What if the career you’ve worked towards is no longer what you want?

If you stayed in this career for the next 10 years, how would you feel?

If you’ve ever felt existential about your career and what’s next, you’re definitely not alone. Whether it’s spurred on by a bad day, feeling bored or a difficult boss, career pivots are fairly common. In fact, research shows that the average adult will change careers five to seven times in their lifetime.

That’s not to say it’s an easy decision. Realising, after spending years studying at university or time building up a career in a certain industry, that you’re no longer passionate about it often drums up all kinds of existential crises.

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Building a career is often framed as a linear pathway, and it can be scary to feel like you’re taking a step back or starting from scratch. But if you no longer love what you do, chances are that no matter how you reframe it, you’ll still be unhappy.

It’s a dilemma careers coach Christina Storey often sees play out. “The cost people rarely factor in is the cost of staying,” she says. “Another five to ten years in a career that doesn’t fit is a much higher price than a temporary step down in title or salary.”

Is it the work or the workplace?

In some cases, feeling frustrated with your job can be a sign that you’ve outgrown the company and its culture, or that you need a change of environment to reignite your love for the work. Other times, it’s not the setting that matters.

“I always start by separating the work from everything around it: the manager, the culture, the hours, the politics, and the commute,” Christina explains. “Strip those away and look at the work itself. If you could do it somewhere with more autonomy and people you liked, would you want it?”

If the answer is yes, then you likely want a new version of the career you already have. Usually, you can pinpoint a time when the unhappiness started, whether it was due to a restructure or a new manager.

However, if the work itself leaves you feeling flat, no matter where you imagine doing it, that’s a different conversation. In this case, Christina suggests asking yourself a set of questions: When did you last feel proud of what you did? If you stayed in this career for the next 10 years, how would you feel? Are you tired of the work, or tired of who you have to be to do it?

Separating work from identity

When considering a pivot, another factor to take into account is the question of identity. “Your career is something you do, not who you are,” Christina says.

It’s also worth tuning in to how you talk about your relationship to your job. When people are excited and motivated by their career, they typically speak in the present tense, listing what they love about it.

However, in Christina’s experience, when someone is holding onto it out of fear,  it’s often framed through a different lens, whether that’s worrying about what other people think, or worrying that you’ve devoted too many years to walk away.

It’s never too late to restart

Whether you’re in your twenties or decades into building a career, it’s never too late to reevaluate what you want.

“Age and experience aren’t what hold women back from changing careers,” Christina adds. “What typically holds them back is a lack of self-belief and their mindset. That inner voice will stop a woman long before any lack of skill or opportunity does.”

It also pays to remember that even though taking a more junior role or retraining in a new industry can feel like a step backwards, it doesn’t mean you’re starting from zero. “You’re entering a new space with years of experience, judgment, and perspective behind you.”

The first step

When you’re entertaining the idea of making a career change, the natural next step is often a free online quiz – though Christina warns against giving this too much weight.

“Most career quizzes and skills audits work from the outside in. They look at what you can do and match you to roles, which is why many people who take them end up in something that looks different on paper but feels exactly the same,” she explains. “Your skills and experience tell the story of what you can or can’t do, what you’re capable of. They don’t tell you what you want or who you want to be while you’re doing it.”

Instead, her method is to strip it back and start from basics. One exercise she takes her client through is looking back over their entire career history. For each role, they’re encouraged to write down what they loved, what they disliked, what energised them and what drained them.

“When you lay it all out, patterns start to appear,” she says. “You’ll notice the type of work you kept gravitating towards, the environments where you did your best work and the things you’ve been tolerating. Those patterns are rarely about job titles, they’re about who you are.”

For more on career pivots, try this.