Warning Signs That You're Pursuing the Wrong Career

If your work has become less and less rewarding, you might start to wonder if you're pursuing the wrong career.

The top five reasons that drive employees to change careers are unhappiness, the desire for greater flexibility, wanting more money, not feeling challenged and seeking more opportunities to advance according to a study by Indeed. The study also found that career changers spent 11 months on average considering whether to make the leap.

These push factors echo what I hear from professionals in my work as a career coach. Feeling unfulfilled, underutilized and underpaid are common drivers for a career change. But how do you know if you're in the wrong career versus the wrong job? Here are three warning signs to look out for.

1. Misalignment With Your Career Values

Every job has its bad days. But if you find yourself dreading each workday, it's time to examine what's missing. Start the process by evaluating whether your current career aligns with what matters most to you.

Your career values are a compass that you can use to check in to see if you're on the right path. Ask yourself the following career values questions:

• What motivates you to do your best work?
• What would you love to do more of at work?
• What energizes and excites you?
• What type of environments do you want to work in?
• What do you want your career to feel like?
• What do you want to be known for?

Answer these questions openly and honestly. This is a space for you to consider what matters most to you personally.

Next, assess how your current career path compares to your primary career needs. Ask yourself what would need to shift to move you closer to what you value. Getting real about what you want, and why you work, is paramount. Your responses will provide the foundation for you to create future career goals that align with your purpose and principles.

So how do you apply your insights? Imagine you've identified that developing creative concepts for events energizes you the most, but your current role doesn't provide the opportunities to do so. As a next step, determine if developing creative concepts is a want or a need when it comes to your career.

A "need" is a high-priority necessity that will lay the foundation for your career moving forward. In contrast, a "want" is desirable but not a deal breaker as your list of needs takes precedence. Use these insights to determine if changing careers is right for you.

2. Apathy Toward Your Career Progression

When you're increasingly detached from your career in addition to your role feeling lackluster, the thought of new responsibilities or even a promotion won't appeal to you. Do you feel certain you don't want your boss' job or even their boss' job? Do you worry you'd feel the same way even if you worked elsewhere? Consider it a warning sign.

And know that you aren't alone—according to a poll by CNBC, a staggering 47 percent of millennials reaching middle age say they wished they had chosen another career path when they started working.

To get more clarity, consider when the apathy began and if you felt the same way in previous roles. Try to identify a pattern when you reflect on how long you've felt this way.

When you're pursuing the wrong career, it's common to feel like you're drifting along without clear goals for your future. When this occurs, you don't want to think about your future and do your best to avoid the topic of your career plans when asked by friends or family.

Additional indicators of apathy toward your career include decreased performance and productivity. Has there been a slide in your level of effort at work that you can't figure out how to fix? This can also manifest as indifference to receiving recognition for your work because you don't have a sense of fulfillment from your accomplishments.

3. Recurring Stress-Related Health Issues

Our bodies often give us clues that something is not right, even before we connect the dots. Pursuing the wrong career is stressful because our work consumes so much of our lives.

Examples of stress-related health issues include frequent headaches or migraines, sleep problems, changes in appetite, persistent feelings of anxiety, increased blood pressure and skin problems such as eczema.

Talk to a health care provider about your symptoms and for advice on how to manage stress. Some options may include:

• Exercising regularly to release endorphins that can reduce stress hormones
• Incorporating deep breathing exercises into your workday to calm your nervous system
• Practicing meditation before or after work, which can reduce feelings of anxiety

It's advantageous to track your health symptoms over time by noting the date, time and duration and reflecting on what's happening at work concurrently. Tracking your symptoms and sharing your insights with a health care professional may help you correlate if your career is contributing to a health condition.

Chronic stress has serious implications for your physical and mental health. Recognizing potential red flags is a major step as you consider how you work and take steps to protect your well-being in the future.

Rethinking Your Next Chapter

Remember, you have choices when it comes to your career, and you decide what matters most. Your career is a pursuit that you choose to invest in.

If you're feeling stuck or frustrated about choosing the wrong career, don't ruminate over your past decisions that led you to this point. Instead, flip your mindset to embrace what you've uncovered and experienced so far, good and bad. It's all valuable as it will help you better prepare for your next chapter.

Your worth is not your tenure in a field you don't want to be in. You get to decide what comes next. Hold on to the fact that you can be selective as you create your next career chapter.

About the Author

Octavia Goredema is an award-winning career coach at Twenty Ten Agency, author of Prep, Push, Pivot, and host of the Audible Original series How to Change Careers with Octavia Goredema. You can learn more about Octavia's work at octaviagoredema.com.