Hey lovely,
It's Lata Hamilton,
Change leadership and confidence expert and I wanted to share my most common myth-busting on changing careers.
When you're thinking of changing careers,
It's common to start thinking up all the reasons and excuses that you can't.
It's not rocket science,
It's neuroscience.
Our brains are hardwired to resist change because when things stay the same and are stable and consistent,
We feel safe,
Can plan,
Know our place and feel comfortable and confident.
So we come up with these common career change myths that stop us from believing in our dreams and taking action towards them.
Here are the three most common career change myths.
Myth number one,
I don't have enough experience to change careers.
Myth number two,
I don't have enough skills or the right skills to change careers.
Myth number three,
I'll have to take a pay cut to change careers.
Let's look at each of them in turn and more importantly,
Bust them.
Career change myth number one,
I don't have enough experience to change careers.
When I was interviewing for my first ever change management position,
I could tell I'd be offered the job but I wasn't sure that I was ready.
I said to my future leader,
Are you sure you want me?
I don't have any experience in change management and she said,
You do,
You do have experience in change management.
You may not have been calling it that or following a process but you've been doing change.
Ironically,
Instead of me trying to convince her to hire me,
She was having to convince me to take the job and she was right.
The truth is,
You don't have enough experience for your career change.
Of course you don't.
You're changing careers and carving a new path,
Not going through a fast food drive-through that's the same in every city across the state.
So some truth talk.
When you want to change careers,
You won't have buckets of direct experience and more truth talk,
It doesn't matter because you have oodles of transferable experience.
When my leader said I do have experience in change management,
It's because of all the work I'd been doing in marketing that directly correlated to a new career in change.
When you go to change careers,
You want to celebrate and calibrate on your transferable skills and experiences,
Not your direct ones.
I define transferable skills really simply.
They are the skills that can be used in any role,
Any company,
Any industry,
Any country.
They are the skills that are the non-technical and non-specific.
That's why change management is so easy to move into.
Pretty much no one ever started out in their career doing change management.
They started somewhere else and moved into change,
Bringing their transferable skills and experience.
Career change myth number two.
I don't have enough skills or right skills to change careers.
A lot of people thinking of changing careers get caught up in needing to be an expert in every skill that's laid out in a job ad before they apply.
They try to build this expertise through secondments,
Internships,
Projects,
Training and courses,
Sometimes leading to procrastinate learning where they just do course after course without ever feeling skilled or qualified enough to make the change.
Certifications,
Accreditations and licenses.
Do get the certification or license if it's legally required to practice in your field or prudent to do so,
Such as for the protection,
Health and safety of yourself or others physically,
Emotionally,
Legally,
Financially or psychologically.
I'm not saying these things are bad.
I'm saying don't be a perfectionist about trying to become an expert before you've actually made the career change.
You'll never learn more or build skills quicker until you actually work in that career and get real-world day-to-day practice.
Most of the degrees,
Training,
Courses,
Certifications and accreditations don't actually teach you how to do the job in industry.
They focus on methodology,
Theory and concepts rather than practical tools,
Templates and techniques and this is definitely the case in change management.
Career change myth number three,
I'll have to take a pay cut.
This is a big one for most people dreaming of making a career change.
There's a belief that you feel like you'll need to start at the bottom,
Do your time and take a pay cut.
Because of your transferable skills and experience and skills,
You are perfectly eligible and within your right to get a pay rise when you change careers.
And if you don't believe me,
Let's take myself as an example.
I moved from hospitality to advertising and got a pay rise.
I moved from advertising to marketing and got a pay rise.
I moved from marketing to change management and got a pay rise.
I started coaching and got a pay rise.
I started my own change management consultancy and tripled my rates.
Every career change I've ever made,
I've gotten more money not less and that's because I actively chose career paths that I knew paid more.
I made these decisions based on the life and the lifestyle I wanted to lead,
Not just what I happened to study at university or roles I fell into and then took the salary I was given.
So these three most common career change myths are now busted.
The key,
Choose a career path that pays more and harness your transferable skills to make the change.
Change management is an incredibly highly paid,
Female-dominated profession that helped me triple my salary in the space of three years to almost $200,
000.
It was such a strategic move to make and you can obviously make those kinds of strategic decisions for yourself as well.
So comment below,
What career change myth have you busted?
