Director of Outplacement Australia and QUT alumnus, Gillian Kelly, has built a career helping individuals and organisations navigate change with confidence. In this insightful article, she shares her top tips for approaching a career change—and doing it on your own terms.
Most people reach a point in their careers when they need to make a change. For some, it’s a slight pivot to embrace a new skill or sector, and for others, it's a seismic shift in direction to a completely new career.
Today, careers are constantly evolving. Changing markets and technologies continually reshape industries and skills in demand. The one and only ‘forever career’ no longer fits our world, and the ability to upskill, adapt and evolve is a super skill.
No matter what stage of your career you are in, change can be confronting. Many people feel like leaving a career path means throwing away experience, progress, or learning, but a career shift doesn’t erase your past; it builds on it, and skills and experiences can be repackaged to take us in entirely new directions.
During my career, I’ve seen lawyers leave their glass-front offices for careers outdoors, sports stars shift to the business world, and even graduates, straight from study, make bold pivots away from their original plans to apply their skills in unexpected new fields.
No matter whether you are making a slight shift in trajectory or embracing an entirely new career, here are five tips I share with anyone exploring new directions:
- Just start. The toughest step for many is knowing where to begin. If that’s you, reach out to a career professional to help kick aside that ‘too-hard basket’. They can dismantle that overwhelm and replace it with logical steps and a doable plan.
- Action is excellent, but don’t skip steps. Change is a process. Make sure to go through the full journey. Reflect on what’s important to you, explore options, and research the realities of potential paths. Dig deep to understand the journey you’re about to embark upon.
- Be cautious with AI. AI has brought all sorts of opportunities to make parts of career change easier. It can help with researching career paths, identifying transferable skills, and finding labour market data, but exploration is personal and nuanced. AI doesn’t know you and can be flawed by biases and inaccuracies. Don’t rely on it for life-changing decisions. Instead, do your own reflection and research, using trusted sources like Jobs and Skills Australia, the ABS, university resources, or a qualified career practitioner.
- Forget the idea of the single perfect answer. Don’t hold on to one idea so tightly that you close off other exciting opportunities. It’s easy to get laser-focused on one path, but sometimes, a chance conversation or opportunity can lead us in unexpected directions. Stay open to possibility.
Fill your gaps. When we make a change, we often need to fill gaps to be competitive in the market. These might be skills, experience, credentials, knowledge or even relationships. These are speed bumps, not roadblocks. Look to volunteering, retraining, networking or even lateral moves to remove or minimise these. Don’t forget your support team, including your alums, can be great resources to help with insights and introductions.
One final message - if you feel daunted by change, that’s completely expected. You might be asking yourself questions like:
- Am I making the right move?
- Is the timing right?
- Will organisations take a chance on me?
- What will other people think of my decision?
- Will I regret it later?
Not only is it normal to question, but it’s also essential. It stops us from making mistakes, but don’t let fear get in the way of important transformation. When you know your target role, reframe your story to showcase your relevant transferable skills and value and then share that in your resume, interviews and networking conversations. You dictate your next chapter.
Today, careers are long and few unfold in a straight line. The courage to grow and evolve throughout our career journey is part of the road to a long, happy and meaningful life.
In writing this article, I used OpenAI’s ChatGPT to help explore structure, language, and tone. The insights and final wording reflect my personal experience and perspective, with AI used as a collaborative drafting tool.
Gillian Kelly
QUT degree - Bachelor of Business Management (Marketing), 1991
Have a question for Gillian? Connect with her on LinkedIn.
Author
Zoe is a marketing and communications professional and Alumni Communications Coordinator at QUT. She is also a proud alumnus with a Bachelor of Business (Marketing).