Your 20s are supposed to be a bedrock for career development, where you take the skills learned in college and finetune them through 60 hour workweeks - right? However, your college major usually doesn’t map 1:1 (or even at all) to the real-world job that pays your rent and keeps you employed. Many new grads eventually come to the realization that their “official” career path isn’t as fulfilling or stimulating as their department brochure at university advertised. For example, accounting isn’t a glamorous role of catching multi-million dollar fraud, and software engineering isn’t creating new Facebook Messenger cat stickers all day. Maybe you found another industry or career post-college or want to dip your toes in the entrepreneurial route.

Whatever the case, switching careers in your 20s is more common than you think - and I’m defining “switching careers'' as moving to another industry or role different to what your degree implies. It’s the law school student who’s itching to do graphic design or the medical researcher who wants to start researching the cryptoeconomics of Ethereum. “Career-cross training” is becoming an increasingly valuable skill to employers, and if the pandemic has shown us anything, being adaptable is essential. Before switching careers though, it’s important to consider a variety of factors and talk it over with friends, family, partners, subreddits, etc.

Additional education and skill sets required

First, you need to consider the additional education or skill set requirements of the new role - will you need to earn another degree or certificate to be qualified? Or are a few Udemy courses enough to bring you up to speed? In today’s liberated knowledge economy, learning anything from coding to anatomy is practically free through YouTube and online courses. The main consideration is whether potential employers value formal education, such as in the medical or financial fields.

Long term growth & opportunities in your new position

What’s the long range outlook and opportunities for advancement in the new position? Stagnation and obsolete jobs due to technology are real threats, so it’s important to have a long-term strategy. I recommend searching the Bureau of Labor Statistics handbook and perusing the “Jobs Outlook 2019-2029” stat; a positive percentage means that job is expected to grow in the next ten years! You definitely don’t want to choose an ailing or outdated industry that will be replaced by Tesla robots by 2025. I’d also consider the opportunities for promotion and new skills - will this career switch bring you closer to a VP or C-suite role or allow for even modest upward movement?

Gathering opinions and relevant experience

Before jumping off the professional deep end, do your research on what your new opportunity entails. Grind on subreddits or have coffee chats with people actually working in your preferred career/industry. Get their first-hand opinions and imagine yourself spending a day in their shoes (even better, schedule a job shadow or short internship to get a feel for the role). 

This Glassdoor article has robust research advice that’s easy to implement and use for decision making. If you’re unable to do a job shadow or internship, I’d recommend at least completing a project in the new field to see if you like it - whether that’s coding a personal website or developing a science lesson plan for a niece or nephew, it’s important to demonstrate and validate your interest before making the plunge.

What’s your inherent ‘why?’ for switching?

Reflection time! Journaling is your best friend for weighing major life decisions, career change included. There’s a soup of reasons for switching jobs, but figuring out why you want to upend work equilibrium is paramount. In your 20s, it’s hard to separate your internal desires from external pressures like family, a partner, society, salary expectations, etc. If you want to switch careers because you’re genuinely interested in a new field and can envision a positive future, then you’re on the right track. For career journal prompts, I recommend this LinkedIn article to hopefully kickstart your reflections.

Lifestyle expectations

2020 was a rough year, but it also exposed employees the pros and cons of remote work. Workers have more freedom than ever in choosing how to conduct their work lives. This should be a top career consideration going forward - are you looking for a traditional employer who is 100% office-based or a company with flexible work policies? Along with that comes work hour expectations, social obligations (weekly Zoom happy hours or no?) and geographic preferences. 

A career switch should allow for and augment both your short and long term life goals - if marriage and kids are in your future, then opting for a flexible or remote role might be ideal. You can’t be uber picky with your first job out of school, but subsequent roles give you more leverage and experience to choose the lifestyle you want.

Proximity to your dream job

Will switching careers mid-20s get you closer to your dream job? Careers can bounce between industries, countries and job duties, but ultimately, it’s key to focus on the end game. For me, my dream jobs are to be an entrepreneur and author, which are both broad enough to accommodate diverse roles and experiences. However, I wouldn’t go for a zookeeper or nurse anesthesiologist position because they’re several degrees away from my ideal jobs. I envision my career as a roadmap - one with a glitchy compass and boulevards with the street signs missing but there’s still an end destination.

Adjacent synergies in different industries

This consideration is more nebulous but before switching cold turkey, I would think of roles or industries that have adjacent synergies to your current one. This lessens the costs of switching and eases onboarding and friction associated with learning something new. My classic example is switching from a traditional accounting job to anything in cryptocurrencies -  they’re highly synergistic since blockchain is a digital ledger and crypto is a store of value/basic unit of account similar to USD. Burnout can sprout from multiple places, but reframing your existing skills in a new outfit can make all the difference.

What a brilliant time to be in your 20s! Employers value candidates with diverse, kaleidoscopic backgrounds ranging from technical to communication skills. Research suggests that successful individuals tend to change careers more often as well - most public company CEOs have head-scratching resumes (just look at Stewart Butterfield, CEO of Slack). Overall, you have to decide if switching careers in your 20s is the right move for you and your aspirations.