Reflective Essay On Career Change

It was one of the most difficult periods of my life.

On the surface, I had a great job in a well-known company. I 'd done what was expected of me post university. I 'd been promoted several times. I had a mortgage, I was travelling with work and had great prospects ahead of me.

Inside though, I was deeply unfulfilled. I wasn 't enjoying my work, I felt like I wasn 't using my full potential, and I longed to wake up feeling like my work was making a difference – to someone or something.

Yet, I didn 't have a clue what else I could do.

Indeed I 'd struggled on and off for years to figure out a way to change (making, it seemed to me, every career change mistake there was to make), but without making progress.

Eventually, as you 'll read below, I came out the other side. But it wasn 't an easy journey.

These are the lessons I learnt along the way.

What you need to know

If you 're stuck in your career change, there are three main challenges – or paradoxes – that you 're going to come up against.

1. It 's you that wants to make a change, but it 's also you that 's your biggest obstacle

In the depths of my despair about my job, there were signals from all around me that I wasn 't in the right place: I was embarrassed to talk about my work with others at parties; I couldn 't imagine doing my boss 's job (nor the one her boss had); and I was petrified that I 'd reach 60 or 70 and not feel proud of the work I 'd done in my life.

On a day-to-day basis, I just felt numb –