Changing a career at the midpoint of anyone’s life is a vital and critical point in everyone’s working life. Everyone undergoes a career shift phase no matter how successful one is at his current job. Because this decision might affect the rest of one’s life, it is necessary to ask one’s self a hundred of times if he really wants to change career. If the answer is yes, consider the following six steps that would ensure a successful path to career change.

Self-assessment step

Before considering a shift in career, ask yourself if it is really necessary to change career. Start by evaluating one’s current job first to know if the current job no longer answers one’s needs in terms of financial, emotional and intellectual challenge. If the current career no longer gives financial stability, emotional happiness and intellectual stimulation for one’s self and loosing one’s current job will not jeopardize one’s economic life, then it is the perfect time to change career.

Research on possible careers to take

Next thing to do after deciding to change career is to compile a list of possible careers that interests you. It would be best to choose a career that could possibly answer one’s financial, emotional and intellectual needs. A career that is a direct contrast of one’s current career should be included. Since, this career causes the job burnout and the desire to shift to another career. From this list, research about each career thoroughly. Survey current labor conditions and wage structures for that career. Weigh the pros and cons of each career and make a comparison table.

Select the top three careers

From the long list of careers that was listed before, choose the top three in terms of financial rewards or salary benefits, emotional satisfaction and intellectual stimulation. If data is available, choose the top three in terms of job demand from the industry. After choosing the top three careers, research further. Gather as much information from reliable job sourcing resources.

Getting actual information from experts

There are three ways of getting valuable information from experts in the career that one is eyeing for. One is by conducting interviews of several people who are experts in the field of choice. If the interview is successful enough and one is able to establish a good rapport with the experts, they might even agree to become one’s mentor.

The last way of getting information is by intermingling with the experts in their actual job through enlisting on on-the-job training. This is the best way of getting a feel of a certain job whether it is well suited for someone planning to shift careers.

Create a Career Path/Plan

By this time, after going through all the above steps, an individual planning to shift career already knows which career to choose. After gathering all the information about the career and knowing about its economic viability, it is now time to create a career path. This is the planning stage of the career shift.

At this time, an individual would already know if further studies needs to be done via a full college program or supplemental short-term studies. Set a time frame to accomplish such tasks. Write down goals and objectives and identify possible corporate employers.  If it is not necessary, identify which department in the current job is in need of an employee for the chosen career. If there is no need within one’s current company, then the job hunting begins.

Finding the Right Job for the Chosen Career

Now this is the tricky part of career change. This is a make or break situation. Finding a job today takes a lot of effort, perseverance and determination. The good news is that there are various resources available on the web that would be useful when searching for that ultimate new job.

There are various self-help guides on the latest hiring trends of different companies and how they choose the right employees.  Job hunting and applying for a job is another cycle of stages that an individual has to carefully plan for. But with the right expertise, education and passion for that certain job career, it would not be that difficult to achieve.