Finding the best jobs for career change aspirations. Hint: it's not in a job title or role

So, your unhappy at work and looking for the best jobs for career change success. Here's where to begin:

The journey to your career happiness can start today. It starts by taking the first step without fear and with determination to find a way. Despite all the setbacks you might encounter, with some humility you can overcome them. The best jobs for career change success are not found in a specific role or job title but are found at the end of your journey of self-discovery.

Whether you go back to school to become an engineer, lawyer, teacher or perhaps start your own business, the best career change jobs for you will be unique to your situation. The true gift of a career transformation isn’t in the perks, benefits, salary, or title of your new profession but in the lessons and knowledge you will learn about yourself along the way.

A career change and starting over

I know “healing” is a new age-y term that might make some people throw up in their mouth but stay with me on this one.

Finding your best job for career change is found through a journey of healing.

A career shift allows you to step away from a path of pain and burnout. You get to tear yourself down and be pieced together again anew. Like all meaningful paths, this isn’t an easy one but one that offers true change. It goes beyond simply finding career satisfaction. Professional happiness doesn’t lie in finding the perfect or best jobs for career change, but in changing yourself and the way you see and relate to work.

A career transition offers an important lesson. There’s no achieving your aspirations unless you’re willing to start where you are at and without assumptions. If you accept and humbly start where you are, that’s all you need to begin again.

In my own career change journey when I knew I wanted to leave the window cleaning business, I wanted a smooth and seamless transition to my next profession. In my mind I had an idea of how I wanted it to go. No problem I thought. I've started a business before, I can figure this out.

I envisioned that I would leave a career that was causing me grief and unhappiness and suddenly all my problems would be resolved and would be in my rearview mirror.

I was in for a rude awakening. Funnily, all the stress and problems from my prior career just became stress and worries about getting into a new industry and starting over. I tried to escape my problems but somehow, they managed to stay with me. Ironic, right?

How we get into a career rut, become burnt out and lose ourselves

As my life in the window cleaning industry began to decay and degrade over time, the job slowly becoming an increasing mismatch in my life. I had lost touch with the version of me that was empowered by that line of work. It at one time had been a career that used to support and lift me up, but slowly and gradually it began to leave me burnt out, weary and blue. Sometimes I was confused how things ended up like this.

Naively I thought that it wasn’t me. I thought it was my job that was the problem and that once I got on a new professional trajectory all would be right again. However, this wasn’t the case. Even as I made the decisive leap to begin a new chapter in my career, I experienced shame and feelings of grief. I had taken this leap of faith but was humbled and even embarrassed of how uncertain I was.

Embracing a humble new beginning

A meaningful career change is an endeavor for the courageous. You should be proud if you are venturing and blazing a new professional trail for yourself. A career transition requires a pioneer’s spirit. If it was guaranteed and laid out plan from the jump, we'd all be living the dream.

The barrier to entry into a new profession is often humility. When you start on a new career path, you are getting on the bottom rung of a different ladder. You are going from a place where you were respected and had status to a place where you have none. Many people will avoid leaving an unhappy job because the prospect of leaving the prestige they’ve acquired is too painful.

As I personally made my move to shift careers, I wanted to control the variables and guarantee my success. I wanted to secure myself from financial uncertainty and from the discomfort of humble new beginnings.

I soon realized this wasn’t possible. There would be no starting again in a different profession without admitting that I didn’t have all the answers. I would have to embrace the messiness along the way. I would have to accept the humble lows, the stumbles and setbacks and keep moving forward.

When you feel stuck on where to begin

We tend to think it is version 2.0  in this graphic that makes the magic of career change happen when in reality it’s Version 1.0

That’s the real secret that we tend to forget.

We think that the person who we must be in order to achieve our career aspirations is some different or better self.

We think that we must first be a stronger version of "me" before I can reach the professional goals we strive for.

However, it is the Version 1.0 “you” who must take the uncertain, often misdirected and usually flawed first actions towards the “new you.”

Opening doors to the best career change jobs by reconnecting and building bridges

A career change can feel like a fresh start into completely new terrain. We can tend to think of it as venturing into new territory that we’ve never encountered before.

I often adopt the attitude that there’s never truly any new terrain ahead until we see the past renewed and with fresh eyes. In a career sense, our next opportunity or dream job might present itself as we reconnect and see our past in a new light.

Keep an open mind. Often the best jobs for career change open through relationships we already have. There could be an open door closer to you than you have might have considered.

A career transition is a good time to reconnect with old relationships. Sometimes reconnecting with friends or acquaintances from the past can expand your world. Consider if there’s an opportunity to forgive old grudges and heal relationships from the past. 

Take a step back

Be willing to change your circumstances. Our pride will usually hold us from taking anything that seems like a step back in life. However, sometimes the only way to move forward in our career is to first take that step back. Sometimes the best career change jobs aren't always glamorous

You may need to step away from that good paying job and humbly re-start before finding that great paying position. You may need to learn how to be a beginner again in your professional journey.

In the modern age of social media, endless hustle mentality messaging and no excuses motivational influencers it can be difficult to make a career move that seems like a humble restart. Especially when you’ve already achieved a degree of success in your career. You naturally always want to move forward.

When we feel stuck, taking a step back and allowing yourself to accept less puts the power back in your hands. It can allow you to regain positive traction in your career.

Taking a step back could mean minimizing your expenses, downsizing, downgrading, or taking a temporary work assignment doing something you are overly qualified for. If you are unsure of how to fulfill your own career aspirations, perhaps you can spend some time helping someone else to achieve theirs.

Become friends with persistence and resilience

The thing that brought me renewed hope on my career change journey was allowing myself to embrace the dark emotions and uncertainty that came with starting over. More importantly than having all the answers along the way is having the resilience and persistence to learn and acquire the required attributes as needed.

I eventually realized that even as disillusioned and as low as I felt at times, I had strength. I was willing to take a chance despite the uncertainty on my new journey. I was changing my circumstances. Instead of continuing to pretend to be happy in a line of work that was unfulfilling, I was allowing myself to feel and experience the dark period in starting over.

When we’ve been in an unhappy job for a long time, we inevitably block out and numb the aspect of ourselves that is discontent. We try to pretend everything is okay and put a lot of effort into trying to make things work. Then, when we make the decisive career change leap, we are suddenly confronted with what we tried so hard to hide and bury away.

You can leave your job but if you have a negative outlook towards work, this will follow you. Until you change your outlook and face the root cause of your discontentment, professional happiness will elude you.

Our work problems don’t only affect our work life, they bleed over and impact our whole being. When I was burnt out in the window cleaning business, I felt weary and empty as a person. Everything felt like a monumental effort. My work problem impacted my relationships, who I was as a husband and father. It impacted my whole life. In changing careers, I didn’t need to find a new professional path, but to heal and rediscover my whole self.

When you address the root cause of your career discontentment, the best jobs for career change in your life will become clear and apparent. The money and opportunities will follow. When you are at your best, the powerful performer version of you, you become tuned in to seeing opportunities. The best jobs for career change doesn’t exist in finding the right job title, but in healing the way we look at work.