Questionnaire: Do You Really Want to Change Career?

Lots of people dream of a career change in much the same way as they dream about winning the lottery or having a body like Gisele’s, but they don’t really do that much to make it happen – although buying a lottery ticket is far easier than spending hours in the gym and only drinking water.

If you’ve spent many happy hours daydreaming about working in your dream job, whether that be working part-time, retraining or jacking it all in to start your own business, this is the questionnaire for you. It’s all about understanding whether your career change dream should stay just that – a dream – or if you’ve got the right attitude, support network and skills to make it a reality.

How Much Do You Enjoy Your Current Job?

OK, not everyone wakes up at the crack of dawn full of beans for the day ahead, but you don’t want to be dreading work every day either. Which of the following answers best describes how you feel about your current job?

1. I’m pretty happy in my job – it’s usually rewarding and the pay’s not too bad.
2. Monday mornings are a bit of a drag, but by Tuesday afternoon I’m in the swing of things, Wednesday is halfway and I go to the pub on Friday lunchtime. Then it all happens all over again and I get paid.
3. My boss is an idiot and I’m not using my skills at all. I dread coming to work and only stay because I’m too lazy to do anything about it.

What Are Your Financial Commitments?

It’s an awful lot easier to change career if you don’t have a family of five hungry kids, debt up to your eyeballs and rent that you can hardly pay. That’s not to say that it’s impossible, but it certainly helps if you’ve got some savings or, at least, not high financial commitments. Which answer best fits your financial situation?

1. I have a supportive partner, we’re not planning to have children for a couple of years and I’ve saved ten percent of my salary for the past eight years.
2. My children are both at school and our mortgage is low, I don’t have any savings but I don’t have any debt either.
3. I have three children under three and my husband has just been made redundant. We scrape by on paying the rent but our bills are being paid by credit card.

Do You Have a New Career in Mind?

A huge part of succeeding in your potential new career is how much you want to succeed. Yes, it’s that old chestnut – Positive Mental Attitude! Just wanting to do something different isn’t really enough to make a success of your new career, although it’s no bad thing, but certainly not enough on its own. That’s not to say that you have to know every single detail of your career change before you launch yourself into the big, bad world, but at least have some idea what you’re going to do! Which of these situations is most appropriate?

1. I’ve always wanted to start my own PR firm from home, using my corporate marketing experience and personal network.
2. I’m keen to do something that using my time management and financial skills, ideally on a part time basis, but I’m not exactly sure what.
3. As long as I don’t have to listen to my boss drone on or park in that same dingy car park again, I’ll be happy with any type of job.

Answers

If you answered mainly 1), now is the time to make that career change happen! You’re in a great situation to make it work so don’t let it pass you by.

If you answered mainly 2), you’re in a pretty good situation so changing career now is a good idea as long as you plan carefully and work hard so that it doesn’t take too long to come together.

If you answered mainly 3), to some extent you may as well go for that career change you’ve been dreaming of! You’ll need a bit of an overhaul of your attitude though or your new venture will just add to your issues.

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