The professional world has gone through vast changes with pass of time, where it was once common to see professionals have the same job until they retire. However, the concept of switching careers has now become much more accepted and prevalent.

Changing careers is a major decision, a decision with many possible outcomes as well as consequences. But, it is still a commonly seen phenomena. And in order to identify and understand any new trends, Bayt.com has conducted a poll study on switching careers that sheds light on key aspects that revolve around what might motivate professionals in the MENA region to decide to change their career paths.

Key findings:

• When asked why professionals may change their careers entirely, “to find their real passion” was the most common reason (57.7%), followed by “better compensation” (18.1%), opportunities to “learn and challenge themselves” (14.2%) and entering industries with a higher hiring activity (8.1%).
• 63.8% of respondents believe that it is not necessary to obtain additional education/training before changing careers, 20.3% believe it is important in some cases and 14.5% believe that it is always important to gain new skills before switching jobs.
• 47.1% of respondents believe that they should stay in their current role for at least a year before they switch to another one, 10% believe they should stay between one and two years, 19.1% think they stay between two and three years before making the change, while 18.8% say “it doesn’t matter” how long you stay in one job.
• The initial steps in successfully switching careers are to create a new CV for the target industry (81.4%), learning missing key skills (6.4%), assessing whether the switch is a practical option given past experience (4.5%) and researching the market trends and opportunities (5.3%).
• The biggest challenge associated with changing careers is “transferring skills and relevant experience” (76.4%), “finding relevant jobs” (9.5%), “understanding a new industry or job role” (2.8%), “recreating CV and cover letter” (1.3%) and all of the aforementioned factors (8%).

Data for the Bayt.com’s survey about switching careers in the Middle East and North Africa was collected online from September 23 to November 21, 2018. Results are based on a sample of 8,380 respondents. Countries assessed include UAE, KSA, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Egypt, Morocco, Libya, Iraq, Algeria and Tunisia, and others.