Considering a career change? With new research* revealing that 57% of adults have switched careers in their lifetime, you’re not the only one…
While career changes have become more common in recent years, taking this leap is still a daunting prospect – especially if you’re entering a new field of work or diverging from your acquired degree. The hesitance that comes with leaving your job can be evidenced in the rise of workplace trends, including ‘quiet-quitting’ and more recently, ‘loud-quitting’.
Yvonne Chien, Chief Growth Officer at FutureLearn says, ”In our daily lives, we spend more time working than any other activity. Thank goodness we live in a world and society today where it’s okay to switch your job more regularly. Given the majority of people will have to work for a significant chunk of their lives, being able to continue to develop and try different things can be liberating and keep life interesting.”
Daniella Genas, Entrepreneur, Career Coach and Founder of Be the Boss, has teamed up with Yvonne to discuss the cultural and personal reasons behind why we change careers. As well as taking a deeper dive into the survey data, they also share their top tips for upskilling to help you with pivoting your profession.
While it was once thought that choosing a career was a fixed decision, our working lives have become more unpredictable than ever, and new research* has found that the majority of adults (57%) will now switch professions in their lifetimes.
This trend is likely to increase with AI rising in prominence across many spaces, bringing with it the need for our skills and careers to evolve at a more constant pace than ever before.
Transparency around resignations is also becoming increasingly relevant, with social media trends around the topic bringing in huge amounts of views. Take the TikTok hashtag #QuitTok for example, drawing in over 41 million views alone.
Daniella says, “The changing nature of work is leading many people to seek out careers and opportunities that better align with their personal values and lifestyle.”
“Rather than sticking to traditional career paths, people are placing a preference on industries that offer high levels of flexibility and autonomy.”
Yvonne adds “#QuitTok is highlighting a generation who are actively switching. Unlike what it might have been like for previous generations, it’s great that people today don’t feel the first career choice is what you have to stick with forever. Career paths today are a zig-zag and it’s great that there are so many more resources accessible to help you build new skills.”
The survey also shows that career changes are most common during adults’ younger years, with 28% of respondents revealing that they switched career paths during their early twenties.
Digging deeper into the data, our experts take a closer look at why people want to make a career change. With themes around new challenges and work-life balance coming out on top, it seems people are looking for a bit more excitement in their 9-5s.
According to the results, the main factors driving people to switch careers are:
- Personal development / seeking a new challenge (65%)
- Work-life balance (63%)
- Lack of fulfilment or job satisfaction (63%)
- Salary concerns or seeking higher pay (60%)
- Workplace culture & environment (e.g. benefits, flexibility & ways of working) (56%)
As we can see, the number one reason why people made a career change is to seek personal development (65%). Perhaps unsurprisingly, work-life balance and lack of job fulfilment (63%) tied for the second biggest reasons why workers jumped into a new field.
On why we’re looking for more satisfying careers in 2023, Daniella says: “The increase in mental health awareness and work-life balance has contributed to the growing trend of seeking more fulfilling and satisfying careers.”
“Another factor contributing to career change is the growing desire to make a positive environmental impact. This has become more necessary for many people due to an increased awareness of social and environmental issues. Issues like climate change, social inequality and political instability have led to many individuals feeling a greater sense of responsibility to take action and make a positive impact through the work they are doing.”
With switching careers becoming increasingly popular across many industries, there are now more ways than ever to gain qualifications that are also achievable around your existing lifestyle.
From microcredentials that offer stackable credits, to online degrees that allow you to study from home – the traditional path of education is being disrupted by this rise of new flexible alternatives, making career transitioning more prevalent than ever before.
It seems that the evolving nature of work has vastly broadened career horizons regardless of your educational background. Venturing into a completely new field, from business and management to teaching, is a path that has been made much more accessible for workers today.
The data also reveals the industries people stay in from graduation to retirement. Those who work in IT and telecoms are the most likely to still work in the same industry as their degree (56%) whereas those who have a degree in HR are more likely to work in a different industry to their degree now compared to those working in other industries (38%).
Yvonne considers, “The skills you have in your toolkit can be both your strength and your weakness when it comes to making a career change. One of the main benefits of job-hopping is the adaptable skills acquired from past roles. However, skills gaps can cause significant blockers, deterring people from jumping into a new field.”
The three skills which were cited as most vital to making a career change were teamwork, communication and problem-solving skills – proving the value of transferable skills.
Despite the world becoming increasingly tech-focused and the ever-advancing progression of AI intelligence, less than a quarter of respondents cited digital skills as vital for a career change.
Interestingly, learning a second language has been revealed as the most in-demand skill, with 40% of people keen to become bilingual!
Daniella advises: “A good first step to take when thinking about switching careers is to research different career options. Identify roles that align with your interests, skills and personal values.”
“Use this to create a development plan for acquiring any necessary skills or education that will make it easier to transition into a new career.”
Yvonne highlights: “If you’re feeling anxious about your qualifications, upskilling is a great way to gain new expertise and revitalise your career prospects. The variety of online learning opportunities available today makes it easier to build in-demand career skills, wherever and whenever suits you.”
Dom Gray, 28, made the decision to pivot his career path late into his twenties, moving from a career in teaching into the completely new field of SEO and digital marketing.
After spending six years teaching in international schools, Dom decided to leave his expertise, and PGCE qualifications, behind to pursue a completely new career path back in the UK.
What were your main reasons for making a career change?
“I knew I didn’t want to continue teaching in the UK because of the poor work/life balance as well as differences in my Educational philosophy and the philosophy being pushed by OFSTED. But mainly, after 6 years in the same profession, I was seeking a new challenge.”
How did you feel before making the change/what worries did you have?
“I was excited by the prospect of learning new skills and exploring an industry to which I had little exposure to before my career change. However, I also felt a lot of anxiety over losing the familiarity of my teaching life and the daily habits, practices and ways of working I had become accustomed to”
Were there any skills you felt you needed to make the career change? Did you take any steps to upskill before changing careers?
“I was confident that skills that had made me a good teacher would also translate well into my new career – and luckily I was right! Skills such as time management and public speaking have proved particularly valuable for making this transition.
“As I had an idea of the industry I wanted to pursue, I knew that I would need to improve my programming skills. So I undertook a 3-month course in the relevant languages on an online learning website. Once I knew I was successful in my application for SEO, I pivoted to researching skills I would need for this role.
“Upskilling helped to improve not only my employability but also my confidence to make a career change into a completely new field.”
