Navigating Career Change

We often hear how people move from one career to another, and with each person there’s a different reason for switching careers. I spoke to some people who have gone through career changes and they all had different things to say. We hope that this article helps you whenever you need to navigate career changes,

Hi, kindly tell us your name or an alias if you’d like to stay anonymous.

L: Hi, I’m L.

Mori: Hi, I’m Mori.

Tofarati: Hi, I’m Tofarati.

What inspired your decision to pursue a career change?

L: Poverty my dear. Poverty. Plus I had been in one state for a while and I hated feeling stagnant.

Mori: I have always hoped to change my career plans from the moment I entered school for the course. I was studying law, I knew it wasn’t for me and it wasn’t even my decision fully. I had intentions of going back to school for something else after five years. Now I am working towards a couple of degrees in social work.

Tofarati: There’s money in tech, so I went from engineering to communications to tech, now I’m back to communications. Tech is not where my heart is though, but money.

Can you share specific skills or experiences from your previous career that you believe are transferable to this new field?

L: Oh yes, I moved from being a freelance copywriter to being a marketer. Copywriting is a core skill in marketing so it felt like expanding my scope.

Mori: Knowing the law. It helps me educate better during advocacy and just feels a lot easier to not get confused because at the end the law is needed in social work.

Tofarati: None, there’s nothing I can transfer from engineering into communications.

How did you prepare for the transition, both personally and professionally?

L: Idk if i prepared. I just woke up and said “I can’t do this anymore, I dey change.”

Mori: ⁠Luckily for me I had the opportunity to work with an agency during NYSC before going to law school. It was such an eye opener and I am honestly so grateful for it. I really didn’t know anything but most of us there were still new and it was a process we all had to go through together. It was harder for me because I had no education beforehand and I made sure to not be part of the legal team. I was technically working and learning.

Tofarati: I didn’t have any time to prepare, it was an on the spur of the moment kind of thing and I went with it. Because, why wait?

What advice do you have for others considering a similar career change?

L: “Do it. You will fail but you will learn from the failure. Failure is your friend, it gives you the opportunity to be better.”

Mori: I always tell people that I meet that life is too long to be doing what you hate or what will never show your full potential. If you have the means, do what you feel is right and don’t second guess yourself and don’t let people discourage you from doing what you want. It’s a hard decision none the less but it will be mostly at peace when it happens.

Tofarati: Do not let your parents influence anything you want to do in life.

How did you leverage your existing network to support your transition?

L: Begging and crying. I’m blessed to have people who already were marketers that I could ask for help in terms of resources.

Mori: I won’t say I have any network from my past career choice because I hadn’t started working at the time I had changed paths. Most of my colleagues just passed their bar exams so I guess I will have to wait a bit.

What resources or tools did you find most helpful in exploring and transitioning to your new career?

L: Google and Coursera helped. I took a fuckton of courses.

Mori: I would advise that you do as many free online courses that you can find. I use Allison university and I find that they have really good courses. Anything pertaining to the course is good enough so you have a fundamental understanding of what you are getting into and it will also look really good on your CV but that’s information we all know.

How has your perspective on success and fulfillment changed since making the career change?

L: The sky is not the limit, it is just the beginning. You can always do more.

Mori: This one is something I am still trying to process. Telling people that I have changed paths from a lawyer to a social worker has always been met with "what's the pay?" "What do they do there?" "All you will be doing is volunteering. Will they ever pay you?" Which is so sad. I genuinely would not like to work because I want to get paid but because I love the job I am doing and that is changing people’s lives and if it means that I get paid less than others just because I want to make someone’s life a little better then so be it. It will be hard with the state of the economy but there is always a price to pay for everything.

Can you share a specific moment or experience that affirmed your decision to change careers?

L: There’s not been a specific moment, just a culmination of moments where I felt affirmed. But one of those is when an event I did marketing for got 1500 attendees.

Mori: I have always believed that I am a people’s person and I have always loved people related courses like psychology so entering that agency and having to work with people everyday while simultaneously going out of the office to participate in advocacy altered the chemicals in my brain completely. It was the answer I needed and no one needed to tell me twice before I started working towards this goal.

What do you enjoy most about your new career, and what aspects do you find most challenging?

L: What I feel challenged about is that everyone seems to have an opinion on Marketing. Everybody and their mother.

Mori: Everything. Sometimes it might be emotionally draining but the smiles and actual improvements from the people have just been so amazing to witness. Informing people about their rights and seeing them come to terms with ways it has been infringed? Helping people get back on their feets? I will do it a million times over. I do have to say that it is tasking, also very disheartening especially in this country where everything doesn’t work. The system does not favor this career, you will be eager to do more but will have no means to. Also the emotional stress that comes with it. One has to be strong to listen to all these stories without breaking down also but it’s all for a good cause.

Thank you so much for sharing your experiences with us and to other young women and people out there. We look forward to your greatness in your different industries.