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10 Steps to Landing Your Dream Career In 10 Months
My story starts where my first career ends. As a clinician, if you had told me a few years ago that I would be a Project Manager working at Amazon Web Services (AWS) in Seattle, I would have called you insane.
When I began my career transition, I was an occupational therapist (OT) working in a hospital. I wish I could say that there was a point in my first career where I felt fulfilled, but I would just be lying to you. I was bored, stagnant, and feeling suffocated by my hyper-specific healthcare degree. In college, I always knew OT wasn’t a perfect fit, but I figured the feeling would dissipate once I was in the workforce. It didn’t. In fact, my career dissatisfaction became so intense I fell into a depression.
One morning I woke up and decided I wanted to be an active participant in my life again. While riding the bus to the hospital in my purple scrubs, I googled “alternative careers for occupational therapists”. What I found in my google search wasn’t groundbreaking that day, but the act of taking that first step was a catalyst for my change. It was the start of my long journey to finding happiness, and ultimately, immense personal growth.
Step 1: Acknowledge your job dissatisfaction and forgive yourself
Turning a blind eye to your job unhappiness will only cause it to manifest in other areas of your life. Don’t ever let your job, or career impact your wellbeing, it is not worth it. Instead, acknowledge your lack of happiness and all of the reasons or decisions that led you there, and let it go.
When I first came to the realization that I had made a horrible career decision, I blamed myself. Why didn’t I change course sooner? I began using negative self-talk when I actually needed positive affirmations to get unstuck. In retrospect, if I had used positive self-talk from the start, I would have spared myself several months of brooding. Once I forgave myself, my self-talk changed: I didn’t change my career in college because I was still figuring myself out. That’s normal. It’s not too late to change my career.
You cannot change the past, so why waste one more second of your future thinking about it? Put down the Ben & Jerry’s, cancel the pity party, and get your…
