1. Be prepared for any conversation from the employer – The first and foremost thing that you should do is have a clear picture and overview of what you are doing and what you have done so far in your past employment.  They called in to get a clearer picture of your employment and in this phone conversation; you are suppose to give this piece of information to them.  To do that, make a short or compress list of things that you’ve done out of the resume.  Categorized into logical sections which they can absorb easily.  In this way, you demonstrated that you are sure of what you are doing, giving them the confidence in employing you (or recommending you).
2. Ask for the real employer details and job description – If you are going through a recruitment agency, do feel free to ask for the real employer details.  Likelihood is that they will not reveal to you as they may be afraid that a direct contact be made by you.  However, sometimes, you may be surprised that they do tell you the actual employer details.  Also, what most of us forget is the job description.  Do remember to ask for the job description in the form of email so that you can refer to when you are free.   Why?  Most recruitment agencies will call at office hours and you may feel uneasy to discuss openly and therefore it’s best for them to send you the job description.
3. Can you take blunt comments? – This may be difficult for mid-career changes.   Especially if you are not holding a junior position anymore.  Ego is high and you expect employers to look up on you.  Take note, unless you are those high-paying-everybody-wants-CEO, you can forget about your ego!  Your work experience may not be fully applicable in the employer’s environment and they may make comments (mock) at your experience.  Example, “Are these what you do for the past two years?”, “Is that all?”  Take these comments positively.  The good thing is at least you know what is lacking for you to hold the prospective position.
4. Give the recruitment agencies time – Lastly, this is the final advice that we have.  The recruitment agencies may eagerly want to fill the position.  Why?  Because filling the position means cashing the profit for their company.  However, they still need time to communicate back and forth with the employer and negotiate your baseline package with them.  Therefore, don’t get worked out or disheartened that they never get back to you.  Give them some time and they will get back to you. Because once you passed their first screening, they already have interest in getting you into the employer and want to have a proper closure with you.  Also, if you fail to secure the position, you will still be in their prospective list for other employers too!

1. Are you unhappy because the job is not what you want? – Simple, this is not the job that you truly dreamed off.  End the misery early by finding something you like.  Avoid hanging in this misery for too long!  You will continue to be miserable if you hold on to it.
2. Are you always doing the “dirty” work? – You are always been given tasks that are of low value operational work.  You are not given tasks that are of high value instead you are always assigned to those meaningless jobs…
3. Are you being rejected for all your training proposals? – Whatever training proposals that you made to the boss are always rejected.  What’s worst is your peers are entitled for the course while you stay in the office to clear his plate of work!  Favoritism at its best again?
4. Are you not appreciated by your boss? – Whatever results you delivered is just not up to the boss’es expectation.  They brush you off with insignificant remarks.   They don’t really see the effort you put into your work.
5. Are you lowly paid compared to your peers in the market? – If the salary you are getting is not comparable to what the market is offering, it’s really time to move on.  You can wait for as long as you want, but what you need maybe a fatter salary package to feed your family, pay the mortgage and the car now!
6. Are you always blame for anything and everything? – Whatever things that happened, you are always blamed.  What’s worst is even you have made significant contributions or have been performing positively but is still blamed for minor details at work.  Is your boss finding all avenue to piss you off?  Or is there some short-circuit mechansim in their brain that they need to pinpoint your every mistake?
7. Are you at the losing end of favoritism? – You are always given unfair treatment.  You are not on par with the other colleagues when it comes to welfare and career progression.  You are always not considered for anything important except to work on simple, non-strategic work.  Guess what, you are not being favored by your boss!

If what these are you are experiencing at work, it maybe time to update your resume.  The world is round and there are lots of opportunities up there.  Again, we are always being make believed to be a better worker in office but not many advocate to leave the organisation if you do not like it.  Take this piece of advice as a note and see if it can be planned and applied in your context.

1. You worried that you will not be able to earn as much as you are now – The first and foremost worry that individuals are concerned with.  This is especially true for those seeking to move into sales and trading sector.  This is a practical reason why people are unable to make a career switch.
2. You have a lot of financial commitments – The second concern following the money issue.  This concern gets worse when you have a family or planning to have a family.  Financial commitment includes debts, mortgage, car, your baby, your kid’s education, etc.  Anything that comes out from your bank account.  You’re afraid the monthly cash flow will be severely affected after you changed your job.
3. You are worried with the unknown implicit and explicit benefits of the new organisation – You are unsure if the benefits in the new place are going to be on par or worst from what you are receiving now.  That can be explicit or implicit ones.  Explicit ones are your insurance coverage, health, annual leave and similar types of benefits.  On the other hand, implicit benefits can be; do you have the luxury to work from home?  Does the boss give you full autonomy to your work?  Can you leave on the dot everyday?  Will your weekend and after-office hours be sparred from clearing your mailbox or attending to work-related phone calls?
4. You are worried of the added stress you foresee in the new organisation – You are worried that the additional learning curves you need to be in the organisation, especially for those that is going for a totally different career switch.  You are afraid that you will have nasty colleagues that will be ALWAYS out to get you.
5. You are attached to your current employer either through the organisation as a whole or the people working in it – This applies to individuals that are more on the emotional side.  They can’t bear to leave the organisation as there feelings for it.  They can bear to leave their colleagues as they have developed friendship over the years.  They are emotionally attached to the organisation and people.

Having understood these concerns, it’s not impossible to make a career switch.  To do so, you need to make a calculated risk.  You can take step-by-step towards your switching your career instead of a big-bang one time approach. Of course, there are people who do a big-bang approach and works for them.  Our advice to you if you want to change your career, think of these concerns and find ways to reduce or workaround it.  In this way, you will feel more comfortable and confident with your decision!