There are warning signs that indicates it’s time to change your career. Like a traffic light, paying attention to these warning signs can change the course of your life for better. Now, I will show you 10 warning signs you need to change your career.
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Over 3 billion people around the world were forced to stay at home due to the corona virus pandemic. At first, many 8 to 5 employees will see this as an opportunity to take some long-needed rest. So it’s likely for some people to see some advantage of this. Few weeks down the line, people got bored. They just wanted to go back to work. If after 4 weeks of staying away from work, you still wish for the lockdown to continue to keep you from going to work, this is a warning sign that you are either working in the wrong place or that you are in a wrong career.
The purpose of a career is not just to make money but to give you a sense of fulfilment from being a part of something you care about and aspire towards. If you don’t desire to get back to work after a prolonged lockdown, you need to start reevaluating your career or job choice.
Mrs. Jane, not her real name, retired as a teacher in late 2019. While delivering her vote of thanks, she talked about how fast 35 years had passed. She could still remember when she was running around to confirm her first place of assignment. She remarked how she and many of her colleagues talked about how this was a temporary job to keep them going until they moved into what they really wanted to do. One year went to 5 years; 10 years went to 20; 25 went to 35 years. And on this day she is retiring a teacher.
Many people in the film industry today had to give up a flourishing career to pursue what they really wanted to do. The richest man in the world today had to quit a lucrative banking job at Wall Street to start selling books on the internet. I once met a lady who resigned from a job at a multinational oil company to start a non-profit organization for youths. It will amaze you how time flies. If you have been talking and learning more about a career different from what you do, this may be a warning sign to change career.
If you are not confident telling other people about what you do, I can say with 85 percent certainty that you are only there for the paycheck. A man named Isaac Durojaiye popularly known as Otumba Ghadafi made a fortune from providing outdoor mobile toilet services. His business went by the name, Dignified Mobile Toilets (DMT). And the slogan was, “Shit business is serious business”. He wore his profession with pride and turned DMT into a multimillion dollar business before he died.
Your career is what you choose to do with your life to serve humanity. If you are not proud to tell people about it, that may be a warning sign that you are in the wrong profession.
Each time the global oil market drops, many oil company employees go into panic mode for the threat of being laid off. Well, maybe oil workers are not the best example to use here since they typically earn higher than their peers in other industries. So the risk of job losses may seem worth it. But such a threat is not peculiar to oil workers alone. Did you notice that there are fewer desks at the banking halls and fewer face-to-customer staffs? Banks are moving fast towards automation and self-service banking. That’s a threat for many bank workers.
Did you also notice the increasing trend of large shopping malls springing up in towns? Add to that e-commerce platforms offering customers convenience and easy shopping online, you’ll see a huge disruption displacing the small retail shops. The default thing for most people to say is that “oh, the large businesses are swallowing the common man”. You have to be smarter than that and instead, think of how you can pivot your business model with the times.
Let me put it this way. If you left where you are working for more than five years, will someone be willing to pay you more to do the same thing you have been doing there? We often make the mistake of only measuring our growth by how much we make. But that’s a dangerous way to look at life. There is a reason rich and successful people are said to work to learn and not for money; while everyone else only works for money.
Beyond how many paychecks you take home, if you are still at the early to mid-stage of your career, your number one career priority should be to learn and grow. Any job or career that is not offering you growth and knowledge should give a red-flag. Your growth is important. If your career doesn’t offer you that, it’s a clear warning sign to look elsewhere.
This may sound like cliché, and I’ve already said some things in this line. But it’s worth a point of its own. Money is important; In fact very important. But can I tell you something else that is worth more than money? TIME is worth more than money. Can I tell you one more thing that is worth more than money? FREEDOM is worth more than money. I could mention a few more things, but let me leave you with this two.
So why would it be a warning sign to change career if you won’t do the same thing without getting paid? You see, as I said, having enough money to live on and to be content is very important. There is another thing you need from your career; self-esteem. There are many people with attractive bank accounts today but on the internal battle of their self-identity. These people often mask their insecurity with a display of their material possession. Without their possession, they have nothing to offer. Your career should provide you with a means of living, fulfilment and healthy self esteem.
In 1961, President John F. Kennedy visited NASA headquarters for the first time. This was the US president with the vision to ‘Put a Man on the Moon, and Bring him back safely to Earth’. While touring the facility, he introduced himself to a janitor who was mopping the floor and asked him what he did at NASA. The Janitor responded, “I am helping put a man on the moon”.
The janitor understood that keeping the building clean was important towards achieving the mission of landing a man on the moon. And that gave him a sense of purpose. From this, you can see that making an impact is not until you are feeding the hungry or heading an organization. If you can’t find how your career is making an impact in the scheme of things, it may be a warning sign that you are in the wrong place.
Let’s say, for instance, you started your career, writing on celebrity gossips. You enjoyed covering those controversial stories of the newest celebrity breakups, leaked nudes and infidelities. But you’ve come to lose interest in this career of picking into other people’s lives. It just doesn’t give you any form of fulfilment. You are no longer confident telling people what you do. Your self esteem has been eroded. If you find yourself in a situation like this, it may be a warning sign to make a change.
You wake up at 4 am in the morning spend 2 hours on traffic to get to a job that makes you sick and defeated. You’ve tried to live with it as an inevitable part of life. But you are just sick and tired of getting sick and tired. Maybe, It’s time to change the course of your life.
Being easily replaceable may not necessarily suggest a change of career. It could be that you need to update or develop your skills. It could also suggest that you need to develop your emotional and social intelligence; which are among the most important skills in the workplace today. But another way to look at it is; if you really have an interest in your chosen career, you should be motivated to improve and increase your value. So if you are comfortable at a replaceable skill level, then that could be a warning sign that you need to change to a career that will drive you to keep learning and growing.
Which of these warning signs have you noticed with your career? Tell us about them in the comment section below. If you are yet to subscribe to After School Africa, now is a good time to hit the subscribe button. Until next time, YOUR SUCCESS MATTERS!
This post was last modified on August 1, 2022 3:57 pm