5 HUGE Screw Ups Career Changers Make

By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter

When I graduated from college, I wanted to be a lawyer. I wanted to become one because I used to watch the old tv show, “Perry Mason,” and was able to figure out the murderer every week for years on end. I also noticed that Mason only took two checks — one was from a little old lady who he saved from a death sentence and she paid him something like $25. The other check he took made his eyes light up when he read it. “Thank you very much,” he proclaimed. That was why I was interested in being a lawyer.

I never spoke to a lawyer about what it was like to be one. I didn’t research the schools where I could get my degree. I wanted to be Raymond Burr in “Perry Mason.”

As I speak to career changers, I find many have their version of my immature reasons for wanting to change to their new profession. One recently told me they were interested because of a movie they saw. Like I said, not very different than my thinking.

So here are a few of the mistakes career changers make when they proclaim their desire to change careers.

1. Like me, you have never spoken with anyone about what it is like to work in their new field. They don’t know what the day-to-day work will be like. They have a romantic notion about what to expect. What to do instead? Like changing…