How Do You Know When It’s Time to Change Career Direction? Aon’s Luke Hammond on Finding the Work That Fits
Career progression is often thought about in terms of moving upwards: earning a promotion, taking on more responsibility or working towards a more senior version of the role you already have. But progression doesn't always have to mean continuing along the same path.
As your career develops, you learn more about the type of work you enjoy, the skills you want to use and the problems you find interesting. Sometimes, that can lead to the realisation that the direction you started in isn't necessarily the one you want to follow indefinitely.
When that happens, it can be tempting to jump straight to "What else could I do?" But there may be a more useful question to start with:
What do I want more of from my work?
The projects you gravitate towards, the problems you enjoy solving and the responsibilities you find yourself wanting to take on can all provide clues about where your career could go next.
Start with the work, not the job title
Most roles are made up of very different types of work. You might enjoy the technical side of your job but want more interaction with clients. You might enjoy delivering projects but find yourself increasingly interested in leading people. Or you might value the expertise you've developed while becoming curious about another specialism where you could apply it differently.
Looking at your career through job titles alone can make it difficult to recognise those possibilities. Instead, try breaking down what you actually enjoy about the work you're already doing.
Ask yourself:
→ Which parts of my current role give me the most energy?
→ What work do I find myself wanting to understand better?
→ Which projects or responsibilities would I happily take on more often?
→ What would I like to spend more of my working week doing?
You might not immediately arrive at a new job title, but you should start to build a clearer picture of what you want your next role to contain.
Look sideways as well as upwards
Changing direction can sound like starting again, particularly once you've spent several years building specialist knowledge and experience. In reality, the next step may be much closer to your existing career than you expect.
Technical expertise, analytical ability, client experience, problem-solving and industry knowledge can all be valuable beyond the role in which you developed them. An adjacent career move might allow you to retain much of what you've already built while changing the balance of the work you do.
So rather than only asking "What completely different career could I do?", consider:
→ Which of my existing skills do I want to keep using?
→ Which skills would I like to use more often?
→ Where else could that combination of experience be valuable?
Looking sideways can reveal career options that aren't obvious when progression is viewed purely as the next step up.
Test a direction before committing to it
You don't have to make a major career decision based solely on what you think another role will be like.
Where possible, find ways to get closer to the work first. That could mean contributing to a project outside your usual remit, working with another team, speaking to someone already doing the role, finding a mentor in that area or asking for an opportunity to shadow someone.
This gives you the chance to test your assumptions. Does the reality of the work match what you expected? Which parts appeal to you? Which of your existing skills transfer naturally, and where would you need to develop?
The aim isn't to map out the rest of your career. It's to gather enough experience and information to make your next decision with greater confidence.
Finding a new direction through experience
For Luke Hammond, Associate Partner at Aon, getting exposure to a different area of work helped shape his own career direction.
Luke began his career on an actuarial graduate scheme after university. While he enjoyed the analytical side of actuarial work, he gradually became involved in investment consulting projects and found himself increasingly drawn to the work.
He enjoyed having more conversations with clients, helping them navigate markets and solve problems, and seeing how market movements and political developments could have an immediate impact on investment strategies and, ultimately, outcomes for pension schemes and their members.
That experience helped Luke recognise that he wanted to work more directly with clients and become more involved in investment decision-making. Rather than abandoning the skills and experience he had already developed, moving from actuarial work into investment consulting became a natural next step.
Luke has continued to build his career in investments and is now an Associate Partner at Aon.
Watch Luke explain what drew him from actuarial work towards investment consulting and how that experience shaped his career direction.
What could your current role be telling you?
You don't have to dislike your current job to question whether another direction might suit you better. Equally, changing direction doesn't have to mean discarding the experience you've already built.
If you're considering what comes next, start with three things:
Identify: What do you want more of from your work?
Explore: Where else could the skills and experience you've already developed be valuable?
Test: How can you get closer to that work before committing to a move?
Career paths don't always develop in straight lines. Sometimes the most useful clue about where to go next comes from paying closer attention to the work you're already doing.
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