The Great Resignation: some considerations before changing your career path

If you are currently having serious doubts about whether your current career path can actually lead to a better place, you’re certainly not alone. Last April, a staggering four million Americans quit their jobs, according to the Labor Department. As the pandemic is nearing its end, another 27% are planning to leave their employers in the nearby future. The reason we’re collectively having second thoughts about our current jobs is the fact that working from home has given us a lot more time to think about if we’re actually enjoying what we’re doing, so it seems that COVID-19 has made us realize that life is too short to spend our lives doing something we don’t like. Where the stats show an obvious trend, it also leads to a snowball effect as many of us seem to jump the bandwagon without thinking their decision through. Although we absolutely encourage you to change career paths if you are truly unhappy, we also recommend taking a few of the following aspects into consideration first.

Reflect on your career motives

The hard part about the current situation is that many of us seem to no longer have clear memories of what working life was like before the pandemic. We’ve been at home for so long and lost the human working connection, often causing ourselves to be lost in our own train of thought. Maybe you can imagine what the situation is like for others, aren’t we all in the same boat here? Is the grass really greener on the other side? Ultimately, the situation might simply be not that rosy for many of us. Just keep in mind that this will pass. Do you actually think that once this is over you’re still unhappy with yourself and your job? We fully understand it’s an important decision to make. The only thing we ask of you is to not impulsively react to the current trend but to take a more strategic approach. Is your dissatisfaction with your current job actually due to the work or the employer itself? Or could the problem be deeper-rooted as a consequence of a difficult year in general? Holding up that mirror can be very difficult, but it’s the most important question to ask yourself before taking actions you might regret later on.

Set out your new career path

Once your decision’s final about actually making that career change, it’s time to make the right preparations. To get a clear view of your current position, we recommend you to make an account at CareerAnalytics, an insightful platform where you can discover where you currently stand and find out what you can still do to actually reach your new career goals. In the meantime, you might want to hold on to your current position for just a little longer. There are so many things to consider before you just impulsively switch jobs, like do you have a particular paycheck in mind? Or is it a healthy work-life balance, you’re after? Even if you have decided on a specific job title, it could be that you currently lack the right skill set, and you need to work on a few skills first. Luckily, on CareerAnalytics you’ll be able to find the right help for all these matters. All you have to do is upload your current LinkedIn profile and resume, and the platform will guide you through the rest. If you need help, you can visit the CareerAnalytics Assistant and review your goals, and it will direct you to courses to work on your skills, find ways to make you stand out more, and prepare you to the fullest to find a new opportunity in no-time. It doesn’t get any easier than this! We can’t however stress this enough: switching career paths is a life-changing choice that should not be taken too lightly.