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The Ultimate Checklist for Anyone Considering a Career Switch
What to consider before making the transition, during your job hunt, and after landing a new role
Most of us have, at one point or another, fantasized about starting over in a whole new career. Maybe you wonder each time you open a spreadsheet if your attention to detail might serve you better in something like event planning. Maybe you spend meetings daydreaming about abandoning office life and opening a bakery. Maybe you’ve always secretly believed you’d make a great doctor.
It’s easy, especially if you’ve ever experienced more than a fleeting frustration with your job, to understand the appeal of starting from scratch in a new industry. What all those fantasies typically fail to acknowledge, though, is that actually following through with a career change is both a challenge (you’ll likely be working your way up from the bottom again) and a gamble (you may not even like it).
This doesn’t mean a career switch is always a bad idea — just that it requires plenty of preparation and diligence. The first step is to decide whether a career change is what you really want and to make sure you’re interested in it for the right reasons. From there, a number of things can help ensure a smooth transition to and guarantee satisfaction in…
