Why Your Experience Matters More Than You Think When You're Changing Careers
Changing careers is a strange experience. One minute you're the person everyone comes to with questions. You know the systems, the language, where to find things and how to solve problems before anyone else has realised there's a problem to solve.
Then you step into something new and, almost overnight, it can feel like all of that confidence disappears.
I've changed careers a couple of times now and every single time my brain has tried to convince me that I was starting from scratch. It turns out my brain is a terrible judge of these things.
Because although the context changed, the experience didn't. The skills didn't disappear. I just couldn't see them yet, and I think this happens to a lot of people.
Particularly people who have spent years building a career in professions like teaching, healthcare, policing, local government or the charity sector.
Careers where your identity becomes closely tied to what you do.
When you leave, it can feel as though you've left your confidence behind too. But I don't actually think confidence is what you've lost. I think you've temporarily lost sight of your evidence.
Career change can make you forget what you already know
One of the things I find fascinating is how quickly we stop giving ourselves credit for everything we've already learnt.
Instead, we become completely focused on everything we haven't.
You start thinking about websites, marketing, networking, pricing, tax returns, and social media.
Suddenly your brain creates a very convincing argument that everyone else knows what they're doing and you're the only one who has somehow wandered into the room by mistake.
I've never found that to be true. What I usually find is someone with years, sometimes decades, of experience solving complicated problems who has accidentally decided none of those skills count anymore because they've changed industries.
They absolutely do.
Why transferable skills are often invisible
I think the reason transferable skills are so difficult to recognise is because they don't feel like skills anymore.
They feel normal. If you've spent fifteen years explaining difficult concepts to people, you don't wake up every morning thinking:
"I'm brilliant at communicating complex ideas."
You simply explain things. If you've managed teams for years, you don't necessarily notice that you're leading conversations, building trust or resolving conflict.
You've done it so often it no longer feels remarkable. The things we become naturally good at are often the things we value least because they don't require much conscious effort anymore.
Which is a shame. Because those are usually the skills other people notice first.
Your job title isn't your value
This is something I wish more people heard before they started thinking about leaving employment.
You are not your job title. You're the person who spent years learning how to think, how to communicate, how to prioritise, how to adapt, how to lead, how to support people, and how to solve problems.
Those things don't disappear when your email signature changes. They come with you. The environment changes, the language changes, the skills remain.
Business is just another environment
I think people often imagine business owners have an entirely different set of abilities from everyone else. Honestly, I don't think that's true.
Running a business absolutely involves learning new technical skills.
I've learnt plenty, and I still learn new things all the time.
But underneath all of those practical skills are things I'd already spent years developing in completely different roles. Curiosity, project management, planning, listening, relationship building, teaching, helping people make sense of complicated situations.
Those skills existed long before my business did. The business simply gave them somewhere different to live.
The mistake I see after career changes
One pattern I notice quite a lot is people trying to learn absolutely everything at once.
It's understandable. When everything feels unfamiliar, it makes sense to believe you need to fill every possible knowledge gap immediately. But I wonder if that's sometimes the wrong place to begin.
Instead of asking:
"What do I need to learn?"
I often ask:
"What have you already spent years learning?"
That question usually changes the conversation completely, because suddenly we're talking about experience instead of deficiency.
Confidence doesn't appear first
I think there's also an assumption that confidence arrives before action.
I've rarely found that to be true. Most of the time confidence catches up afterwards.
Not because we've magically become different people, because we've collected enough evidence to realise we were capable all along.
One of my favourite things to do with clients is help them look backwards, not because we're dwelling on the past, but because the past contains evidence.
Evidence that you've learnt difficult things before, evidence that you've adapted, evidence that you've handled uncertainty, evidence that you've solved problems.
When we forget that evidence, career change feels much scarier than it actually is.
Looking at your experience differently
Something I encourage people to do is write down the situations they've dealt with rather than the jobs they've had.
Instead of writing:
"Teacher."
Write:
Explained complicated ideas, managed competing priorities, built relationships with parents, led classrooms, adapted plans every single day, and supported people under pressure.
Suddenly the list starts looking much more like the description of someone who could run a business, because that's exactly what it is.
Sustainable business starts with recognising what you already have
I don't think building a business is about becoming somebody completely different. It's about recognising the strengths you've already built and learning how to use them in a new context.
Yes, you'll learn new skills. Of course you will. But don't let the things you haven't learnt yet drown out everything you've already spent years becoming good at.
A question I'd leave you with
If you're thinking about changing careers, starting a business or simply wondering whether you're capable of building something of your own, I'd encourage you to spend a little time asking yourself a different question.
Not:
"What don't I know?"
But:
"What have I already spent years quietly becoming good at?"
Because I suspect you've got far more experience than you're currently giving yourself credit for, and recognising that might just be the thing that gives you the confidence to take the next step.
Thinking about what's next?
One of my favourite parts of coaching is helping people recognise the strengths they've accidentally stopped seeing.
If you're navigating a career change, building a business, or trying to work out how your experience fits into the next chapter of your working life, I'd love to help you untangle it.
Whether that's through a First Step session, ongoing coaching or bespoke support, we'll start by looking at what you're already bringing with you, because that's usually far more than you think.
