Perhaps you are stuck in a rut, no longer loving your job, maybe you are just living for a paycheck, or perhaps you want to pursue that dream career that you gave up on when you were younger. Whatever your circumstances, it is important to remember that you are never too old to switch things up and pursue the career of your dreams - the only thing holding you back is you and your attitude to change.

Decide What You Want to Do

Maybe you have a rough idea of what you want to do and where you want to be, or maybe you don't. The important thing is to take time out before you make any radical decisions and write down your thoughts and feelings on why you want to change careers and what you are looking to get out of a career change. For example, if you want to spend more time with family and loved ones, then working towards a career that offers set hours would probably be better than pursuing a career that would be demanding on your whole week.

Follow Your Passion

Changing your career gives you the chance to pursue your passion and begin a career in something that you are passionate about. When you do something you love and something that you enjoy doing every day, then you will not consider it to be work, so keep this in mind when deciding what you want to do. Before committing to anything, look at the career choices and options within the industry you are passionate about, and decide where you see yourself and what you want to achieve. Evaluating where you see yourself will help you potentially see new career choices that you might have previously overlooked. For example, you may be passionate about animals and want to pursue a career in sales or buying. It means you could start a career designing and selling pet apparel or even become a buyer for a brand of pet food. 

Returning Back to Education

Your new career path may require you to return to studying, or you may just feel like returning to studying will help advance your new career. If this is the case, then you may be looking at mba programs. Returning to study may be an anxious time, especially if has been 20 plus years since you were in formal education. However, don't panic - education can be exciting and fun, and don't forget that education is very inclusive and accessible, meaning that you can study flexibly a lot of the time. Whether you have family commitments or work commitments being able to study flexibly, perhaps online is beneficial as it ensures you can achieve what you want to without having to make too many sacrifices along the way. When researching educational providers, it is important to find the right one for you, and unfortunately, not all of them will be right for you. Try and look for a provider that comes highly recommended by students and one that offers flexible learning alongside a flexible payment plan. Returning to education can be expensive, so it is worth investigating costs and comparing online learning and offline learning as early as you can so that you can make an informed choice.

Get Relevant Work Experience

Changing careers can be challenging and incredibly competitive, so it is important to realize that even with good education and a long qualification list a job is not just given to you. You have to prove your worth when going for a new career and one of the ways you can do this is to gain work experience. Whether you seek paid experience or voluntary experience, the main thing you need to remember is that any experience matters, and it could just help you stand out from other applicants when it comes to finding a new job.

Build-Up Resilience

Changing careers can be incredibly rewarding, and yet at the same time, it can also be very daunting, especially if you are competing against fresh-faced graduates. To be successful in your new career, you need to build up your resilience as soon as you can. There will be times when you are knocked back and pushed back, but you have to remember to keep pushing and moving forwards. Nobody is going to be holding any doors open for you; it is up to you to go knocking on those doors and achieve the career you have been dreaming of and waiting for.