What was your dream job when you were a child? Doctor? Rock star? Or maybe a writer?

Have you managed to accomplish that goal? Has it changed along the way?

As it is, we all have dreams and those dreams can change. When we are young, we have plans for the future, but as we gain experience, learn about ourselves, try and fail, our plans adapt. And we pick a career that might bring us the most recognition, money, happiness or free time.

But all of this is not written in stone. If you are not happy with your choice, you can change your job. Well, not just your job. Your career.

What would be the reasons for making this important decision?

Ambition and sense of accomplishment

This is something that happens more and more often at the workplace – you are stuck at a certain job and you know that you can achieve more and do greater things but it is just not possible at your current position.

And you know what? You can do more! We all can! It just takes a lot of courage to face the fact that our job does not fulfill our ambitions and find the one that does.

New opportunities

Let us take something like Web design – a lot of us have been hearing about it recently, along with other IT jobs (most of which involve a lot of acronyms) such as UX designer. However, when some of us were in school, that was not offered. And even if it was, it was not as accessible as it is today.

So, you might actually be really talented for a job that you have not studied for and not even know it. Luckily, there are plenty of online courses, workshops, aged care traineeships, early childhood trainings near you, etc. Just give it a go!

Life-altering events

Life Events May Impact Career

If you are one of those people who likes to have a challenging job but, for example, became a parent recently, your working habits must change. Maybe it takes you more time to get to work because you moved to a new place.

So, one of the possible solutions would be to find a career that would not demand so much time and which would allow you to adjust the timetable to your needs.

Salary

This is one reason that often makes people make drastic career changes.

If you are working as a teacher, it is obvious you will never earn enough money to buy a Rolls-Royce and you might be fine with that but some people are not.

And if you also believe you CAN earn more by doing something else, then find something that you like that might bring you money. Do not just despair about how low your salary is. Fight for a higher one.

People around you

So, you have been working with the same people and listening to the same jokes for years and you feel like you will lose your mind if you hear another punchline only accountants would understand.

Guess what! You are not the only one!

Some people that have changed careers talked about how a sales person’s way of thinking differs from someone’s in IT. For example, this can be seen when you are around your new colleagues during lunch and they start talking about things of interest to them.

It is a great way not only to meet different people (as you would when changing jobs) but to encounter people who think in a completely different manner than you do (when you change careers).

Happiness

It is really simple, if something that you do does not make you happy, then you should change it. As we have said, people change, ideas change and you should not keep doing your job if it no longer makes you happy.

Most of us work for eight hours or more so it is ridiculous to spend almost half of our waking hours doing something that doesn’t make us happy, right?

No one expects you to keep doing the same thing for decades. Times have changed and it has never been easier to change careers. No matter what your reason is, make sure to keep that in mind.