Ready your work search for career change. Take the right steps to improve your chances of finding the best career fit for you.
Get ready to read all about four (4) great tips as you consider a career change.
Learn more about your desired career with a mentor.
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What steps do you need to take as you search for work?
How do you figure out what career you want?
Are you trying to get away from something or trying to move toward something?
These are some hard questions with some hard answers. In order to be more likely to succeed, you have got to do the work. How much are you putting in to find the answer? Don’t make the mistake of starting to look for a job right now. We will talk through some items that you should consider in your work search for career change.
Primarily, you want to figure out what you want. The best place to start is with research. Figure out yourself first. Let’s consider some steps to take.
This exercise helps you identify your skills, qualifications, and accomplishments. You can now draw on those in your work search. Evaluate which skills you enjoy the most. Are those the ones that would draw you to a new career?
Next, research the career in which you have an interest. There are plenty of ways to get such information online. One of the best is to find a job posting site, such as indeed.com, careerbuilder.com or others. For those interested in career coaching, check out Career Coach Jobs. Pick out a job listing that interests you and carefully read through the posting.
Read through the job responsibilities and the requirements. Think through them carefully. Then make a list of each of the skills that are desired by the hiring company. Keep this list handy for additional use in an exercise below.
Do the same thing with a position in a similar career field. Are there skills and qualifications that are different from your first position?
Now take the step of examining a different career that you are interested in. Put your list together for this career also.
You have pulled together information about careers in which you have an interest. At least you have gathered some data from one source type. That type is the job posting.
It is beneficial to add more information from other sources. Remember that it is difficult to do all of this by yourself. You need others, specifically others that work in the desired career field. You may have friends or family that work directly in that career. Or they may know others that do. Give them a call, text or email to give you their views on their career field. Most people would jump at the chance to do so.
Here are a few suggested questions for you. You could ask when you tell them you want to find out what that career field is really like:
If you cannot locate the career field you want from those sources, then there is another approach. The same approach would work if you want to keep your search private.
That approach is to use a service to find a mentor for a fee. Such a mentor would be knowledgeable in your desired career field
You could use a service like that provided Career Redo. It has a listing of mentors to get your thought processes going. Try 2 - 3 different fields to widen your view.
This method shortcuts the the time spent in your search. You could ask the same questions to this mentor too. You may consider that it is well worth a few dollars to ease your path to your final goal.
Your mentor may be able to introduce you to others in your desired career. Contact them to gain even more insight. Just meeting for coffee can be extremely helpful. Network and get referrals.
The next step is to take these same actions for a different career!
It is time to examine the information you have obtained from your work search for career change. Place three columns on a paper or spreadsheet.
In the first column list your skills and qualifications. List the skills and qualification required by Career X in the second column. List the skills and qualifications required by Career Y in the third column.
Then draw a connecting line from each of your skills to the skills in Career X. Draw lines only to the skills that match.
Do the same thing for Career Y.
The columns may end up looking something like this:
You have done a great deal of research. Now it is time to develop your plan.
If you have carried out the first tips, you have already started on your plan. Let’s summarize. Your plan should include:
Skills
Consider if you need to improve your skills. Can you get training through your current employer that would help you in your chosen career?
See if local colleges provide online or evening courses.
Are professional seminars available to enhance your transferable skills?
Timing
Some additional items for your plan.
Career change is available to everyone — no matter age, married status, gender, wealth, or other. Remember the major steps you should take.
Your work search for career change can succeed.
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Don D'Armond is the creator of Career Redo.
His goal is to connect his visitors who want to learn more about their desired new career fields with experienced individuals (Mentors) to transfer their insight and knowledge.