If you happen to be my current boss or a co-worker, I categorically do not think about a career change. Not at all. Not even one bit!

Are they gone now?

Phew, that was close.

Now, between you and me, I thought about it maybe once or twice. Maybe three times. I mean, who hasn’t, though, right?

Growth opportunities, better pay, and work-life balance are just a few of the reasons people might be looking for different opportunities. Heck, even a simple change in the environment might be all you need sometimes.

I think it’s a natural thing to do, question your current career. It is a form of self-assessment in a way.

We are not the same people we were ‘X’ number of years or months ago, when we first took the job. We might not even be the same person we were yesterday. So why should we stay where we’ve always been, and do what we’ve always done?

Life is what we make of it, sure, to an extent, but it’s also what happens to us and what we do about it. Family, health, economy, politics – there are so many factors that affect the trajectory of your life, the path you took to get to where you are now. And maybe that’s what you felt you needed to do at the time, but is it what you want now?

I think it’s a valid question to ask ourselves regularly on our life’s journey. I’ll recall a story I mentioned just in the other post. The pharmaceutical industry, which I’m working in now, was not my first choice. It was veterinary medicine, which I didn’t get into. I’m in a field a far dumber version of me at 18 decided to stay in over 10 years.

Here are some of the questions I started to ask myself recently, which might help you, perhaps as well, in self-discovery.

• Does it align with my current values?
• Does it provide me with the optimal work-life balance?
• Does it contribute to my life’s purpose?
• Does it help me achieve desired personal and professional goals?

Would I have chosen this field today? No, I don’t believe so. But this version of me today exists because of that choice made years ago. It’s a part of who I became and is now a part that I question.

To help myself answer some of these questions, to try and realise what it is I might be missing, I picked up ‘The Career Change Guide’ audiobook by Rachel Schofield. It is exactly what the title suggests – a practical guide, accompanied by a PDF workbook. It helps you work out achievable, small steps to turn your thoughts and ideals into reality, whether as part of a big career switch or as an addition to the job you already have.

That is one of the biggest takeaways from this book for me. When you think about making a change, perhaps you’re a little bit like me, and immediately think of the most drastic and extreme solutions. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Rachel’s guide can help identify your current skill set, interests, and what drives and inspires you. Yes, you can utilise those to help you find the job of your dreams. However, they can also help you find new hobbies to take up during free time, or causes you can get involved in, such as volunteering for a non-profit organisation. All of these, and more, can be done to help you feel more fulfilled, happy and aligned in your life. You might not have to switch your career around 180 degrees if you do not wish.

As I’ve listened to the audiobook, I worked through the workbook attached as a PDF to the app. Learning anything from an audiobook is not easy at all, so it is nice to have a tangible piece to reflect on as you listen.

Together with the ‘Resources’ page, the guide is over 30 pages long and offers a variety of exercises to help you determine your potential and future career path. It includes things like SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis, mind maps, and other templates to give you a visual representation of your ideas.

Is it repetitive? Yes, a little. But which self-help book isn’t. to be fair. If they only told us their core principles once and to the point, all of those books would be less than 20 pages long, at most.

I liked this book. I usually always do like a self-help book that helped me even just a little bit to improve myself. And this career change guide has. The PDF was a great way to have something to focus on, to keep all the ideas in one place. The book itself had a direction to it, and I could see the development of the ideas, little by little, as the chapters went on. Rachel Schofield, the author, narrates the audiobook herself, and she does a very good job of it. The writing is engaging, light-hearted and even funny at times. It’s backed up by other people’s inspiring stories.

It gives its readers a lot of topics of consideration for a potential career change, which is something I was looking for. Rachel’s book helped me realise that it does not need to be this giant, near-impossible event. Instead, it breaks it up into smaller, manageable actions that can be tackled one by one.

As time goes on, I can definitely see myself dipping in and out of this book, probably the PDF workbook much more so. I think this book helped me identify what I’d like to do more in life, whether it’s done as part of a professional career or not. And that’s a good thing to know!

Is there anything you’d like to do more of? Let me know down in the comment section! Let’s make our lives awesome!