Here’s How To Use This Site To Help You
The buttons on the navigation bar on the left are the links to guide you through the career change process and they follow in a fairly logical sequence. You don’t have to go through exactly in order, but there is a natural flow to them.
In each section you will find a range of ideas and exercises you can do. Try at least a few in each area but don’t feel you have to do them all.
Some will probably appeal to you more than others so go with what appeals initially. You might like to come back and try some of the others as a way of encouraging yourself to ‘think outside the box’ – always a good idea when considering career change!
Make sure you identify what you learn from doing these exercises. After each one, stop and make a note of your answers to these questions:
- What insights have I gained from doing this exercise?
- What (if anything) has surprised me about what I have uncovered?
- What new possibilities do the results suggest that I could put in my Career Ideas Log?
Read on for the advice on changing career that you will find at each stage.
Where to Begin
Before you dive into the career change process, it is a good idea to stop and take stock of what is behind your decision to tackle job or career change.
What is your attitude to the whole process? Will you enter it with an open and positive mindset? Are you ready to put in the time and effort needed for a significant and potentially life-changing project?
There is some good advice on changing career here that will set you off on the right foot. Click here to read more…
Where Am I?
You need to learn from the past if you are to move forward effectively. This page offers advice on changing career through reflecting on what you have already done.
There will be many clues for you about what is right for you and what you know now that you want to avoid. The things that have gone well for you in the past as well as the low points can be a great source of information to help your career search. Click here to read more…
Who Am I?
The essence of a successful career change is taking the time to develop your self awareness. Too many of us are so busy that we never stop to take stock.
Here are a range of exercises that will help you work out what makes you tick. You can explore areas like skills, values and interests. Then you can use the results to identify what will be the best career choices for you at this point in your life. Click here to read more…
Career Personality
One of the key factors that will influence your choice of career is your personality and it is often overlooked by people who are reviewing their career direction.
Here is a simple personality test based on the principles of personality type. It will help you to assess what kinds of work will suit you and which areas might be better to avoid. Click here to read more…
What Do I Want?
Take the chance to dream about what the perfect career would be for you if you could create it. This will give you some great clues about the direction you should be looking in. Click here to read more…
Career Tests
Many people think that taking some kind of career change aptitude test will give them a magic answer to their career change dilemmas. They can be a useful additional source of information and advice on changing career, but will not usually give you an instant solution.
Find out more about what these tests are about and how they can play a part in the overall career planning process. Click here to read more…
Career Ideas
When you are looking for a new career, it sometimes helps to just scan around for new career ideas according to particular themes that feel important to you.
On this page you will find a range of career suggestions in categories that will hopefully act as a catalyst to your thinking. Click here to read more…
Career Identity
Once you have spent time exploring yourself and your motivation for career change, you need to pull the ideas together and begin to build up a full picture of your career identity.
This page will suggest ways that you can identify the key themes that define your new career direction so that you can begin to investigate them in more detail. Click here to read more…
Career Research
This is another aspect of the career change process that is often skimmed over. We tend to focus on what we already know, what is familiar.
My advice on changing career here is to encourage you to once again open your mind and use a wide range of sources of information for your career research. You’ll be amazed at how much you can find out about the career possibilities you are considering if you really throw your research net widely. Click here to read more…
How to Decide
Decision making is not easy, but deciding on new career ideas will be a lot simpler now you have done your research – both looking inwards at yourself and outwards at the career opportunities.
Here I offer you are range of decision making tools to help you weigh up the options using both rational and intuitive processes. Click here to read more…
Taking Action
This is the point at which you turn all your thinking and planning into action. After all, the bottom line with career change is that you actually do it, rather than just thinking about it.
Here’s how you can get yourself organised and define some clear and achievable action steps so that your career change idea is turned into reality. Click here to read more…
Networking
Learning how to network effectively is an essential strategy for career changers. You will find that other people can be a great source of advice on changing career, especially if they are already working in your chosen field.
This section of my site gives you tips and techniques on how to use networking to your advantage when changing career. Click here to read more…
Keeping Motivated
Making a career change can sometimes take quite a while. There is a lot to think about and the process may well have to stretch over many months. So my advice on changing career will always include thinking about how you can keep your motivation going.
Here are a range of tips that will help you understand why your motivation may be dipping and what you can do about it. Click here to read more…
Job Search
So this is where we begin to get really practical. You have done your research and identified your new career. You have mapped out the action steps you need to take. It is likely that job search will be pretty high on that list.
Here’s where you can find the different approaches you should be taking to your job search. As ever, there is not one single strategy. Use them all to maximise your chances. Click here to read more…
CVs/Resumes
This section is for career changers who have done all the reflection and planning needed to identify what they want to do next. Only then should you start thinking about updating your cv or resume.
Here you will find tips and suggestions to ensure that your resume really hits the spot. Too many job applications fail at this stage, so make sure your cv does not end up in the ‘reject’ pile. Click here to read more…
Job Applications
You will not always be asked for a CV or a resume when applying for a job. Sometimes an application form – paper or online – will be required. And the tricky questions or the acres of blank spaceto fill can strike fear into many a job applicant’s heart!
But applicatin forms do not need to be so scary. Just follow my tips ot get it right. Click here to read more…
Interview Success
The final hurdle! If you are getting to the interview stage, you are clearly getting things right along the way. Don’t mess it up at the last furlong.
Most people are nervous about interviews, but there are lots of ideas here to help you prepare well and manage the nerves by having the best answers to hand. Click here to read more…
And even more help…
If you are still looking for more advice on changing career, just take a look at the additional career change articles on this site. And you will also find a list of the career change books I regularly recommendand a selection of useful links to sites about particular career areas.
Hopefully these guidelines will enable you to make the most of this site.
This website is an ongoing project and I am adding to these pages all the time. So do check back regularly for more advice on changing career.
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