Skip to main content

Career Change Mistakes you Need to Avoid if You want Success

If I could do my career pivot all over again, I would avoid these 3 mistakes. I'm George. I'm a career coach for corporate millennials, and I also made my own big career pivot from corporate HR to independent career coaching about 2 years ago. 


I would do these 3 things differently.


The first mistake I made was feeling embarrassed to tell people that I was job searching in the first place. 

I was afraid that looking for a new job looked like a scarlet letter among my friends in my community and that it said something negative about me and my abilities, so I stayed quiet for a while. But really when you think about it, it is the most natural thing for humans to evolve and look for new opportunities, and I wouldn't bat an eye at someone else telling me that they were job searching, so why did I feel like it was weird or embarrassing to tell other people that I was looking?


The second mistake was applying to the same types of jobs I already had on my resume. 

If I wanted to make a career change, why was I applying to the same jobs I already had because I knew I was qualified and that I could get those jobs? It was kind of like a security blanket helping me procrastinate on applying for the ones that I actually wanted on making a change. It took me getting to the final round interviews for 2 different jobs that I had already done at 2 different companies and having slight panic attacks at GET the thought of getting an offer to finally start applying for the roles I really wanted.


The 3rd mistake was only relying on LinkedIn job postings. 

Only about 60% of available opportunities are listed on sites like Indeed, LinkedIn Zip, Recruiter etc. The rest 40% approximately are in the hidden job market; they're never publicized but they are offered through networking. And as someone in 7 years in HR, I knew this logically, yet I still spent so much precious time passively scrolling on LinkedIn and other websites instead of doing the work that I knew would actually make a difference.


Here is something you might want to digest. I will take this example from my daughter who switched careers and became more successful. She changed her career at 30 years and never looked back. Below is what she told me.

"Starting A Brand New Career in Your 30’s. It may seem scary, but actually, it is the best time to leverage all your previous experience and use some of those transferable skills in a completely different industry.

I went from a Psychology Student to a Salon Owner and Now a Digital & Affiliate Marketer. I feel like this is the most clear I’ve been when it comes to choosing the right career path for myself.
I definitely wasn’t ready to conjure up a suitable career path for myself when I was 18 but there is a small population of people who have always known what they wanted to do from a very early age. I wasn’t those people. Only at 34 I realize digital marketing is the career path for me. It ticks ALL MY BOXES.

Let’s start the conversation, what do you do now, and if you were to start all over again what would you like to do?

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Starting a new career in my 30s actually makes a hell of a lot of sense.

 Let me explain why.  So I did the whole uni thing when I was 18. I went to university.  I got a degree in psychology.   Now, at 18 years old, I didn't know who the hell I was, and I for sure didn't know what the hell I wanted to study or spend the rest of my life doing.  I personally don't feel like an 18-year-old is qualified to know what they want to do for the rest of their life.  I mean, when you were 18, did you know who the hell you were?  I'm only 34.  And it's only now that I feel like I know myself a little bit.  So starting a new career in my 30s makes all the sense in the world because now I know who I am.  I know what I like, I know what I don't like.  I know how I want to work.  I know where I want to work.  I know the kind of job that I feel will be most compatible in terms of me as a person.  It's all about redefining your success, redefining your personal goals, redefining what is fulfilling to y...

Day in the Life: Night Shift Travel Nurse

Have you ever imagined what the day-to-day life of a Travel Nurse Feels like? Let me show you a Day in the Life a night Shift Travel Nurse. Let's get ready for this night shift. Shift one out of three. I only have two more weeks left on this assignment. So soon I would be saying bye to this hospital. Bye. Bye. Let me wake up and hit the gym first thing I only have two weeks left at this current assignment. I'm actually working around eight shifts in the next two weeks. So I'm pretty much working three shifts on, one shift off, four shifts on, one shift off, and then one on, and then I'm done. They didn't need me for overtime this week, so I'm picking up two shifts next week. So I'll be working five out of seven days next week. Which is gonna suck. It is my last week, and I might as well go out with a bang and pick up five out of seven shifts. That kind of says something that they need me so much right before I leave. But whatever. I'm just here to make t...

Who is Abducting the Kenyan Youth and Why?

  In recent months, Kenya has witnessed a concerning rise in the abduction of youths, particularly those involved in anti-government protests. Human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, have reported over 80 enforced disappearances since June 2024. Reuters These abductions are often clandestine, carried out by unidentified armed individuals. Many victims are young protesters advocating for economic reforms and expressing dissatisfaction with the government's policies. The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights has expressed alarm over these incidents, highlighting the lack of accountability and transparency in addressing such violations. KNCHR The government's response has been criticized for its heavy-handedness. Reports indicate that security forces have used excessive force during protests, leading to fatalities and injuries. Additionally, there are allegations of police involvement in these abductions, with some units accused of extrajudicial killings a...