Let’s be honest for a minute at around about your 30’s, you start to get an innate sense that no matter what you do in your role, you have pretty much cemented the course of your life for at least the next 30 years. For many of us, we view our jobs as an integral part of our identity. When people ask us, “What do you do?” they are really asking us for is who we are as a person, as harsh as that may sound. If you have a career, but you have a hobby you enjoy far more, wouldn’t it make more sense to identify as that rather than saying your role is who you are.

In your 30’s, it may seem like it’s too late to completely change your career. It may seem like it’s too late to throw away your skillset and start again, like most graduates would be finding themselves in right now. If you feel like you’re trapped, or bored, or even feeling like a change of scenery then maybe you should consider a complete career change.

Let me preface this buy saying that I for one would be absolutely terrified of doing this, so kudos to those of you brave enough to give this a shot!

We’ve had a few candidates come through that have successfully pulled off the complete career change. They spent months researching, gathered as much information as they could on their new move, and engaged us on finding the right role for them. We found a few common factors between them, which I’d like to share with you below.

To foresee a complete sea change, the first thing you need to understand is how much actual experience you have for your next career path. A good friend of mine was working in I.T. until recently, he decided to try his hand as a fitness instructor. While he may have not had many years under his belt as a fitness instructor, he had trained for many years as a triathlete, so had no issue transitioning into to his new role as an elite fitness instructor. This is what’s known as a soft transition. If you’re doing it already, chances are you know exactly what is needed of you to make the switch. If you’re moving from similar roles in different industries, like account management in X to account management in Y, you might find this much easier to transition into.

A hard transition is where you don’t have this experience behind you, so it becomes much harder to understand the intricacies of building yourself up in a workplace where you are expected to perform. We had an account manager recently make the transition from his role in media to HR at an e-commerce business, and let me tell you that it wasn’t easy. From the first day that he got there, he kept a notebook with all the lessons he learned throughout the day. A year later he is still learning the refinement of his craft, but is more than competent in his role, and overjoyed at the career change.

One thing that often makes the biggest difference in candidates that want to change their career is whether they can adapt their skills to suit a role, or whether they need to be adopted by a company and raised within them. A candidate looking for adoption will often have a harder time finding that first big break into their new career as it becomes a harder sell for the company. A candidate that is looking to adapt their skillset for the next big challenge will generally find a smoother transition into their new role, and find it easier getting the right role.

Ultimately, a complete career change in your 30s won’t be easy. For those of you about to switch, we salute you!