Four Lies You’re Telling Yourself About Changing Careers
By: Kelley Shields
Tags: Career Paths, Burnout, Lawyers, Career Advice, Career Change

You really can find an amazing new career. Let’s help you get out of your own way!

There’s a lot of “stinkin’ thinkin’” that goes on when people start contemplating changing careers. You’re thinking about venturing into the unknown, and to your brain, the unknown is scary…. and your brain often deals with something scary by trying to keep it from happening. So, it latches onto thoughts and ideas about why a change isn’t going to work and why you shouldn’t even try.

Those thoughts and ideas aren’t actually true . . but they often feel true.

When you believe them, they tend to keep you stuck where you are — and you end up being even unhappier. It’s a cycle that feeds on itself and makes it harder to even imagine the possibility of a change or to think of ways you could make it happen.

That’s not a fun place to be — and it’s what keeps a lot of people from even trying to make a change. So, let’s take on a few of those beliefs and start dismantling them.

1. All I’m Qualified for is my Current Career

Oh, do I remember buying into this idea in my attorney days.

It makes sense why we think and believe this. You want a new career and so you look at your resume, or think about your experience, to see what else you’d be qualified to do. But — surprise! — your work experience just points you back towards the career where you got the experience.

If looking at your work experience is just going to lead you back to where you are now, where should you look instead? Start with looking at YOU, not your work history. When in your life have you felt like you were doing something meaningful? What ways do you most want to help people? What do you wish you had more of in your life? What are you good at doing that you also actually enjoy? And even better, what energizes you? What are you doing when time flies by? What would someone pay you to tell them about?

Once you figure out what new career you want to move into, you can reframe your experience to show how it supports your entry into that line of work. But that step generally needs to come after you’ve figured out what new career you want to move into. If you look at your work experience as a first step, you often just end up feeling stuck.

2. I Can’t Make Enough Money in Another Job.

This is the BIG one for lawyers, accountants, executives… really anyone in a profession known for paying high salaries. Making good money is one reason many of you went into those professions in the first place.

I’m not going to pretend that you can make the same amount of money at every job. You can’t. But you might be surprised at how many jobs actually can provide a good living. (And you might be surprised to learn that sometimes you can make even more money in a new field. I know coaches who are making waaay more than I ever made as an attorney!)

You also might also be surprised to realize you don’t really need a huge salary. When you’re unhappy, but have a well-paying job, you may have gotten used to money being the one thing in your work life that was good, and that could provide some happiness and ease.

But what if your life was just happier and easier?

What if you spent less money on doctors because your health was better, less on therapists because your stress levels and relationships were better, less on takeout and similar services because you actually had time to take care of your basic life needs, and less on distractions to numb yourself out to how miserable you are or to try to bring some happiness into your life?

And btw, I’m not saying that you will definitely make less money — just that, so what if you do? Is it that bad? Would it really be not enough? You might need less than you think to have an awesome life.

(Oh, and guess what — you have control over what career you pursue and can rule out something that isn’t financially viable for you!)

3. I’d Have to Start All Over from the Very Bottom if I Make a Change.

Do you remember on Friends when Chandler decided to change careers? <He’s a transpons… transponster!!> He decided he wanted to move into advertising . . . and had to take a full-time unpaid internship and compete against college students to even get a shot at any job.

Yikes.

That’s Hollywood’s take on reality — one set up to provide punchlines. And yet, a lot of us, consciously or subconsciously, expect something similar — that we’d also have to start over in the absolute lowest possible position, making the absolute minimum entry-level salary, in order to change careers.

Sure, you likely will have things to learn depending on what you ultimately want. But you are NOT a fresh-out-of-college-with-zero-experience 22-year-old. You have a lot more work and life experience…and you can use that to show both that you are qualified for your new career and that your qualifications go way beyond entry-level status.

This is one of the ways that rebranding yourself comes into play as an important piece of a career transition. If, for example, you want to apply for a job in a new career field, but show up and say you’re a lawyer, present yourself as a lawyer, submit a resume exactly as it would be for a law firm… a hiring manager is going to see a lawyer. It’s going to be hard for them to see why they’d hire you — and hard for them to offer you a position or salary above entry level, if they were willing to take the chance.

But you can reframe those work experiences to show how you are much more qualified than that. You’ve heard of that whole idea of having transferable skills… it’s really true! And they can help you get a better position and salary.

You’re not just stuck with what you’ve done at work — you’d be surprised how much your life experience can count for. And there are plenty of things you can do outside of work — without having to go back to school for another degree — so that you can gain even more experience and show up as even more qualified when you apply for a job in your new field.

4. I Have a Job — I Even Make a Good Living. I Shouldn’t Complain.

Gratitude is important. But this particular take on it is basically weaponized gratitude.

The problem with this message is that that isn’t actually about gratitude. It’s a message to shove down your feelings of being unhappy — and even more, to label them as wrong.

But our feelings provide important internal signals to us. Gratitude is about deliberately noticing and paying attention to certain positive feelings. It’s a wonderful practice.

Shoving down and ignoring your feelings is the exact opposite.

Ignoring the feelings that you are unhappy in your career means ignoring the signal those feelings are trying to give you: that something needs to change. That can lead to staying stuck in a bad situation a lot longer than you need to.

There’s a lot of good to find in a gratitude practice, such as mindfully writing down 1–3 things that happened each day that you are grateful for. It can help boost your energy and happiness, and can make it a lot easier to keep going in your current job while you figure out what’s next. It can also help you be more optimistic and creative.

But please, let yourself feel all the feelings — and don’t feel guilty or wrong for the negative ones. Ask what they are trying to tell you. And pay attention.

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You really can leave your current career behind and find work that you’re excited about. Just starting to recognize that these types of thoughts aren’t necessarily true can help you start finding the freedom to explore making a change. Because more than education, opportunity, where you live, etc., it’s these types of beliefs that can really get in the way of making that change happen.

Did you recognize any of these beliefs as ones that have been holding you back? Are there any others you are struggling with? Let me know in the comments or email me at kelley@kelleyshieldscoaching.com!