How To Change Careers… Without Starting Over (Or Taking A Pay Cut)

Even though you are successful in your career, deep down, you feel unhappy, frustrated, and demotivated. You’re tired of dealing with the same issues over and over. Work is stressful, and on the rare occasions you get a break and daydream, you think that there has to be more, that there’s something bigger, better, and more in alignment with who you are. But then, back to reality, starting over in your career sounds like a financial disaster you can’t afford. The meaningful and exciting career that would allow you to live the life you want remains a daydream.

Meet Zoe. That’s exactly how she felt six months ago when she was a Retail Operations Manager. She was so unfulfilled in her job that it made her miserable and deeply unhappy. Inventory management, loss prevention, and sales management were all things she never wanted to do again. She felt unfulfilled and longed for work more aligned with who she is. But she thought this would require a 180-degree career change, and she couldn’t afford to start over. She felt stuck.

At least till she started working with a career coach, things quickly changed for her. She made a successful career change, found work she loves, and secured a 58% salary increase. You bet she’s thrilled. And you can do that, too!

Here’s how:

Step 1: Discover your brilliance

Think of your past work experiences and remember the moments in which you loved what you did. This doesn’t have to be your primary job duty, but it can be any aspect of your work that lights you up. Ask yourself the following questions:  

• What do you wish you could spend the majority of your workday doing?
• What tasks light you up and energize you?
• What were you working on when you were genuinely happy?
• What project were you excited to take on?
• If you were your own manager, which tasks would you assign to yourself (just because you enjoy them)?

Write down three specific situations that come to mind in response to these questions. Now, identify the themes that keep repeating themselves.

Zoe’s Example:

When I first asked Zoe to think about moments that light her up at work, she said there were none. However, diving deeper into it, we discovered some: Zoe loved coaching and mentoring her employees. She excelled at guiding her employees to see them succeed. The experience of walking them through a process of problem-solving, achievement, and growth filled her like nothing else. We noted her brilliance to be training, coaching & mentoring.

However, before our conversation, she didn’t think of this as a strength because her current manager regularly criticizes her for investing too much time into her employees just to see them get promoted to positions with other companies. So, keep in mind that your brilliance can even be something you were not encouraged to do in your current/past positions.

Step 2: Get career clarity

Now it’s time to research job boards, such as Indeed, and find positions that revolve around your brilliance. Start your search by entering the keywords that came up for you in Step 1 and leave the location blank (since this search is for research purposes only).

Read the job descriptions that come up from start to finish to understand what tasks fall under specific titles. When you find a position where 2/3 or more of the tasks fall within your brilliance, write down the job title. Keep going until you have five job titles listed. Now you are clear on what positions you want to target for your career change.

Zoe’s target positions included: Training Manager, Learning & Development Manager, and Leadership Development Manager.

Step 3: Find your accomplishments

The next step is to back up that you have experience in the area of your brilliance. To do that, write three CAR stories. Start by brainstorming specific situations in which you demonstrated your brilliance. For each of these situations, write a CAR story:

C: Challenge you faced: Explain the challenge or problem and what you were expected to do.

A: Action that you took: Describe specific steps you took and which skills/strengths you used.

R: Result you achieved: Tell the outcome, including any measurable metrics such as:

• Feedback/Customer satisfaction score
• Dollars/Revenue/Sales
• How many people/teams were involved
• How many customers used end product
• Timeline/deadline

Zoe’s CAR story example:

Challenge: The company did not offer any leadership training, and new managers were “thrown in the cold water,” often feeling overwhelmed and unsupported in their roles. Their store performance, employee retention, and sales suffered as a result.

Action: After analyzing the challenges the managers faced, I created a leadership training strategy, developed training materials, and conducted quarterly leadership seminars for 22 store managers.

Result: Within one year, managerial skills increased by 80%, employee retention in their stores improved by 10%, and sales went up by 12%.

Step 4: Tell your personal brand story

Now imagine talking to a mentor and explaining to them how your past roles have prepared you for your ideal future position. Go into detail and tell your story, focusing on your experience within the last ten years and thinking about all you’ve accomplished that will make you the ideal candidate for your target roles.  

After you tell this story to yourself, write down the essential aspects. This is your Personal Brand Story. Use it as the foundation to write your LinkedIn profile, resume, and cover letters. Use the CAR stories you wrote in the previous step to back up your capabilities.

Based on her Personal Brand Story, Zoe updated her LinkedIn profile. Anyone landing on her page saw within 6 seconds what her brilliance is, what careers she is pursuing, and why she’s the ideal candidate for them. It was a fantastic foundation for her job search.

Step 5: Build relationships

Now it’s time to make it happen. You might have heard that most jobs are landed through networking – and it’s true. Hence, this is where you want to spend the majority of your time. To land a job through networking, follow this golden rule: Always ask for advice, don’t ask for a job.

Start by finding people on LinkedIn who do the work you wish you’d be doing. Since you have a list of target positions, that’ll be easy. Send them a connection request with a personal note. Here’s a template you can use when sending a connection request:

Once someone accepts your connection request, seek their advice, build a relationship and ask for a virtual coffee chat. During the coffee chat, focus on asking good questions, listening, and building rapport. And most importantly, always ask who else they’d suggest you talk with to continue your research. This is the key to building and growing your network and hearing about opportunities before anyone else.

Zoe set herself a goal of having three coffee chats per week. Her network grew quickly, but she was most surprised by the amazing people she met, the friendships that developed, and how supportive many of the people she met were. It didn’t take long before she heard of opportunities and was referred to hiring managers.

And I’m sure you’re curious to find out how Zoe’s story ends….

Well, she landed a new position in 9 short weeks. She is now thriving as a “Manager of Business Development, Training and Coaching,” where she oversees the company’s training program, delivers trainings, and coaches employees 1:1. In a nutshell, all the things that light her up. She loves her work life and is truly happy. Bonus: Her new salary is $155k, a 58% increase from her previous position.

Conclusion

That’s precisely what is possible for you, too. When you find your brilliance and get clear on your career goals, you will not be starting over. Instead, you will transfer your skills to the career that’s meant for you AND pays you for all you’re capable of!

Is 2023 the year for you to leap into a new career? Take this 2-minute quiz to find your answer and get personalized action steps tailored to your unique situation.