What I Wish I’d Known When I Made a Drastic Career Change
Eight people who took the plunge share the biggest challenges and surprises of starting over
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When Cat Jones left her job at a large health care company to join a small nonprofit, the first moment of culture shock happened before her training even started — because, as the organization’s sole employee, she wouldn’t be having any.
Without any formal process in place for her onboarding (or anyone to implement it), Jones, 30, was left to teach herself everything she needed to know, from donor engagement to graphic design. “I wish I’d done research first, instead of assuming I could do everything from day one,” she says. It wasn’t until she started that Jones realized just how much she didn’t know.
While there are no statistics on how many people make a dramatic career change, most of us hopscotch through our working life to some degree. In fact, the U.S. Department of Labor found that the average person changes jobs a dozen times in their career. For anyone making a drastic career change, settling in means learning new things about your goals, your skills, and yourself. Some of those lessons are easy to anticipate; others, like in Jones’ experience, are learned on the fly.
Below, people who have made it through their own big career switch share what they wish they’d known before taking the plunge. Answers have been edited for length and clarity.
You’ll spend some time defending your choices.
I have actually had two big career changes: First I trained as an actress, then I became a police officer. I made the decision to leave the police force because it wasn’t the right fit for me. I started my new career as a blogger and haven’t looked back. I get asked the same question all the time: “You left the police force to write? But the police force is a stable job!” Yes, but I’m much happier behind the screen of a computer than I am issuing tickets and attending to crimes.
— Laura Martin, 35, blogger at MissLJBeauty.com, U.K.
