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 So you've decided that you're ready for a career change. Well, the requisite warning needs to be given - the grass is not always greener on the other side. With that warning out of the way, we're ready to give you some advice on how to go about changing careers.
Career Change Advice
One of the most important things you want to do during a career change is land a job in a career that you actually like; you certainly don't want to go backwards. In fact, it should be a career that you think you will like so much that you'll want to stay in that job for many years to come. This should be your frame of mind.
Depending on your personal beliefs, you might want to go through career changes fairly often throughout your life. If you're looking to change jobs every two years, then this kind of advice is not for you. What you might think is a career change, is really just job hopping. That's something we'd rather not talk about.
Chances are that even job hoppers will someday value stability in their job and in their life. But the time for a true career change is an individual choice. For those of you that are looking for some advice on how to change careers now, keep on reading.
Planning a Career Change
You've probably seen career change advice described in publications in as little as five simple steps, or as complex as a full-blown 15 step process. Well, the process doesn't have to be complex. This is a business publication, so we will use our business backgrounds to plan our career change, and that means it's a four step process: Assess, Plan, Execute, and Review.
Career Assessment
A career assessment should be your first step in your career change plan. A career assessment consists of identifying your likes and dislikes in a job. For example, you need to think through questions such as:
- What do you really like doing at work?
- Which work assignments do you dread?
- What assignments did you think were "fun" (if that is possible at work)?
- Did you like working in teams or independently?
Make a list if you have to, but the key point here is to identify the kinds of jobs that you like and dislike. When you're thinking through these questions, keep asking yourself that "why" question.
- Why did you like the work?
- Why was working on a team rewarding?
- Why do you like interacting with others? (Perhaps you're an extrovert)
During the career assessment stage, you'll also want to start to understand where your skills line up with these ideal jobs. Do you need more training or experience in a certain skill? Are you missing a key requirement of the ideal career?
Career Planning
The next step you're going to take is career planning. In this step, you want to map out a course of action. We've talked about this concept in more depth in our article on Career Planning. You've identified your likes, dislikes, and gaps in the previous step. Now is the time to create a plan to close those career gaps. This could be through training, formal education, networking, or even volunteer work.
You also need to start to put your job hunting plan together. If your future includes a career change, then you need a clear plan of action to make it happen. If you don't, then it will never get off the ground.
To summarize, your career plan consists of two components:
- Job Skills Planning - making sure you're actually qualified for your next career move.
- Job Search Planning - an outline of how you're going to go about finding a job.
Execute Your Career Plan
The third step is to execute against your plan. You took the time to make a plan, now you have to carry out that plan. That means it's time to start that training class or start your new job search.
We've published an article explaining job search networking, and we have a lot more career development resources to help you get started. The bottom line is you need to start calling up all those past contacts you've made, and see if they can help out. Don't be afraid to ask for help. The worst someone can say is "I'm sorry."
We're also going to talk later on about a good resume format to use when you're going through a career change. That will help you maximize your chances of getting a job interview.
Review Career Plan
Once you've started your self-marketing campaign, and are beginning to see some results, or lack of results, it's probably a good time to step back and review your career plan to see what's working and what's not working. You'll want to review your career plan about a month after deploying the plan.
If you are not getting the response you think you should be getting, then you need to review your plan. This is a mistake some career changers often make; they continue to stick with a defective plan. While response to a resume is often a function of the job market, you need to make sure that your plan is not flawed. Take a break from charging ahead and step back and take a look at the bigger picture.
Look at everything that's happened, and try to remain objective about your chances to change careers right now. Are you going to find the right job any day now? Or are you going weeks without any response at all to your resume?
Resumes for Career Changes
And that last question brings up our final topic: resumes for career changes. There are three common resume formats in use today: chronological resumes, functional resumes, and combination style resumes.
The combination and chronological resume styles list your work experience in reverse chronological order. Because of the emphasis on prior jobs, these kinds of resumes are usually not the best style for career changers.
The functional resume format emphasizes the skills you've obtained in the past - not necessarily your job progression. Take a look at our functional resume example, and see what we're talking about. The functional resume is usually the most appropriate resume format to use if you're thinking about changing careers.
About the Author - Career Change
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