What do you do if you don’t love your job?

According to the Skills Council in England  recent research published this week 74%  of the people asked said they were planning to change their career but 25% of those said they won’t because they are unsure about  what they really want. This prompted the Careers Advice service to introduce travelling advice centres and the first one was sited at one of the busy London commuter stations.

The numbers got me thinking. I don’t know ( and at this point can’t find) details of the questions asked but  74% of people actually planning to change their jobs seems really high to me – talking about it maybe. In my role as coach the most common trigger for clients coming to me is dissatisfaction with their current job and to work out what they would prefer to do. Often that means something different for the same employer.

And the 25% of that 74% who won’t do anything about it because they don’t know what they want to do is much lower than I thought it would be. The  first question I ask when someone mentions not liking their current job  is what would you love to do? Leaving aside the dream of selling up and going to live on a Caribbean Island very few have a clear idea of what  their next step would be and even less idea of what goal they would be stepping towards.

In this week where the school exam results are out in Scotland and Scottish youngsters are making college and university choices I wonder how many have a clear idea of how they want to earn a living when they graduate. Even those who do might well change their minds during their studies – it happens all the time. New experience can – and possibly should – keep employees thinking about the next stage in their careers . As has been shown in the past year in particular nothing in the business world stays the same for long and being able to respond to change will be an asset for finding and retaining paid employment as changes happen faster and more often.

To go back  to the Skills Council new item if you read further it says that” 71 per cent [of those who responded]  think the best way to keep their career moving forward is through gaining a new qualification which I think is really encouraging if that means taking responsibility for your own continuing development.

And I found it interesting that more people would move to a new job because of a “desire to learn new things (60 per cent)” than “earn more money (47 per cent).”

Having careers advisors out and about might encourage people to stop and think about where they are going in their careers though and I am looking forward to hearing more about it as the intitiative takes off.