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3 Career Change Myths You Need to Ignore, with Mark Crossfield

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Are you afraid to make a career change because you’re mid-career and you don’t want to start over? What if you didn’t have to? According to Find Your Dream Job guest Mark Crossfield, you can make a change by repurposing the skills and experience you’ve gained. Small steps lead to clarity, so be willing to explore what you enjoy and where that leads. Mark has a valuable reminder: your career will last most of your life, so it’s never too late to make a change. Take responsibility for your life and see the possibilities. 

About Our Guest:

Mark Crossfield is a coach, author, and podcast host. And he has a new book out, Mid Career Change: A Guide for Hope, Clarity, and Action.

Resources in This Episode:

Transcript

Find Your Dream Job, Episode 500:

3 Career Change Myths You Need to Ignore, with Mark Crossfield

Airdate: May 7, 2025

Mac Prichard:

This is Find Your Dream Job, the podcast that helps you get hired, have the career you want, and make a difference in life.

I’m your host, Mac Prichard. I’m also the founder of Mac’s List. It’s a job board in the Pacific Northwest that helps you find a fulfilling career.

Every Wednesday, I talk to a different expert about the tools you need to get the work you want.

Experts say you will change careers three or more times.

And as you make these moves, you will need to overcome real challenges.

But other obstacles you may worry about simply aren’t real.

Mark Crossfield is here to talk about three career change myths you need to ignore.

He’s a coach, author, and podcast host.

And he has a new book out, Mid Career Change: A Guide for Hope, Clarity, and Action.

Mark joins us from the northwest of England.

Well, Mark, here’s where I want to start – career change really is more common than people think, isn’t it? Why are you likely to change careers at least once, and perhaps several times?

Mark Crossfield:

Yeah, well, we often reach a crossroads in our career. We start to question if our job is a good fit for us and start thinking about what else we could do instead. I think this is because we evolve and change in our lives, and this applies to our career, of course, as well as our life. So there might be changes and things that matter to you in your career, your priorities, and those things that are important to you.

So, for example, salary and status might have been the main focus for your career initially but now you’re looking for more flexibility in your work. And perhaps, also to have more meaning in what you do.

So, there’s definitely times in your career when this happens, mid-career is one such time. There’s life transitions, perhaps starting a family. And you also have professional plateaus, when you get stuck or you feel unchallenged. So, there’s quite a few times when, actually, it is a good time to start thinking about changing your career.

Mac Prichard:

How can you be clear that you need to think about a career change, rather than just keep doing the same job and changing employers?

Mark Crossfield:

Yeah and I think that’s initially what most people start out doing – they start making minor adjustments in their career, tweaking the job, maybe going to a competitor organization. That can sometimes last and work for a short while but I think, deep down, you know when it’s time to make a shift in your career. And it’s to that time when you need to take responsibility for your career; it’s one of the things actually we struggle with a little bit is taking responsibility for our career.

Quite often our education system and the way we’ve been brought into the workplace has left lots of the decisions about our career to other people, and well, there comes a time when you do have to take control of your own career. And you have to, you know, face up to the facts, sometimes, it’s just time to change.

Mac Prichard:

You talked about why people might change careers and when it might happen. Talk about the benefits of a career change. Can it lead to more enjoyment in your job? And perhaps more long-term success?

Mark Crossfield:

Definitely. I think if you think about your career and the part it plays in your life, it’s actually a significant part of your life, isn’t it? We don’t just switch off at the end of the day and there’s no overspill into our life in large; it’s actually quite a significant impact in all our life. So, having the right career, enjoying your work, is really important to have a fulfilling life. So it’s really important to think about what you want from your work.

Think about what’s important about work and start to find something which is more focused to what you want from your life. And as I said earlier, that actually does change, it does change, and particularly, as we’ve got a decade or two behind us.

The sort of things we start to move towards, that flexibility maybe, more significance in our careers, they become much more important than some of the things that we focused on very early in our career.

Mac Prichard:

How is changing careers different than looking for your next job? And what do career changers need to do differently?

Mark Crossfield:

Yeah, well, I think looking for another job tends to be a micro-adjustment. It tends to be looking on the job boards and reaching out for recruiters and support to find something similar to what you’ve been doing. It isn’t necessarily a big change and can quite often be a move within your own organization or as I said, moving to a competitor.

Whereas a career change is a much more significant step. It involves a bigger step because you’re not only changing perhaps the role that you’re currently doing, you might also be changing the industry you’re working in and, of course, the company.

So, when you start changing role, industry, and company, that’s quite a big leap. Whereas making a change in your job tends to be just a change in company, sometimes it can be an upgrade in the role, but that’s a much smaller step, isn’t it?

Mac Prichard:

It is a different step and it’s a bigger step. What, when people approach a career change, like a job search, what’s the most common mistake you see them make in trying to make that transition happen?

Mark Crossfield:

I think the biggest mistake is people treat a career change the same way they might change looking for a new job.  So they have in the mind, they’ve got this perfect career that they want to transition to. They don’t quite know what it is yet but they’ll know it when they find it.

And they therefore spend endless hours searching on the Internet for that perfect career, when, in actual facts, the challenge is that you have to understand yourself quite well to be able to make a career change.

You have to understand a bit more about the marketplace as well. So those people that are looking on the internet for a new career quite often have not got very good levels of knowledge about themselves and the market and that really is the place to start. So starting to learn a little bit more about what’s important to you, what are the skills that you might have that are transferable for example, what’s important to you about work, starting to think about those things that interest you.

Those are really important things to think about. And, of course, you can then turn your attention to the market and to look at other industries and other areas that you might be attracted to. And that’s a bigger ask than just looking for a job, which you might do on a job board or a simple Internet search.

Mac Prichard:

So those are the challenges that career changes face and you need to deal with them.

But there are some myths out there about career change and there are three common myths that you’ve encountered in your work and I want to walk through them one by one.

The first one is that changing careers means you’ve gotta start over again.

Why isn’t this true, why don’t you have to start over from scratch when you change careers?

Mark Crossfield:

Yeah this is a good one, isn’t it? This fear that people have of leaving behind the years of experience, credibility, and hard-earned skills. Often, it’s linked to this sunk-cost fallacy, where people feel they should continue on their current path, because of the time and energy already invested. It’s a bit like why we keep watching a bad movie just because we’ve already sat through the first hour, despite knowing we’re not really enjoying it.

So the reason why it’s not true is that a career change doesn’t mean starting from scratch. It means repurposing what you already have, the skills you’ve built like leadership, problem-solving, and communication. All those are valuable in any industry. Plus, you bring something unique, like your career capital, the experience, knowledge, your networks you built over time.

So rather than discarding these, a career change is about using them in a new and more fulfilling way. So think of it more of a path of, the path of a career change is a series of stepping stones, not starting over. I think that’s an easier way to think about it, so each step is moving you closer to a career that aligns with your evolving goals and priorities.

Mac Prichard:

So think about stepping stones, but tell us more about how you help your clients leverage those existing skills and those experiences when they make a career challenge. How do they make the most of what they’ve done in the past as they move in a new direction?

Mark Crossfield:

I think the first challenge is that you have to reveal those skills. Quite a lot of people have skills but they take them for granted so the first thing to do is actually reveal them, bring them to the surface. Actually list them. And they could be things that you are just taking for granted. Oh, this skill I’ve got of making people feel comfortable, that isn’t really a skill, is it? That’s something that I just do. Well, no, actually, that’s a really good transferable skill.

So the first thing to do is list out your skills. So think about all the things you’re good at in your workplace. You might want to enroll a colleague into this task as well. Ask them what they think as well. And put yourself a list together of all the things you think are your strengths, particularly your skills, that you can use in a new role. And that is a really good place to start; not only does it boost your confidence, but it starts to join the dots up between where you are now and maybe where you want to be in the future.

Mac Prichard:

Terrific. We’re going to take a break.

Stay with us; when we come back, Mark Crossfield will continue to share his advice on three career change myths you need to ignore.

We’re back in the Mac’s List studio. I’m talking with Mark Crossfield.

He’s a coach, author, and podcast host.

And Mark has a new book out, Mid Career Change: A Guide for Hope, Clarity, and Action.

He joins us from the northwest of England.

Mark, before our break, we were talking about three career change myths you need to ignore. And we talked about myth number one.

Let’s move on to myth number two and it goes like this: you need to figure out everything before you start your career change.

What’s in people’s heads here, Mark, and why isn’t this true?

Mark Crossfield:

Yeah, I think what it is, we want to have a clear road map. We want to feel like we know exactly where we’re heading next and I think that’s where this comes from. And in reality, of course, careers aren’t linear and it’s not as straightforward as having everything mapped out.

So people often delay making a change because they’re afraid of the uncertainty or they think they have to land on the perfect next step before they take action. That fear of getting it wrong keeps them stuck in analysis paralysis, waiting for absolute clarity before they move forward. But here’s the truth: clarity comes from action, not just thinking.

Mac Prichard:

So how do you take that action? What steps should you take to get clear about the new career path without having all the answers up front?

Mark Crossfield:

Yeah, the thing you need to do is take small steps. So, whether it’s speaking to people in a new field that you might be interested in, testing out new skills, or even just reflecting on what energizes you. All these help you to shape your direction and by doing that, you can refine your path as you go along.

So, again, it’s this idea that there’s one big leap that you need to take, and once you’ve made the leap, everything will be wonderful. In reality, the approach is to take smaller steps in the direction that you’re curious about, that you’re attracted to. Because no one has it all figured out from day one and they don’t need to. Neither do you. It’s about getting comfortable with just taking the first step even when the full picture isn’t clear yet.

Mac Prichard:

Give us examples of the kinds of small steps you encourage your clients to take to get that clarity about what their next career might be.

Mark Crossfield:

So I get people to be really curious. So I get them to think about what were they really interested in when they were younger, what sorts of things, hobbies, or interests did they have. What sort of things did they dream about being when they were in education – college or university for example? What sort of things were they wanting to move towards at that point?

Because what happens is when we get on the treadmill of work, we tend to forget some of the things we were really attracted to, some of the things we’re interested in. So the first step is to just loosen up your thinking about what you might be interested in doing. Actually, feel okay just to think about those things without an agenda, without a time scale, just allow your thinking to move you in the direction of all those things that are interesting to you and the things you’re drawn to. And that’s a good way actually to loosen things up a little bit, to get you moving in the right direction.

Mac Prichard:

You ask yourself these questions; what do you do with the answers? Do you write them down, do you share them with colleagues? How do you turn this analysis into a plan of action?

Mark Crossfield:

I think once you start coming up with some ideas, then I think the next step is to do a little bit of research.

So, for example, one of the guests that I had on my podcast was talking about the fact that she was a schoolteacher and she didn’t particularly want to stay in that industry. But she was interested in writing and reading and language and she explored the possibility of being an editor, a proofreader. She started learning about what would be needed to move in that direction, researched the qualifications she would need to take, and started to talk to people in that industry.

So quite quickly, you can actually get into the thick of it by actually just moving a few steps away from your initial thinking to get you some extra information about what’s next, the next steps, and bringing these ideas to life. Because once you get that momentum, once things start moving in the direction of those things you’re interested in, you know, you can really start to make strides towards something that is quite attractive.

Mac Prichard:

Your third myth about career change that you say pops up, again and again, is it’s too late to change careers. Why do people believe this and why is this a myth?

Mark Crossfield:

Yeah I mean, I hear this a lot from mid-career professionals who I work with quite often. And I think, historically, there was some sort of view that when you reached a certain age that, somehow, that was an age when you were no longer able to make switches in your career, that if you haven’t made a switch in your career by a certain age, that that would be too late.

But if you think about it, your career, more than ever, is gonna be long, it’s gonna potentially be 40 or 50 years, and the reality is mid-career professionals actually have a huge advantage. They’ve built up experience, wisdom, problem-solving skills, and network, things that employers really value.

So the reason why it’s not too late is that you’re valuable. Valuable to the marketplace, valuable to employers, and you can transition those skills and all those assets you’ve got to other organizations and industries, and that means you can align what you want to move into and the things you’re interested in with employers that are looking for somebody just like you.

Mac Prichard:

Can you share an example of a client who has been farther along in their career who has made a successful career change later in life?

Mark Crossfield:

Well, yeah, I mean, I can probably talk about myself actually. I am a professional engineer by qualification. I’m a charter civil engineer. For nearly thirty years I worked in civil engineering. But actually, whilst it was a good job it wasn’t a good job for me, and I actually started looking at other things I could transition to. And that’s when I decided that I’d like to transition into coaching and more specifically career coaching.

So I made this leap, so I know that it’s definitely a leap you can make later in your career. And it was one of the reasons I wanted to get started helping other people because when I started looking around for support, there wasn’t an awful lot of support for mid-career professionals. And that’s a shame because there is so much value and so many transferable skills that these individuals have that the industries and other sectors desperately need.

Mac Prichard:

Thanks for sharing your story. We’ve talked about why you’re likely to make a career change, when it may happen, and how to do it, and the myths around career change. For a listener who’s feeling stuck, Mark, or really not sure about how to make a change in their career, what’s the first step you would encourage them to take?

Mark Crossfield:

I think the first step I would say is think about your approach or your mindset. So mindset is very important when it comes to career change. The mindset you should try and focus on is one of responsibility. So taking responsibility for your career; that’s always very important.

But also, possibility. This idea that things are possible for you. Because quite often, we come to career change with some limitation about how we see the future playing out. However, if you approach your change with this mindset of possibility, that change for me is possible and I can make a change as others have made a change, then that really does help to get you shifting the right direction. It sort of overcomes that initial hurdle that you’re restricting yourself in some way. Because, you know, maybe you’ve got a mindset that change is not possible for you when in reality, that’s not the case.

Mac Prichard:

It’s been a terrific conversation, Mark. Now tell us, what’s next for you?

Mark Crossfield:

Well, I’m excited about the launch of my book which you mentioned. Thank you very much. Mid-Career Change. I’m getting some really good reviews at the moment, so I’m really pleased about that so I’m promoting that.

I’ve newly rebranded my Mid-Career Change podcast which helps professionals navigate career transitions. So it’s the Mid-Career Change podcast; that’s definitely one worth checking out. And I’m really looking forward to exploring how I can support mid-career professionals through my culture work and the work I do with individuals one-to-one. So, I’m really looking forward to 2025 and all the things it has in store for me.

Mac Prichard:

Terrific, well, I know listeners can learn more about your coaching services, your podcast, and your book by visiting your website. That’s the Bravo Coaching website, www.bravocoaching.co.uk. And we’ll be sure to include that link in the show notes as well.

And I know, Mark, you also invite listeners to connect with him on LinkedIn. When you do reach out to Mark, I hope you’ll mention you heard him on Find Your Dream Job.

Mark, given all the useful tips you’ve shared today, what’s the ONE thing you want a listener to remember about the three career change myths you need to ignore?

Mark Crossfield:

I would say that you have to rewrite your own career story. Don’t follow any myths that you might’ve heard. Actually, with that possibility mindset, just take the first step.

It doesn’t have to be a big step, it can be a small step. It can be reaching out to somebody for a conversation or a coffee, it can be doing some research, or it could be actually just taking some quiet time to consider what might be next for you. But do take that first step.

Mac Prichard:

Next week, our guest will be Kathy Oneto.

She’s a consultant, facilitator, and coach.

Kathy is also the founder and host of the Sustainable Ambition podcast.

After today’s conversation with Mark, you know what career change myths you need to ignore.

But how do you choose your new career or even your next job?

Join us next Wednesday when Kathy Oneto and I talk about how to answer the question, What do you want to do next?

Until next time, thanks for letting us help you find your dream job.

This show is produced by Mac’s List.

Susan Thornton-Hough schedules our guests and writes our newsletter. Lisa Kislingbury Anderson manages our social media.

Our sound engineer and editor is Matt Fiorillo. Dawn Mole creates our transcripts. And our music is by Freddy Trujillo.

This is Mac Prichard. See you next week.