How to Change Careers in Your 30s or 40s

How Do You Know When It’s Time to Shift Careers?

1. You feel like your career didn’t grow over the past years.
2. Your current earnings can’t pay for the bills.
3. You’re bored with what you do.
4. Your work isn’t challenging enough for you.
5. The industry you’ve been working has started declining.
6. Your current role isn’t in demand anymore.

If you can relate to at least 4 out of 6 statements above, chances are shifting careers is the best career move for you. What’s your score?

5 Steps to Changing Careers at Your 30s or 40s

If you are absolutely certain that your current job isn’t for you anymore, let’s get straight on how to change careers successfully. You can do these steps before or after submitting a resignation letter, whichever you think is best.

1. Choose a new career path.

It may sound a bit cliche but you have to take into consideration four things when choosing a new career: your passion, your strengths (or what you’re good at), the salary you want to earn and the growth potential.

Do your research, list down the list of roles that trigger your interest, and find the perfect match to according to the things you have to consider. From there, you can choose and decide which career path to pursue next.

2. Learn more about the career you want to pursue.

Ask Google about the job description, qualifications and annual salary of your desired role. Get as much information as you can about the job to familiarise yourself with the work requirements, industry news and other techniques to succeed in your new chosen field. You can also testimonials of people working in that industry to have a glimpse of what challenges and growth opportunities to expect.

3. Get qualified.

Since you don’t have enough experience in the field you’re considering and the competition may be tight, your resume has to prove that you’re worthy of the role. For instance, you can study a course that’s closely related to the role you want to fill in.

For example, if you came from the hospitality industry and want to shift into an IT-related career, it would be best to study and earn a Diploma in Applied Information Technology. This can make you more credible for the role and at par with other professionals.

View Our IT Courses Now

4. Start working.

Upon creating a kick ass resume, you can finally start applying for unfilled positions in various companies. However, if you got tired of working in the corporate world, you can also consider working as a work-from-home freelancer (i.e. online writer, graphic designer, fashion stylist) or try building your own business.

Feel free to take our home-based job quiz to determine which high-paying home based job is suitable for you by clicking the button below.

Take Our Home-Based Job Quiz Now

5. Don’t regret.

When things are uncertain, remember why you chose to change careers in the first place. Head up. Be expectant. Keep moving forward. Slow progress is better than “nogress”.