How to Change Your Career Even If You Think It’s Too Late
How I moved from SaaS to freelance writing, with no prior experience or connections in the industry
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Change is scary. Change is that much scarier when there is money attached to it. Anyone looking to give their professional life a do-over faces a real danger of a pay cut, uncertainty, and possible disapproval from those around them.
Yet, career change is one of the most common things we experience. In fact, about 49% of us report to have gone through a major career shift in our lives, and one of the most challenging ones to see through due to self-doubt and fear. This is especially true in 2020 when so many people are facing redundancy or are being put on furlough.
In the past year, I’ve gone through a major career shift from working in a mid-senior role at an EdTech SaaS firm to going full-time freelance with my writing business. While I have a degree in English and French translation and I’ve written all of my life in one way or another, when I started on this path I had zero experience writing for clients or publications. Other than having some writing talent, I had to learn everything else from scratch.
Here I want to share step-by-step how I went about this transition for two main reasons:
- I’ve heard so many people say they’re too old to be starting anew. I’m in my 30s as I’m going through this change and I’ve met many others who’re making the jump at 40 or later. In fact, a survey conducted by Indeed has found that, contrary to public belief that most career changers are in their 20s, the average age of people changing careers is 39. I want to show that it’s never too late to make the jump.
- I wish I had made this transition earlier, but the self-doubt was so crippling that I only took action when staying in the status quo was physically unbearable. Last year, I hired a life coach just to work through some of the anxiety, unrest, and sleeplessness I was feeling at the time. It was almost as if my body was pushing me to finally make the move. I hope others don’t have to wait that long and can start their transformation earlier.
This guide is designed to work for people with families as well as people who…
