|
Reinvent Your Career In Five Simple Steps
The phrase "reinventing yourself" seems to be popping up all over lately. Just a few days ago a friend asked me how he could do it without starting completely over. His concern was, "How do I move in a new career direction without sacrificing all the skills and experience I've worked so hard to achieve?" The underlying question is, "Is this even possible?"
Yes, it is possible to start fresh without starting over! Here's how:
1.) Take inventory of the skills, experience, credentials and achievements you've built into your career to date. Know your strengths and weaknesses, your assets and your liabilities. Recognize your transferable skills and how to market them. Describe the breath and depth of your work experience. Understand the value of your credentials. Match power verbs, specific nouns and quantifiable descriptors to your achievements and practice telling stories about them.
2.) Clarify your values. Dig deeply enough into yourself to know which values are yours and which are your parents', mentors', employers', culture's, society's or faith community's. Claim yours and release theirs. Look again at any value regarding money or security: What you think is a value may not be a value at all, but a mask covering a cluster of values. For example, "money", "benefits" and "security" often mask values such as lifestyle, adventure, independence and safety, so record these values as the latter, not the former, if you hope to actually live them.
3.) Identify the talents, gifts and passions that drive you. Be honest and real with yourself and if necessary, seek the objective opinions of others. Claim what is truly yours then describe it in who-what-when-where-why-how detail and practice condensing your description into a 60-second story. Note how related talents and gifts seem to cluster around passion themes. This is not coincidence, but a sign pointing the way to your life's purpose.
4.) Use all the data you've collected about yourself in Steps 1,2 and 3 to brainstorm a list of jobs, careers, employers and industries that match and make positive use of your skills, experience, credentials, achievements, values, talents, gifts and passions. Use career professionals and reference materials such as the Dictionary of Occupational Titles and the Occupational Outlook Handbook to assist you. Shorten, refine, categorize and prioritize your list.
5.) Develop a stellar self-marketing package to match each cluster of jobs, careers, employers and industries you want to market yourself into. Create multiple versions of your resume and cover letter to cover a series of related titles, career paths or industries. Use the key words associated with each profession. Distribute your resume and cover letter package to employers strategically via ads, online postings sites, networking, recruiters and targeted mailings.
It really is this simple! Yes, these steps are dense with all kinds of "to do's", but if you do everything suggested, you will get to where you want to be. The worst mistake you can make in career reinvention is to believe it you can't do it. Aren't you worth that hope? Cheryl Lynch Simpson is a Spiritual Director and Solutions Coach who helps women discover and create the life they've always wanted to live. Cheryl is the author of over 30 print/Internet articles and the founder of Coaching Solutions For Women, a coaching website that produces and showcases career, business, and life solutions that improve the life balance of today's busy women. For a complimentary copy of her latest e-book, Ten-Minute Stress Zappers for Women Service Business Owners, visit http://www.coachingsolutionsforwomen.com.
MORE RESOURCES:
Jobs City of Rochester (.gov)
Careers West Virginia Department of Education
Careers Washington State University
Work With Us National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Careers The Guggenheim Museums and Foundation
|
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Have You Been Fired? Laid Off? No? You Will Be!
It's true. Things have changed.
Mystery Shopping for Fun and Profit
How would you like to get paid to go shopping? That's right! Get paid to shop for clothes, eat in restaurants, watch movies, play golf, travel, and so on.You can have your cake and eat it too! Enjoy the best ofboth worlds.
Tips For Surviving As A Corporate Refugee
In her book "Are You A Corporate Refugee", Ruth Luban associates "corporate refugees" with refugees who never intend to leave their home country. People who are uprooted from the familiar terrain, customs and native language they've known for a very long time.
Get Paid to Shop And Keep Everything You Buy - Without Having to Pay!
Can You Tell Good Service From Bad; Recognise Value For Money; Compare Prices, Staff Efficiency, Product Range, Customer Service Between Rival Firms?If so you might easily find work as a 'Mystery Shopper' and be paid to comment on service in shops, banks and building societies, hotels, cinemas, veterinary surgeries, restaurants, even on long distance flights and holidays.Poor service is the number one reason customers turn their back on a business and start shopping elsewhere.
Job Search Tip for College Students
Today everyone is looking for that special job that will suit their exact needs. In this day and age we all have circumstances, situations, obligations, etc.
5 Interviewing Tips To Get That Job!
Anyone who is a jobseeker knows that looking for a new job or career is a job in itself. Once you have completed the laborious task of writing your resume and submitting it to various companies, you now have to pass the screen test to get the job.
Believe And Get Hired
Good things seem to come in bunches, especially in a job search. Ever wonder why?Example: ever know someone (perhaps you?) who, after many weeks in a fruitless job hunt, suddenly hit a "hot streak" and landed two or three interviews in a matter of days?What happened? What changed? Did the job market suddenly improve? Perhaps.
Surviving Unemployment Through Emotional Damage Control
Looking for work is a roller-coaster ride: high with elation when you think you've found a great position, low with discouragement when you realize that someone else was offered a job you wanted.Most of the time, you fall somewhere in between, your mood cycling from cautious optimism to keen disappointment.
Jobseekers! Look For Smoke, Not Fire
"If you always do what you've always done, you will always get what you've always received," said some wise person. This is certainly true when it comes to job-hunting, especially during a "sucky" economy.
Writing Resumes
Use a resume as a foot in the doorWhen you go to college, they don't really teach you how to advance your career. In order to get the jobs you want, you need to know how to write an effective resume that will win you interviews.
What Exactly Online Recruitment Agencies Do?
Any online recruitment agency can help you to submit for vacancies to the agency by employers.Online recruitment agencies are used by employers for many purposes.
Tales from the Corporate Frontlines: Career Opportunity and Employee Retention
This article relates to the Career Opportunities competency and explores issues such as internal growth opportunities, potential for advancement, career development importance, and the relationship between job performance and career advancement. Evaluating the Career Opportunities competency in your organization will determine whether your employees believe they have a chance to grow within the organization.
How To Become a Mortgage Broker
The mortgage industry accounted for $1,815,949,279,000 in loan transactions in 2004. That's one trillion, eight hundred and fifteen billion, nine hundred and forty-nine million, two hundred and seventy nine thousand dollars.
Are You In A Groove Or A Rut?
Ruts: the routines in our work and lives that have become uninteresting and bothersome.Everyone has a favorite rut or two.
Fantastic Job Fair Follow-up
Set the stage for fantastic job fair follow-up while you are still at the job fair. As the conversation is coming to a close, ask for the company representative's business card.
The 5 Ps Of A Job Search
Step One - Plan:Most people spend more time planning a one to two week vacation than they do planning their lifetime career. When planning for a vacation, you look at where you want to go, what your reason is for wanting to go to that particular place, how long it will take to get there, whether or not you want to take any side trips, what type of budget you will need, and what type of clothes you will need to take.
Career Strategy When Your Boss is a Bully
Q. Right after I accepted my new position, the manager who hired me quit.
What You Should Know About A Medical Billing Specialist
Whether you are a person who is thinking about becoming a medical billing specialist or a company looking for a medical billing specialist, then this article is for you. There are several things that you should be aware of in the medical billing industry and I will walk you through them so that you will have the background information that you need to help you make a decision that will best suit your needs.
Are Your Intentions Clear in Your Job Search?
1. Do you REALLY know what you want?2.
Five Fabulous Resume Tips for College Grads (or Anybody)
Fluffy clouds. Chirping birds.
|