Starting A New Career
The Magic of Starting A New Career
Theres something exciting about starting a new career. Perhaps its the hope of better things. The excitement of finally doing something different and daring. An escape from a dead-end job or unappreciative boss.
Here are a few things that can serve as a reality check before you jump in.
Note: You will find that the questions focus more on why you are looking for a new career and not only how to change your career. Being very clear about your change motivation will empower your decision making process and help you stand firm when you start to doubt yourself.
After working through the questions, you may find that perhaps this is not the right time for a career change, or that starting a new career is not the right solution for you.
5 QUESTIONS TO ASK WHEN STARTING A NEW CAREER
1. Why do you want a career change?
Are you changing careers to escape something, or is the change part of your decision making strategy for moving towards something better?
2. What types of careers most attract you and why?
For example, your criteria might include:
- Highest paying careers
- Hottest careers
- Fun careers
- Fastest growing careers
- If you dont know, it might help to take an online career test. A typical test usually takes just a few minutes to complete and the results could be enlightening.
3. What is keeping you from enjoying job or career satisfaction?
Careers and Salary:
Not happy with your salary package?
How will you position yourself to ask for a raise at the next performance review?
Would you feel more confident if you could boost your negotiation skills with help from a career advisor?
Stress at work:
Would life skills coaching boost your ability to confidently ask for what you need or feel you deserve?
Your life circumstances have changed:
Marriage, parenthood and care of aging parents are situations that present new challenges. You may find that you prefer more flexibility and say in the way you work.
Consider if you would be happier looking at work from home careers and other flexi work options.
You are bored at work:
Maybe you have had enough of the lawyer career and its time to look at alternative careers that let you use your law degree in a different, a more creative way.
4. What can you do today to transform your job and/or work environment so that you would want to continue working?
We tend to forget that we have enormous personal power at our disposal; we always have the power to choose. Even when we think we dont.
If you could find a way to lift the vibe in your workplace, would you stay on in your organization, or would you quit anyway?
For instance, it might be that you love your job, but there are one or two things that make the office feel like a hostile work environment rather than a place of productivity.
Its always worth asking if it makes sense for you to uproot and start over. There is no guarantee your new career will be what you expect or hope.
As one wit puts it, you may find that all that changes is the color of the wall and the color of the carpets.
5. How will you get from here to there?
In other words, what is your Career Management Plan?
Sample Career Plans could include the following:
- Quit your job. Enrol in a course that gives you relevant work skills for your next career.
- Stay in your current job. Combine work and study.
- Pursue a different job within the same industry.
Top Ten Signs that you need a job change
Steve Jobs has been quoted that to be truly satisfied you must do what you believe is great work. Since our work, job, career takes up about 50 hours of our 168 hour week then to be truly satisfied with that work will help us be happier in our whole life. Right?
We are all tired of our jobs once in a while, and we would all like to be somewhere else once in a while. Yet if you are consistently seeing the following signs, then you are ready for a change.
Here are some signs (of many) that you are ready to find a better job or more fulfilling career.
10. You dread Monday morning on Sunday night.
9. You feel depressed when you walk into your office.
8. You watch the clock and sigh.
7. You procrastinate on projects cause you are just not in the mood.
6. You daydream about being somewhere else most of the time.
5. Your customers, co-workers and boss get on your nerves
4. You call in sick often.
3. On Monday at 10am you are looking forward to Friday.
2. You check out Indeed.com for job openings Monday afternoon.
1. You say out loud "I hate my job" and mean it.
It is a shame to have this one life and not love the job your are in. It is more than OK to start seriously looking for a better job, but most importantly, to know what you are looking for in your ideal job or career.
A career coach can help you clarify that ideal job and help you create a strategic plan of action to get that job. Action is everything. Why Wait?