What Else Can I Do? 5 First Steps To Find A New Career

It's always difficult when you feel like you've hit a dead end in your career. Maybe you're no longer challenged by what you do and know you need a change, but you feel lost. You keep asking yourself what else can I do in the hope of finding some inspiration, but it never comes. You just don't know what job you want.

If this sounds like you, it's time to start thinking about different approaches. In this blog post, we'll give you five first steps to finding a new career that you can apply!

Don't act just yet, make a strategy first

Your first steps should be jumping in and searching for jobs straight away, that would be a mistake. It's important to remember that changing careers is a big decision and you need to treat it as such. This means coming up with a strategy first.

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Step 1: What are you missing?

A great first starting point is to identify and list out what's missing from your current job, career or situation. This can be anything from a lack of creativity to not feeling valued.

It's much easier to spot the current gaps than it is to be inspired from scratch. Think about what would make you feel more fulfilled in your work and what kind of working environment or company culture would suit you better.

Step 2: How big a change do you really need?

Once you know the big things you're missing right now, it should be easy to spot the opposites and consider how you might get those things. But before diving into listing out ideas, you need to consider the size of the change you need to get those missing things.

For example, if you're after more creative freedom, that could be something you can get by switching projects or teams within your current company. If what you're really missing is a complete change of working environment, then you know you need to be looking for new jobs.

This might seem obvious but it can help stop you from just staring and huge mountains of change where a small shift might have done the trick instead.

Step 3: Start listing out all your ideas

Now it's time for the brainstorming to begin! Get a big piece of paper or open up a new Word document and start listing out all your ideas, no matter how small or silly they might seem.

Remember, at this stage there are no bad ideas. You can always narrow things down later on, but for now just get all your thoughts down.

Some questions you can ask yourself to get started are:

• What other industries or sectors could I work in?
• What kind of companies would I like to work for?
• What sort of roles would suit my skills and experience?
• Are there any geographical areas I'd like to live in or work in?
• What kind of working hours would I like to have?
• What sort of company culture would I like to be a part of?

Once you have a long list of ideas, it's time to start thinking about what's realistic.

Step 4: Consider what's realistic

Now that you have your big list of ideas, it's time to start thinking about what's realistic. This is where you'll need to be a bit more critical and start crossing off anything that's not feasible.

For example, if you're based in London but would like to work in New York, that might not be possible (at least not straight away). Other things to consider are your current skills and experience, as well as your qualifications.

You might also need to consider things like your visa status if you're not a citizen of the country you're looking to work in.

And finally, think about your personal circumstances. Are you able to uproot and move somewhere else? Do you have any dependents that would make relocating difficult?

Step 5: Research your options

Now that you have a realistic idea of what you could do, it's time to start researching your options. This is where you can start getting into the nitty-gritty and find out more about specific roles, companies and industries.

If you're not sure where to start, some good places to look are job boards, company websites and industry specific websites. You can also use social media platforms like LinkedIn to research companies and connect with people who work in the industries or roles you're interested in.

Don't forget to tap into your personal network as well! Talk to friends, family and acquaintances to see if they know anyone who works in the field you're interested in. They might be able to introduce you to someone or give you some insider information.

By following these five steps, you should have a good idea of what else is out there for you and what kind of career changes are within your reach. So what are you waiting for? It's time to start exploring!

Uncover how to change your career today with our quick assessment quiz even if you don't know where to start - TRY PATHFINDER NOW