If you are wondering whether to change career, chances are that you are feeling dissatisfied with your current work or career path. But does that mean a career change is the best option? Here are some quick actions you can take that may increase your career satisfaction, before you decide whether to take the leap and change career.

Increase Your Current Career Satisfaction

The most influential factors that determine career satisfaction, recommended by Roelen et al. (2008), are:

Based on this, consider how you could make changes in your current work to increase these factors. Below are some examples that you can use for inspiration, or be creative and experiment with what works for you. Changes that increase one person’s career satisfaction may decrease another. For example, some people thrive on autonomy in their work, whereas others work better under structure and direction without free-reign to choose how and when they work. The choices are up to you.

Task Variety

Are you able to vary the type of activities that you do in your work? Repeating the same tasks over and over can feel pretty boring for most people. Consider whether you can swap activities with a colleague or take on more responsibilities. Remember to ask those who determine your work activities before making any swaps or changes. If you cannot increase the task variety in work, can you take on more activities that you would enjoy outside of work? Maybe take up a new sport or hobby, or volunteer. This can also increase your sense of purpose.

Colleagues

Our work colleagues can have a big impact on how we feel about work. Their presence can aid our enjoyment or dislike of a job. It is a factor we often have very little control over. If you are able to, can you spend more time with those who you enjoy the company of, or work well with? Can you decrease the amount of time spent with colleagues who leave you with negative feelings? Find polite ways to keep time working with them brief, if possible. Even if it is only during break times, consider whether there are ways of controlling your time in the presence of others.

Working Conditions

Our sensitivity to our working conditions will vary, with some people being very sensitive to aspects like noise, smell and visual surroundings. Other people will take less notice of these same surroundings. Notice whether your working conditions are having an impact on your career satisfaction. Can you change any of your working conditions or how you deal with them? For example, cluttered areas cause our brains to process more items, consider more possible dangers, or more actions to take based on all of those items. Are you able to declutter, organise, clean, or improve your surroundings? Even a small gesture like adding a few houseplants can improve our mental health as well as our surroundings (and even air quality!). Another example of where working conditions can affect us, is our working patterns. Long hours, shift work, or different working times can impact our health and mood. Although you may not be able to change those directly, you can change how you deal with the effects on your sleep and lifestyle. Seek advice and support for your specific working conditions and how to minimise their impact.

Workload

It’s not just a heavy workload that can lead to career dissatisfaction. Not enough work, or enough challenge in your work time, can also lead to feelings of boredom, lack of purpose and dissatisfaction. Can you delegate parts of a large workload? Can you increase your work and challenge level if you have a small workload?

Autonomy

As work and society shifts, there are more opportunities for taking control of your work, such as flexible hours, freelance or contract work on different projects, and remote working. Career satisfaction can increase with more autonomy, but that is not the case for everyone. Consider whether you would like more choice about how or when you work, or more structure.

Career Perspectives

Does your current career path provide opportunities for you to learn, grow or advance? Are there opportunities for further education, training, specialising, or promotion? If you can see no future in your work that includes your improvement, then it can be difficult to get excited about that role. Learning and increasing our skills helps us to do more in our roles, and feel a sense of purpose. It also links back to task variety, from the start of our list, because our development leads to more variety in our job.

Time to Change Career?

Not yet! Assess whether you can make changes to any of the six factors mentioned above, and implement those changes. It is also important to look after your health and well-being during times of dissatisfaction, to support your body and brain, and help to ensure that the emotions are not caused by external factors. This will put you in the best position possible for making a good decision if you do decide to change career, instead of jumping out of the frying pan into the fire (as the saying goes!).

Wondering how to find the right career for you? Read this article as a starting point: ‘What Career Choice is Right for Me?’

If you are now ready to choose a new career, sign up below to get expert psychology tips, exclusive offers, and be the first to hear when the Career Choice Psychology course goes live.

Thank you 🙂

References:

Roelen CA, Koopmans PC, Groothoff JW. Which work factors determine job satisfaction? Work. 2008;30(4):433-9. PMID: 18725706.