Considering a career change in 2023

The New Year is a great time to start thinking about a new career, new challenges and setting some new tangible job-related goals. Some professionals come back from the holiday period feeling refreshed and armed with resolutions to enhance their career prospects. 2023 brings an opportunity to reflect on your career and think about which direction you might want to go in the future. This could include improvements to your career or upskilling, it could be continuing with an existing job search, changing career or even that next step up. This article discusses some useful hints and tips to use when evaluating and generating new ideas for career change in 2023.

Visualise your future

In order to generate new ideas about your career, go back to the drawing board and clarify and refocus your priorities. Start creating mind maps or lists to help you create a clear picture of what you want your life and career change to look like. This will help you identify and articulate what you want out of your career and what your priorities are.

Ask yourself:

• What would my ideal job be if every job paid the same?
• What is my dream job? (think about the specifics)
• What would I do if anything was possible?

Identify your transferrable skills

A common concern for individuals changing direction is working out what skills and experience they have that could be transferred over to a new chosen career path. To work out your new direction you need to be prepared to have a clear understanding about what you have to offer and what you could bring to a new career. Take a look at job descriptions and look at the common skills and experiences businesses typically have or need. Think about the skills you have enjoyed using and what aspects of your previous roles you have been good at. What personal qualities are transferrable into other sectors/roles? And how does your work experience relate to other sectors?

Use job boards

One of the most useful ways to identify jobs of interest  is to use  job boards to research the current job market. Don’t focus too much on job titles, start by adding keywords such as skills and strengths into a job board like www.indeed.co.uk.  This may result in a long list of potential opportunities, but it may bring up roles or options that you hadn’t considered before. This will help you to identify new job titles that may spark an interest.

Explore and analyse possible career matches

Bring together your ideas and generate a list of possible careers to help you focus your research and the different options.  Identify the underlying themes that tie together the roles you selected in your list of options. Some of the questions you may have at this stage might include:

• Would I need to retrain?
• Will I need to reduce my salary expectations, and can I afford to retrain?
• If so, what are the costs of training?
• Is this option realistic?
• What level would I start at? Do I need to take a lower status?
• How easy is it to secure jobs in this field?
• What is the competition? Where is the demand?
• What other careers are there related to this area?

There may be other factors that are important to you such as the company’s values or culture. These are hard to assess using job boards. You may need to use the company’s website, engage with your network or conduct further research to ensure you share the same values.

Remember, a career change requires careful consideration, so it is well worth talking to trusted people in your professional network or an expert such as career coach to help formulate your plan and make sure you’re optimising your new job search to best effect.

Renovo is the UK’s leading outplacement and career transition specialist. We work with both organisations and individuals to support all their career transition requirements. If you would like to understand how Renovo can help you please email info@renovo.co.uk