Create the Life You Want by Making a Career Change

Learn How to Make a Career Change that's Right for You

Maybe it’s an idea that‘s been percolating for a while, or perhaps the thought hit you like a ton of bricks: you need a career change. Now that the moment of realization is over, it’s time to figure out how to start making the change. Here is some great career advice to help get you on the right path to a new beginning.

Consider Your Motives

There are many reasons to consider a career change. Maybe you’ve reached the glass ceiling of your current career, or you’re experiencing an industry slump. Perhaps you feel ready for new challenges, or you’ve had a dream job in mind for years but lacked the confidence to pursue it. Or hey, maybe you just want to earn more money. These motives set your job priorities and will help ensure that you don’t slip into the same pitfalls in your new career that you may have experienced in past ones.

Create a Three-Point Litmus Test

To help crystallize your priorities, start by making three lists.

1. Catalog things you dislike about your current career, such as low wages, weekend shifts or lack of health insurance coverage.
2. Include what you enjoy about your current career, like flexible office hours, great interoffice teamwork or a creative and enthusiastic company culture.
3. Make a list of ideal attributes of your dream job—great salary, paid vacation/maternity leave, superb job growth potential, self-supervised projects, etc.—whatever qualities in a career that would keep you satisfied for the next decade or so.

As you explore new career options, use these three lists as a litmus test for potential careers. Check how closely new careers align with the good qualities of your current job and ideal qualities of your dream job. Chances are, you won’t find a job that meets all of your dream job criteria, but the goal is to fulfill as many positives as you can while eliminating the negatives.

Think About Your Interests

Think about careers that have always fascinated you and identify the reasons why. For instance, have you always admired nurses for their competence and ability to help those who are in need? Do you enjoying problem-solving and are you creative with an aptitude for constantly changing technology that would make you great at developing Web sites? Targeting your search based on your interests and strengths is the first step towards finding a rewarding new career.

Gather Career Facts and Salary Data

• All Career Schools Career Center contains in-depth articles on today’s fastest growing occupational fields—from becoming an animator to getting certified as an HVAC technician.
• The US Department of Labor’s Occupational Handbook is also an excellent resource for quick career facts. Here, you can research jobs from A to Z, while learning about education requirements, earnings, projected job prospects and typical work environments as well as a brief synopsis of what professionals in each of these careers actually do.
• Salary.com will give you a personalized look at what other professionals are making in your zip code, town or city.
• Connect with people working in the field you’re interested in and set up an informational interview. This will allow you to ask specific questions and really give you an excellent insight into what the field you’re thinking about going into is like.

Pick a Career with Stable Career Growth

You know you’re ready for a change, but after some digging you still have no idea what that change should be. If your goal is simply to transition out of your current job and into a field that offers stable career growth and good money, look into one of these careers:

Teaching
The education field is expected to grow by 32.5 percent, adding 898,000 new jobs through 2014. This makes it the largest growing career field in the nation, thanks to increasing student enrollment at all levels of education. Read about a career as a teacher.

Health Care Administration
The health care sector is projected to grow by 30.3 percent, adding 4.3 million new jobs by the year 2014. Jobs in the health care field, including health care administrators, are considered to be “tomorrow’s jobs,” according the US Department of Labor. This profession usually demands a master’s degree in health care administration, business administration, public health or public administration.

Medical Billing and Coding
Professionals in this field are also a part of the rapidly growing health care sector. Having a diploma/certificate or an associate’s degree is all you need to get started in this career. Read about a career in Medical Billing and Coding.

Paralegal
If you already have an undergraduate college degree, starting your career as a paralegal is a simple matter of becoming certified through a paralegal studies certification program. Without a degree, all you’ll need to do is enroll in a paralegal associate’s degree program to break into this fast-growing career. Demand for paralegals is projected to grow by 27 percent or more, as employers – in an effort to reduce business costs - hire more paralegals do the tasks lawyers used to do. Read about a career as a Paralegal.

Marriage Family and Child Counseling (MFCC)
Problem solving and conflict management may come easy for you. If this is the case, turn your gift into a lucrative career helping others. This isn’t a career to consider lightly; a master’s degree, state certification and supervised training are the usual requirements for prospective family counselors. However, demand for these professionals is expected to grow by as much as 26 percent by 2014, as more employers offer counseling assistance programs to their staffs. Read about a career as a Psychologist.

Focus on Career Education

Once you develop a list of jobs you’d like to pursue and you’ve updated your resume, it’s time to start networking. You haven’t gotten this far in life without picking up a few savvy skills. Whether you’re a seasoned public speaker, a technical wiz or the creative brains behind your company, take a moment to make a mental list of what it is you do best. Compare these skills to those required in new career fields that you have your eye on. Write down what skills and education you already have, and what skills or training you must acquire to become competitive in a new career.

It's time to start doing an inventory of what skills the new career fields require and what you do best. Figure out which requirements you can fulfill today and which ones mean acquiring additional skills and training to become competitive in your new career. Don't be afraid to take a course to strengthen your skills and knowledge. You can even go back to school and earn a degree or certification to make you more competitive.

Schools are filled with non-traditional students, which simply mean that more adults are heading back to school in order to access the knowledge and skills to give them a professional edge in the workplace. In addition, there are many online learning programs that will allow you to pursue an education on your terms, without having to give up your current job and commitments.

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