TEN GREAT STEPS FOR SUCCESSFUL CAREER CHANGING!
By Michael Reed, M.Ed
© Career coaching 4u .com

1. Assessments
Please take some type of assessment. Myers-Briggs, DISC, MAPP, Strong Interest Inventory are just a few of the many that are available. You can take a free mini-Myers-Briggs and others at www.careercoaching4u.com. If you feel the need for more, go to www.acinet.org/acinet and look under resources. Assessments will save you time while indicating your interests, skills, values, and other potential traits to use in your career changing.

2. Skill Inventory
Develop skills you might have enjoyed over your lifetime through the seven-story exercise. List 25 accomplishments that you have completed from your childhood. For example, as a child you might have sold your old toys through your play store or made dolls. The main point is that you loved what you were doing and it gave you satisfaction! Take the best seven and write a story about the accomplishments. Telling what you did, how you did it, and listing what skills you used. This will give you an insight into skills or talents you might have not been using for awhile.

3. Recurring Themes
List all of the jobs you have held over your lifetime including volunteer work. Go through and divide them into those you loved doing and the ones you could do without. Go over the list of jobs you loved and see if there are any recurring themes. This produces a list of enjoyable jobs and themes to use in forming the ideal career.

4. Careers which might interest you.
Go through the Occupational Outlook Handbook at www.bls.gov/oco/
And see if any careers interest you. Go through the Sunday newspapers of large cities and cut out any jobs that interests you. Do not take in to account qualifications or anything in your personal life, which could stop you from acquiring a certain career. Just focus on where your interests direct you. Then go over the list noting the requirements for each career and seeing if you can work toward meeting those qualifications. Plus, working around any personal hindrances.

5. Redo your resume.
In changing a career the best type of resume is a combination one. You focus your reader’s eye on your skills that match the career with your work history at the bottom of the page. Design and content are the magic words for an outstanding resume. Ask friends or family where their eyes are drawn to first. It should be the skill area. If you need help, go to www.provenresumes.com. (Make sure resumes is plural)

6. Check the Industry in which you might want to work.
If you have done the above steps it’s time to focus on an industry. Try to find out everything you can about it. For example, the medical field has numbers jobs in various parts of a hospital. Nurse, doctor, lab tech and the list goes on. The best place to start is the library and the reference desk.

7. Focus on certain companies in an industry.
Be proactive, once you have decided on a career, then target companies you would like to work for. Again, the library or if you have a university near by check out their business listings. Be like a detective and research the business through annual reports, newspaper articles, and try to talk with people who are employed with the companies. Even hang out at restaurants or areas that company people go.

8. Take action.
With all the information it’s time to take action. This means answering want ads, job fairs, the Internet, and being proactive! Call the companies you are interested in working for and asking if they have any openings in your possible career. Try to find out who the hiring manager is in your field. Do go through human resources, but also wage your own job campaign. Call in the off hours to avoid the gatekeeper (secretary) and you might get the hiring manager answering his own phone.

9. Prepare for an interview.
Be ready for an interview by knowing everything there is about a business. Remember, from the time of the first phone call until you are hired, there are no innocence questions! Read books, which list the toughest questions interviewers will ask. Don’t memorize so it sounds like a caned reply. One question that is usually asked: “tell me about yourself”? Just use your resume and talk about 2 minutes with weaving your personal history into how you came to apply for the job. Always be positive with your answers. (Coming soon on flash cards-99 questions employer’s ask and possible answers-Career coaching web site)

10. 84% success rate.
Know yourself, your skills, talk to people who are doing what you want, and target the places where you want to work. Research the companies, find the person who has the power to hire you and demonstrate how you can help solve the company’s problems. People who did this enjoyed an 84% success rate in getting jobs. From a Richard Bolles’s survey. (Author of What color is your Parachute?)