How To Build A Career When Your Interests keep Changing

You may feel like your interest changing frequently is bad but it can become an advantage if you learn how to manage it strategically. There is only a problem if after your interest change you completely abandon what you were doing before. It is best to create a career that is flexible and allows you to explore without starting all over again. 

1. Understand what is actually changing: You need to know whether it is your interest, career goal, or preferred work environment that are changing. You can loose interest in a particular subject and you still enjoy the work associated with it. You may stop having interest in an industry but you still enjoy doing work related to it. The distinction matters because you may not need to change to a new career, you may just need a different industry, role or specialization. 

2. Look for your recurring interest: when someone has many interest they are usually patterns that come with it. Instead of focusing on what interests you, examine what connects them. If the same activities occurs repeatedly this may be a sign of a more reliable career. Your interests may change but your ability to enjoy what you do is stable. 

3. Build a skill based career: a skill based career gives you more flexibility than one that is only based on your job title. Some skills can cut across many professions, so this can make your career very flexible each time your interest change. You need to have transferrable skills to help you interchange careers when you lose interest and it will be easier to change directions without losing everything that you’ve built.

4. Don’t turn every interest into a career: You don’t have to always find a way to make money out of your interest. This is very important because it can be a very big distraction and make you unstable if you turn every interest onto a career. Some of your interest can be used as hobbies, projects and personal learning. Before you turn an interest into a career check if you enjoy doing work related to it, it is not just about learning the subject. 

5. Use small experiments: before making any major changes you need to do a small investigation to see whether you are good at it. You can take a course, complete a project, voulonteer, freelancing, attend professional events or speak with people working in those fields. This is to know whether the career suits you. To avoid a cycle of being excited about something new, then realizing that the real work being done is not what you expected. 

6. Don’t worry about having a perfectly linear CV: A career with a lot of changes can still tell a good story. What is important is if you can explain your experience and how it contributed to your development. Different roles may have helped you in different ways to develop different skills. What employers are interested in is what you can contribute and not a perfect professional journey. 

7. Develop a professional Identity broader than your job title: If your professional identity is tied to one job it can make you look like you don’t have any career direction. Instead of thinking about what you can do, you can present yourself as a problem solver, communicator, researcher, creator, organizer and strategist, it depends on your strengths. Different professions can make use of the same professional identity. 

8. Give yourself enough time to develop competence: Some people think losing excitement is when you start something then later  you lost interest in it. A new field can be exciting because you are not used to it. Once the work becomes demanding people tend to lose interest. Thus it doesn’t mean you chose the wrong career. Before changing careers wait to move passed the beginner stage. 

9. Choose your next career direction rather than your whole life: It is not possible for you to know what you are going to be doing in the next decade. What is better is to look for a direction that is better for your current stage. Build relevant skills, gain experience, evaluate the result and decide on what to do next. 

10. Build a strong career with flexible branches: You should develop alot of skills that you can use regardless of your next destination. The branches are different roles or skills you explore. This allows you to change careers without destroying your structure. You can move to a new field while still gaining from everything you previously did. 

11. Keep your options open but not unlimited: You need flexibility but doing too many things at the same time can prevent you from becoming skilled at anything. Choose one major direction and keep two open just incase. This can give you structure without restricting your curiosity. 

12. Make changing interest part of your career strategy: Changing interest should not be something you prevent completely. This can be a way for you to develop professionally. The key is to connect interest with the skills you already have instead of starting from scratch. With time this can help you create a unique professional profile. That wouldn’t have been possible if you stayed in only one field. 

Conclusion 

Frequently changing career interests don’t mean you are indecisive. It just means you are discovering yourself and with work environment that suits you. What is important is to make all these changes deliberately. A career that will succeed doesn’t have to be linear, it needs to be intentional, adaptable and able to grow with you.