Of all the things to do in life, changing career is undoubtedly one of the scariest and most daunting to do. There’s a pressure to pick a career in your teenage years and stick with it for the rest of your life, but you don’t have to.

Oftentimes, people enter the career field they thought they wanted to, only to find they actually don’t like it or it doesn’t fit in with their life like it used to or they thought it would. Sometimes, people simply outgrow their chosen career path and want a new challenge. Whatever the reason, changing career direction is completely fine, though it is rarely encouraged because many people view it as too difficult.

Despite what people may say, it’s never too late to switch to a job field that enriches your life – even if it is the complete opposite to what you thought you wanted to do or have been doing for the past umpteen years.

If you’re teetering on the edge of a career change, you absolutely should go for it, but here are some things you’ll need to consider before taking the plunge.

Skills

Lots of careers are skills driven and require a level of specialised education. Whether it’s in the form of a degree or a course, if you want to change career you will more than likely have to learn new skills. You will need to keep this in mind and consider if you can take the time out to do so, as well as if you can afford it financially since most educational courses cost money.

Employment Prospective

Before you commit to quitting your existing job and undertaking a new career, you need to look at whether there are adequate employment opportunities. For example, if you want to enter the field of mining but live in a country where mines are closing frequently, it might not be the smartest move. You need to look closely at where the industry you want to enter is headed and whether it’s going to be a viable career path in five years to come.

Salary

For some people, a career switch is because they want something that pays a higher salary, but for others, it’s because they just want to do something that makes them happier and gives them a greater sense of fulfilment. Regardless of why you’re changing career, when you do, your salary is likely to change, and there’s a very real prospect that it might decrease as you start from the bottom of the ladder and work your way back up. You’ll need to factor this in and figure out if you can afford to earn the minimum salary whilst keeping on top of your financial responsibilities. Even if your new career has big salary potential, you likely won’t be earning that immediately.

Determination

You might be at the top of your game in your current job, but when you switch to a totally new career path you need to remember that you’ll probably be back at the bottom of the pile for a while, and it might take you a few years to get to a comparable position to your current one. We’ve already mentioned that this might have an impact on your salary, but it could also affect your career progression, too. Lots of career changers struggle with this concept and take being at the bottom of the ladder as a sign of failure, but it’s not. Keep in mind that getting to the top requires hard work and dedication, so you need to ask yourself if you have the capacity to stick at it and do what it takes to progress – even if it means starting all over again.

If you’ve weighed up all these considerations and concluded that a career change is the best course of action, we wish you the best of luck in your job application and new direction.