Excited about having a new career? If you are, then you should find time to assess your current situation and look at all your career options so that you could have a better idea of what career is going to satisfy you.
2. Excited about having a new
career? If you are, then you
should find time to assess
your current situation and
look at all your career
options so that you could
have a better idea of what
career is going to satisfy
you.
How to Succeed in Your Career Change
1. Measure your satisfaction in your current job. If you
are worried that you may not be as satisfied now in
your job as you were when you were just starting, this
could be a sign that you need some change in your
lifestyle. If your frustrations are related to what you do
in your job or to the people you work with, then
changing careers might be a good idea.
2. Do a self-assessment test to know more about
yourself. If you are considering switching careers, you
should assess your own skills, personal values, and
interest. This is an important step in trying to figure out
if it’s the right time for you to jump to a different career
field.
3. Explore all your career options. The best way to
explore the possible careers you can choose from is to
brainstorm with people who know you. You can discuss
with them your skills, experience, and core values that
could match whatever career you wish to pursue. The
internet is another good resource you can use to help
you in doing a self-assessment.
4. Compare various career fields. Before you decide on
what new career to pursue, make sure that you do a
comparative evaluation of various fields so that it will
be easier for you to pick the one you can benefit from
the most. Remember that it’s not enough that you
switch to a field where you can find self-satisfaction.
More importantly, your new job should be able to
financially support all your needs.
5. Participate in volunteer programs. To get a feel of
what it’s going to be like in a different field, you can join
volunteer activities related to your career of choice. The
advantage of doing this is that you will have a firsthand
experience of the job involved, and this is a great
chance for you to meet people in the industry.
6. Consider developing new skills. There’s a great
chance that you will need to acquire new skills which
are relevant to the new career you are to pursue. In this
case, it may be a good idea to also consider enrolling in
certain courses where you would learn things that you
will later on need for your new job. By doing this, there
is no doubt that your choice of changing jobs will be an
effective and beneficial one.
Your skills and
work
experience
are definitely
the best tools
you have
when it
comes to getting a new job. And if you are thinking of
switching careers, you would also depend on these two
things to help make your transition easier. It is,
therefore, important that you have the ability to
demonstrate and explain to a prospective employer
how your skills and background or experience actually
make you the right person for the job. But before
anything else, you have to see to it that you’ve got the
skills necessary for the job you are applying for.
3. This is where the importance of having transferable
skills comes into play. If you are thinking of changing
careers, you should identify what transferable skills you
have actually developed through your experience. The
purpose of this article is to make you understand more
what such skills are and how relevant they are to your
quest for a new career.
Transferable Skills – What Are They?
Transferable skills are the ones that you acquire or
develop from all the experiences you have personally
and professionally. These skills are transferable because
you can apply them to any new job or career you wish
to pursue.
Basically, these skills include analytical skills, such as
statistics, analysis, finance, research, and so on. Apart
from analytical skills, transferable skills also involve
various personal skills as well as technical skills. There
are certain skills that are considered general
transferable skills also. These are the skills you can use
in any industry. Examples of general transferable skills
are leadership skills, project management skills, and the
like.
How to Identify Your Transferable Skills
One very effective way of identifying transferable skills
is by making a comparison between your present job
and the job that you are hoping to get in the new
industry you are to pursue. You can do this by listing
down all the qualifications, requirements, or
responsibilities that come with the new career. Once
you have done this, make a list of such information also
about your current career. If you compare the two lists,
you will realize that there are some requirements in the
new career that you have not reached or obtained yet.
This way, you will have an idea about which aspects of
yourself need improvement.
After you have figured out the transferable skills you
possess, you should focus on how potential employers
will take notice you and your credentials. You can start
by including some specific details about your skills on
your resume. Make sure that you outline your
achievements and not the responsibilities you had in
your previous job. If you can do this, there is no doubt
that you will have a successful career or job change.
Anyone with a
leadership role
in an
organization has
a tough job of
balancing the
skills of the
workforce. In
any company, it is very important to develop not only
the technical skills of the employees, but their soft skills
as well. When the technical skills overshadow the soft
skills considerably, there is definitely the so-called soft
skills gap. The soft skills of the workforce are actually
what give hard skills a lot of value. Without the soft
skills, there is no way a company can take full advantage
of its technical skills.
- If your staff members are outstanding at getting
clients, but can’t do a good job in keeping them, this is a
clear sign of lack of soft skills.
- If the staff turnover keeps rising and it’s becoming
hard to retain employees, the management definitely
doesn’t have enough soft skills.
- If you see you have several managers, among whom
you cannot find a real leader, you have a problem with
soft skills gap.
It is your job as a leader to look into how your
workforce’s experience, knowledge and proficiency are
maximized. If this is not the case for your company or
your team, then it’s time that you make an assessment
of the level of interpersonal and communication skills
within your group.
4. Keep in mind that the workplace is an interpersonal
dynamic which you cannot take for granted. The simple
things, like discussing, expressing opinions, listening,
settling conflicts, and maintaining a positive
environment are all about how people relationships
must be built and maintained. It is always these skills of
people that will eventually define how effective and
productive the workforce will be.
Recognizing the presence or lack of soft skills within the
organization is the important first step. Once you see
there is something to improve on, make sure that the
entire organization becomes aware of it, so that
everyone can be involved in turning things around for
the better. In such cases, coaching and mentoring
programs will play an important role.
An employee who lacks specific technical skills can
easily be urged to take additional training courses to
further enhance the needed skills. On the other hand, if
an employee doesn’t have soft skills, he or she would
certainly benefit from a mentoring program. Mentors
would normally come from the organization itself. A
mentor should be experienced and wise enough to
know exactly what particular skills should be taught or
developed by the mentee.
At the end of the day, the employees and the employer
will both benefit from the improved soft skills in the
workforce. For the organization, productivity will rise,
and staff turnover will go down. As for the workers,
developing their soft skills will be very helpful in their
careers in the long run, even when they eventually
consider changing careers.