What is a Side-stepper?
Here at The Training Room, we help people all over the country become qualified and support them to find work in their new career. Though open to anybody, we do focus on
6 key social groups: side-steppers, upskillers, education leavers, working mums, job seekers and ex-military.
A side-stepper is someone who is thinking of changing their career, whether they’ve only just started or been in an industry for 30 years. It is someone who may feel lethargic and find their work uninspiring, unsuited to them and, above all, not what they want to spend their life doing.
Why Change Career?
Did you know that over one-in-three people are unhappy at work? Or that the typical working person in the UK thinks about a career change 10 times each year? There are many reasons as to why someone may seek a
career change.
Here are some of the reasons that we feel may be more common:
- You want to earn more money. A simple reason, but one that most of us have at some point in time.
- You need a new challenge. Once enjoyed your work, but now feeling a little drained? You’re probably suffering from a little occupational burnout – a switch in career can help reinvigorate your energy and passion.
- Haven’t progressed as far as you’d hoped? Feel like you’ve tried your hardest but don’t seem to be progressing? It may boil down to the career path not being suited to your skills; skills which may be transferable to another career.
- Change of scenery. After years of freelance work, you may want to sit in a real, physical office with real, physical people. Conversely, spending hours a day meeting clients until the late hours would have been great fun in your 20s – but with a family now you may look for something a little more structured.
- You simply don’t like the work you do. You’ve tried and tried but just can’t make yourself put in 100% - perhaps this is down to a difference in values or you just find it boring.
Whatever your reason, it’s important to ensure that it is the career that you have fallen out of love with and not just the job or company you are in.
How to Change Careers
When making a job change to something completely (or slightly) alien to your current skillset and experience, it’s a pretty daunting task.
Where do you start? Who do you talk to? How can you gain the necessary skills to changing career?
If you don’t already have a new career path in mind, it could help to undertake an online job matching test. There are plenty of options online and could give you a worthwhile insight into the type of industry, company and role your personality, skills and desires are suited to.
There’s a good chance that you may already have a concrete idea on what career you want to switch to. If afforded the luxury, one of the best ways to find out if the career is really suited to you is to have contacts already within that sector. With luck, you may be able to spend a day or two shadowing them or, even better, land an interview or role through them.
The most effective way to jump into a new career would be to retrain in the desired field. There are thousands of courses out there that you can take to learn and earn qualifications to enhance your employability. Some training providers will offer a
career support service, dedicated to preparing you and landing you interviews with companies looking for roles within your new field.
Types of Career to Consider
If you’re reading this blog with no idea on which direction you want to take next and need a little inspiration, here’s a small sample of some of our favourite occupations that you can retrain in:
Remember, it doesn’t matter if you’re looking for a career change at 30, career change at 40 or career change at 50 – you decide your future.
Feel like you’re ready to learn a little more? Take a look at what The Training Room can offer.
Find out more here