A 6-Step Guide to Transforming Your Career

How to divorce your job.

Photo: Brendan Church/Unsplash

Many argue that we live in a digital age and there are plenty of opportunities to make money. I beg to differ. Freelancers are only 6% of the UK workforce as a whole. For the majority, being a salaried employee is the only source of income.

A typical journey of an office worker starts after graduation. You land a starter position in the field you studied, muddle through the first few years, even change job a couple of times before you reach 30.

Then, around 30 years old the realisation hits — you won’t be super-rich. It becomes clear that you will need to work for another 30 years. For some, this thought is a happy one. For many, it is drastic.

A career is like a relationship

Very few marry the high school sweetheart and live happily ever after. The majority of people go through few serious relationships before settling down. Somehow we think it is ok to quit a romantic relationship, but not a career journey. A job is even more important than marriage. An average person works 45 hours a week (47 hours for an average American and 42.5 hours for an average Brit). Considering we need to sleep and do other activities, we spend around 2/3 of our remaining time at work and 1/3 at home. No one will judge you on your willingness to end an unhappy relationship and pursue a new beginning.

But don’t you dare to quit a “promising” corporate career or reconsider job options, you will face a complete lack of understanding.

Few will care if you are drained of your job, wish to do something else, or your earnings stagnated. Society does not understand or approve of people who take a pay cut to pursue a dream.

But sometimes, divorce is necessary. I will walk you through the 6 steps of an effective career change process that I have seen many follow.

Step 1 — Know your why’s

First of all, you need to understand the drivers behind the career change. I get it — your job sucks, and you want out, but do you like what you do? If the answer is yes, then you need to change the employer for a better one. Yet, if you are 100% sure on at least 3 of the below points, you are up for a career change:

• You are disconnected from the original reasons for entering the field.
• You’ve checked out. Deadlines are slipping, and performance is dropping. You have no more enthusiasm and can be bothered no longer.
• None of your greatest skills are being used. You feel undervalued. Your time and talent are wasted on boring tasks.
• You are not making an impact.
• You hate Mondays and can’t wait for Fridays. Every Sunday, you dread the new work week.
• The pay is the only reason you have not quit the job as yet.
• Your job is affecting your personal life.
• You daydream about a new career.
• You find yourself constantly distracted or jealous of your friend’s careers. Hoping you can land a perfect job one day.

Step 2 — Identify realistic options

You may break up your current relationship, go through a divorce, and be back on the market. Your dream date could be Jamie Dornan or Megan Fox, but c’mon you know you will never even meet them. The same goes for the career choices, be realistic. Deep down, you know what you want to do, and you know your reasons.

Everyone has a gift, uncover it.

Dissect your up to date experience to extract skills and trends. Explore what makes you happy and what feels like a prison sentence. Are there any tasks you volunteer for with pleasure? Are there any you avoid like a plague? Ask your colleagues, friends and family what you are good at? Take a strength finder survey and a psychological assessment. Check every aspect of your behaviour.

Take the time to dig deep and study yourself. This is the most important step of all.

In my personal example:

• I was a civil engineer. My day to day job was performing engineering calculations via several software packages. Writing reports. Drafting drawings. Supervising juniors and draftsman.
• I was not too fond of calculations, spreadsheets and formulas. I loved communicating with colleagues. My best task was supervising and teaching juniors how to use technology.
• I would pride myself on efficiency. I could do the same job 30% faster than anyone else in the team. I spend time to gain information on the best technology use. I would develop smart spreadsheets or CAD scripts to avoid routine tasks.
• I would make technology comparisons and defend my favourite choices in office banter.
• In my free time, I read articles about all kind of software. I daydreamed about working for a tech giant (even though I could not envision any possibility of that happening).

I ended up dropping Civil Engineering and joining a software company as a technical sales. My journey was not pre-planned. I was desperate for a change and naturally chose a new career path I love. Since then, I saw many people change the industry in a calculated way.

Step 3 — Do your research

Nowadays you don’t buy anything without reading reviews. We don't even dine in places with a bad rating. The same principle applies here.

• Find people in your organisation or on LinkedIn who do your dream job. Ask them about their experience, day to day tasks, pressure and rewards. Reach out; there are so many of us who will be happy to help.

“Hi Joe, I am considering pursuing a career as an Account Manager. I can see you are in the role for the last 3 years. I would appreciate 10 minutes of your time to ask you a few questions about your work. It would truly help me. Thanks, Ludi“

• Check the salary rates, use Glassdoor and Linkedin to check how much people are getting paid. You don't want to land your dream job and in three months realise you are underpaid.
• Research career progression, especially if you are highly ambitious.
• Identify the type of companies you can join. Make top 10/20/50 list.

Step 4— Rewrite your resume

Using all the discovery you noted in Step 2 and 3, rewrite your resume. Change your LinkedIn profile. Focus your resume around your strong points. Look up the top 10 companies you shortlisted and find job advertisements listed for your desired position. Highlight all the parallel skills and experiences they all ask for. They form a skeleton of the job. Now identify your gaps. If the gap is enormous, you are in a Jamie Dornan or Megan Fox situation. Start again.

When the gap is large but not huge, you can adopt a two-step strategy. Aim for a lower position, which you can use as a foundation for the future move.

Step 5— Connect to the right people across several organisations

Use LinkedIn to your full advantage. Connect to people who work in the identified list of companies. Be strategic. Connect to people who do the dream job and people with hiring power, aka Team Leaders and Managers. There is no point to connect with someone in Marketing if you are aiming for a developer position.

This step aims to build a network of people who work in your future field. You can learn more about common topics and problems they face throughout their posts.

Step 6 — Apply

The best way to get a job is to get referred. I got my first sales position by asking someone I hardly knew to refer me. If you know someone or your friend knows someone in the target organisation — ask to get referred. Most companies run a paid referral scheme. Plenty will jump on a referral opportunity with pleasure. The worst that could happen they consider your resume too week and will not go ahead with it. In this case, ask for feedback.

Please don’t IM your resume to people you don’t know on LinkedIn. This isn't polite.

If there is no one to ask, then the volume is your answer. Apply, apply, apply. Learn from every rejection and apply again.

Congratulations, you are hired

Hurray, you successfully transitioned — and transformed — your career. You can forget about everything else for three to six months. Now, you need to catch up with trade tricks before your probation ends. Work hard, work smart, be proactive, ask questions, perform.

From that point onwards, you will need to prove learning skills and adaptability. The company took a gamble by hiring you. They will be watching. I can guarantee the journey will be hard but very much worth it.

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