How To Change Careers Without Starting Over
Wondering how to change careers without starting over?
Are you concerned that all the time and energy you’ve spent building your current career will be wasted? That you’ll have to start over at the bottom—with the pay cut to match? That it’s going to take a ton of time to prove yourself?
I get it. And same.
These questions kept me from pursuing careers in advertising, interior design, graphic design, writing, therapy…plus a bunch of other paths I was too afraid to seriously consider.
Even once I committed to being a career coach, I struggled with what it meant to be a “new” coach. Would people take me seriously? Would I have to charge “newbie” prices?
Sound familiar?
The fear of starting over is just that: an incorrect assumption rooted in fear.
I invite you to let go of that assumption now.
Because you can totally change careers without starting over. And you can change careers without taking a pay cut.
In fact, I wouldn’t want you do it any other way.
Challenge Your Limiting Beliefs About Career Change
To change careers without starting over, you’ll need to challenge limiting beliefs like the ones above.
Start by practicing these career change truths:
You can change careers without taking a pay cut.
Everything is transferrable: You bring the full benefit of your strengths, experience, and knowledge to every new thing.
Even your “gaps” are a BENEFIT: there’s VALUE in the beginner’s mindset.
Starting something new is NOT the same as starting over.
Let’s look at some practical steps to reinforce these beliefs and get yourself on the path to a new career.
Stop Looking At Job Postings
One of the best ways to prove to yourself that you can change careers without starting over is to stop. looking. at. job. postings.
OF COURSE they’re going to make you feel insecure, unqualified, undereducated, and increasingly not enough with every bullet point.
OF COURSE they’re going to make you discount your 10 years doing x because the job description says you need 2 years doing y.
Aside from the fact that job postings represent a fraction of the jobs that are actually available…
Most job descriptions are a wish list, not what an applicant actually needs to be successful.
Not to mention the implicit biases regarding education, background, and life experience that suggest that there’s a single candidate profile that you must rigidly fit to be successful.
It makes my brain bleed to think of the talented people getting screened out—and screening themselves out—because of this.
Don’t let sloppy, unrealistic job descriptions convince you that you’re not qualified to move into a new space at the same level or above.
It’s through these conversations that you’re going be able to break free from a meaningless list of qualifications and show them why you’re the person they’ve been waiting for.
Let’s talk about how.
Tell the Story and Connect the Dots
The fear of starting over tends to loom largest when 1) you’ve been on the same career path for a long time, or 2) you feel like you’ve already started over a bunch.
But you just have to tell the story and connect the dots.
Show people how you’re the exact right person to achieve the outcome they want; and how your unique career steps led you here.
A trick I like to use with my clients is zooming wayyyyyy out. When you look across your work history/projects/body of work, what stories and themes emerge?
Are you the person everyone asks for advice navigating office politics?
Are you known for your ability to spot what would take a design to the next level?
Are you able to take a complex problem and break it down into simple steps?
A client and I were recently looking at her work history.
She was concerned about having so many seemingly disparate roles over the years.
But she noticed a BIG pattern.
She was the person who came in to "fix teams" that were undervalued, fragmented, and underperforming.
She’d zero in on the root cause, build a high-performing team, and better align the team’s agenda with key stakeholders’ business goals.
It was kinda her thing.
And it’s what led her to be able to position herself for a role in a completely different area of her company.
To change careers without starting over, you just have to connect the dots between the value you offer and the value others are looking for.
“But Caroline, what if I'm moving to a totally different career?”
Too many people get caught up in the minutiae and specifics of their role, industry, etc.—which is challenging to translate to an outside party anyway.
That’s the wrong focus.
Because you’re focused on the GAP—justifying a move from Law to the Entertainment industry. Or project delivery to strategy. Or event planning to design. Which really doesn’t matter and is the wrong energy.
Instead, focus on YOU and your unique brand of doing things.
Even if you're changing careers to something completely different, your strengths, perspective, values, how you lead, and what sets you apart are totally transferrable—and likely give you a unique point of view and/or skill set that others in the new field might not have.
Everything is transferrable. Because you’re you, wherever you go. And that’s valuable. Especially if it sets you apart from the crowd.
Let’s Talk About Pay
If you think a career change means a huge pay cut, OF COURSE you’re not going to believe you can change careers without starting over. Who would?
You don’t have to accept any job that pays less than you want.
In fact, it’s a recipe for stagnation and resentment.
So how do you keep your income at or above your current amount?
It starts with what we just talked about—owning your experience and coming in at the right level.
You don’t hear about senior executives “starting over” when they jump to a new endeavor. In fact, they’re lured in by giant windfalls because of their “success” steering the ship at their previous gig.
(I’ll save my executive overpayment rant for another post.)
So why are you assuming your years of experience don’t count?
In those years, you’ve come up with creative solutions, delivered results, influenced people, made sales, averted tragedy, built relationships, made cool sh*&…all of these things have VALUE even if you’re applying them differently in a new career.
With few exceptions (e.g., becoming a doctor or moving to a low-paying industry), most people can enter a new industry at a commensurate level.
Even if you’re leaving a traditional role to start a business, there are ways to keep your pay level as you transition.
Repeat after me: you absolutely can change careers without taking a pay cut. In fact, I’d love you to start with the assumption that you’ll make even more.
Successful people use their career moves to increase their sphere of influence, impact, and pay.
Embrace Beginner’s Mindset
This is probably my favorite tool to support the idea that you can change careers without starting over: seeing the perceived “gap” as a strength that sets you apart.
Beginner's Mind (or "Shoshin," as it's called in Zen Buddhism) refers to having an attitude of openness, eagerness, and lack of preconceptions when studying a subject.
While we might put a fancy quote on the wall when we're sitting in the corner office, most of us don't give ourselves the chance to be true beginners.
I get it. There's comfort in having all the answers and knowing how to navigate. The idea of leaving that behind for something new is scary.
Yet every single career changer tells me they want to be challenged and stretched in their careers. Many cite the monotony and boredom of the daily grind. Yet in order to grow, there must be a gap. There must be a new challenge, level, or skill to be acquired.
The gap isn’t a deep, gaping chasm ready to swallow you and your career up.
It's simply a new empty space to be filled in an already thriving garden.
Undue focus on the stuff you don't know (and can quickly learn...and probably should be delegating anyway) undervalues all of the skills and experience you bring to the table Day 1.
It's actually a huge advantage to not be burdened by the assumptions, institutional knowledge, and that's-the-way-we've-always-done-it mentality.
That’s how problems get solved: looking at things through a different lens, asking the simple but powerful questions the experts are too “expert” to ask.
Beginner's mindset is all about embracing the possibilities, challenging assumptions, and seeing with the clear-eyed perspective that only a beginner brings.
Embrace the gap—and position it as the stretch goal you need and the fresh perspective they need. Win-win.
The expert already knows everything there is to know, right? Where's the innovation in that?
Yes, You Can Change Careers Without Starting Over
Career change is not a zero-sum game, where your new career somehow cancels out the old. Each step has led you here.
Remember that the fear of starting over in your career is simply your ancient brain machine protecting you from a charging wooly mammoth.
It’s not real.
Start by practicing awareness of those fearful thoughts.
Reconnect to the purpose and voice deep down that knows you’re capable of so much more.
Connect the dots to illustrate how your exact experience is what’s needed—and do not accept a role or pay that is less than that.
And remember that the gaps are simply a phase to soak up information, ask basic questions, learn the lessons you need to grow, and temporarily be a beginner in order to be great.
I hope you’re starting to see how possible it is for you to change careers without starting over. What career move are you ready to make?
Even if you believe you can change careers without starting over, figuring out how to do it can be daunting.
You just need the roadmap that gives you the confidence, clarity, and concrete steps to get there.
Take the first step and get my free 4-step roadmap: Take Back Your Life and Design a Career with Purpose.
Author Bio:
Before becoming a coach, Caroline worked in management consulting and financial services. She's made it her mission to help people grow, contribute, and get wherever they want to go.
She’s also a tennis fanatic, aspiring Minimalist, FIRE (Financial Independence and Retire Early) enthusiast, and Aloha Spirit seeker 🤙. She loves to share stories from her unconventional life and career focused on freedom, creativity, fun, health, family, and community. If she can do it, you can, too.
The life and career you want is truly possible once you have the roadmap. Take the first step by downloading her free guide.
