What Do You Need to Change in Your Career?

What do I need to change in my career, and how extensive should the change be?

The change must fit the problem you want to solve

Doubts about your career direction may arise when your work no longer functions as you need it to. The tasks may have changed, the development opportunities have become limited, or your expertise may be used in a way that you no longer find relevant. At the same time, other roles, workplaces or industries may appear more attractive.

This may point to a meaningful career change. But the problem may also lie in the specific workplace, the role, the way of working or the context in which your expertise is used.

The first question is therefore not:

What else could I do?

Instead, ask:

What needs to change in order for the problem I am experiencing to actually be solved?

Moving into a different field is the most extensive option. It is not necessarily the most precise solution.

The change should not be greater than the problem requires

A career change does not have to mean that you leave your professional field and start over. The change can consist of a new workplace, a different role in the same field or a new context where your existing knowledge and experience are used in a different way.

If the workplace or management is the problem, it may be sufficient to change organisation. If you want to continue to use your expertise, but are looking for other tasks, different responsibilities or a different way of working, a change of role may be the more appropriate move. A new industry or professional context may be relevant when you want to apply what you already know to other problems or under different conditions.

A more fundamental shift will only be necessary when the central tasks and professional issues are no longer part of the direction you want. What matters is not how big a change you can imagine, but how extensive it needs to be to solve the problem you actually have.

You can use your expertise in new ways

Your current role shows only one way to use your expertise and experience. The same professional foundation may have a different meaning if you work with new tasks, are given different responsibilities or move into a different organisation or industry.

If your current function no longer works, it does not necessarily mean that you should put your previous experience behind you. The problem may lie in the way the experience is used, or in the framework and tasks it is linked to.

A meaningful career change can involve using what you already know to address other problems or applying it in a new professional context. You do not have to start from scratch for the transition to lead to a significantly different working life.

A major career change must build on an existing foundation

The bigger the change, the more important it becomes to understand what you take with you. Your previous experience can be valuable in a new direction if it has given you professional insight, judgement or experience of problems and responsibilities that are also relevant in the new context.

It is not enough to describe a skill as transferable. It must be applicable to something that matters in the new role or work context.

The greater the distance between your current experience and the new direction, the more you will usually need to develop through learning, practical experience and contact with the new area. A new direction must therefore both build on something that still has value and relate realistically to what is still missing.

A major shift can be implemented gradually

A new direction does not have to be reached through one direct shift. If the distance to the desired role or context is great, an interim step can give you the experience, insight or access you still lack.

It can be a role where parts of your previous experience are still relevant, while at the same time you work with new tasks, get different responsibilities or become part of the professional environment you want to move into.

An interim step should not only bring you closer to a long-term goal. It should also provide a better basis for assessing whether the direction is working in practice. A gradual transition can therefore both strengthen your foundation and make it possible to adjust the direction before it requires more time and resources.

Both choices have consequences

A major change is often portrayed as the active or courageous choice, while staying can look like caution or stagnation. But the quality of the decision does not depend on the extent of the change.

A change may require you to give up security, seniority or professional position and spend time building experience and relationships in a new context. At the same time, it can come at a price if you continue in a role or direction that does not use your most important skills or lead towards the working life you want.

The assessment must therefore include the consequences of both choices. Staying is not necessarily passive, and changing is not necessarily courageous. What matters is which choice most precisely solves the problem and how extensive a change it actually requires.

Examine how extensive the change needs to be

Before you choose a comprehensive change, you can investigate whether the problem also exists in other roles, workplaces or contexts where your expertise is used differently.

If other frameworks, tasks or forms of responsibility change what you want to leave, the problem does not necessarily lie in your entire professional direction. If the same basic dissatisfaction is repeated across relevant alternatives, it speaks more strongly for a more comprehensive change.

The purpose is not to avoid a major shift. It is to ensure that the change targets the problem you are actually trying to solve.

About CareerStrategy

CareerStrategy provides career strategy for academics, specialists and leaders.

The focus is on creating clearer direction, stronger positioning and a better basis for professional decisions.