New Career - The Land Of Fresh Hopes Or A False Dawn?
Old timers never cease to wonder why most of today’s young workers think about a new career in spite of an annual salary hike. In response, the young guns can never understand how the people of previous generation manage to stick on to a particular job till retirement. Nowadays, attrition is an accepted phenomenon in corporate culture. A majority of people will shift companies if they get a better paying and more glamorous job. But what about a career change? Suppose a person has been working as a marketing executive of sanitary napkins and now suddenly wants to become a teacher. Is that advisable? The answer would be yes and no.
When To Start A New Career
Some times changing the profession becomes highly necessary – for the person and the company that hired him or her. Such instances arise when the person has selected a wrong career in the first place. A good example is a person who is not very social, becoming the receptionist in a busy hotel. That means, a person who does not have the right skills to do a particular job – somehow manages to fox the recruiters to land that job – will have to think about choosing some other career option. Otherwise he or she will be a liability to the organization and vice versa. Everybody has some kind of skills. The question is whether skills of a person match those required to carry out the job he or she is doing.
Another ideal time to change the profession is when you get a good and lucrative opportunity to work in some field with which you are very familiar. May be it is a field in which you have worked temporarily during college days. If you are confident that you can do a good job in that, you should go ahead and accept the new offer.
Geography also plays an important role in choosing a new career. For those who love to stay at home – may be to stay with the wife and kids or to look after the aging parents – entering a new field may be the only option.
When Not To Start A New Career
But one has to tread carefully when making a decision about a new line of profession. Common sense and several surveys indicate that there are very few people in the world who enjoy what they are doing. Film actors, musicians, and sports writers usually express satisfaction in their jobs. But most others generally feel they face the so-called occupational hazards: low salary, insufferable bosses, ego-driven work environment and so on. The list is endless. You can change some of the things by changing yourself or changing company, but there are some aspects you cannot change. You have to live with them. But always remember that these are not genuine reasons for selecting a new career.
Also, before quitting the present profession one should conduct an honest introspection. Is there any chance of developing the skill sets necessary to perform well in the existing job? Receptionists who prefer solitude can try out training classes on personality development and interpersonal communication. Choosing a new career should be the last option, when all efforts fail.