Thread: Changing careers advice

I had over 50 jobs including a 5 year apprenticeship in the UK. That job was the longest I'd stuck anything until the last 10 years of working life and I got a job in the WA public sector.
Had a few positions in that last 10 years as despite many stories to the contrary, often working with people whose soul purpose in life is looking after themselves, certainly not the public whatever their job description says, is very hard to do.
Back stabbing and brown nosing are the best qualifications for government workers....
However, during all the proceeding years I worked at anything I liked the sound of except being anyone's labourer or general lackey.
Had a lot of jobs, enjoyed some and other I didn't so I left.
And never bothered working hard or brown nosing. :-)
AlanH.

You need to know what skills you have and what you want to do next. Is what you want to do next a stepping stone on the way to what you actually want to do. Many roles above a certain level require you to have had a spread of experience otherwise you find you plateau and go no further even if you change companies. If you are happy at the level you are at a change of company to a similar role is often all that is need to make it all fresh again. If not you need to have some kind of a plan and then be ready to change it as opportunities appear.

If you can move within the same company to gain additional skills it is often easier to do as a next step as you are known and less of a chance than an outsider.

If you take an overseas role for a while understand what you want to learn and gain experience wise and how that will be of use to you on your return to Australia. Not all experience overseas is relevant to the Australian market. Business processes here in the UK tend to be 10 years behind what you experience in Australia so you may find it difficult to gain leading edge skills to be ahead of the job market. UK employers though recognise this and so are very open to Australians and the knowledge they can bring.

One thing I have learned is to always take whatever training is on offer. Do not put it off as you as too busy, this is very short term and only damages your long term sale-ability to an employer. If possible take the training which has an industry profile as this will be valued by another employer. There is lots of training which is not recognised anywhere except by the training company still do it as it cannot hurt and shows a employers a willingness to learn.

From a personal perspective:
I made a move to a dream job in a new start business that only comes along once in a life time leaving a secure (well for my sector) role only to find 2 years latter the company management changed and the new people decided to close my division. Rung up at 10 am to be told the computers were being switched off and we were to go home. Enjoyed every moment of this role and do not regret taking the chance. It has since opened up additional opportunities to me that would otherwise have been closed.

Was head hunted to a new role leaving what was the best employer I have ever had. Made the change as I wanted a move elsewhere in the country out of the city, a couple of years later this role was killed by the GFC and 60% of people were let go, me being one of these. The employer I had left restructured at the same time as I was let go and my role there did not survive the changes. So if I had stayed put the result would have been the same.

Had spent many years working in the one company. They wanted me to move to Melbourne. Made me think about my life and where it was going. Decided that Melbourne was too cold and far away (40 hours by bus to Melbourne only 24 hours to fly to London) and so left the company and arrived in the UK with some cash in my pocket and a CV. Knew what my skills were and from research that they were in demand in the UK, partied in London for a couple of months then found a job. If you change countries make sure you step into the new employment structure at the level you want as once you are in you have been placed and need to work from this point.