Meaning & use
career change
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountable
The act of moving from one type of job or profession to a different one.
Grammar: Countable: use 'a career change' for one move and 'career changes' for several.
Patterns
- make a career change
- a career change from something to something
- career change into something
After ten years in banking, she made a career change and trained as a nurse.
A career change at forty can feel frightening, but many people say it was the best decision they ever made.
His career change from teaching to software development took two years of evening classes.
noununcountable
The process of switching to a new occupation, seen as a period of adjustment.
Grammar: Uncountable when talking about the idea or process in general, with no article.
Patterns
- career change is difficult
- consider career change
Career change is rarely easy, especially when you have a family to support.
The website offers free advice on career change for people over fifty.
Word forms
| plural | career changes |
|---|
Common combinations
- make a career change
- He made a career change after his company closed.
- a major career change
- Going from chef to accountant is a major career change.
- consider a career change
- If you dread Monday mornings, you might consider a career change.
- career change advice
- The library runs a free career change advice session on Thursdays.
- a midlife career change
- A midlife career change often means a smaller salary at first.
Synonyms and how they differ
- career move
- A career move is any change of job, including a promotion; a career change specifically means moving to a different kind of work.
- job switch
- Job switch is more informal and often means changing employers while doing similar work.
Word family
- career changer noun
- A person who has moved to a new profession.
- change careers verb
- The verb phrase: to move to a different profession.
Commonly confused: career change or career break? career change or change of career?
career change vs career break
A career break is time off from work, often for travel or family; a career change is moving into a different profession.
career change vs change of career
This means the same thing but is a little more formal and less common in speech.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'career change' correctly?
Choose one answer.
'Make a career change' is the usual verb pattern. 'Do a career change' is not natural English, 'career changed' is not used as a verb, and 'took a career change' wrongly copies 'take a break'.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “career change”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.