Career change stories are told after they worked, which removes the part where it was uncertain for a long time. The honest version is more useful.
The timeline
Longer than people plan for. Acquiring a skill to an employable level takes months at minimum and frequently a year or more. Finding the first role in the new field takes months after that.
Planning for eighteen months and finishing early is better than planning for six and running out.
The income gap
Entering a new field usually means entering below your previous level. Someone senior in one field is junior in another, and the salary reflects that.
That gap is the single most common reason changes are abandoned partway, and it is entirely predictable. Budget for it before starting.
What transfers
More than people think. Communication, project management, understanding a business, working with difficult situations, writing clearly. These are valued everywhere and they are why a career changer frequently progresses faster than a graduate once they are in.
Say so explicitly. Hiring managers do not make the connection unless you do.
What makes it work
Changing one variable at a time. Moving to a new field within a familiar industry, or a familiar role in a new industry, is far easier than changing both.
Proving capability before applying. Something built, shipped, or done for real, however small.
And talking to people already doing it, which corrects the impression formed from outside almost every time.
The part rarely mentioned
Several months of feeling incompetent. That is the normal experience of being new and it is not evidence the decision was wrong.