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10 Steps to Successfully Changing Your Career
Set up a job shadow
Shadow professionals in fields of primary interest to observe work first hand.
Spend anywhere from a few hours to a few days job shadowing people who have jobs that interest you. Your college career office is a good place to find alumni volunteers who are willing to host job shadowers.
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Evaluate your current job satisfaction
Keep a journal of your daily reactions to your job situation and look for recurring themes.
Which aspects of your current job do you like and dislike? Are your dissatisfactions related to the content of your work, your company culture or the people with whom you work?
Assess your interests, values, and skills
Review past successful roles, volunteer work, projects and jobs to identify preferred activities and skills.
Determine whether your core values and skills are addressed through your current career.
Consider alternative careers
Brainstorm ideas for career alternatives by researching career options, and discussing your core values and skills with friends, family, and networking contacts.
If you’re having difficulty coming up with ideas, consider meeting with a career counselor for professional advice.
Check out job options
Conduct a preliminary comparative evaluation of several fields to identify a few targets for in-depth research. You can find a wealth of information online simply by Googling the jobs that interest you.
Get personal
Find out as much as much as you can about those fields and reach out to personal contacts in those sectors for informational interviews.
A good source of contacts for informational interviewers is your college alumni career network. LinkedIn is another great resource for finding contacts in specific career fields of interest.
Set up a job shadow
Shadow professionals in fields of primary interest to observe work first hand.
Spend anywhere from a few hours to a few days job shadowing people who have jobs that interest you. Your college career office is a good place to find alumni volunteers who are willing to host job shadowers.
Try it out
Identify volunteer and freelance activities related to your target field to test your interest.
For example, if you're interested in working with animals, volunteer at your local shelter.
Take a class
Investigate educational opportunities that would bridge your background to your new field.
Consider taking an evening course at a local college or an online course. Contact professional groups in your target field for suggestions.
Upgrade your skills
Look for ways to develop new skills in your current job which would pave the way for a change.
If your company offers in-house training, sign up for as many classes as you can.
Consider the same industry
Consider alternative roles within your current industry which would utilize the industry knowledge you already have.
SIMILAR ARTICLES & IDEAS:
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Key Ideas
Self-Assessment
Carefully evaluate your individual strengths, lifestyle preferences, passions, work style, and financial needs.
Know both who you are as a person and who you desire to b...
Research
- Brainstorm possible job options and investigate them thoroughly.
- Learn about the descriptions and qualifications for various positions, typical entry points and advancement opportunities, satisfactions, frustrations, and other important facts.
- Speak with as many people as possible that are involved in work that is of interest to you to get an insider’s perspective.
Experimentation
Internships and part-time jobs are an excellent way to sample a field of interest.
They provide the opportunity to perform some of the job functions, observe others work, and evaluate the “real world” workplace environment.
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Purpose of Career Networking
It involves using personal, professional, academic or familial contacts to assist with a job search, achieve career goals, or learn more about your field, or another field you'd like to work in....
Top 7 Networking Tips
- Include the right people: anyone who can assist you with a career move
- Know what your career network can do for you
- Keep in touch - work your network: People are more willing to help when they know who you are
- Give to get - what can you do for your career network
- Keep track of your network:
make sure you know who is who, where they work, and how to get in touch.
- Network online
- Attend networking events.
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Key Ideas
Changing careers
Time to give serious thought to this life-shaping question: What exactly are you going to do with the rest of your li...
Start with honest self-assessment
- Analyze your current skill set, training level, and accomplishments to date.
- Write down the aspects of the work you liked and what tasks or things you disliked.
- Explore different career options. Investigate new fields, industries and potential careers.
- Interview individuals who work at those types of jobs, or in fields of interest to you.
- Look at growth opportunities, salaries, benefits, education level and then determine the job title to target.
Change from careers
- Use your transferable skills. You have acquired abilities from previous positions.
- Use your strengths. Incorporate your talents into any position you choose to go after.
- Get new skills. Study the industry you want to enter. Take some courses so you can more quickly enter the field.
- Many people prevent their own success. They find excuses, or blame others, for their own failures or mistakes instead of learning and improving from them.
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