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Midlife MOT: wealth, work and wellbeing
Midlife MOT: wealth, work and wellbeing

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4 Changing your job role

Changing into a job role that suits your interests, strengths and skills is an exciting prospect and most people will change jobs at least two or three times during their working life.

The image is a drawing of a work ID badge with a person’s image on it. Either side of the badge there is an arrow, with one pointing in the reverse direction to the other.

However, there are some key questions to consider before making a work change.

Activity 3: Considering a job change

Timing: Allow about 20 minutes.
  • What is it about your present/last job that is making you think of a change? Is it the nature of the job, the people/the organisation you work for? Are there opportunities to adapt within your role or is change unavoidable?
  • What aspects of your job do you want to change? Achieve a better work-life balance, earn more money, have more responsibility? Your answers for Activity 1 ‘Evaluate your work tasks’ [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] should help with this.
  • Are you prepared to invest time and money in study or training, if so, how much?
  • Are you prepared to reduce your salary, if so, how much?
  • Who can support you with your job change, will it impact on anyone else? Consider how you would discuss this?

Discussion

Use the review system at your work to discuss aspects of your job that are important to you and ones you want to change, before making this decision. You may be able to negotiate flexible working hours, a change in environment or using your transferable skills to move into another role in the company. Having a personal development plan (PDP) that details your goals, your preferences and plans for achieving them is helpful. A job change can involve training for a new qualification or topping up existing ones, so make sure you have the finances set aside, investigate if your company offers relevant training or if there are free courses to develop your skills. While you will be able to use your transferable skills in a new job, you may sometimes need to start in a role that has a lower salary, so check if you can afford to do this or plan for it. The changes you make will have an impact on those close to you or dependant on you so ensure you have the support and encouragement from them for when you need it.

For extra advice and guidance, take a look at the Additional resources section.