For a starter, a change in occupations is not seen favorably by the state and there are no tax deductions for expenses incurred while searching for a job in any other occupation than your current one. At its baseline, a change in occupation always includes a big investment of resources to buffer the shift and comes with a host of new challenges as well as adversities that need to be overcome. It's a big decision. It can put you ahead in life if you are up to it, or drag you to the bottom if you misstep or fail to realize your plans. So, if you are thinking of changing your career, it is good to look at some things twice, and better be safe than sorry.
Some common mistakes that lead to taking a wrong decision in favor of career change include:
- Confusing job dissatisfaction with career dissatisfaction
- Judging the economic climate frivolously and jumping to conclusions about one's current occupational field
- Neglecting to do thorough research and failing to gather realistic information about the targeted occupation
- Failing to create a realistic plan for achieving ambitions in a new occupational field
- Failing to do a proper strength and weakness analysis of one's self
- Thinking it would work out for you just because it worked out for somebody else
Another common mistake that leads to a decision to change occupations is failing to realize the need to upgrade one's own skill sets. Too often, people judge the prospects of continuing in an occupation to be hopeless when in reality they are only judging their future prospects based upon present skill sets. Things can often be quite different , and brighten up, if you manage to put in the effort and resources to upgrade your skill sets to a level from where the prospects seem rosy enough.
The recession also takes its toll, and everywhere, whether at workplace or at home, people are stressed and walking on edges. The general economic climate can often fool you into thinking that things are going to stay the same in your occupation while things will be better in others. That may well be true, but there is no guarantee to it. Unless you are in some obsolete work process, it is safe to assume that the scenario in your occupational field will improve as the economy recovers. Work-experience matters more than anything else in an economy, where employers don't have the resources to train employees intensively. Hence, it is a very serious decision to consciously sacrifice the edge of previous work-experience and restart your career as a novice.
However, there can be conditions where your natural inclinations and skill sets, as also your contacts are in another profession while you are stranded somewhere else. A career change can be good for you, if you consider all things carefully and take a reasoned and informed decision uninfluenced by impulses.
