What profession to choose: 5 career change myths that prevent you

Sometimes, the work you love stops being fun. At such moments, it becomes clear that you need to find a new job. Learn from our article how not to make a mistake with choosing a new profession and one for which you have a predisposition. But first, subscribe to our Telegram channel. We often publish such valuable articles!

Myth #1: Modern professions are only for the young

The first thought that comes to mind when thinking about a new job is in IT. Adults are mistaken that only young graduates of technical universities get into IT. Many companies hire employees with experience for internships and are ready to train specialists in the work process. Organizations need more than just members. There are positions with a low entry threshold. Testers do not know one programming language. There is a demand for them because no site, application, or game enters the market without the approval of the testing department. And the code is not suitable for IT recruiters, Internet marketers, and project managers.

Creative tasks in this area are also not uncommon. Graphic designers are in demand: they come up with, draw, and typeset designs for applications, icons, merchandise, games, and websites. If you love writing and it’s essential to choose a career in this adaptation, UX writing is worth considering. Even musicians can find themselves in technology. For example, try sound production, or you can develop a music service as an expert (read Scientists have confirmed that musical taste is associated with personality type). So in this area, there will undoubtedly be used for skills and talents, regardless of age and degree of love for the code.

Myth #2: Career guidance doesn’t help you decide what career to choose

Many popular tests work according to the horoscope prescription. For example, in a test, you may get the final screen: “You are distinguished by independence in possible decisions. You do not tolerate discussions without convincing evidence, have a non-standard, revealed outlook on life, and are emotionally sensitive (read Seven habits of emotionally healthy people). Sometimes you tend to be anti-social.” The truth is that it does not accept someone else’s unfounded opinion — a requirement of logic, not a psychologic type. The desire to be alone with yourself happens to every person. And “a complex outlook on life” is a phrase so incomprehensible that you can attribute it to yourself to some extent every time.

But special tests for career guidance need to be used. Because asking yourself thoughtful questions — is best of the most way to choose a profession and is not mistaken. Answer honestly, and evaluate the survey results as critically as possible.

HR professionals also use the test Menteora as a career guidance tool.

Myth #3: Only the diploma determines what profession you can choose

4-6 years of study, beautiful cover, and sleepless nights — you will get many centuries and resources to get a diploma. However, focusing only on a diploma is unnecessary for a career revolution. In banking or education, your diploma matters, but in an IT company or event agency, you most likely will not be asked for a diploma. Experience, soft and hard skills are much more valued there. Even the ability to present yourself at an interview can play a more significant role in employment than a coveted high school diploma.

By the time they enter the university, not all people are ready to make the only right choice of profession. Therefore, changing a specialty at any age is a normal phenomenon. In addition, new vacancies appeared, and entire industries: how could you choose the right profession of your dreams 5–10 years ago if it simply did not exist? Your interests are connected with the surrounding information spaces. A degree and acquired skills may indicate the direction for a career search, but in the private labor market, one should not limit oneself to a profession acquired at an institute.

Myth #4: Do what you love, and the money will find you.

Surely you have heard the phrase: “Do what you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” This thesis is only partly true and is not worth making a career strategy. It’s great when there is a hobby as a source of income. But you need to make a lot of effort and work even more than 40 hours a week.

The business didn’t come out of nowhere. Let’s say you like restoring furniture. The process is meditative and exciting; all your acquaintances and friends already flaunt creative results. You decide to leave the garage and make it your full-time job, and some questions arise. Where to rent an office? What professional tools to buy? How many orders do you need to make to cover the costs? How and on what platforms to look for clients? Any novice entrepreneur is a master of all routine processes, a marketer, an accountant, a bit of a lawyer, and an anti-crisis manager.

Therefore, if you decide to restart your career path and choose a new profession from your list of hobbies, you should not immediately quit with a stable job. Prepare yourself: conduct a market analysis, put a business plan and assemble an airbag, which is enough for at least six months of independent swimming.

Myth #5: the choice of a profession in life is the main task

Of course, essential, but not necessarily the main one. And do not put too much pressure on yourself — this is unlikely to help you make a decision and only slow down an already complex process. When it seems you are going the wrong way, remember: this does not make you a loser. On the contrary, to admit that it is time to change something and take the first steps towards this is the prerogative of courageous and strong-willed people. And you are not alone on this path: every third specialist in the last ten years has gone to a radically different career field.

The reasons that encourage people to choose another profession differ. Perhaps you just squeezed the maximum out of your position, and promotion, for some reason, does not happen. The desire to achieve more is natural. Another option — at the start of your career, you had no choice: you had to work in a specialty that was chosen not by you but by your parents. Or the number of budget places in the university is limited. Or maybe you just had a global reassessment of landmarks, and the current working days no longer fit the way of life and views on the future (read Three principles of long-term thinking to help plan for the future). Reaching the stage of choosing a profession could be forced by external circumstances. For example, marriage and having children are potent motivators to earn more.

Changing activities is normal and natural. You should not dramatize this process. One does not choose a profession once and for all in life — the world is changing, and those who move forward with it and do not stand still win the race of self-realization (read Self-realization and career are not the same things).

Often, a person does not know where to start. We have written a guide for them. Try job crafting to restart your career without changing jobs.

Take the Menteora career guidance test; artificial intelligence will name your most suitable professions. The accuracy of the test is 70-80% because we use a mathematical-statistical algorithm (read about Menteora's unique career guidance methodology).