You can, and plenty of people do. Some try several careers before they find the one that really fits them. Some work in one career for decades and then make a radical change. Of course, starting from the bottom will always have its difficult side, and it’s important to keep that in mind so that a few bad days don’t make you abandon a career that’s best for you. But you need to make time to keep an active eye on the state of your career.
It’s very easy, once you get that first job, to become so involved in it that you forget about the bigger picture and where you really want to go. Allocate an hour every couple of weeks to focus on your career. Look at whether your job is taking you in the right direction, whether you’re still happy about where you want to go, what you should be doing towards making your next step, and making plans to do it.
Don’t forget that while your employer may be making you feel that you’re in exactly the right job, the only one who’ll really look after your career is you.
And if you come to realise that you’ve made a mistake and this isn’t really the career for you, you can change. However late in your career it might be, it’s rarely too late, and the time to start doing something about it is now.
