Life may be short, but it’s never too late to start over with a new career. While such a prospect may seem daunting at first, the reality is that it is possible to switch fields regardless of your age or experience level. And, what’s more, doing so can be an incredibly rewarding experience. Given all that, today we’ll share four key tips professionals should keep in mind if they’re ready to shake things up in a big way. Check them out here:

Review Requirements

Breaking into any new industry for the first time can be a real challenge. As such, it’s a good idea to first determine what you need to do to meet a new job’s requirements. For instance, you may need to head back to school to earn a certain degree or certificate. Or, you may need to develop a certain skill, or even attain a license of some sort. Regardless, make it a point to list all of the potential obstacles that you need to overcome. It’ll help with our next tip as well. 

Create a Roadmap for Success

Let’s say that you want to become a chef at a 5-star restaurant. You have this big career aspiration in mind, but you may not know how to accomplish it. Thankfully, you can set yourself up for success by creating a series of short, medium, and long-term career goals. To use our example, a good short-term goal for an aspiring chef may be to complete a cooking course at a local college. A medium-term goal might be to land a job at a restaurant around town. And a long-term goal might be to establish a signature dish. The more detailed your plans are, the better you’ll be able to execute them. 

Use Your Experience

Every job can be a positive experience if you learn lessons from it and apply your hard-earned knowledge to positive effect in the future. If you’ve worked anywhere over the past 5-10 years, then you’ve managed to learn certain key facts about productivity that will help you advance in your new career too. So don’t discount your prior work experience!

Look After Yourself

Starting a new career can be fraught with setbacks –– especially early on. While dedication to a new profession can be a positive  thing, you need to look after yourself in the meantime as well. On a logistical level, this means that you should ensure you have a steady stream of income and access to quality healthcare at all times. (Even dealing with something as minor as a tailors bunion without health insurance can be both incredibly painful and financially costly.) Picking up a side hustle or two to support yourself may not be ideal, but it could be necessary to reach your ultimate objectives. In order to thrive tomorrow, you have to survive today!