Career Change: Tips from a Career Coach for Lawyers

Here are three questions to ask yourself if you are thinking about a career change.

The first question is, is this a one-way door?  Once you go through it, is this change irrevocable?  If it doesn’t work out, would the consequences be so dire that you could never come back from it?  For most job or career changes, of course, the answer is no.  You can always find another job, return to your industry, or try yet another path. Some people even return to their previous organizations.  If you are good at what you do, it probably won’t be hard. And even if you can’t or wouldn’t want to return, there are always other options out there.  On the other hand, if you’re talking about putting all your savings into a new endeavor and mortgaging your house, (dramatic entrepreneurial success stories aside), for most people that may be harder to come back from,. 

The second question is, what is the opportunity cost?  This is really a balancing question. What opportunities are you likely to gain by staying in your current job versus what are opportunities are you likely to gain by leaving?  There is psychological phenomenon called loss aversion, which basically means that human beings hate losing something that we already have. A loss upsets us much more than the equivalent gain makes us happy.  What that means is that most people think a lot about what they stand to lose if they leave a job (maybe the comfort of the familiar, or nice colleagues, for example). People don’t focus as much on the opportunities that they are losing out on by staying in a job.  If you’ve been in a job for five years and you feel like you’ve learned everything there is to learn and you don’t see much in the way of new growth options or increased satisfaction, that would weight in favor of leaving.  Its wise go where you have the best chance for growth and happiness.

 The third question to ask is, what is your heart telling you?  The first two questions assess risk and look at the practical side of things, which is important. You want to do your due diligence. You don't want to do anything stupid.  But when it comes down to significant life decisions, you should also pay attention to your heart. When I moved to Turkey out of the blue everyone kept telling me it was a really brave choice. But honestly it was one of the easier choices I’ve made. When you feel really excited about something, but also little bit nervous; when you recognize that there are risks but still really, really, really want to do it; you should probably go with your gut or your heart or whatever other body part is screaming out, telling you to act. Well, maybe not any body part. But heart and gut are usually pretty reliable.