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Planning Your Career Change

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It is best to plan your career change while still employed. In this way, your planning can be conducted unemotionally and without immediate concern for economics. If, however, you make the decision after being terminated, you must make an extra effort to contain or resolve any negative feelings and provide for the necessities of life to carry you through your career transition period. Planning is an intellectual activity which requires careful judgment and is best conducted in an atmosphere of low stress.

In this article you will learn the five stages of planning a career change:
 
  1. Self-Analysis
  2. Career Analysis
  3. Goal-Setting
  4. Planning Your Career Development
  5. Contingency Planning

Stage 1: Self-Analysis



The first step in planning your career change is "self-analysis." Here you attempt to identify your strengths, interests, preferences, and aptitudes, along with your weaknesses, limitations, and dislikes. Since you have had several years of on-the-job experience in your present career, you have a wealth of information about yourself to examine in order to locate your strengths and weaknesses. Also, with all your accumulated experience you should be able to make a more informed and more intelligent career decision than another person with less career experience to consider.

Following is a list of questions to help you isolate those attributes about yourself that will be important in selecting your next career:
 
  1. Why was I terminated?
  2. Why do I want to leave my job?
  3. What is important to me in a job . . . money, security, acceptance by others, recognition by my boss, power, and feelings of accomplishment?
  4. What do I like most about (least about) my present job?
  5. What careers would I consider (not consider) exploring?
  6. What job activities give me the greatest satisfaction (dissatisfaction)?
  7. Where can I improve myself?
  8. What personal and professional skills should I acquire?
  9. What are my strongest personal traits?
  10. What are my weakest personal traits?
  11. What were the traits, skills, or abilities valued most (least) in my company?
  12. What desires or needs have thus far been fulfilled (unfulfilled) in my work?
  13. What long-range rewards do I seek?
  14. What salary would satisfy me now and in the future?
  15. In what way did my job create friction between my work and my personal life?
  16. What do I want to do with my life?

You will learn many things about yourself by answering these questions as completely as possible. You may learn, for example, that making money and receiving recognition in a highly competitive and fast-paced sales job are not as important as they used to be, and that the satisfaction derived from working as a manager in a less pressured environment is now more attractive.

You may learn that what you need is a total break from the dependence on a highly secure and routine job. Perhaps taking an early retirement and investing your funds in some higher-risk but more exciting business venture are right for you.

If you are bored working in the same office job, have tried to move into a higher administrative spot but progress is blocked, and are turned off by office politics, you may need a change. Perhaps traveling and mingling with people in different lands may be of greater interest to you.

In reviewing your hobbies and spare-hour interests, you may realize that your position as choral director for the last two years has been giving you much greater satisfaction than the job you have been holding for the last ten years. This may be a signal for considering a career as a musical performer, assuming, of course, that you have or can acquire the skills to become professional. 

It is always possible that what you learn from your self-analysis is that your present occupation can, in fact, become more fulfilling if you take steps to make it so. An initial interest in changing careers can often be reversed after careful consideration of one's career history.

Stage 2: Career Analysis

Once you understand your interests, wants, and aptitudes and know your limitations, weaknesses, and dislikes, you are ready to explore the wide range of career paths that may be better suited to you.

Consider your own natural instincts in exploring career fields you "feel" are right for you. Also, ask friends you respect for their opinions about the types of careers they feel are appropriate for you. The local university or public library should possess various career publications which you can examine. Two important publications are the Dictionary of Occupational Titles and the Occupational Outlook handbook. The first describes the requirements of thousands of different jobs, while the second gives job-market information on expansion or contraction of many career fields. The university placement director is also an excellent source of help in exploring new careers.

As you investigate each career possibility, learn the following information to help you make an intelligent decision:
 
  1. Job skills and traits required.
  2. Formal education and certification requirements.
  3. Employment projections.
  4. Various entry-level positions and salary ranges.
  5. Various higher-level positions and salary ranges.
  6. Employment opportunities in geographic areas of interest to you.

In each career field or professional category, one can perform a number of jobs within a number of work settings. Career fields or professions include accounting, advertising, education, counseling, sales, public relations, nursing, and journalism. In the field of education, for example, one may choose to become a kindergarten, high-school, or junior-college teacher and advance from base-salary classroom teacher to higher-salary master teacher or to higher-salary supervisor or administrator,

A work setting is "where'* you do your job: in large, medium-sized, or small organizations, as a self-employed professional, or for business, civil service, the military, education, or the nonprofit and community service sectors. For example, public relations professionals occupy various positions and are employed in many different work settings,

Stage 3: Goal-Setting

Narrow down the number of career alternatives to one career track to which you can commit your future energies. Select a few positions in which you can start, positions which you can fill in two years, and positions which you can fill in five and ten years. In addition, decide on the work setting.

With your short-range and long-range career goals selected, you now have an idea of what you want to do and a plan or schedule against which you can measure your career progress. This schedule will help you monitor your growth and signal adjustments when necessary.

Stage 4: Planning Your Career Development

Career development should be planned in two phases: the transition period and the growth period. Transitional planning anticipates all essential short-term activities for a smooth changeover from prior job to new job, while growth planning anticipates those activities necessary for career advancement once on the new job.

Transitional Planning

Transitional planning requires openness and candor with those closest to you. Discuss your desires and problems with family members and gain their full support and encouragement. In this way any necessary sacrifices or temporary hardships can more easily be handled.

Transitional planning also requires a consideration of the possible time and money you may have to invest to prepare yourself fully for your new career. Will your investment involve one year of full-time study seeking a professional master's degree at a cost of several thousand dollars? Will you have to resign your present position to attend school, or can you attend evening college on a part-time basis while continuing to work your day job? Or, can you make the necessary transition without the need for formal reeducation because of the similarities in skills required on your prior and new jobs? If you decide to become a full-time student, can your spouse provide for the family needs?

Today, because of the great demand for adult education, you should have little trouble locating, either in your community or elsewhere, suitable professional education programs at colleges, universities, business schools, and vocational and technical schools to help prepare you for your new career.

Growth Planning

While major corporations do have career development functions to help identify and promote talented personnel, do not leave your career growth to anyone else. Design your own career schedule and plan your own growth activities to assure that you achieve your objectives. While others may assist in your growth, you should be the one to make the critical decisions concerning your career.

There are several growth activities in which you can participate to continue building and expanding professional skills. Here are just a few:
 
  1. Memberships in professional groups.
  2. Continued education at colleges and universities.
  3. Professional seminars and workshops.
  4. In-house training and development.
  5. Correspondence programs.
  6. Professional reading.
  7. Community service activities.

After a while in your new position, indicate to your superior that your growth in the company requires a broader perspective of company operations. Request special projects or job-rotation assignments in other areas to help provide that broader perspective. Periodically get together with your supervisor and discuss opportunities for career growth; gain your boss's support in helping your career advancement.

Whenever possible, offer your talents to superiors in the undertaking of research, the preparation of important reports, and even the delivery of oral presentations before company executives. In every way make yourself an indispensable member of your organization and earn the respect that will advance your career according to schedule.

Also whenever possible, try to get your employer to finance your growth activities. The fact is that many companies do have money or programs available for supporting the education and training of interested and talented career-oriented employees.

Stage 5: Contingency Planning

"Even the best-laid plans of mice and men do go astray." Monitor your career schedule regularly to assure that your career goals are being achieved and that the necessary growth activities are being provided. At any point in your new career you should be able to stop everything, sit back, evaluate the situation objectively, and say either ''Everything is on schedule and I can continue" or ''Something is not right and I must do something about it." 

What can go wrong? The answer is, "Anything." By continual monitoring of your career schedule, you can often detect a problem before it becomes irreparable. For example, you may realize that because of a pending reorganization or consolidation of departments in your company, your job will soon be phased out; or, a new superior and you are in a constant state of conflict, and you will have to be the one to go; or, the position you were shooting for has just been taken by another who is likely to block your advancement; or, because of unexpected personal family problems, you must make a move to Arizona.

In any of these situations viable solutions do exist and can be found if you start thinking in terms of "contingency planning" now and prepare for the worst. Then if the worst does occur, you will have considered alternative jobs in the same organization or in other organizations or alternative growth activities for achieving career objectives.

Contingency planning is an ongoing process, starting before the actual career change and continuing throughout your career. Learn to think in terms of "options" and 'alternatives" and this will surely help you overcome minor career obstacles and cope with major career changes.
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