RISE IN ITCH TO SWITCH CAREER
You’re not alone in doing some blue-sky thinking. Melanie Burgess reports
MAKING a career change in 2019 is on the cards for almost half of Australia’s workers, as about two in five regret their choice of occupation.
A Twitter poll of more than 2200 people by job site SEEK reveals 47 per cent intend to move “into a completely new industry or role” in the next 12 months.
Whether or not they all follow through, Hender Consulting executive consultant Justin Hinora says he is not surprised the figure is so high as there is often a spike in job market activity at the start of the year.
“Once people have survived the end of the year and the festive season, they can often think ‘I don’t want to do this again this year’ and they start exploring other opportunities,” he says.
Another Twitter poll by SEEK reveals 42 per cent of workers regret their choice of career.
Hinora says in general, people are changing roles more frequently than in the past as “the nature of the economy has changed” and “different industries have evolved”.
It is no surprise, for example, when a worker in traditional manufacturing changes career as the sector is in decline.
Hinora says workers who change job and industry too often, however, can do themselves a disservice.
“There is nothing wrong with someone who has been with the same organisation for 20 years because they may have held seven different jobs there,” he says.
“The person who has chopped and changed can sometimes be seen as a negative, but it comes down to the frequency of that change.”
Unless completing project-based work, changing employer every 12 or 18 months can be perceived as “flighty”.
Gartner human resources adviser Robin Boomer says their research shows typically only 15 or 16 per cent of Australian workers have “low intent” to stay with their employer, and junior employees are the most likely to want to leave.
In the last quarter, however, workers aged 30 to 49 had overtaken juniors to report the lowest intent to stay.
“There is a tendency, when there are low levels of unemployment, for there to be more job switching,” he says. “It’s a way to increase salary levels or get more exposure or build out their portfolio and there is high confidence from employees that they can easily get another job so they engage in more (passive and active job search).”
Boomer recommends people considering a significant career change to first weigh up the attributes of work that matter most to them.
“(Ask yourself) ‘What am I currently getting in terms of fulfilment at my current role and what do I expect from other opportunities?’,” he says. “It starts with job interest alignment then, depending where you are in your career, ‘what development opportunities does this new role present for me and is that important?’.”