Will The New Job Or New Career Choice I Like Be The Right Career For Me?

As a psychologist and career counselor, I have worked with thousands of people over the years who are choosing or changing careers, and who are wondering whether they would really like to be in a particular career. Based on this experience, I believe that most people who want to go into a career they think they'd like do not really explore the questions they need to in order to be sure that it's the right career for them.

Here is a list of 20 questions to find answers to before concluding that a career you think you'd like is really right for you, followed by 9 sources of information for answering these questions:

Questions:

1. In general, why do you think you'd "like" this career?

2. Why is going into this career important to you? What values, needs, and goals does it satisfy?

3. What do you actually know about this career?

4. Do you have any direct experience in this career? Have you had any jobs or volunteer experiences?

5. Have you talked to people who are in this career?

6. Have you done any reading on the career?

7. What are the opportunities? What kinds of money can you make in this field, and where are the openings?

8. What would your typical day be like in this career?

9. What are the drawbacks, disadvantages, and roadblocks of this career?

10. Do your interests match the interests of others in this career?

11. Do you have the aptitudes, skills, and abilities to be successful in this career?

12. Do you have the education or training to get into this career?

13. Do you have the personality characteristics that will make you successful in the new career?

14. Do you have the motivation and energy to follow through and do what you would need to do to get into the new career?

15. What are your "transferable" skills? That is, what skills or knowledge do you now have that you can use in the new career?

16. What skills or knowledge do you have that would not only be transferable, but that would also be a unique advantage in the new career?

17. What will it take to get into the new career? What kind of additional training, education, or experience would you need?

18. Have you developed a specific plan, including timetables and specific goals to be accomplished?

19. Do you have a network of support from family, friends, co-workers, or significant others?

20. Having answered all of the above questions, do you still "like" the career and think it's a good idea to get into it, and why?

I think you'll find that there are many resources you can use to help you answer the above questions. Among them:

1. Reading. This would include not only the hundreds of books and pamphlets on careers and career choice, but also publications describing careers (such as the Occupational Outlook Handbook, published by the U.S. Department of Labor and available on the Internet).

2. Practical experience. Not only is it possible to get a full-time or part-time job, but one can also volunteer at an organization or a company a couple of hours a week, just to get exposure to the area. Usually, any organization is glad to have this kind of help (unless they think you're an investigative reporter from some newspaper or TV program).

3. Job search counseling. Anyone changing career directions needs a highly competitive job search strategy. This should include resume, cover letter, and job interviewing strategies that are specific to your situation. This may also include advice on researching the job market.

4. A thorough self-assessment. This is not an assessment BY yourself, but an assessment OF yourself. A good career counselor can provide this kind of assessment, which would include counseling and testing.

5. Career tests. In general, tests divide into three categories: 1) aptitude, ability, and skills tests, 2) career interest tests, and 3) personality and motivational tests that focus on characteristics related to the career world.

6. Career coaching. Guided discussions with an expert can help you to clarify your goals, strategies, and commitment.

7. Education and training. Before you launch full-time into a degree program, it is possible to take one course, or a seminar, or a workshop, or a brief certificate program in the new career.

8. Networking. There are many job clubs and career resource centers available to explore new careers. Schools, career counselors, and other professionals can usually give you information on these resources.

9. Informational interviewing. It's usually not a good idea to go into a career if you haven't talked to at least a few people who are already in it and can give you the lowdown. You can also talk to people in academic and training programs.

Armed with all of this information and all of these insights, you should now be in a better position to judge whether taking the next step in this new career area makes sense for you.

Why Change Careers? Six Good Reasons For A Career Change

Here are some reasons you may have for wanting to change your career. If one or more of these apply to you, then you may be ready to make the decision to change career. If your reason for considering a new career is not on this list of the six most common and best reasons for changing career, think carefully. You may need a holiday, sabbatical, a change of job, or to move to a different location. A career change requires a lot of thought, work and time, so do it for the right reasons.

1. Your life circumstances have changed so it's time for a career change:

a) You have children who need more or less of your time than before:

You now have children and want to share more time with them and your spouse than your current career allows.

You have children and you are the primary carer so you need to be at home and want a career that allows you to work from home with the flexibility to work around the hours your children need you.

Your children have started school and you have more time available, so you want to start a new career.

Your children have grown up and left home, and now you no longer have to support them, you want to pursue your life long dream of being a scuba instructor in Hawaii (for example).

b) You have gone through a divorce or break up:

Now that you are single again, you want to move back to your home town/ state/country which you left to satisfy your ex-spouses needs when your relationship was flourishing. Now you can get back to your own family and friends, and find the career that you were meant to do. Your current career was a compromise that you accepted whilst you were married/in the relationship, but now you want to pursue your own dreams.

c) You have recently been bereaved:

Your spouse has passed away. You may have cared for them through a serious and ultimately terminal illness, giving up your career to be at home. Perhaps your experiences leading up to your tragic loss have taught you important lessons about yourself and your own life calling. Now it is time to rebuild your life, and a new career is in order.

d) You have been, or are likely to be made redundant:

Your career is no longer in demand. You have lost your job, and the prospects of finding work again in the same field are slim. You need to find a different career that will provide you with enjoyment, satisfaction and a stable and reliable income for as long as is possible to forsee. Perhaps you have a redundancy package that will help to see you through the transition. Perhaps you are less fortunate, and need to earn money immediately, whilst you investigate potential alternative career options.

Your current career is in less demand and likely to continue declining. You are working in a career that is being subsumed by changes in technology or society. It is only a matter of time before you are made redundant, and you do not want to wait for that to happen. You have to change career. You have some time to do the research, or you have an idea of what you want to do in your next career.

2. You want more personal growth in your new career.

Your current career does not offer you the fulfillment you need, and you want to have a career that allows you to learn and grow as a human being. You want to have passion for your work so that you will be imaginative and creative in your career. You want to fully utilize your talents, education, experience and skills to create something meaningful in your new career.

3. Your want less stress in your next career.

You are experiencing high stress in your current career. You are not as young as you once were (who is?!) and you want more calm in your career. Tight artificial deadlines, reactive "fire-fighting" work and a pressure cooker work environment are no longer for you - you are happy to leave that to a younger person. Now it is time to pursue a proactive, planned, steady new career. A career choice that gives you the work-life balance you desire and deserve.

4. You want more excitement and challenge from your second career:

Your career is boring and no longer challenging. It just does not excite you any more, if it ever really did. You have mastered all the skills you need, your experience makes your job easy, and you have no interest in trying to progress further up the career ladder in this particular sector. You are just not interested in further training in this career - you feel it's not worth the effort. You are looking for an exciting challenging career that will get your adrenalin flowing and your heart pounding again. Something to make you feel young and alive.

5. Your earning power is limited by your current career.

Your current career, interesting and fun though it may be, just does not pay the bills. You need to find something that you can love doing that will provide you with financial security as well as job satisfaction.

6. You see a new career you want to try because you think it will offer you all the above.

Your eyes have been opened to the opportunity of a new career in a field that you had not considered before, or that did not exist before. Perhaps technology, political or social changes, or a move to a different city, state or country has revealed a career choice that you are sure is a better fit for you. If it fits with one or more of the reasons above, then you should consider it.

Consider all the options, but be prepared to take some risk

Nothing is definite in life, except that one day it will end. When that end is near, will you forgive yourself for not taking the risk that might have made you complete? Look into your own heart, make the decision, and then let your head work out the details of how to get there.

Career Planning - Are You Following a Planned Career Path or Simply a Series of Jobs?

Successfully managing your own career is critical for your financial and personal well being. Yet it is rarely pursued on a strategic or informed basis. Career planning, particularly in the technology field, is more and more the responsibility of the individual. Particularly, since most people today end up working for many employers.

The overall basis for more successful career management includes developing plans that are applicable at different stages in your working life. And even more important if you plan on a career change after 50.

Although living in the information age, there is few comprehensive job information and planning resources available online. Exploring a career versus job information is more readily available once you have focused on a career path, such as technology or even further, within a specific industry.

When employed the employer generally provides training, successive jobs, and a defined career ladder to the degree that it unites with the organization's needs and objectives. Outplacement counselors generally help people focus on job searches rather than career plans. Recruiters are looking to fill job positions with top candidates for employers who are their clients and normally do not provide career planning services for individuals.

We can generally fit career planning as having three major phases: early stage from ages 16 to 33; middle, from 34 to 52; and later, beyond 53. Many times, early career choices are highly influenced by parents, relatives, teachers or close friends. The choices of technical schools, colleges or graduate schools, as well as majors, begin to focus interests for career paths.

It is important, in the early stages of a career planning, to carefully make choices, as initial decisions can have a major impact on longer term career success and ultimately, happiness.

Mid-stage career planning and effort usually reflects the initial experiences and jobs one has had with his or her early career. It generally is an extension of that experience. At this stage, there may be a thread of a career track, but job moves and knowledge growth during this phase that are not well planned or executed can result in important limits to career-growth.

Late-stage career planning frequently results from the need to find the right position in one's career after an early retirement or a reduction in force. After 50 career planning at this stage generally reflects more entrepreneurial, part time, or flexible working arrangements. This is when traditional employment limitations as well as long developed interests come more into focus.

Career planning at each stage of a person's working career can best be analyzed by considering the following: (1) Take stock of your career. Define your career and objectives at regular intervals preferably at least once a year. Do it in writing. (2) Research and identify possible career options that could meet those career objectives. (3) Evaluate your skills, personality, training and experience. Develop a plan so you can pursue your career objectives. (4) Make a decision as to which career options are the best. Build a plan in the near, medium and long term to reach your career objectives. (5) Be flexible as you monitor your progress. Refine the plan, challenge yourself.

It's critical for you to invest in career planning during each stage of a successful career for short-, medium-and long-term achievement. Ask yourself, are you following a well defined career roadmap or simply working a succession of jobs? If you said yes to the latter, it's never to late to get started.

Career Test - Taking Career Change Tests and Assessments

Career test is a great tool to define your career choice. If you are not satisfied with your job this tool can help. Since job satisfaction is the way to a peak performance it is critical that you choose a career that offers yourself every opportunity to excel. And career assessments are the answer when it comes to selecting the perfect career. Assessment tests use a series of questions about your interests, about your style of working, and how you interact with other people. Questionnaires are an important part of career assessment tools. These questionnaires and their scoring system were rigorously designed to provide the most accurate results.

Testing methodologies vary but in general, career tests ask a battery of questions that attempt to distinguish many things. They clarify your interests as well as match your skills and competencies to specific fields. They try to identify your strong points and individual work style to determine whether you like certain jobs and if you will be successful in that position. One popular type of tests is career aptitude tests. These tests measure your skills you have learned so far in life and your areas of potential.

A personality test is another type of career assessment tests. They help discover what your work personality is and find a career for you by performing a research on hundreds of careers. If you spend some time taking a career personality test or two, you'll get several career options to help you consider how they may fit with your personality.

Career testing programs can assist young professionals, mid-career professionals, seasoned professionals and high school & college students to find the right career for each individual. When you take a career quiz you may be surprised at what your test reveals, especially if you have been in your current career for many years. Quizzes cannot provide magic answers but they help you to have a better understanding of your vocational identity and thus to seek and generate additional career options. They help you scan a wider range of possibilities than you might be able to imagine on your own.

If you want to change career, taking some career change tests can help you choose your ultimate career choice. Using many career options that you get from various career tests you then search your soul and ask yourself some tough questions to determine which career is right for you.

Career Success - A Winning Career Game Plan

Build a career planning tool box to achieve career success.

We all have our favorite coaches, and if they coach our favorite athletic team, it's a plus. Tom Landry tried to measure the character of his players. Vince Lombardi expected and achieved excellence. Dean Smith brought out the best in his players while playing within the rules. John Wooden spent extra time in designing the best practices possible. Superior coaching is about being our best and beyond.

A significant number of Coach Lombardi's players, for example, achieved financial and personal success outside football. Coaching is about performance whether its career planning or on the athletic field. Effective career planning with an experienced job coach will help us get on the right career path to plan, manage and advance our career.

As a career planning guide the best coach to bring out your peak performance is the person you see in the mirror every morning. If you can't pay for a personal career coach, or maybe there's no one available or you aren't ready, why not be your own career planning coach? Here's a successful and winning game plan to follow:

1. Write out your Personal Career Planning Guide: Write out your career goals. Your career development plan should be specific and measurable. There is power in writing and planning your career goals. Put a copy up on your screen saver. Write out your career plan on 3x5 cards and place them where you can read them daily. Think about your career objectives and frequently bring them up to date. Celebrate whenever you reach a milestone. This step is the most important in your career planning tool box.

2. Focus on your Career Development: Eliminate distractions and keep your eye on your career goals. Life normally is full of frustrations and distractions. Successful coaches do not tolerate the things that drive most of us crazy - they take the time to stop, solve the problem and eliminate the distraction once and for all. Stay focused on your career plan.

3. Control your Surroundings: Top performers know that space management is as important as time management. They generally have neat offices, clean cars, orderly appointment books, and they plan for the unexpected, just in case. Make your space is as productive as possible and you can put your very best work.

4. Superior Performance Today: Don't dwell on the past. It can't be changed. Work your career planning strategy by doing your best today. Show up, be attentive, bear down and do your best. Your outstanding performance today will coach you to reach and exceed your future career plans. Many of life's most important achievements are about doing a superior job right now, on the work that lies right in front of you. Dwelling on the big game next month will only cause you to lose focus on you career plans; the job in front of you is to get the most out of today's work (practice) so when the big game arrives you'll be more that ready to excel.

5. Build daily reading into your Career Plan: As part of your career plan, set aside some time to read something useful, motivating or fun every day. If you enjoy reading science fiction, for example, make a deal with yourself for every science fiction novel you read you'll read two motivation or career related books. Plan on reading at least two books a month, build it into your career planning. Manage your other reading. Everything that comes across your desk or in your email does not have to be read. Use the delete button or the round file. You'll now have more time to read something that advances your career plan. Reading will make a world of difference in coaching you to reach your career goals outlined in your career plan.

6. Make the time in your car Productive: During your commute or when you're driving plan on listening to motivational, educational, learn a language, or just plain fun CD's. The radio is wall to wall commercials or the latest murder and mayhem; not productive use of your time. You'll be furthering your career plan by turning this unproductive time to into something useful. It's always good career advice to surround yourself with the best information available.

7. Develop a Career Coaching Group: As you advance in your career you'll come across people who can help you become successful. Stay in contact with them. Think of them as your "assistant coaches." Run ideas by them, ask for their advice and be open to let them coach you.

8. Build Play and Fitness into your Career Plan: Get fit. Go for a long walk. Use the basketball hoop in the driveway. Have fun, laugh, enjoy the day with friends and family. Build play and fitness into your career plan. Be balanced in your career life planning. Don't neglect the physical side of your career path planning.

10. Be Thankful of your Gifts: Look back on the past week. Ask yourself how many good days or events did you have in the past week. What made them good? Plan on doing more of the good stuff and less of the not so good. Be grateful and thankful to others. Practice a positive attitude.

Having a number of career planning guides like those listed above in your career tool box to assist you in your coaching will help keep you on your planned path. Having written career goals, with a career planning strategy and your books, CD's, friends along with your routine will all help coach you to career success.

Search out the best resources you can find. Build your career plan into your daily routine. Overall your career planning should not be expensive and you'll find it to be one of the best investments you'll ever make. Coach yourself to success.

How A Career Coach Program Can Help You Find Your Dream Career?

Career coach program is a special program designed to help you explore the career opportunities in your field of interest, teach you to set your career goal, and how to plan your career path to achieve your career goal. A student who are looking for a career related college degree, a fresh graduate who just going to enter the job market or a working adult who are looking for career advancement or career switch may benefit from a career coach program. Let's find out how a career coach program will benefit you in helping you to find your dream career and achieve your career goal in the shortest period of time.

Benefits for a College Student

You may have certain fields of interest that you plan to start your career after you graduation. Before you decide which degree program that will help in your future career, you may have concerns about the demand of your selected career field, projected salary range, qualification requirements for your career ladder & etc. A career coach can help to clear your doubts and answer your questions about your career future. By getting understanding on your future career path based on your selected field of study, you can ensure you are selecting the right degree program that meet the qualification of your selected career and you will be more prepared to face your career challenge when you start your career after graduation.

Benefits for a Fresh Graduate

You are graduated with a degree of you choice but you may wonder the degree you earned will qualified you for what types of careers and which one is the best for you. If you have hardship to decide your career direction, then, it's better for you to approach a career professional consultant to guide you through your career selection. The final decision still on your hand, a career coach will only provide opinions and explain to you what are your options based on your degree qualification. A career coach program will get your mind open with all your available options so that you can make the best choice for yourself and set your career path in a right direction.

Make Your Career Switch through Career Coach Program

You don't find your current job to be your best choice and you are looking for a career switch but you may wonder about what is the next career that best suit you. You may concern that you might make another wrong decision. Then, joining a career coach program may provide you with useful information & guidance that will help you to understand what you are really want in your career life and how to make a right decision to make your career dream come true.

Summary

You do not need a career coach program if you already clear of what is your career direction and you have successfully definite your career path, else a career coach program will provides you with a great help in driving your career into a right directory and help you to stay in the right career and achieve your desired career goal.

Career Planning - Your Guide to a Successful Future!

Having a career plan is a useful tool to monitor your career progress. It cannot be overemphasized the importance of having a realistic workable career plan. The operative words here are that you work the plan. You monitor your career progress and over time you make adjustments to your career plan as circumstances change.

Following are some basic ideas laid out for you to start planning and managing your career. Working on a career plan means you have to spend time understanding and organizing yourself. Your career goal is to maximize you skills, talents and abilities. Reflecting on your unique set of skills, strengths and limitations and how they change is time never wasted. Thinking about these things leads to a certain lucidity so when future opportunities are presented you can quickly make good choices.

Rapid changes in the economy, in the nature of work and organizations have complicated the career planning process. Gone are the days when many career plans looked like steps on a staircase. Predictable step by step career plans can't now be relied on and you must plan for greater flexibility with more frequent review and analysis of your progress and situation.

Look around, often those who are most skilled in managing their career and maximizing opportunities get the promotions and the best jobs. Let's see if we can help vault you into that group so you can manage your career progress through a well thought out career plan.

The foundation of your career plan has to be based on your understanding of who you are, what is important to you and your ideas and hopes for the future. This detailed understanding will help you to begin the process of developing your career plan.

Answering the following simple questions will get you started. In the past did you change jobs? If so why? What are the noteworthy influences in your life? How have these influences affected your career?

Now examine your skills. What are your major skills? What are your principal strengths? What limitations do you have? List your successes and failures. Do you have any underdeveloped talents? What are they? What are your wishes and dreams? Where do you see yourself in the near future, longer term?

Now look at what options do you have to make changes in your career plan. Is there a large gap that you need to start working on or do you need to make smaller improvements a number of factors? Write out your goals to your career plan. Keep each item measurable in both the short and longer term. If for example, your need a course in self-study, and plan on reading 48 books in the next two years, your career plan would be to read two books a month.

One career planning area that many find productive is to increase your satisfaction on you current job. Look around, is there an opportunity to undertake a new project, participate in a job swap, look for new responsibilities, come up with new ways to do things, go out of your way to mentor others, or even look at part-time or flexible employment.

The other main area in career planning is to change yourself by learning new skills or updating others or resetting your expectations and possibly reexamining present attitudes. You could take some additional courses at a local college, start a program of self-study, work at developing additional mentors or contact a career coach. All will move you toward achieving you career goals and making your career plans a reality.

Finally after you've looked internally for career opportunities and found nothing but dead ends, you may have to look elsewhere to advance your career. Examine your current situation critically when making plans to change employers. Develop creative solutions to ensure as close a match as possible between what you have planned for your career and what might be available. If you have gaps in your skills plan to get them closed, if you have to learn new skills get on a training and study program, begin studying writing and updating your resume and begin learning the latest in interviewing and job hunting techniques.

The right job may not be available at the right time. You may have to think beyond job opportunities that offer a promotion or increase in salary so don't overlook a sideways move or a job which will give you experience or increase you career satisfaction.

As you periodically review your career plan you will find changes in what abilities are important and others will drop down in priority or some skills become more useful and others become redundant. The key is to review your career plan regularly, at least every three months with a more serious annual review. With these steps you will find yourself more in control, have more satisfaction with your present situation and be more positive and optimistic about your future.

Career Counseling for Change - Five Important Keys to a Successful Direction and Transition

Are you unsatisfied with your career and want to make a change? Do you feel like you are not achieving your full career potential? Do you want to make a change, but want to make sure it is the right career this time? Don't know what you want to do, but know its not what you do now?

People are most fulfilled and successful when they find work they love to do and that suits their talents and abilities. This article shares five important keys to making a successful career change. Some concepts may be new to you, some may not. I encourage you to read through them either way, and let them stimulate your thinking. The exercises included are optional, but you are invited to reap
the full benefits by participating in them.

Key #1: Establish a career direction based on excellent self-understanding.

The first stages of a career change involve thinking, self-assessment, exploring, and planning. You can embark on these steps now--without disrupting your current employment situation. After you know more about your new direction, you can decide when to make your move. A career-direction goal should always aim for the ideal career and job fit for yourself. The first steps to identifying the ideal career involve self-assessment and generating insights into what career will make you most satisfied while meeting your needs. Research shows that people who are most satisfied and motivated in their careers are people who have a career that reflects their values, interests, skills, and talents plus their ideal work environment.

How can you clarify these kinds of self-understanding insights? You can do this first of all through a process of reflection on your favorite passions, skills, and interests as well as preferences. Career tests or assessments can also provide help here, and lend some objectivity to the exploration. There are a number of reliable and valid career-oriented tests that are widely available through career counselors and coaches.

Career counseling is geared exactly for this purpose. You may enjoy and benefit from the guidance of a counselor or coach to facilitate the development of a career direction based on who you are. This kind of self-understanding then translates into identifying specific careers that match up with who you are, and are likely to bring you the most satisfaction and motivation.

Here are some tips:

* Think ideally. What do you really want?

* Listen to your longings and desires.

* Pay attention to what attracts you.

* Stay away from things that repel you.

* Understand fully your unique style.

As you go about a career change, it is important to realize you cannot do everything well. You must choose a career direction and a job based on your best abilities and strengths. There are businesses that very much need the capabilities that you are able to provide.

Key #2 to a successful career change is to take stock of your skills, natural talents, competencies, and strengths, and to be able to articulate these well to potential employers as well as others.

Go with your strengths, and be able to communicate them impressively.If you think you have already identified your skills, talents, and strengths, and are looking for work that emphasizes these, great.

Take this opportunity to ask yourself, "Am I successfully saying no to careers and jobs that do not focus on my favorite skills, talents, and strengths?"

Focus your career direction into a career and job for which you are especially equipped. Each person has natural talent and intelligence in one or more areas. The idea is to be very clear on what you are naturally gifted at and let your talents guide you to your next career.

To further discover or clarify where your strengths and talents fall, think back on your life and previous work experience. What tasks and projects came easiest to you? What were the most important accomplishments in your life? What have you received the most recognition for?

You may want to ask several friends what they see as your greatest professional strengths. Career assessment can also yield good information. Take stock. Write down a list now. What themes emerge as you reflect on this?

This is a valuable exercise for self-understanding and career direction, but also when it comes to getting a job. The better you can articulate who you are and the talents and skills you bring to a business, the better impression you make on a potential employer.

There are a number of variables to consider in choosing a career or a job, including the market realities. This brings us to another concept that is necessary to be successful in your transition.

Key #3 is to identify a career that involves what you love to do, can be the best at, and for which you can be well compensated.

Imagine a Ven diagram consisting of three overlapping circles. One circle represents those activities, tasks, functions, and roles that you love to do. All of us at one time or another have experienced doing work that really did not seem like work because we enjoyed doing it. That's what I mean by work that you love to do.

The second circle represents work that you have the potential to be best at--work that you can do better than most others. This means tasks and projects that you have the right skills and natural talent for, and excel at. Work that you will be highly competitive at and perhaps (potentially) better than anyone else.

The third circle represents work that you will be paid well for. If there is work that you love to do and are great at, it will not matter unless someone will compensate you what you need. It is important to understand and take into account the realities of the job market.

Now, in this Ven diagram, the three circles overlap with each other equally. In the center is an area where the three circles converge and all three circles are overlapping. This is the area that represents the right career(s) for you. You want to consider careers or jobs that align with these three areas--work that you love to do, can do best, and will be well- compensated for.

By the way, if this sounds similar to Jim Collin's Hedgehog Concept in his book "Good to Great", it is. It is an adaptation of his model for business success applied to career success. I highly recommend his book.

So now, I suggest you take a few minutes and apply this to yourself. Where is the convergence of these three circles for you? If you cannot discover this, how will you find out? When all is said and done, one of the biggest factors in a career transition is money. Although you may love the idea of quitting your job and jumping into your next career, financial realities are in play.

Key #4: To transition smoothly into your next career, plan the best
way to juggle the finances to support you along the way.

I know from my work as a career counselor and coach that the money issue can cause significant angst and difficulty. Here are some ideas for managing it well.

1. Use your current income wisely. If you have a job, keep it. There's a saying that its easier to get a job when you have one. Before initiating a move: increase your savings, reduce your expenses, live within, or better, below your means for a while.

2. Build cash reserves through supplementing your full-time job with other work. You can get a part-time job, do contract work, etc.

3. Add a part-time business to your full-time job. If you must let go of your full-time job, then do what you can to produce an income while you are in transition.

4. Get an interim full-time or part-time job.

5. Do contract or freelance work.

6. Have a well-paying part-time job while you work on starting a business, if that will be your next career.

7. Use consulting gigs to generate income. Put your key strengths and capabilities to good use to generate income as a consultant while in transition.

8. Work full-time or part-time while attending school to prepare for your next career, if that is your plan.

A number of these options also have fringe benefits. While providing income, you can hopefully put yourself in positions where you can develop skills, experience, or contacts for your next career. How will you make the finances work during your career transition? Take a few minutes and jot down your thoughts.

Key #5: Network, network, network.

People who are most successful at career change and job-hunting use methods that require more effort. People who are less successful do the usual: passive methods such as sending out resumes, going through agencies, looking at the ads, and using the Internet. There is nothing wrong with these methods; in a strong job market they may be sufficient.

More active approaches include researching organizations in detail, doing informational interviewing, and building a network of contacts. These methods involve more work, but they are also the most effective.

Despite the fact that we are in the age of the Internet (it is estimated that about 5 to 10% of jobs are filled by on-line job boards--not bad, but what about the other 90%?), networking is still the best strategy.

So, to be successful in making a career change, it really pays to build a strong list of contacts and reconnect with them. If you don't know how to network effectively or your skills could be better, it is a good time to work on this. Consider utilizing the help of a career counselor or coach.

Never underestimate who your friends and associates know. Keep track of your contacts as your list grows, and revitalize old relationships.

Your contacts may be the key to getting job leads, crucial inside information, getting the attention of whoever is hiring for the position you want, and many other valuable benefits. Many, many people have a job they love because they knew someone who knew someone.

Now comes the end of this article on keys to a successful career change.
Review:

Key #1: Establish a career direction based on excellent self-understanding.

Key #2: Take stock of your skills, natural talents, competencies, and strengths, and be able to articulate these well.

Key #3: Identify a career that involves what you love to do, can be the best at, and for which you can be well compensated.

Key #4 Plan the best way to juggle the finances to support you along the way.

Key #5: Network, network, network.

I hope you have enjoyed this article and are now taking steps to make a great career change. What was the biggest thing you will take away from this? What questions remain unanswered? Where will you go from here? Write out your thoughts.

How To Choose And Launch The Career You'll Love

Today's tough challenges:

- Exploding job choices.

- Why 50% stay stuck in the wrong job.

- Career decisions are complicated.

Part of the challenge in getting started to uncover the right career is learning about the exploding job choices.

For the first time in human history we have a huge, increasing number of choices for work. A growing number of new job categories are being created because of the increasing complexity and options inherent with frequent change, new work processes and all the new technologies.

But as the number of types of jobs gets bigger, the amount of specialization required to fill these positions also increases. For the job or career-seeker this situation actually reduces the number of choices a person has unless they have a directed goal, appropriate training, and background or apprenticeship in a field of their choice. As time goes on, it becomes harder and harder to leave a current job, even though its unsatisfying, and go off in search of a better life-unless you know how to navigate with a plan.

So in today's work place, we need new and better approaches for discovering, choosing and launching a career that is satisfying - one that you'll be excited about pursuing.

Why 50% stay stuck in the wrong jobs:

Research continues to show over 50% of workers are unhappy in their jobs. Often people stay in a job they don't like for a number of reasons:

1. They don't believe it's possible to have a satisfying career.

2. They don't know how to go about finding and choosing a career.

3. They are "comfortable" where they are and don't want to take on any new risks.

4. They have financial obligations - family, credit cards, payments - that handcuffs them to staying put. They feel they can't jeopardize their current job by looking around.

5. They don't know enough about themselves - their abilities and interest.

6. Their parents have other ideas and "plans" for them, which are pushed subtly or overtly. Maybe it's a family history where everyone has been in the legal profession. Or a family business that one is expected to enter. Or a mother's wish for a child to become a doctor. Then, not having made a clear choice for themselves, these paths are accepted, even though the person knows in his or her heart of hearts it's not the right thing for them.

7. They don't how to thoroughly investigate careers, and instead they rely on their limited job experiences or advice from well-meaning friends.

But if a person knows how to go about career planning, most of the above reasons for staying in the wrong job will vanish.

Career decisions are complicated:

First, recognize that career happiness is your choice -- a choice that you control.. Taking just whatever job happens to be available, or random job hopping will not expose you properly to a sufficient number of vocational situations. Without adequate choices and a plan to go through them, you never find the career that really is right for you.

Career Planning Requires - A Plan:

Empower yourself by beginning with an action plan. According to our career experts the fastest surest way to career satisfaction is to develop and follow a plan. This allows you to focus intensely on career goals and breaking each goal into specific actions and completion dates. You get to take an active role in concentrating on weekly and monthly steps, recorded in your career action plan.

A career action plan should include who, what, where and when you need to act. For example, the action plan to complete an assessment of your interests and abilities would include:

o Who to contact to take the assessment.

o What the assessment should cover.

o Where will this be done.

o When will it be started, and when finished.

Next we'll look at some of the situations that could stop a person from successful career planning.

What can go wrong:

- When your school career center does not help.

- Old approaches no longer work. Information overload.

We often hear that school career centers and library programs have not helped. One of the most common places we go for help is our school career center. Especially in college, students rely on the career office to guide them to the right path and to get hired. Typically traditional career centers offer testing, brief counseling, some resume work and interviewing preparation.

Our research shows most people feel frustrated about their career choices before and during their job search.

An important missing piece in many traditional career centers is a very thorough
exploration of hundreds of careers.

Exploration should involve brainstorming exciting career possibilities in the work world and matching the right careers with an individual's unique strengths, interests and needs. Discovering more about yourself and stretching your imagination as you explore 100s of career opportunities is a critical step for finding the perfect career.

Old approaches no longer work:

Today there are unprecedented career opportunities around the globe. To make the most of these opportunities, we must go beyond conventional career approaches with a new way of thinking.

A complete and structured program is essential to fully explore an individual's wildly different strengths and talents to unleash their potential. To thrive in a complicated work climate we need to thoroughly examine a full range of careers-in the public and private sectors, in organizations or in entrepreneurial areas.

Too many resources -information overload

We recommend exploring careers in a structured program with access to resources you can use while you investigate.

College career centers offer a broad selection of career books and online resources. With so many to choose from it's often overwhelming what will help. How do you know which to use?

Our experts suggest using books or workbooks where you can record your answers and develop a plan. Also avoid "how to" books presenting 1000s of different steps because simple is best for reaching your goals.

Why Internet courses may not work for you:

The one word of caution we have is not to plan your future alone. Sitting for hours at your computer attempting to go it alone easily discourages people from following through.

We recommend the most effective way to move your career forward is to find supportive people and talk regularly. You may need to brainstorm ideas and talk about your frustrations or plan how to work around obstacles. Career planning alone is very difficult. Our most important advice is to include others when making career decisions. Ask friends, family, colleagues who are knowledgeable and caring.

In our series we will walk you through other important information on discovering the right career. Next topics are: The Big Rewards when working with our passion. How to know what's calling you?
Sticky situations: How do you combine many different interests into one career? How do you identify your strong interests. What if your field dries up?