It’s Okay To Question Your Career and Change Your Path

Your degree and experience does not define your career

I went to school for print journalism. My internship was for a newspaper, but not as a writer. My first job was for them too, but not as a writer. From there I moved into more technical work and marketing with a college. Those developed skills and my interests in web design led me to freelance, and the combo of those led me to my next job in the public sector. And those skills allowed me to go back to freelance.

And today, I find myself at another crossroads. I enjoy what I do, but I’ve developed a new passion for another industry and something I care more about and want to shift my focus to there. I’m telling myself — that’s ok.

A career change is not a new idea, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a daunting one to make.

You Are Not Defined By Your Degree

Educational background and associations to school are ingrained in our society today. We wear our collegiate gear with pride. We share the knowledge we gained from school with many people we meet. It is a staple of our resume. But when it comes down to it, we are not defined by the field and focus of our degree.

It is a statement to the world that we worked hard and trained to understand a particular field of study better than those who didn’t study that field.

It is ok to have studied one field, love another and work in yet another one altogether. What you’ve learned along the way will only help you succeed when you figure out where you want to land.

Working and our careers are so paramount to so many people. When we die, we’re often defined by the work we did in obituaries. “He was a carpenter, she was a teacher, he was a writer, she was a CEO…”

We live to work, often forgetting that we have the choice to work to live.

Are You Ready To Change?

As I consider the shift, there are a lot of scary unknowns to my future. I have a family to care for, so I need to ensure that I am able — along with my wife — to do my share to support us.

Knowing if a career change is the right move involves a lot of steps. Some of these include knowing what you’re passionate about, your support network, knowing more about yourself, and being prepared and ok with making a mistake.

There are plenty of people and companies I’ve met and worked with in the past that will sometimes say, “failure is not an option.”

I could not disagree more.

Failure is in the beholder's eye. If you consider things to be a success or a failure, you’re missing everything in between. You see in black & white and miss all the grey. When something doesn’t work, that’s an opportunity to learn!

Understanding and pushing yourself to evolve past a mistake and embracing it to help you improve is a learned trait and not something everyone can do easily. But if you want to consider a career change, it’s certainly something you’ll need to master.

So if you are stuck in a rut, or if you’ve lost the passion for the field you studied, know that it is ok to feel that way. And it’s ok to take a leap of faith and try something new.

If you’re ready for it, good luck! Go get ’em. I, for one, believe in you.

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