Individuals that are not content in their current jobs want a new career. These individuals feel like moving on or moving forward because they feel stagnant or that they are moving backward. Before you can change careers though, you need to assess the current situation to determine why you want a new career.

You need to identify what needs fixing in your current career in order to make the new career you want right for you. If you do not understand what is making you unhappy it is hard to find the perfect destination for your new job. There are levels of contentment in a career. These levels will help you determine the exact type of career change you need when you want a new career.

Here are a few things to ask yourself:

1. Is the work environment dissatisfying?

2. Is it the company culture, poor management, communication issues, clients, co-workers?

3. Are the hours too long? Or too short?

Depending on the answers to these questions you may need a career change. Sometimes when it is the environment, people, or the hours these things can be easily fixed by looking for a different company to work for. By moving to a new company you can perhaps erase what is wrong and find the passion in your chosen career again.

The next level in discovering if your job is what is unsatisfying for you has to do with the position itself. If you are unhappy with the work required, the activities, or purpose of the position you might consider a career change. For example are the skills you need for the career something you dislike? Do you feel you are not using your knowledge as you should be? Perhaps you cannot be yourself at the workplace? These questions for level two help you get at the heart of what could be bothering you in the current career. The answers you have will determine if you need a change of career.

The last level has to deal with a life crisis. At certain points in our life we feel regrets eat at us. We feel we have not done everything we wanted or that everything is not going the way we planned. During this period it can be burnout, illness, or personal changes that occur to make you feel as if you need a new career.

At any level you may decide a new career is needed. You do not have to wait for level three to come around. If you want a new career it is best to understand where you fit on the levels in order to change accordingly.

As we discovered with level one sometimes it is just changing the workplace that you need rather than a new career. Level two is when you really feel you want a new career. It is in level two that you may find you need more or less challenge. You are looking for something completely different that uses your skills.