Have you had a career change? I'm struggling not feeling totally competent!

[Oatcat]

Any advice/ experiences would be appreciated

I have 15 years experience in my former creative industry and have moved into the civil service. I took a step down and have an admin type role, but in all honesty I'm finding it hard going. The actual work itself isn't hard, more learning all the stakeholders, who I can approach for what, getting a sense of how others like working. I'm used to feeling very competent, and I'm really not feeling like that now!

Has anyone else made a similar move? I think if I took this job when I was 20 I'd be fairly chill about it as I'd know I was learning. But having been 'the person' to go to in my former team, knowing zero context of anything is hard!

I retrained and started work in a new area aged 42. It was probably 4 years before I had a clue what I was doing - at least, at that point I stopped lying awake every Friday night running through my week in detail with added horror soundtrack. I think it's just the nature of the beast tbh. At least it is for me, hence why it took me so long to decide to retrain.

I will say though that I've never regretted doing it. I associate the Civil Service wuth having access to mentors and training- don't hesitate to take those opportunities.