Changing Careers

Have you frequently wondered whether your work will ever use your strengths or skills you value? Do you think other people's work is more interesting than yours? Do you wonder if anyone really is happy at work? Do you come home after work exhausted?

Most people have several different fields of work over a lifetime. Twenty years ago career development research showed that most people changed focus several times – bet you thought they had the same career for life! Ongoing research continues to show this pattern of multiple career choices.

So, if you think you are ready for a new challenge, let's start the search!

Are you one of the rare souls lucky enough to know exactly what you want to do next? For you, the challenge is to make the transition. Jump to the other Jobseekers columns for some job search information.

Develop a plan for this process

Be realistic in your planning in terms of what time and resources you can commit. Depending on your work and life demands, you may expect to take as little as 3 months to more than a year to define what you want to do next and move into it. Your plan needs to include personal assessments, research and information-gathering, data analysis, development or enhancement of needed skills, and a full job search. Set up realistic goals and time-tables. Track your progress regularly and adjust as needed.

Major steps in career changing

So you know you want to do something new. First, learn what you want to do.

Most of us think about a career change because we are bored, unhappy, or have lost our jobs. Here the challenge is to think about what you might like to do. This takes some real thought, some research, and the ability to surmount the natural fear of all that a new field implies.

If you end up running from your current work, you are less likely to be successful. You want to choose work that really interests you and which uses your strengths effectively. You want to be running to, not running from! And that takes thought and effort.

There are a lot of books you can read and tests you can take. But it helps to start with an effort to think of what skills you have and enjoy using. You want work that uses these skills. I love unusual jewelry and enjoy doing the ACC Craft shows each year – but I have no talent for the work involved in turning metal into wonderful wearable objects – so life as a silversmith is out for me. The first efforts to identify the skills you want to use might include:

• Make a list of all the skills you have which you enjoy using. The hard skills that you have learned – whether manual ones like your ability to rebuild an engine or mental ones like solving complex data puzzles – may come to mind first. But also include soft skills like your ability to work well with other people or to sell a concept.
  
  
• Ask several close friends or family members to help. Start by asking them what they think you are good at. Then share your list and see what ideas they think you have missed. Don't be surprised if they add skills you have but don't enjoy using or name a skill you do not see yourself as being good at all. Do consider such suggestions rather than rejecting them immediately – sometimes others do see things we have missed.
  
  
• After you have made your first lists, start your external research. You may want to take the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory or similar aptitude test which map a lot of your interests to possible career choices. It is available from many college career centers. There are some simple versions of it, other career aptitude tests, and personal style assessments online. One source is Richard Bolles' new site which has both links to a number of tests online and information about other tests at: http://www.jobhuntersbible.com/counseling/counseling.shtml.

Don't think these tests will be THE answer. They will, at best, give you ideas and suggest options. My career aptitude tests always have said 'lawyer' but the only lawyer I ever wanted to be was Perry Mason. The detail aspects and research work of lawyering would drive me crazy.

There are a number of useful books on assessing your skills and interests and matching them to careers. These include:

• The classic What Color is Your Parachute, by Richard Bolles
• Soar with Your Strengths, by Donald Clifton and Paula Nelson
• The Three Boxes of Life, by Richard Bolles
• Do What You Are, by Otto Kroeger, matches Myers Briggs types to work

As you do all this research, what ideas really excite you? These are the ones to concentrate on.

The second phase is the matching of your interests and strengths with potential work.

• What jobs use the strengths you have identified?
• What are the common qualifications for such jobs?
• How can you prepare for and move into such work?
• Who hires people for these positions?
• Who do you know who can help you assess your opportunities?

One source for information about a wide range of positions is the US Department of Labor. They publish, both online and in hard copy available at many libraries, information about all sorts of occupations and their requirements and, often, pay rates.

Additionally, many professional organizations have online or print information about careers in their field. You can read ads for positions which look interesting to see what common requirements and job titles are. Many universities have online career services which include information about common positions. Some of the major job boards have excellent articles on various fields – the work, the requirements, the typical jobs.

In looking at the work you might want to do, it is wise to look at future trends. For example, with the aging of the US population there will not only be more needs for geriatric health professionals but for all sorts of other services. And thus there will be new jobs being created and existing jobs will expand in numbers.

In thinking about your interests and potential jobs, you may hit some blocks. It is always easier to help someone else think about what they might succeed at than to do it for oneself. Do not hesitate to ask mentors and good friends for help in your search for new opportunities. And a book on creative thinking may help you jump-start your planning when you get stuck. One I like is "A Kick in the Seat of Your Pants" by Roger von Oech who has written several such books.

As you begin to narrow down the list of potential new careers to those you are most interested in, you should consider informational interviews. Here you network to find people in the field you want to enter and talk with them about the common aspects of working in the field. You are not looking for work at this point but for information. To do this effectively, you need to have developed specific questions you want answered. You may ask for a personal interview, a phone one, or some time via email/IM. Remember that this is a favor and not everyone will have time for you. However, if you are already well prepared when you ask for help, many will and you will learn a lot more about the real working environment and typical jobs this way.

Once you have chosen one or two career options, assess your skills and whether you need additional training or education to make your switch. Also, look at the local labor market to identify what positions are available where. Then start a job search. Take a look at earlier columns in this series for information on preparing your resume, finding jobs, and the rest of the process.

Other aspects to include in your planning and research

Another aspect of changing career fields is assessing compensation. There is a lot of generic pay information available on the web which will give you some broad ranges of potential pay. There is less information on typical benefit packages, so you will need to include this in your direct research with people in the field. You need to assess what pay you must have and whether you can achieve that. Often changing fields can result in at least a short term pay reduction if you are relatively experienced in your current field. One of the difficult parts of changing careers for lawyers (and they are one of the groups most likely to want to change to another field) is that they focus on the money they are making now and how much they will lose by changing. If you do that, you are most likely to stay in a job doing work you hate until you are forced out of it by external forces...like being fired. Alternatively, if you have been working in a non-profit or association or a low-paying field, you may not face any pay issues.

Finally, as you make such a change, be prepared to help others understand why you are changing and all the skills you bring that are valuable in the new field. This includes:

• Enlisting your entire network to help you make the change.
  
  
• Writing a resume that keys into everything you have learned about the new field by using the right jargon and focusing on your relevant achievements.
  
  
• Attending professional events related to your new field before you have a job in it both to learn and to make the right contacts.
  
  
• Developing a compelling one-minute summary statement about why you are moving into the new field and how your skills translate – for use at events, with friends, etc.

Clearly matching each listed requirement in any ad you answer to specific skills you already have so as to help the reader make the connection

Career changing can be a difficult and time-consuming process. It is important to enlist your friends, as well as yourself, in helping you keep moving toward the goal. Make a plan and work on it until you succeed. Understand that you may have to stay in a position you are not completely happy in for some time or take a temporary position in your old field to support yourself during this process. But if you do not make the time to achieve your goal, you will remain stuck.

When you find a position that really uses the skills and talents you want to use, you will succeed!

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