Source: www.ellecanada.com
We’re taught to spend our years in school thinking about what job we’ll eventually take on in adulthood. But sometimes the career that we ultimately decide to pursue doesn’t feel like a good fit once we actually enter the workforce. “I worked so hard in undergrad to get into law school without really thinking about what I wanted in my life or why I wanted [it], and by the time I got [there], I was pretty burnt out,” says 30-year-old Henna Choi, who made headlines last year for working (briefly) as a barista after leaving her corporate-law job. “But more than that, I just didn’t know who I was, and it really impacted my mental health.”
Choi had started posting videos on TikTok about her life as a lawyer in Toronto during the pandemic, and one—about the “realistic morning routine of a lawyer who is depressed AF”—went viral in April 2022, garnering more than 10 million views. “I was posting pretty much every single day, just being really open about the things I was going through as a young professional with mental-health issues, and I think it really resonated with a lot of people,” she says. “It got to a point where I realized that I felt so much more myself doing this than the law stuff.” So when her firm began restructuring a few months later, she decided to take a break from lawyering to explore her options. “I wanted to take some time to figure out what makes me happy and potentially choose a career path that fits me better,” says Choi, who now works as a content creator.
Choi’s shift away from law may have made the international-news cycle, but career pivots like hers are far from uncommon. More than one in three Canadians have changed careers at some point, according to an Indeed Canada survey conducted just before the pandemic. In fact, many of your friends and colleagues may be looking for something new: A recent report by recruitment firm Robert Half Canada found that 50 percent of Canadian professionals are currently looking—or plan to start looking—for a new position.
While it’s easy to contemplate a big change, taking the leap and actualizing a pivot is much harder, especially if you’re feeling uncertain about a new path or have to balance financial and other obligations. There can be a lot to consider—and a lot to do—before you feel ready to make that shift. Here’s what you should know from women who have successfully made a move or two.
Listen to Your Gut
Choi suffered a ministroke, or a transient ischemic attack, during law school and experienced regular migraines and stomach problems once she was working. After leaving her law job, she not only felt happier but found that her physical health improved too. “When I started posting videos and enjoying my life, I had more of a reason to wake up every day and be excited for things, and that really helped alleviate my physical symptoms,” she says.
Even when the signs are not as obvious, paying close attention to your instincts and feelings around work can help you recognize when it’s time for a change. Connie Lo, co-founder of Three Ships, a Toronto-based skincare brand, studied commerce at Queen’s University and worked in accounting for just eight months before realizing that it wasn’t the right career for her. “I’m just someone who loves talking to people; I love relationship-building and being creative,” she says. “And [since I’m] someone who’s super extroverted, [my job] was not a good fit.” She quickly pivoted into a role in marketing and sales, which turned out to be much better for her.
Consider Your Passions
If you know you want to do something different but aren’t sure what to pursue—or how your existing skill set and experience could translate—start with your long-time interests. “Think about what you like to do in your free time or when you’re procrastinating, because I think that’s a really good indication of what you are meant to do or at least what you would be really good at,” says Lo, who co-founded her skincare start-up while working full-time, making a second pivot in her mid-20s.
Despite being content with her marketing job, Lo had long thought about entrepreneurship and following in her father’s footsteps (he’d carved his own path in the cookware industry), so the decision to work on Three Ships when she met her future business partner was an easy one. “I just felt so deeply in my gut that this was what I was meant to do, because I’ve been into natural skincare since I was 10 years old, when I would make my own face masks from bananas and oats,” she says. “I always wanted to be an entrepreneur, but I didn’t want to make the leap unless I knew it was [for] something I was passionate about.”
For magazine editor turned New York Times Best Seller novelist Carley Fortune, who loved writing fiction as a child, her second career started with the simple desire to write a book. She had been feeling frustrated at her job and wanted to be more empowered when it came to her work. “I [had] spent my entire adulthood giving all my ideas and all my creativity
to my employers,” says Fortune. “And at that moment, in the summer of 2020, it felt very important to take back my creativity.”
She finished the manuscript for what would become her first hit romance novel, Every Summer After, in four months and found a new career path along the way. “When I started writing the book and was maybe 10,000 or 12,000 words in, I really felt that I had discovered what I was meant to be doing,” says Fortune. “My goal was definitely not to write a great novel; it was just to do the thing. And doing the thing was so fulfilling. I think that’s really what it’s about: finding a way to carve out time for yourself and do something you love—and maybe discover that you are really good at the thing you love and can make a bit of money with it.”
Start Slow—If You Want
If you’re currently unhappy at work, the idea of quitting and jumping into a shiny new career may feel exhilarating, but there are benefits to taking things slow too. Even once she realized how much she loved book writing, Fortune didn’t leave her media job to do it full-time until many months after she had found an agent and signed a two-book deal. “I did a lot of number crunching, trying to figure out what kind of runway I would need financially to quit my job,” she says.
Similarly, Lo balanced her work with Three Ships and an account-management job for two years before transitioning to being a founder full-time in 2018. Lo and her co-founder wanted to make sure their products had a place in the market before leaving their day jobs, in part because “then you’re not making decisions out of desperation for money,” she says. “We knew when we went full-time that we had a business that was operating.”
Don’t Stress About Timelines
Whether you embrace a slower transition or opt for a dramatic break, the changes you seek may not happen overnight—and career progressions are rarely linear. Choi, for example, now has more than 500,000 followers on TikTok and makes a living from content creation, but she’s not quite done exploring different career possibilities. “The content stuff is really fun,
and I enjoy it and see myself doing it for a long time, but I’m also now thinking about doing other things,” she says.
What a successful pivot looks like—and how it happens—will be different for everyone. The key is to not fall prey to the sunk-cost fallacy, where you hesitate to make necessary changes because of the time or money you’ve already invested in following a certain path. “When I was 22 and thinking of switching from accounting to marketing and sales, I was like, ‘Man, I’ve already invested eight months into this career, and if I start over, I’m going to be eight months behind everyone else,’” recalls Lo. “Then I realized, ‘If I make the leap now, I could potentially be two years ahead of a different version of Connie that decided to stay in accounting and was too risk-averse.’”
A big career change can feel scary, but leaving your not-quite-right job to pursue a new passion can also lead to great results. Remember that Indeed Canada survey about career changers? It also found that 87 percent of those who had switched careers said they were happier since they’d done it. With that in mind, the hardest step may be just getting started. “If you’re wanting to make a pivot, you have to work toward that in whatever way [makes the most sense for you]—you have to step forward,” says Fortune. “There’s a lot of dreaming about different lives, but you have to kind of start taking those steps toward it in order to make it happen.”
