They say a change is as good as rest; which is a statement that can be worth its weight in gold. A change in your career can as well be an opportunity for you to rest from the feelings of being bored or disinterested with your work.

However, you should take some time to rethink such a decision before you decide to jump ship onto the next best thing. You may think or believe that the grass is greener on the other side, but is it?

Read this blog from npower outlining top tips for job seekers and get yourself on your new career path.

You should have an honest review of your reasons can ask yourself the following questions as you evaluate your position and consider, in length, the gain in wait in that new prospect.

1. Why Do You Want to Change?

You should have a clear picture of why you are intent on leaving so that you do not end up letting go of something great while fishing for what you believe is the best for you but turns out to be an utter disappointment. Some of the issues that will drive your reasons for considering a career change are:

• You have worked for the same company for many years and are feeling bored or stuck with the same processes.

• You have lost interest in your work.

• You feel that you are being undervalued.

• Organizational restructuring took place recently resulting in a change of roles.

• You feel that you are not progressing in your professional life.

• You desire to achieve more professionally before you retire.

• You desire to experience new challenges.

• You do not get along with your workmates or your boss.

2. Do You Really Want to Change Career?

It might be that it is not your career that you want to change but certain aspects of your job, which can be your role, the working environment, the terms of conditions of employment, or your boss. You should take some time to think through what elements if changed, will make your life at work more exciting. Explore all options to see if you can still manage to make a less drastic career switch. You can do this via the following:

• Opting to do another job but within the same industry

• Opting to change sectors, moving to a different field of work that still utilizes your knowledge and skills

• Deciding to modify your existing roles at work by getting involved in another project, pursuing a new interest, or going part-time

3. What Kind of Work Do You Want?

By answer the first two questions, you may have a firm idea of the direction you want to take regarding the career change. The two questions will focus on helping you gain clarity regarding your needs as a professional. But you also need to consider the nature of the changes you want and the impact of the demands of the new work opportunity. You should think about aspects of the roles of the new job that includes:

• The expectations of the admin

• The volume of paperwork you will handle

• The level of support and micro-management standards

• Are you thinking more along the lines of being your own boss, such as working from home?

• Does the work or new role grant you some level of flexibility?

The above are some of the many issues you may be having with your current job and can talk about them with your boss or manager to see what they can accommodate. Perhaps, this may be an easier route compared to uprooting yourself from what you have invested your time and effort into to start afresh else. The vital thing is to state your reasons and concerns ensuring that you keep them practical and realist.

4. Consider Skills and Capabilities

As you eye that change in your career, also think of how you will be able to transfer your expertise and capabilities to the new job in areas such as:

• Teaching, coaching or lecturing

• Organizational skills

• People skills

• Your knack for detailed research

• Your flair of fundraising knowledge

• Your level of creativity and ability to get initiatives off the ground

5. Do You Want to Use Your Existing Skills and Capabilities?

Try as much as you can to be sensible about the career change. Desiring to experience new challenges and furthering your professional life is understandable, but will the new job make use of your current expertise and capacities or will you need to learn and acquire new ones? So, before you up and leave; take some time to reach out to fellow work colleagues or members of a professional group in your industry to discover if other opportunities associated with your expertise are available. As a result of this, you may find something new and exciting from making a sideways move in your field of work.

6. What Are You Interested In?

Go for that new job that you are confident about regarding what it has to offer you; it should be something you are interested in and excited about. For instance, do not make a switch to a new career based on the promise of a fat salary. The pay increase may be great, but it may not suffice to keep you interested in your work, in the long run. So, will the money be enough incentive to keep you going to work even when you have lost all interest in what you do?

7. What Are Your Values?

You should have firm beliefs in what you consider to be of value in your conduct as a professional. Your everyday activity and your core values (work ethics) should never have any disconnect; this will keep you from making the wrong career choices in the name of change. For instance, the fast-paced commercial environment pushed for profits and has a stringent bottom-line may be a hard pill to swallow for an academic fresh out of college. The opposite of this also stands for someone who moves from the commercial sector to join the academic life what abides by a gentle and less targeted approach to careers. So, take some time to explore your values and see how they will fair or be affected. The values can include:

• Striving to do good

• Knowing that what you are doing will make a difference to you or someone else

• To be enterprising and gain recognition for your hard work and that of others

• Being able to work under a manager that is younger and with less experience than you

• Enjoying the freedom and flexibility of working without commercial limitations