Career: What is it?
Why start a new career?
How to start a new career
Career: What is it?
First of all, what is a career? What does it actually mean? What does it entail? How can it be defined? The following statements will help throw more light on this:
1- Simply put, a career is an occupation undertaken for a significant period of a person’s life which has opportunities for growth and development.
2- A career is the profession or job someone does for the greater part or the most part of their lives.
3- A career is a field of study chosen as one’s life’s work.
4- A career is field of specialization which a person trains for and pursues as a lifework.
5- A career is composed of jobs held, titles earned and work accomplished over a lengthy period of time.
Why start a new career?
Have you ever thought of why you should start a new career in the first place?
1-You are tired of your current work: The moment you lack job satisfaction, boredom sets in. It is impossible to sustain the momentum that leads to increased productivity when this vital ingredient is missing.
2-You want something different: Variety as is often said is the spice of life. Sometimes being stuck in a particular job day in day out, same in same out becomes monotonous. A career cannot bring excitement when you find yourself stuck in such a job.
3-Your life has changed: Picture a scenario where your life today is far different from what it was, say 5 or 10 years ago. Then you were single with no family so you could afford to work late, stay out late, travel at short notice. Now family needs weigh heavily on you and you can no longer operate like that.
4-The Job outlook for your career has become poor : Changes in the economy, technology, the industry or even the country’s political environment can negatively impact on your career and send it into a downward spiral. This can lead to loss of jobs due to downsizing as companies struggle to stay afloat. Unfortunately this creates panic in the industry making future prospects bleak.
5- Your job is too stressful: Some career types are inherently stressful. The dangers of burnout, and the negative impact on your mental as well as overall health may just not be worth it. If you find yourself in such a quagmire it may be time to start looking elsewhere.
6- You want to earn more money: Your family is growing which means more mouths to feed. Inflation takes its toll cutting down on your purchasing power. Costs of living skyrocket as well as fuel prices. What all this comes down to is this: you likely will need more money to augment your savings and enable you invest for the future.
How to start a new career
How do you start a new career? The following tips should help:
1-Identify your areas of strength: What do you enjoy doing and what do you do best? These are your areas of strength. The fact is what you love doing is what you will usually do best. So, the starting point is to identify correctly your passions and talents. What do other people say about you, what do they commend you for? Make an honest list of all the skills and talents your ideal activity requires.
2-List your training and experienc
e: This is where knowing a little bit about many things come in. Have you ever volunteered for certain tasks or duties? Have you attended classes in areas or fields outside the profession you were trained in? Make a list.
3-What careers need your skill-set: A simple internet search with google will work wonders here. Type in career skills, assessments, aptitudes. The search results will clearly tell you the kind of skills or abilities that dovetail with your passion.
4-Trim down your list of possibilities to 3 (1): You need to re-evaluate your list honestly, sincerely and seriously. What careers on your list would you love doing even if you were not paid for it? What makes you feel confident? What can you do for long without getting tired, bored or frustrated? What can you do and sustain for long periods of time even when no immediate results seem to come up? Choose the best 3 and pick the best one.
5- Get all possible information about your chosen field: Fortunately, the internet has brought the combined distilled collective of human knowledge over the millennia of human existence, within our grasp. Search the internet for data about your field. Visit the library, read books on the subject. Talk to “gurus” and experts in that particular field. The world is full of knowledge that is waiting out there for the taking. Subscribe to print journals, newsletters and e-zines to get daily, weekly, monthly and yearly updates about advancements made in that career so you can keep abreast of happenings.
6-Seek for training in your selected career: Find out about training programs, most especially free trainings, seminars and online sessions. Are there vocational schools or colleges that specialise in your chosen area? What classes can you enroll for and find out if weekend programs are available in case you are a full time worker.
7-Become a member of a group affiliated with your chosen field: Join a club that focuses on your career. Take membership even if it means paying a token fee to belong. Ensure you register and belong to both public offline and online forums that showcase your career.
Finally, You need to be very clear in your mind about why you want to change career mid-stream. You must sit down and identify our passion and talents. After that you must then take definite steps on STARTING A NEW CAREER.