5 Career-Change Myths Exploded

5 Career-Change Myths Exploded While the job-for-life was once the gold standard of employment, few people who enter the workplace nowadays believethey will work with oneemployer for the rest of their lives. Indeed, it has been this way for a few years now. However,whats also beginning to slowly change is the expectation that a workerwill have one career for their entire life. In todays world, its possible you might start your career as a high-powered accountant and end it as a chilled-out tree surgeon. Massive forces are acting on the workplace e.g., greater independence and self-determination, globalization, automation, unprecedented levels of economic and corporate instability, etc., which means that very few career paths can be truly considered secure.What I mean to say is that we are moving into a career-change world soon, thecareer-changers will be the rule, rather than the exception. And many people will become multi-career-changers that is, many people will change careers multiple times throughout their lives.Themulti-career-change world is a new and untested environment for employeesand employers alike. As a result, many myths prevail that can hinder workers who are seeking to change careers these myths may also causeemployers to pause when looking atcareer-changer candidates.Therefore,I thought it would be useful todisprovesome of the myths surrounding career changes and career-changers. Doing so will help us build a healthier environment in the talent ecosystem.Myth No. 1 The Average Person Will Have Seven Careers in Their LifetimeThestatistic that the average person will have seven careers in their lifetime has been floating around the Web for some time now. However, this stat was never really plausible, and now it has been roundly debunked by many researchers. In my personal opinion, I would expect that the average person might squeeze in two or threecareers in a lifetime.Myth No. 2 You Cant Change Careers, or If You Do, It ComesWith aHigh Risk of FailureAlot of people view career changes in a negative light, but this perspective is not totally justified. Research from the American Institute for Economic Research (AIER) found thatsuccess rates for career changes are astonishingly high. The institute found that 82 percent of people over 47 who tried to move to new careers were successful in making that change. The truth, then, is that you canchanges careers and if you do, you have a high chance of doing so successfully.Myth No. 3 Youll Have to Take a Pay Cut If You Switch CareersAccording to the AIER study cited above, sideways career changes are possible.The AIER found that, for68 percent of career changers, pay remained the same (18 percent) or increased (50 percent). Thirty-one percent of courage changers took pay cuts.So, while pay cuts are areality for many career changers, they are not the norm in fact, career changers who saw th eir pay decrease were in the minority.Myth No. 4 You Are Too Old to Change CareersRemember when the AIER found that82 percentof people over the age of 47 successfully changed career? I also want to mentionresearch from the AARP Public Policy Institute, which found that63 percent of older workers who went through long periods of unemployment found jobs in completely new lines of work.The point here is that career change is an option open to anyone, no matter their age.Myth No. 5 Needing to Change Careers Is a Sign of Bad Career PlanningSeveral pieces of research show that our personalities change over the course of our lives. And as your personality and values change, its only natural that your career expectations and needs might also change.So, needing to change careers is not necessarily a sign of bad career planning or failure in you current career path. Rather, deciding to change careers can be an acknowledgement of the natural change in your personal priorities and preferences a s you age.