What Can You Do After Deciding Your Career Isn’t Quite Right For You?

Deciding that you’re in the wrong career is quite the gut punch. You might have spent a lot of time working your way up to where you are now, and once you’re here, nothing feels right. The work isn’t satisfying, there’s nowhere else to go, and your personal life seems to be falling under because of it too. 

There’s a storm going on in your life right now, and it all stems from this sense of career dissatisfaction. What can you do to alleviate that? It’s a multi step process, and you can start off on the right foot using the points below. 

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Don’t Panic

You don’t like your job, but you don’t need to panic. It might rock you and make you feel pretty isolated within your field, but panicking tends to lead to poor decisions. 

Stay calm, make it through the day, and start putting some time into research. You clearly need a new career plan, but you’ve got time to make one. 

Break Down What You Enjoy

Now that you know your career trajectory isn’t what you want it to be, it’s time to rethink your plans. To do that successfully, you’ll need to break down what you enjoy about working. What do you really want to do in a professional capacity? 

Start by thinking about what you actually like about your current role. Maybe you enjoy customer service and helping people? Maybe you like the initial research phase of product development? Break the confusion in your head into smaller pieces you can easily sort, thus meaning you can find the gems among them. 

You should also think about the doors you can open for yourself. Even if the entry role might not be for you, there’s always a chance to specialize in the field. In the medical world, you can 

Decide What’s Most Important Right Now

This will help you to decide your next step, which for most people will be the choice between quitting your job or sticking it out for a bit longer. 

For some, it can also mean retraining in the same field and trying something new. Say you’re in the medical world. You can advance your nursing career with royal ambulance and focus on emergency response instead, especially if this ended up being the answer to the question we asked above. 

For most though, the answer will revolve around paying the bills and keeping the lights on. If you quit your job now, will you have the savings in place to see you through? If not, there’s less opportunity present which will allow you to rethink your career track. 

However, you can still think long term. You can still rearrange parts of your life to support your long term goals. Cutting back hours, for example, or taking a training course you’re genuinely passionate about. 

It’s OK if your career isn’t quite right for you. There’s plenty of time to decide what to do next and make it happen.