Career Changes Can Be Emotionally Trying

Ever feel like you’ve hurt your chances of getting a job interview because you’ve changed careers in the past? Multiple career changes used to raise some real big red flags to prospective employers.

But nowadays, it’s completely normal to have more than one career change. Interestingly enough, most career changes aren’t about getting rich. Most are about getting happy.

Marci Albhoer is the author of One Person/Multiple Careers: A New Model for Work/Life Success. If you took note of the slashes in the title of her book, there’s a good reason for them: she calls the multiple career path “the slash effect.”

Marci was a corporate lawyer who was extremely successful. And extremely miserable. She wanted desperately to become a writer instead. But as she found out, it’s very difficult to leave a very high-paying job that you’ve had for a long time.

In an interview with Time Magazine’s blog, Marci shared a bit of her dilemma…

"it’s really hard to leave a job you’re trained for, rewarded for and perform well. A friend told her, 'I can’t believe you’re so good at a job you hate so much.'"

Marci isn’t alone out there. Those with high-paying jobs can be every bit as miserable as those who make less money. In some cases, it can be even worse.

If you’ve made the mistake of allowing your lifestyle to rise to match your income (house, cars, and the accompanying payment obligations), you can feel trapped into keeping a job you hate. It’s either stay miserable and keep your overpriced toys, or downsize and take a job you’d be happier doing.

And as you’ve heard me say before, and I’ll say again - you’ll never be happy in your career until you figure out what skills you enjoy spending your 8-hour days using. And that takes a lot of prayer and introspection. Maybe even some career counseling with some wise elders or pastors that you trust.

I fully believe God uses our job satisfaction (or lack thereof) to steer us where he wants us to go. And he certainly can do so as often as he likes. So don’t feel bad if you’re a “career slasher.” Life is too short to dread going to work every day. Find out what your maker put you on this planet to do. Then do it to His glory.

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