everyone is different. It’s okay to want more money. Just like it’s okay to prioritize other factors.
Workplace Culture
It’s important to feel safe, comfortable, and respected. What is your current workplace culture like? Could it be improved, how? It’s possible to advocate for ourselves and others in order to foster healthier workplace cultures. Sometimes, though, despite your best efforts, it might be time to move on and find a new job where you feel more comfortable and fulfilled.
Work-Life Balance
It’s important to prioritize our overall health and well-being. We do not want to feel stressed, exhausted, or lonely because of our jobs. This is why it’s important to try to achieve a healthy work-life balance. Finding a career right for you may be key in these efforts.
Everyone and every job are different. It might be possible to change other lifestyle factors to achieve your ideal work-life balance, but your actual physical job plays a huge role in whether or not you are able to accomplish this and to what extent.
Is your job stressful? Can it be dangerous? What are your working hours? Do you have to do additional work at home? All of these answers will play a crucial role as to whether you will be able to achieve a healthy work-life balance or when to find a new job.
Finding Career Tests and Quizzes
There are lots of resources to help you actively reflect on your personality traits, strengths, and weaknesses, and how these factor into finding a new job path. There are lots of tests and quizzes focused on helping you find a new career. Take some of these tests and quizzes to help you brainstorm during this process.
Your career test results may validate opinions you have about yourself or they may surprise you! Whatever the case, taking a new career test may help point you in the right direction.
Factors that are included in finding a new job test include: whether you prefer leadership or supporting roles, whether you prefer to work alone or as part of a team, and whether you prefer flexibility or stability.
Other questions you may ask yourself are: What are you good at? What do you want to learn about? What impact do you want to have?
Hiring a Career Coach: Find the Perfect Career!
There are lots of practical steps to take to start the process of finding a new career. Update your resume and your LinkedIn profile. Don’t have a resume or cover letter? Create one for free here. Concentrate on researching and networking. Brush up on your interview skills. It takes hard work and perseverance to find a career right for you. You may even need to go back to school or receive additional certifications. All of this is possible and with the proper help and guidance, you will be well on your way to finding your new career. Consider connecting with our services and finding a career coach to help challenge and encourage you as you begin this journey of finding a new career.
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