March 25, 2024 • 18 mins
In this episode of Go Find Out: The Career Switch Podcast, I explore the common challenges individuals face after making a career switch. Drawing from my own experience transitioning from career coaching to User Experience Design, I outline seven key aspects of the post-switch journey, providing insights and advice to navigate each stage effectively. From confronting imposter syndrome to prioritizing work-life balance, this episode offers practical strategies for overcoming obstacles and thriving in a new career path. Tune in to discover essential tips for success in your career switch journey.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:04):
Welcome to Go Find Out, the Career Switch Podcast. I'm Jennifer Jelliff-Russell,
author, career coach, and speaker, bringing you actionable ideas from knowledgeable
guests on how to successfully kick your fears to the curb to go after your career goals.
You can find more episodes by visiting GoFindOutPodcast.com.
Enjoy the show and go find out.
(00:27):
Welcome back to Go Find Out, the Career Switch podcast. I'm your host,
Jennifer Jellef-Russell, and this is episode number 81.
Today, I'll be talking about seven things that you might expect to experience
after you've made the career switch to a new field.
But first, let's jump into my personal update.
(00:49):
I know, listeners, it has, once again, been quite some time since I did an episode for this show.
I've been focusing on editing book number four in the Artemis Necklace series,
and I am almost finished with it.
I just need to do one more round, punctuation and grammar editing,
through a software tool that I use called ProWritingAid, and then I'll send
it to my actual editor for content editing.
(01:11):
Now, I've talked about this before on this show, I believe, but one of the reasons
that I actually pivoted my career
and went into UX design was not just because I really like UX design,
but also so that I could have a definite income while I slowed down in my writing
and editing process to create better books and also to not burn out again.
A few years ago, I wrote five books in one year, and it was so overwhelming
(01:35):
that it's taken me several years to really get back into writing again.
So slowing down really let me enjoy the story and characters again as I write.
And I know that some people can write fast and publish way more books than I
can, and and they still have really great quality books.
But I am apparently not one of those people, right?
So my goal is to publish at least three books a year, which will be a mix of
(01:58):
my Paranormal Mystery series, so the Artemis Necklace series,
kids' short storybooks, and then career-related nonfiction.
And it's funny, while it's been really nice to slow down my writing process,
it also feels like this book is taking forever to finish, right?
And it's mostly because I keep keep thinking of like fun things to add to the
book to make it better or just funny, right?
(02:19):
Which again was the whole point of slowing down so I can write a better book.
But man, it is so hard to force myself to slow down and be okay with not getting
this book to the market faster.
I'm definitely constantly reminding myself, this is why you slowed down.
This is why you have a full-time job and write in the evening so that you can
make this book great. But slowing down has definitely been a learning process.
(02:42):
In other personal things, I've been playing around with AI tools to see how
that I can leverage them to really help me in my writing career.
So the employer at my day job, they are very AI positive.
So I've gotten to really dig into trying out different AI tools to get a feel
for them, you know, while learning things for UX design.
And I also paid personally for a ChatGPT4 subscription just for a few months
(03:05):
to see like what that was like and what it could do.
And it was nice to be able to use ChatGPT4 to generate character images,
but I found that it couldn't really do what I wanted it to do,
which was to help me create a series Bible for the Artemis Necklace series. series.
And that's basically I wanted to create a personal GPT by uploading all of my
books in the series so far.
(03:26):
And that way I could ask the GPT questions about my books as I'm writing future books.
So things like, what color is this character's hair? Or what color was their eyes?
Right? Or, you know, have I used this name before?
Because sometimes it's hard to remember that stuff when you have so many books.
And I can't imagine as I continue to grow my backlist, having to really remember
other details of other series that I plan to write. Right. So I would really
(03:50):
like to eventually have some sort of series Bible or a way to keep a series Bible.
And AI is really could be a great tool for that.
But unfortunately, chat GPT is just not quite there for that.
And it's not really built for that. It's really built more for generating,
you know, new things and not necessarily as sort of like an analysis tool of
(04:10):
looking through your current data and then giving you information that it doesn't make up.
Sometimes it likes to make things up, which is called hallucinating, by the way, with AI.
So it makes things up that is not part of the series or never happened in the
series or comes up with totally different characters than I've ever had before,
which is great, again, for generating things like ideas, but not so great when
(04:30):
I'm asking it for, you know, factual things that have happened in my series.
So I'm still looking. My understanding is that actually Microsoft's Gemini AI,
in fact, a future version of it, will be able to actually handle this kind of
specific thing like creating a series Bible. Bible.
So, you know, maybe I'll be able to build a series Bible there in the future.
And speaking of AI, I am thinking of doing some interview episodes on this show
(04:53):
where I speak to people who have switched to a career which is AI heavy or,
you know, maybe only exists because of AI.
So it's a new career that people are going into that didn't exist before AI.
I'm just really fascinated and excited about the possibilities that AI brings.
And, you know, I know that there will be some of negatives to AI,
you know, like scammers being able to create more believable deepfakes or,
(05:16):
you know, people putting out terrible AI written books.
But honestly, every technological advancement has some kind of dark side to
it, right? Like think of the internet.
It's an amazing technological advancement that has created numerous careers
now, right? But there is definitely a dark side to the internet.
And I do think that eventually we'll have policies in place to really mitigate
(05:38):
the negative things that can be done with AI.
All right, that is it for my personal update. So let's jump into the solo show
about what to expect when you make a career change.
Hello, hello, career switchers. Today, we are going to be talking about something
we haven't actually discussed on this show before, and that is what happens
(05:59):
after you make the career switch.
There are definitely some things that you might expect to experience after you
make this career switch.
And these are things that I have also experienced when I switched to user experience
design after 10 years in career coaching.
So let's explore together some common experiences that career switchers have
(06:20):
after they've switched to a new field.
Okay, so the first thing I think it's a no brainer, but is there is a pretty
steep learning curve, I feel like when you switch to a new field, right?
So transitioning to a new career often entails diving headfirst into unfamiliar territory.
So just like when I ventured into user experience design, you should expect
(06:42):
a steep learning curve as you acquaint yourself with new processes.
Terminologies, and industry norms.
I can't express to you guys how many times I've had to look up terms just to
make sure that I understand them or just if they're totally new terms and I
need to learn them before a meeting at work.
So I feel like a lot of people do go through this, especially if you're going
(07:03):
into a totally new field like in tech where there might be terminology that
is specific to that field, right?
It can definitely initially feel really overwhelming, but don't be discouraged, right?
This whole learning curve and having to learn new things while on the job,
it's all a part of the growth process of making that career switch.
(07:25):
The second thing that you might experience when switching to a new career is an adaption period.
So you really want to give yourself the gift of time to adapt to your new environment,
your new work culture, and maybe totally different colleagues than you've ever had in the past.
So this can be even more of a challenge if you're pivoting away from a long-term career, right?
(07:46):
You might be switching from maybe being an expert in your old field to suddenly
being a complete newbie in your new field.
This, for me, was the hardest part of making the switch to my new career field.
Because not only are you switching to potentially an entirely new company when
you switch careers, right, which kind of can be difficult just in and of itself
(08:07):
because there's a learning curve just for how they do things at that company,
but you are also starting in an entirely new field.
So when I first started in career coaching, I used to ask a lot of questions
of the senior career counselors, right? right?
And then I became the senior career counselor over time and new coaches would
come to me asking questions.
(08:28):
Then I switched careers and suddenly I was back at the bottom again and having
to ask a million questions to senior designers.
For me, the thing that has helped the most for this particular aspect of the
career switch is to find somebody at work that I feel comfortable being able
to ask questions of, right?
Who doesn't seem to mind that I ask them questions and that is willing to provide
(08:51):
information without like talking down to me or anything like that, right?
So I really recommend that when you switch to a new career, if you can find
someone that you feel comfortable asking questions to, definitely try to do that.
I definitely feel like doing that really helped me to shorten that adaptation period.
So the next thing to be prepared for when you career switch is skill development, right?
(09:14):
You really want to embrace the opportunity for skill development as you embark on your career switch.
You honestly most likely had to upskill before your career switch, right?
I mean, I had to in order to make my career switch happen into UX design by
taking a boot camp, which was that Avocademy boot camp.
And I would say that you should honestly also expect to keep training and upskilling
(09:36):
even after you start in the new job, right?
I know that I have needed to do that for my role. Maybe not everybody needs
needs to do that, but in order for me to really stay up to speed on developments
in the UX design field, and also just to go back and kind of pick up things
that I needed to know for my day-to-day responsibilities.
So I do think that investing in your skill set is a huge key to continued success in your new career.
(10:01):
Okay, this next one I do think is important for your career switch and can be
helpful for you to build a long-term career in this new field,
and that is networking, right?
So building a network in your new field is really important for continuing growth in that field.
Having a robust network in your field can really help you to maybe switch companies
(10:22):
in the future for better pay or just be able to,
you know, have people outside of your current company who can provide more neutral
feedback on anything you might be experiencing at work if you don't feel comfortable
going to your manager about it, right?
But also really just having that external neutral feedback from other folks
(10:43):
who work at other companies because sometimes your view of your career and what
is expected from your career might be skewed by the organization that you work for, right? Right.
So you want to make sure that you have a more well-rounded view of your career
field by networking with people who are outside of your organization but are
(11:03):
still in your career field.
So some of the ways that I networked when I switched to UX design was to attend
virtual industry events, you know, connect with colleagues on professional platforms like LinkedIn.
And by colleagues, I mean anybody in your field. So not necessarily somebody
that you actually work with at your organization.
And then you can also, you know, seek mentorship opportunities from organizations
(11:25):
like the ADP List, which can really provide invaluable insights and support,
again, that is neutral to, like, your organization.
You might also consider signing up for local or digital volunteer opportunities in your new field.
And that way you can connect with folks outside your organization while sort
of working with them in a professional capacity.
One website that I recommend for this is idealist.org. they have some volunteer
(11:50):
opportunities and you can actually filter those for both in-person or virtual
opportunities in your field.
So in my field of user experience design one really great way to connect with
other professionals is to actually sign up for design challenges where the contest
pairs you with someone else that you collaborate with on design.
I actually met some really cool people in my field this way who I might never
(12:11):
otherwise have connected with so definitely if If you are in any kind of field
that offers, you know, hackathons or design challenges, anything like that,
it's a great way to meet people.
And honestly, it can also help you to, you know, grow your portfolio if your
career requires that kind of thing for applying to future jobs.
Okay, the fifth thing on our list of what to expect when you career switch is
(12:35):
to expect challenge and growth, which sometimes sucks, right? Right.
So you may find yourself facing completely new challenges than you did in your old field.
It can be difficult or challenging. See what I did there.
But if you try to view them as opportunities for growth, they do feel a little bit more manageable.
And honestly, it's also a great way to determine what areas you need to upskill in.
(13:01):
While it's not fun to do, each obstacle that you overcome can contribute to
your professional development, and it definitely will enhance your confidence in your abilities.
And honestly, I think it's important to note that while upskilling or trying
to grow your skill set does benefit your organization and might feel like a
very corporate-y thing to say or do, right, that is not the reason that you should do it.
(13:24):
The point is to get better at dealing with those challenges so that they don't
feel like a challenge anymore. more.
So actually, Ryan Holiday wrote a book about this that I really liked.
It's called The Obstacle is the Way.
And the basic idea is to look at the things that are really difficult or challenging
in your job or your life, I guess.
And most likely, these are the things that you kind of hate doing in your job,
(13:45):
right? Because they feel like a challenge every time you do them.
So it can feel really sucky to do this.
But tackling those things and looking at them as your next challenge to upskill
in can really help you grow as a professional.
Like I feel like I suck, for example, at color theory, right?
So if I were to follow this idea of viewing that as the thing that I need to
(14:08):
upskill in, then I should look for some courses or books on color theory and
try to get better at that thing.
And maybe I should look at networking with people who created those color theory
courses or who have listed themselves as experts in color theory on somewhere
like LinkedIn, in, right?
And eventually that might lead me to getting really good at color theory,
and then it would no longer feel like an obstacle.
(14:31):
Okay, the next thing that you might expect when you career switch is something
we've actually talked about in the show many times before, because it's something
that I have always personally struggled with, and that is imposter syndrome.
So it is common to grapple with imposter syndrome when transitioning careers, right?
Just as I question in my capabilities as a user experience designer,
and still do, remind yourself that you were chosen for the new job for a reason, right?
(14:56):
Your company opted to hire you for a reason.
So unless you told a lot of stories on your resume, aka made things up,
right, then you have what it takes to do the job if you told the truth on your resume.
But if you're really struggling with this feeling in your new role,
right, again, and this is something I absolutely struggle with,
then my advice is to to upskill in whatever it is that you don't feel confident in.
(15:20):
This can also give you something more solid to lean on than just your own experience
or theories or opinions when it comes to presenting things at work to people
who may question your expertise.
If you upskill in something, then you're able to say, actually,
I just did a refresher training on this, right?
And that can really help lend weight to your opinion and, again,
(15:41):
make you feel more confident in either your opinion or the thing that you're presenting on. on.
Okay, lastly, our number seven thing that you might experience when you career
switch is the struggle to maintain work-life balance, right?
So striking a balance between work and personal life, it's essential,
I think, for long-term well-being.
(16:02):
So one thing that I have noticed in starting a new career is that it is really
easy to just want to throw yourself into the new role and work past your scheduled
workday, especially if you're excited about a project, right?
Or maybe you're trying to show your organization what a go-getter you are.
But while I get, you know, working overtime to meet a deadline or maybe to handle
some kind of work crisis, you know, can happen sometimes, I do think that it
(16:25):
is important to make sure this doesn't happen all the time.
I feel like I'm really lucky to work for an organization that doesn't want us
to work overtime because they want us to have a life outside work.
They want us to have that, you know, work-life balance, because we're better
at thinking, we're better employees when we have that time off from work.
(16:45):
And I get that sometimes when we first start a career, you know,
at some organizations, they kind of expect you to put in some extra work hours.
And that's okay if it happens occasionally, right?
But if it happens frequently at your job, right, or that's an expectation for
everyone all the time, then I might recommend looking looking for a different
role, honestly, with a company who understands work-life balance.
(17:09):
Okay, so that is our seven things that you might expect to experience after making a career switch.
And remember that embarking on a career switch can have its ups and downs, right?
And it's perfectly normal to face a steep learning curve or grapple with self-doubt.
It might take a little time to really find your footing in this new environment,
(17:29):
but by embracing the learning curve, fostering adaptability and nurturing your
growth, you'll navigate the transition with confidence and resilience.
And hopefully you got a higher paycheck with this new field.
So hopefully that helps a little bit. All right, that's it for today. Now go find out.
(17:51):
Thanks for listening to the show. I hope the information helps you tackle your
own career switch goals.
You can let me know what you thought of the show by messaging me on Instagram
at gofindoutcareerswitch or commenting on one of my TikToks at evergrowthcoach.
That's it for today. Now go find out.
Welcome to Go Find Out, the Career Switch Podcast. I'm Jennifer Jelliff-Russell,
author, career coach, and speaker, bringing you actionable ideas from knowledgeable
guests on how to successfully kick your fears to the curb to go after your career goals.
You can find more episodes by visiting GoFindOutPodcast.com.
Enjoy the show and go find out.
(00:27):
Welcome back to Go Find Out, the Career Switch podcast. I'm your host,
Jennifer Jellef-Russell, and this is episode number 81.
Today, I'll be talking about seven things that you might expect to experience
after you've made the career switch to a new field.
But first, let's jump into my personal update.
(00:49):
I know, listeners, it has, once again, been quite some time since I did an episode for this show.
I've been focusing on editing book number four in the Artemis Necklace series,
and I am almost finished with it.
I just need to do one more round, punctuation and grammar editing,
through a software tool that I use called ProWritingAid, and then I'll send
it to my actual editor for content editing.
(01:11):
Now, I've talked about this before on this show, I believe, but one of the reasons
that I actually pivoted my career
and went into UX design was not just because I really like UX design,
but also so that I could have a definite income while I slowed down in my writing
and editing process to create better books and also to not burn out again.
A few years ago, I wrote five books in one year, and it was so overwhelming
(01:35):
that it's taken me several years to really get back into writing again.
So slowing down really let me enjoy the story and characters again as I write.
And I know that some people can write fast and publish way more books than I
can, and and they still have really great quality books.
But I am apparently not one of those people, right?
So my goal is to publish at least three books a year, which will be a mix of
(01:58):
my Paranormal Mystery series, so the Artemis Necklace series,
kids' short storybooks, and then career-related nonfiction.
And it's funny, while it's been really nice to slow down my writing process,
it also feels like this book is taking forever to finish, right?
And it's mostly because I keep keep thinking of like fun things to add to the
book to make it better or just funny, right?
(02:19):
Which again was the whole point of slowing down so I can write a better book.
But man, it is so hard to force myself to slow down and be okay with not getting
this book to the market faster.
I'm definitely constantly reminding myself, this is why you slowed down.
This is why you have a full-time job and write in the evening so that you can
make this book great. But slowing down has definitely been a learning process.
(02:42):
In other personal things, I've been playing around with AI tools to see how
that I can leverage them to really help me in my writing career.
So the employer at my day job, they are very AI positive.
So I've gotten to really dig into trying out different AI tools to get a feel
for them, you know, while learning things for UX design.
And I also paid personally for a ChatGPT4 subscription just for a few months
(03:05):
to see like what that was like and what it could do.
And it was nice to be able to use ChatGPT4 to generate character images,
but I found that it couldn't really do what I wanted it to do,
which was to help me create a series Bible for the Artemis Necklace series. series.
And that's basically I wanted to create a personal GPT by uploading all of my
books in the series so far.
(03:26):
And that way I could ask the GPT questions about my books as I'm writing future books.
So things like, what color is this character's hair? Or what color was their eyes?
Right? Or, you know, have I used this name before?
Because sometimes it's hard to remember that stuff when you have so many books.
And I can't imagine as I continue to grow my backlist, having to really remember
other details of other series that I plan to write. Right. So I would really
(03:50):
like to eventually have some sort of series Bible or a way to keep a series Bible.
And AI is really could be a great tool for that.
But unfortunately, chat GPT is just not quite there for that.
And it's not really built for that. It's really built more for generating,
you know, new things and not necessarily as sort of like an analysis tool of
(04:10):
looking through your current data and then giving you information that it doesn't make up.
Sometimes it likes to make things up, which is called hallucinating, by the way, with AI.
So it makes things up that is not part of the series or never happened in the
series or comes up with totally different characters than I've ever had before,
which is great, again, for generating things like ideas, but not so great when
(04:30):
I'm asking it for, you know, factual things that have happened in my series.
So I'm still looking. My understanding is that actually Microsoft's Gemini AI,
in fact, a future version of it, will be able to actually handle this kind of
specific thing like creating a series Bible. Bible.
So, you know, maybe I'll be able to build a series Bible there in the future.
And speaking of AI, I am thinking of doing some interview episodes on this show
(04:53):
where I speak to people who have switched to a career which is AI heavy or,
you know, maybe only exists because of AI.
So it's a new career that people are going into that didn't exist before AI.
I'm just really fascinated and excited about the possibilities that AI brings.
And, you know, I know that there will be some of negatives to AI,
you know, like scammers being able to create more believable deepfakes or,
(05:16):
you know, people putting out terrible AI written books.
But honestly, every technological advancement has some kind of dark side to
it, right? Like think of the internet.
It's an amazing technological advancement that has created numerous careers
now, right? But there is definitely a dark side to the internet.
And I do think that eventually we'll have policies in place to really mitigate
(05:38):
the negative things that can be done with AI.
All right, that is it for my personal update. So let's jump into the solo show
about what to expect when you make a career change.
Hello, hello, career switchers. Today, we are going to be talking about something
we haven't actually discussed on this show before, and that is what happens
(05:59):
after you make the career switch.
There are definitely some things that you might expect to experience after you
make this career switch.
And these are things that I have also experienced when I switched to user experience
design after 10 years in career coaching.
So let's explore together some common experiences that career switchers have
(06:20):
after they've switched to a new field.
Okay, so the first thing I think it's a no brainer, but is there is a pretty
steep learning curve, I feel like when you switch to a new field, right?
So transitioning to a new career often entails diving headfirst into unfamiliar territory.
So just like when I ventured into user experience design, you should expect
(06:42):
a steep learning curve as you acquaint yourself with new processes.
Terminologies, and industry norms.
I can't express to you guys how many times I've had to look up terms just to
make sure that I understand them or just if they're totally new terms and I
need to learn them before a meeting at work.
So I feel like a lot of people do go through this, especially if you're going
(07:03):
into a totally new field like in tech where there might be terminology that
is specific to that field, right?
It can definitely initially feel really overwhelming, but don't be discouraged, right?
This whole learning curve and having to learn new things while on the job,
it's all a part of the growth process of making that career switch.
(07:25):
The second thing that you might experience when switching to a new career is an adaption period.
So you really want to give yourself the gift of time to adapt to your new environment,
your new work culture, and maybe totally different colleagues than you've ever had in the past.
So this can be even more of a challenge if you're pivoting away from a long-term career, right?
(07:46):
You might be switching from maybe being an expert in your old field to suddenly
being a complete newbie in your new field.
This, for me, was the hardest part of making the switch to my new career field.
Because not only are you switching to potentially an entirely new company when
you switch careers, right, which kind of can be difficult just in and of itself
(08:07):
because there's a learning curve just for how they do things at that company,
but you are also starting in an entirely new field.
So when I first started in career coaching, I used to ask a lot of questions
of the senior career counselors, right? right?
And then I became the senior career counselor over time and new coaches would
come to me asking questions.
(08:28):
Then I switched careers and suddenly I was back at the bottom again and having
to ask a million questions to senior designers.
For me, the thing that has helped the most for this particular aspect of the
career switch is to find somebody at work that I feel comfortable being able
to ask questions of, right?
Who doesn't seem to mind that I ask them questions and that is willing to provide
(08:51):
information without like talking down to me or anything like that, right?
So I really recommend that when you switch to a new career, if you can find
someone that you feel comfortable asking questions to, definitely try to do that.
I definitely feel like doing that really helped me to shorten that adaptation period.
So the next thing to be prepared for when you career switch is skill development, right?
(09:14):
You really want to embrace the opportunity for skill development as you embark on your career switch.
You honestly most likely had to upskill before your career switch, right?
I mean, I had to in order to make my career switch happen into UX design by
taking a boot camp, which was that Avocademy boot camp.
And I would say that you should honestly also expect to keep training and upskilling
(09:36):
even after you start in the new job, right?
I know that I have needed to do that for my role. Maybe not everybody needs
needs to do that, but in order for me to really stay up to speed on developments
in the UX design field, and also just to go back and kind of pick up things
that I needed to know for my day-to-day responsibilities.
So I do think that investing in your skill set is a huge key to continued success in your new career.
(10:01):
Okay, this next one I do think is important for your career switch and can be
helpful for you to build a long-term career in this new field,
and that is networking, right?
So building a network in your new field is really important for continuing growth in that field.
Having a robust network in your field can really help you to maybe switch companies
(10:22):
in the future for better pay or just be able to,
you know, have people outside of your current company who can provide more neutral
feedback on anything you might be experiencing at work if you don't feel comfortable
going to your manager about it, right?
But also really just having that external neutral feedback from other folks
(10:43):
who work at other companies because sometimes your view of your career and what
is expected from your career might be skewed by the organization that you work for, right? Right.
So you want to make sure that you have a more well-rounded view of your career
field by networking with people who are outside of your organization but are
(11:03):
still in your career field.
So some of the ways that I networked when I switched to UX design was to attend
virtual industry events, you know, connect with colleagues on professional platforms like LinkedIn.
And by colleagues, I mean anybody in your field. So not necessarily somebody
that you actually work with at your organization.
And then you can also, you know, seek mentorship opportunities from organizations
(11:25):
like the ADP List, which can really provide invaluable insights and support,
again, that is neutral to, like, your organization.
You might also consider signing up for local or digital volunteer opportunities in your new field.
And that way you can connect with folks outside your organization while sort
of working with them in a professional capacity.
One website that I recommend for this is idealist.org. they have some volunteer
(11:50):
opportunities and you can actually filter those for both in-person or virtual
opportunities in your field.
So in my field of user experience design one really great way to connect with
other professionals is to actually sign up for design challenges where the contest
pairs you with someone else that you collaborate with on design.
I actually met some really cool people in my field this way who I might never
(12:11):
otherwise have connected with so definitely if If you are in any kind of field
that offers, you know, hackathons or design challenges, anything like that,
it's a great way to meet people.
And honestly, it can also help you to, you know, grow your portfolio if your
career requires that kind of thing for applying to future jobs.
Okay, the fifth thing on our list of what to expect when you career switch is
(12:35):
to expect challenge and growth, which sometimes sucks, right? Right.
So you may find yourself facing completely new challenges than you did in your old field.
It can be difficult or challenging. See what I did there.
But if you try to view them as opportunities for growth, they do feel a little bit more manageable.
And honestly, it's also a great way to determine what areas you need to upskill in.
(13:01):
While it's not fun to do, each obstacle that you overcome can contribute to
your professional development, and it definitely will enhance your confidence in your abilities.
And honestly, I think it's important to note that while upskilling or trying
to grow your skill set does benefit your organization and might feel like a
very corporate-y thing to say or do, right, that is not the reason that you should do it.
(13:24):
The point is to get better at dealing with those challenges so that they don't
feel like a challenge anymore. more.
So actually, Ryan Holiday wrote a book about this that I really liked.
It's called The Obstacle is the Way.
And the basic idea is to look at the things that are really difficult or challenging
in your job or your life, I guess.
And most likely, these are the things that you kind of hate doing in your job,
(13:45):
right? Because they feel like a challenge every time you do them.
So it can feel really sucky to do this.
But tackling those things and looking at them as your next challenge to upskill
in can really help you grow as a professional.
Like I feel like I suck, for example, at color theory, right?
So if I were to follow this idea of viewing that as the thing that I need to
(14:08):
upskill in, then I should look for some courses or books on color theory and
try to get better at that thing.
And maybe I should look at networking with people who created those color theory
courses or who have listed themselves as experts in color theory on somewhere
like LinkedIn, in, right?
And eventually that might lead me to getting really good at color theory,
and then it would no longer feel like an obstacle.
(14:31):
Okay, the next thing that you might expect when you career switch is something
we've actually talked about in the show many times before, because it's something
that I have always personally struggled with, and that is imposter syndrome.
So it is common to grapple with imposter syndrome when transitioning careers, right?
Just as I question in my capabilities as a user experience designer,
and still do, remind yourself that you were chosen for the new job for a reason, right?
(14:56):
Your company opted to hire you for a reason.
So unless you told a lot of stories on your resume, aka made things up,
right, then you have what it takes to do the job if you told the truth on your resume.
But if you're really struggling with this feeling in your new role,
right, again, and this is something I absolutely struggle with,
then my advice is to to upskill in whatever it is that you don't feel confident in.
(15:20):
This can also give you something more solid to lean on than just your own experience
or theories or opinions when it comes to presenting things at work to people
who may question your expertise.
If you upskill in something, then you're able to say, actually,
I just did a refresher training on this, right?
And that can really help lend weight to your opinion and, again,
(15:41):
make you feel more confident in either your opinion or the thing that you're presenting on. on.
Okay, lastly, our number seven thing that you might experience when you career
switch is the struggle to maintain work-life balance, right?
So striking a balance between work and personal life, it's essential,
I think, for long-term well-being.
(16:02):
So one thing that I have noticed in starting a new career is that it is really
easy to just want to throw yourself into the new role and work past your scheduled
workday, especially if you're excited about a project, right?
Or maybe you're trying to show your organization what a go-getter you are.
But while I get, you know, working overtime to meet a deadline or maybe to handle
some kind of work crisis, you know, can happen sometimes, I do think that it
(16:25):
is important to make sure this doesn't happen all the time.
I feel like I'm really lucky to work for an organization that doesn't want us
to work overtime because they want us to have a life outside work.
They want us to have that, you know, work-life balance, because we're better
at thinking, we're better employees when we have that time off from work.
(16:45):
And I get that sometimes when we first start a career, you know,
at some organizations, they kind of expect you to put in some extra work hours.
And that's okay if it happens occasionally, right?
But if it happens frequently at your job, right, or that's an expectation for
everyone all the time, then I might recommend looking looking for a different
role, honestly, with a company who understands work-life balance.
(17:09):
Okay, so that is our seven things that you might expect to experience after making a career switch.
And remember that embarking on a career switch can have its ups and downs, right?
And it's perfectly normal to face a steep learning curve or grapple with self-doubt.
It might take a little time to really find your footing in this new environment,
(17:29):
but by embracing the learning curve, fostering adaptability and nurturing your
growth, you'll navigate the transition with confidence and resilience.
And hopefully you got a higher paycheck with this new field.
So hopefully that helps a little bit. All right, that's it for today. Now go find out.
(17:51):
Thanks for listening to the show. I hope the information helps you tackle your
own career switch goals.
You can let me know what you thought of the show by messaging me on Instagram
at gofindoutcareerswitch or commenting on one of my TikToks at evergrowthcoach.
That's it for today. Now go find out.
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