4 Steps to Navigate a Successful Career Change as a Young Professional

Few things feel quite so intimidating as starting over. The idea of losing all progress you’ve made and going back to square one hits like a gut punch, and when it comes to career changes, that’s enough to dissuade many people from taking the leap.

If you have the urge to make a pivot and embark on a fresh path in your professional journey, don’t let the “what ifs” hold you back from what could be. Especially for those who are still early in their careers, there is plenty of opportunity to spearhead a significant shift in direction, and it doesn’t necessarily mean starting from scratch.

“Young professionals have a slight luxury to make riskier decisions,” explains Chloe Garland in her LinkedIn Learning course, Effective Career Change Strategies for Young Professionals. Chloe’s company, Quarter-Life, focuses specifically on helping people in their 20s and 30s navigate the early stages of their careers. But while she encourages a mindset of openness to change, that doesn’t mean these types of attempted transitions are without challenges or pitfalls — especially in a competitive job market.

“To be a successful 21st-century career changer,” says Chloe, “we need to break the rules more and use more creative methodologies to stand out.” Here are four steps that she recommends as you survey the landscape, size up your opportunities, and take action.

Step 1: Identify what you want

When considering a switch, start by taking the time to reflect deeply on your values, priorities, and strengths. You want to be confident that your next move aligns with who you are and what matters most to you, decreasing the chances you’ll end up back in the same situation again. Impulsive decisions that lead to repeated changes in direction can result in what Chloe calls “career Whack-a-Mole.” 

“Before making a change,” she says, “it’s essential that you are making that change for the right reasons and pivoting into a career that is aligned with who you are. You do not want to put in all this effort just to end up in the wrong thing again. It’s important to remember that it’s never going to be perfect. There will always be moles to whack. You just have to know what your priorities are so that you know what you’re willing to compromise.”

When deciding what you’d like to pursue next, Chloe suggests zeroing in on five things: your ideal lifestyle, your purpose, your values, your strengths, and your interests.

• Identify your ideal lifestyle: Determine your non-negotiables — like salary, location, and flexibility — so you can filter job opportunities through those lenses and avoid roles that don’t truly support your well-being.
• Identify your purpose: Reflect on meaningful life experiences and emotional drivers, then identify recurring themes and use them to guide your career toward creating a legacy you’re proud of.
• Identify your values: Determine what you care about in a job and your life. This can feel like a big ask, but as Chloe says, “Your values don’t have to mean anything to anyone but you, and language doesn’t do a particularly good job at describing something as multi-dimensional as a human value, so you just want to find something that points to it as best you can.”
• Identify your strengths: Discover these through reflection, past experiences, and feedback from others to match up with the types of roles where you’ll thrive and feel energized, rather than just trying to impress employers with generic buzzwords.
• Identify your interests: Getting in touch with your natural curiosities can reveal the industries and careers that fit most authentically with what fulfills you.
  

Step 2: Start exploring and testing

Experimentation can provide the means to test-drive your career change ideas, much like taking a car for a spin at the dealership. Chloe recommends listing all your past and present job interests — no matter how vague or unrealistic — and then using free association, mind mapping, and creative combinations of your strengths and interests to uncover exciting new possibilities.

Don’t feel obligated to take this journey alone. Tapping into your personal network and using AI tools can be tremendously helpful. “It’s highly unlikely that you’ll look at a job idea on a piece of paper and get an aha moment,” Chloe says.

One creative technique she shares is leveraging a “career army.” Here’s how it works: send an email to 10 people in your life asking them to give career suggestions based on what they know about you. You can find a template for writing this email in the exercise files of her course. Additionally, you can build out your list of ideas by giving a generative AI tool like ChatGPT or Copilot information about yourself and ask for career suggestions, and then see what kind of inspiration these combined approaches bring forth.

As you weigh opportunities elsewhere (or even in a different function at your current company), you can also start networking internally and building flexible skills in your current role. “Look for ways to get the experience you want in the career you want while maintaining your current, stable situation,” says career strategist Stacey Gordon in her course, Making a Career Change.

Step 3: Lay the groundwork to make your move

Those flexible or transferable skills mentioned above can be a key asset in making your case for a new role where you may lack practical experience. Transferable skills include both hard and soft skills that are applicable to multiple jobs and industries, and they will be powerful in crafting your career change narrative.

“Transferable skills can trump relevant experience any day of the week,” says Jodi Glickman in Leveraging Your Transferable Skills to Drive Your Career. “You bring drive, ambition, curiosity, intellect, and vision to the new role. When I got hired on Wall Street, I was told that I wasn’t hired because I would be a great junior associate. I was hired because they knew I’d be a great managing director. They saw leadership potential in me.”

When positioning your transferable skills for a role or industry, Chloe recommends developing personal anecdotes and specific examples to illustrate how you’ve put these skills to use in the past and how you might apply them in the future. “The key is then to practice,” she says. “You can record yourself or talk it through with someone you know so that your delivery is as fluent as it possibly can be, and then you can feel confident and empowered when you deliver it.”

Step 4: Step into your career change

With your groundwork laid, it’s time to push forth and seize your next opportunity. Don’t feel constrained to the traditional methods and conventions of job-hunting. “You have to get creative and break the rules,” Chloe says. 

She has some tips to help gain an edge over those who might be simply sending in a resume and hoping for the best:

• Update your resume, LinkedIn profile, and personal website to highlight transferable skills, relevant experience, and your passion for the new field.
• Build genuine relationships with industry insiders to learn which skills matter and make valuable connections.
• Activate your existing network and reach out to those who can offer insights or introductions.
• Gain hands-on experience through volunteering, side projects, internships, or building a personal brand online.
  

The biggest obstacles to career change are often internal, Chloe says. Fear, doubt, and procrastination are to be expected at times. Staying grounded in your “why,” reframing rejection, and seeking support or accountability can help you push through resistance and keep moving forward.

If you’re looking for more helpful and expert-sourced information on changing careers, be sure to check out the full course, Effective Career Change Strategies for Young Professionals. And remember, the biggest risk isn’t changing careers — it’s staying stuck in the wrong one.