Reasons to Stick with the Career You’ve got
You may have reached a stage in your life where you’re beginning to question what it is you want out of life and this obviously leads you to consider whether you’re in the right job. When you spend a significant chunk of your life working, you want to know that you’re not completely wasting your time. Money is obviously a consideration, but job satisfaction is important, too, and if you’re not happy with the career you’ve decided to pursue it may be time for a change. However, you have to give it some serious consideration before arriving at a decision.
Indeed, you shouldn’t just quit your job and expect to be able to get another career straightaway. If it’s taken you years to build up a reputation and to make contacts in the career you already have, it is obviously going to take you time to get to going in a different career. You can’t expect to walk into a high-powered job doing something completely different to what you’re used to. You therefore have to be prepared to take a lower position than you may have had previously, which will probably come with fewer responsibilities and less money.
Perhaps, you’re prepared to take a pay cut and you don’t mind having fewer responsibilities. If you find your present career to take too much out of you because it is so stressful, you may decide that choosing a different career could be the way forward. With fewer responsibilities, you may have more time to spend with your family, but there could well be other aspects of changing your career which prove to be a source of stress. If you have less money coming in, you may have to adjust your lifestyle to reflect your financial situation; plus, having to prove yourself to your new colleagues can be rather frustrating and stressful.
You may be fed up with the career you have because you’ve been passed over for promotion many times and don’t feel as though you’re going anywhere, but changing careers isn’t necessarily going to alter this situation. Although you will end up working for another firm, this doesn’t mean your contribution is going to be acknowledged or valued and you could find that you’re even more dissatisfied with your new career. You may decide that you don’t enjoy what you do and that you are getting paid less to do a job you hate even more than the old one.
There may be reasons to consider changing careers, but sometimes you’re better off sticking to what you know, so that you can continue to earn a decent salary and have the opportunity to reach the higher end of your profession, rather than having to start all over again.
