10 Questions to Guide a Successful Career Change

To navigate a successful career change, you’ll need to become a good detective. This is particularly important when you’re unsure of what type of work you want to do next. As a detective, you’ll be tracking down leads, gathering facts and examining evidence. What follows is a series of questions to serve as a catalyst for the process. As you go through the list of questions, try not to overthink them. Your first gut response can be the most revealing. During a career change, I know the stakes are high. But allow yourself to have some fun with this.  

Your Essentials

1. What 3 elements of your current job or prior job experiences do you want to make sure are a part of your next career?

2. What 3 elements of your current job or prior job experiences do you want to leave behind?

3, What role does work play in your life? (What does work give you?)

4. What makes work good for you?

5. What are 3 activities outside of work when you feel most engaged?  Why?

Let’s Talk About Money

6. How important is money in determining your next career?

7. If I could give you more than enough money so that it was never a concern again, how would you occupy your time?

Aim High

8. In your current job or prior job experiences, what one circumstance made you the most motivated to work the hardest?

9. How would you describe your ideal job in 100 words or less? (Even if you’re not yet sure of the exact job, give as much background detail as you can, e.g. the type of work space, colleagues, organizational structure, job’s impact on others.)

10. What one person can you name who is doing something professionally that you wish you could be doing?

Next Steps for a Successful Career Change

After you’ve written your responses to all the questions, the next step is to analyze the data. What are the common themes that are showing up. What surprised you the most about your responses? And finally, what’s one tangible step you can take today, based on what you’ve learned.

Set a hard deadline for completing this task and then mark that date on the calendar. And if you want guidance and insight as to what your answers reveal, get in touch with me. Together, we’ll map out an achievable plan.

For a week’s worth of exercises to guide your successful career change, click here: