mid life career change

That slight droop of your shoulders on Sunday night when you think about sloping into work Monday morning.

The dread sinking over you like a soggy blanket about that horrible to-do list.

Are you losing the joy or contentment over your work that you used to have?

You might be getting bored at work or not feeling challenged enough.

One minute, you feel stimulated, motivated and get on with the job asked of you, the next, you don’t.

But how do you know if it’s just a phase, a little change to your job, or if you actually need a whole new career?

So you leave it for a while, try to be positive and get on with things.

Then, months down the line, you find yourself lagging, never having enough energy and finding yourself swearing in your head at Rita in finance for her constant whinging.

But, how do you know if you just need a new challenge in your job or if you need a whole new career change?

Here are some sure-fire signs to know if you need a career change:

Sign 1 — Feeling of dread

No matter how much you like your job, there will always be tasks you don’t look forward to. Tasks you don’t prefer to do — that’s normal. When I worked in housing, I hated the mundane task of completing a health and safety check, but I knew it needed to be done.

But this feeling of dread takes another level — it’s every day, glaring and staring you in the face.

It starts Sunday afternoon at the thought of Monday.

Then Monday morning at the thought of leaving the house.

Having to face the colleague constantly on your case because that report is overdue.

Sign 2 — You have the stares

You stare at the screen blankly before sending an email.

Glaze over in team meetings.

Or notice the frown lines on your colleague, Henry’s face, in a team meeting and how he could really do with a nose trim more than the impending deadline he’s banging on about.

Glazing over is not just a sign you’re tired. It can come from a deep feeling of dissatisfaction and discontent that what you do isn’t interesting to you anymore.

Sign 3 — Excessive procrastination

You spend time secretly looking at job sites on your phone during working hours.

You find yourself wanting to sneak off to the bathroom more or look for a reason to get up rather than do that task.

If you have a job where you don’t have your phone on you, do you keep reading through company news on the intranet in the hope it’s more interesting than the task you have to work on.

Sign 4 — Pressure over joy

Instead of feeling excited about a new project, you feel pressure at the thought of more work!

It used to be enough that you didn’t earn as much as you would like to, since the job gave you so much satisfaction that it made it worth it. But…it just doesn’t seem to be enough now.

These feelings don’t just happen overnight – they build up over a prolonged period of time. That’s why recognising that you are discontent in your job isn’’t always immediate.

So, now you recognise some signs, what are the next steps to take?

Ask yourself these questions –

What is it about your job that makes you stress/worried or give that deep sigh before you even get to work? How often are you feeling like this? Is it nearly every day?

Think about if this is the job you still enjoy doing. Is it what you wanted to do when you left school, is it the different to the job you wanted?

Identify what is bugging you about the job. There are some things that, if you change them, they would make you feel better about the job again.

Ask yourself if you took away the stressful parts of the job, would you still enjoy the work itself?

Do you like the employer you work for? You may not need to change industry, but you might want to change the type of company you work for.