Ten Tips for Career Changers

1. Understand what’s behind your desire to make a change.

Maybe you are starting to become disillusioned with your job. You’re bogged down. Perhaps you’re no longer on the way up. This is the time to step back and start to think about life more broadly. But be warned, career changers can go into mourning. All of a sudden, you realize how you miss their old career, and you’re not really open to replacing those things.

2. Get your life in order.

Get physically and financially fit. Change is stressful. When you’re physically fit, you have more power and are mentally sharper to face the challenges ahead. Starting a fresh career later in life takes an incredible amount of strength and energy.

3. Be practical.

If possible, make your move in stages. You may need to upgrade your skills and education, but take one class at a time. If you’d like to go to graduate school, maybe start by taking a night classes. You don’t have to enroll in a full-course load. You can include more classes as your direction and motivation become clear.

4. Find a mentor.

Ask for help. Seek advice from people who have been winning in the field you are interested in switching into from the start. Everybody likes to be asked for counsel.

5. Be prepared for setbacks.

It’s not all-smooth sailing, but if you’ve laid the correct groundwork, you’ll get through the rough patches. Having your family or partner at your back for support will help tremendously. They don’t have to own your dream, but be supportive.

6. Volunteer or moonlight.

You might try on several jobs before you find the one that’s correct. Anne Nolan, executive director of Crossroads Rhode Island, the state’s biggest homeless shelter, started as a volunteer. She didn’t know what she wanted to do when she lost her executive-level career. She had a year’s salary and time to think her options through. She decided to volunteer at the shelter–not because she dreamed it would turn into a full-time job.

7. Research. Look for jobs that leverage experience.

Check out job web sites like encore.org, retiredbrains.com, workforce50.com, to get a flavor for what others are doing and what jobs are out there at the present. Investigate fields like healthcare, the clergy, eldercare and education that have a growing demand for employees. The Bureau of Labor Statistic’s Occupational Outlook Handbook is a good reference.

8. Don’t lock yourself into a must-have salary.

Salary is the biggest roadblock for most career changers. Chances are when you start-over in a new field or move to a nonprofit, you will need to take a salary cut at least primarily. If you have an emergency fund to buy you time, you can to do a more thoughtful job hunt. Pare back your discretionary living expenses to reflect a more realistic view of what you’ll earn. What are the things that are main in your life? What things are actively giving you pleasure that you might have to give up?

9. Keep your hand out of the cookie jar.

Don’t dip too deep into your core savings. Of all the mistakes older employees make in launching second careers, this is probably the bad. Would-be entrepreneurs aren’t necessarily raiding retirement accounts to launch businesses, but they’re tapping home equity and other savings, and that has obvious implications for retirement safety.

10. Do something every day to work toward your goal.

Changing careers can appear overwhelming. Don’t struggle to find an ideal initial point or perfect path, is great advice I gleaned from Clearways Consulting career coach Beverly Jones, a second-acter herself. Once you have some picture of where you want to go, get things moving by taking small steps toward that vision. What really matters is that you do a little something on a regular basis.