How to Cope With Switching Careers

 How to Cope With Switching Careers

Coping with a career change can be stressful and challenging. During this time, you may feel anxious and nervous. Although it’s normal to have these emotions, sometimes our mind can trick us and make switching careers seem more complicated than it really is. So, let’s explore how to manage your career transition below.

Overcome Fear

One emotion everybody feels when switching careers is fear. And you shouldn’t see this feeling as a negative thing; fear can help you see something you missed. However, you need to learn how to control the fear and become decisive.

Overcoming fear is about identifying the things that scare you and asking how you can overcome them. For example, if you’re afraid of paying an enormous amount of money for your Software Engineering career, then you should ask yourself: “How am I going to pay it? Should I overwork? Should I find a student loan?” This way, you’ll find an actionable answer and you’ll forget about the fear and anxiety.

Practice Persistence

Persistence is your fuel when it comes to switching careers. There might be several obstacles in your way and you’ll probably feel that there is no solution to them, but there is always a solution. You just need to think smart. When setting career goals, be practical and don’t set up impossible objectives. This way, you won’t face disappointments on a large scale.

Be conscious of your current state and create goals accordingly. For instance, if you’re trying to build a career in Data Science, but you have no prior experience, it might be hard at first to familiarize yourself with the fundamentals. But if you dedicate a couple of hours each day to learn what you need to know, you’ll likely master the job in a couple of months.

Find Support

Switching careers may cause several emotional issues, such as anxiety, stress and depression in the worst cases. That’s why you need to find support. You could see a therapist or talk to your family, whichever works to help you find solutions to break the barriers you’re currently facing. Don’t feel ashamed. Our minds can bring up negative thoughts that can become in self-sabotage without seeking help. 

Forget What was ‘Supposed to be Different’

This is a recurrent thought we could all have when going through abrasive changes: “What if I had done this or that?” Don’t let such thoughts kill your motivation; instead, appreciate the things you had in your old career and what is yet to come in the next one. 

Any skills you learned in your past career, say in Web Development, will still be applicable in your new career, even if it’s as a lawyer. Developers are usually very logical and guess who else finds logical solutions – lawyers. 

The worst thing to do is torture yourself with “what if” questions. Let go of what was “supposed to be different” and focus on the present. Sometimes, we can be too hard on ourselves as we look back at previous versions of ourselves. But people evolve, people change their opinions and it’s entirely valid.

Don’t Forget About Self-Care

With significant changes in your life, the best way to cope with them is by focusing on self-care. Do things that make you happy, things that motivate you toward your goals, and most of all, do something to take care of your mental and physical health. 

Conclusion

Coping with switching careers can be difficult and you might need a lot of support to take this big step. But if you do this the right way – by taking care of your mental and physical health, and by remaining positive about the future – you’ll likely persevere