Having a dream career early is hard. There is so much pressure to land your dream job so soon. Over time dreams change and so do your career choices. Starting a career at 21 is a good idea and a good source of income for getting your life together. By 25, I decided it wasn't the career for me. Soon I will be embarking on another job search journey to find happiness and a job that will better satisfy my wants and needs.
1. You are the new guy when you start.
Being the new guy sucks because people don’t look to you as a team but look down on you. The new guy doesn’t get as much respect and people are always trying to assess their worth to the company. The new guy has to try harder to fit in and prove their self-worth than most of the others on the team. After a while the newness fades and work becomes boring and adventureless or too much drama.
2. Getting your dream job so early means you are probably younger than many people you work with.
It is harder to relate to your coworkers because you are at a different spot in your life than those that are significantly older than you. They may have kids, an ex-husband and/or a current husband. I don’t know anything about all of that, but I have a cute dog that I treat as my kin. You still probably won’t want to have dog play dates.
3. You may face some questions and backlash when deciding to change careers.
When you decide to move to a different career path because you are about to graduate college, people think you can’t do any better than where you are now when it comes to benefits, 401K, health insurance, life insurance and a steady income. Older people think that the other jobs are not available to you. Some of them are probably afraid because they are too scared to move jobs to lose their job security. Newsflash, I am a millennial risk taker and want to try new things to expand my life experiences including jobs. I want something that will make me happy.
4. Switching careers means a whole new chapter in life.
You graduate college and decide you want to switch career paths because you are marketable in a new skill. You decide you want a new life, and a new life includes moving far away from everything you know about the cold Midwest to the South with warmer weather (and nicer people) with a lower cost of living. A new life means a better apartment more suitable for an adult rather than a college kid. It means getting more involved in a community and transitioning to find your place in a world new to you. It means exploring and seeing everything beneficial the new place has to offer you and your dog. It means working for someone else with a completely different way of doing things and finding ways to make your skills blend with the new company.
After four years of one career journey I can happily say that my first career is coming to an end soon. My new life in a new location is only a few short months away. Despite what anyone tells you about the job field, if you are qualified follow your heart and dreams and take chances. Staying in a life you don't want because of familiarity is boring and won't make you as happy as you deserve. I am willing to risk being the new guy all over again to see a change that can lead to my success.
