Top Ten Tips To Consider For a Career Transition

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Just thinking about changing careers can be overwhelming. Depending on which path you choose, it can be a daunting task. But, when you combine a little creative thinking with some strategic planning, making a career transition is much more doable. Here's is LibGig's latest Top Ten installment, Top Ten Tips To Consider For a Career Transition:

1. Reflect: Contemplating a career transition provides an excellent opportunity to take a step back, examine your past career choices / experiences and create a detailed plan with action steps for a successful transition into a career you love. A change in career will affect every aspect of your life, so it will be worth your while to plan wisely. Assessing your motivations for wanting to make a change will make your career transition a lot less daunting and a more fun! A few questions to consider before embarking on an exciting personal discovery, planning and goal setting process for your new career include:

What is the motivation and catalyst for seeking a career change? What are you looking to accomplish by making a career transition? Would remaining in your current field but simply changing jobs do the trick?
If you are unhappy with your current work situation, why so? Be as specific as possible. Review your answers and ask yourself how you might be contributing to your own unhappiness. Are your problems going to be solved by changing careers?
Does your current career not fit your lifestyle? Why not, exactly? Is there a conflict between your values and the organizational mission? What type of work do you believe would both inspire and motivate you?
Are you too stressed out? What is the root cause of the stress? Do you find your employer’s expectations to be overwhelming? Do you dread going back to work on Monday? What actions are you taking to manage your stress?
Are your skills, talents and abilities are not fully utilized? Write a list of at least occupations you think might provide a greater challenge. Review the list and identify three careers that you could realistically pursue.
Does your current job offer few opportunities to acquire new skills and advance your career? What are your career goals? What action steps are you taking right now to achieve those goals? Who motivates and inspires you – and what is their career? Think of times when you were so completely engaged in what you are working on, you become unaware of time.

2. Map It Out: Write a paragraph or two describing your ideal career. What would your average workday look like? What are the hours? Who are your ideal colleagues? What is your ideal salary? Fast forward five years into the future…..picture yourself having made a successful career transition and thriving in your new career. How great does it feel?

3. Know Thyself: Creating a satisfying career that aligns with your values and life’s purpose starts with you. Now that you have a better understanding of why you wish to make a career transition, take some time to reflect upon your strengths and weaknesses. What are your interest? Carefully assess your skill sets. Make a list of your current skill sets and the things you’d like to learn. Think of the kind of environment in which you thrive. Do you perform best in a highly creative, fast-paced collaborative environment or do you prefer working independently in traditional office setting with traditional nine to five working hours? Take advantage of free online personality tests -- they are a very helpful tool. Discovering your personality type can help you to identify the type of work for which you are well-suited and the fields in which you are most likely to succeed.

4. Research: Take time and carefully research the industries and careers in which you are interested. Industry knowledge will give you a comfort level discussing the field and help you get a better sense of how your skills align with the needs of a potential employer. Learn the type of careers available in the industry. What are the industry trends? Is the industry expanding or shrinking? Identify the companies that are the industry leaders, review their websites, read their mission statements (see if there is alignment between the organization’s values and your own), annual reports and company blog. Look up the company on Zoom Info and identify the companies’ competitors. Research company employees on the key social networking sites, LinkedIn, MySpace and Facebook. What are the educational and employment profiles of the people with the career and job you want.

Read all job posted job descriptions carefully and make a list of companies for which you’d like to work.
There are several excellent resources online including:
America's Career InfoNet
Career Overview
Occupational Outlook Handbook
O*Net
Vault.com Industry List
WetFeet.com Career & Industry Research

5. Don’t Reinvent the Wheel: Now that you have a reasonable understanding of the industry make a list of potential career paths and jobs you might want to do within the organizations that you’ve identified.

It is helpful to narrow down the types of position you may wish to pursue to three or fewer. Again, carefully review job descriptions and identify any and all transferable skills.

Do you currently possess the core competencies, knowledge, skills and abilities required for the position? Know from the outset that you will have to think creatively and be very flexible. Consider a lateral move into the new industry just to get your foot in the door. Is it possible to enter the field by supplementing your qualifications with a certificate or specialized training that build upon your current skill base, or will you have to look at a more long-term solution in the form of graduate or professional education. You may be starting this new occupation at a more junior level with a commensurate salary, for a short period of time.

Depending on your skill level and whether or not you think a transition will be a great leap, keep your day job and try to assume new responsibilities that might help in your transition.

Consider free-lance work, volunteer opportunities or internship opportunities Additional training and education. Also as yourself if relocation is a possibility, are you able to accept a lower salary while gaining experience?

6. Resume Redux: If you find that you have more transferable skills than you originally thought, create a new resume for reach position you are interested in. Your resume is marketing tool. You must effectively present your talents so that they the prospective employer sees a potential fit. Speak to career counselors and seek the advice of professional services agencies who may be recruiting for they types of positions in which you are interested. Ask for feedback from trusted friends, mentors and coaches. Avail yourself of every opportunity by following through on every and all referrals. They work.

7. Create a Master Plan: Make a list of any and all contacts of people you know who work in the industry in which you are interested. Review the websites of professional associations, alumni associations, Chambers of Commerce, listservs and blogs. Look for conferences and attend them. Bring your resume and network. Be prepared to cast a wide net. Invest the time and effort necessary to develop new relationships.

8. Reach Out! Email contacts and forward your resume to your contact to review. Schedule a time to meet or talk on the telephone. Prior to making telephone calls, make a list of questions you want to ask. Briefly introduce yourself and ask if it is a convenient time to talk. Make sure you are listening more than talking. Understand that people are generally very busy, so you have to make a compelling case for yourself and assure them that time spent with you will be worth their while. Maybe you can ask to take someone to lunch. Be able to discuss what you are actively doing to gain the skills you need to make yourself a qualified to work in your field of interest. For example, you may be working full time, but you are taking night classes, or working part time on the weekends to acquire new skills and experience. Come prepared and focused, not only on what it is you are there to learn about the organization and gain from the meeting, but what it is you want the person with whom you are meeting to take away from your time together. Make it a win-win.

9. Follow-Up!!: Always, and we mean without fail, follow up as soon as you are able with an email and written note of thanks to any and everyone you meet or with whom you have a conversation. Timeliness is key.

10. Manage your expectations: Reflect on the knowledge you’ve gained from the work you’ve done thus far. Are the outcomes what you expected? You may have to change tactics and find new ways to move forward. Enjoy the process and do something to advance your goal every day.

For more on our Top Tens, click here!

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I think interview tips too can help you when you are looking for a new job or going for an interview. Do visit my website for interview tips at http://www.learninterviewtips.com

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Nice article. Make a list of any and all contacts of people you know who work in the industry in which you are interested. Review the websites of professional associations, alumni associations, Chambers of Commerce, listservs and blogs. Look for conferences and attend them. Bring your resume and network. Be prepared to cast a wide net. Invest the time and effort necessary to develop new relationships.
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Well i think that Industry

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Well i think that Industry knowledge will give you a comfort level discussing the field and help you get a better sense of how your skills align with the needs of a potential employer. Learn the type of careers available in the industry. What are the industry trends? Is the industry expanding or shrinking? Identify the companies that are the industry leaders, review their websites, read their mission statements (see if there is alignment between the organization’s values and your own), annual reports and company blog.
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Well i think that Identify

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Well i think that Identify the companies that are the industry leaders, review their websites, read their mission statements (see if there is alignment between the organization’s values and your own), annual reports and company blog. Look up the company on Zoom Info and identify the companies’ competitors. Research company employees on the key social networking sites, LinkedIn, MySpace and Facebook or on free internet dating

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My last thought for you... is to claim your life. There never is a perfect time to make a drastic career change, and you can always come up with excuses/reasons not to. You do need to take some kind of risk and perhaps step out of your comfort zone. The key is to minimize the risk and be smart about it.
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Its a fantastic article.

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Its a fantastic article. Speak to career counselors and seek the advice of professional services agencies who may be recruiting for they types of positions in which you are interested. Ask for feedback from trusted friends, mentors and coaches. Avail yourself of every opportunity by following through on every and all referrals.
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Think about why it was that

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Think about why it was that you did these things well. Do you really relate to people? Do you love details? Once you start a project do you get more satisfaction completing it than in starting it? The answers to these questions will give you many of your hidden talents, or transferable skills. It is being able to identify and understand these skills, that are guarantees for a successful career transition.
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A prospective employer

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A prospective employer expects you to be able to apply the skills you have learned to help make the new workplace prosperous, productive and competitive! See, you've just identified a set of transferable skills. Ok, now get a sheet of paper and draw a line down the middle from top to bottom. List all your previous jobs on the left column, and all the tasks on the right.
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Well i think that to speak

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