Deciding to change careers can be a hard choice. There are many who do it successfully, while others only get their feet wet with a new career. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, “the BLS never has attempted to estimate the number of times people change careers in the course of their working lives. The reason we have not produced such estimates is that no consensus has emerged on what constitutes a career change.”
With that said, there are still a few questions and facts to take into account before deciding on taking that leap. The first should be, “Am I happy?” This is a very important question and should be the starting point when deciding on a career change. If you are happy at your current job, then why the sudden move to change career paths?
If you are unsatisfied with your current career, try and pin point (or at the least a few points) on why you are unhappy. Is it because your job is very repetitive? Are you more unhappy with your employer and not the career itself? What strengths do you have in the career you want to get into?
Resume
Your resume isn’t going to be of much help if you currently are an accountant, and you want to get into web design. It can show you are a dedicated worker, and produce great results, but it isn’t going to showcase your new skills. One way to get around this is to volunteer your services to gain that extra experience.
Starting a career blog could be useful for many career paths. If you have decent writing skills you can track your progress, and show off your new skills for everyone to see. Networking is a large part of finding a job period—so take the knowledge you know about getting hired and apply it to your new job field.
Take Your Time
When making the move to a new line of work, you should take into account that you won’t be able to do it all in a week, or even two weeks. Make weekly goals for yourself to get where you want. It is also a good idea to get into contact with others who have successfully changed careers to pick their brain. Getting advice from someone who was in your shoes can be extremely beneficial.
According to resumark, there are six skills that can translate from career to career, they are:
- Analytical
- Communications
- Leadership and People
- Problem-Solving
- Sales
- Technical
Think of how you can translate your current skills in these categories into another field. It may be hard, but this will help when writing your resume, and during interviews.
If you have successfully switched careers, let us know what tactics worked well for you.
Shannon Suetos is an expert writer on debt leads based in San Diego, California. She writes extensively for an online resource that provides expert advice on purchasing and outsourcing decisions for small business owners and entrepreneurs such as debt consolidation at Resource Nation.
