With the New Year come and gone, perhaps you have had some time over the holidays to assess your career and whether or not you are satisfied with the direction it is taking.

If things are good – that’s good; however, if you are reevaluating the path your career has taken, now is as good a time as any to make that resolution to question what motivates you and examine what you need to be satisfied in moving forward.

How do you know if you are ready for a new career? You're the only one that can answer this question. For some, it takes a lot of soul searching, while for others, it's an easy process of discovery. As a first step, though, think about how you would answer the following questions about your current position and how the answers make you feel:

• Are you excited and motivated to go to work or are you bored?
• How is your work environment?
• Is your company experiencing the effects of current economic conditions?
• How secure does your job feel?
• What is the state of your profession across the board?
• Has the scope of your responsibilities changed in such a way that it now limits your growth potential?
• Have you had to take on an increased workload with no added compensation?
• Does your job negatively affect your family life?

 

If you answered negatively to any of these questions, it could be you are feeling some discontent with your position, or overwhelming stress from your working environment.

It probably depends on how strongly you feel about your responses, but if a new career is what you are looking for, here are a few actions you can take to get you started:

• Clearly define your professional objective
• Augment your skills to include those needed in your new career - take classes, volunteer or work part-time
• Thoroughly research those occupations / careers you are considering
• Network – Network - Network. Use your friends, family and professional contacts
• Consider relocating if necessary
• Keep a positive attitude

 

Choosing a career path is never an easy task. Since most people change careers approximately six times in their lifetime, it is essential to evaluate your situation periodically to avoid being passed by or becoming “skill obsolete”.

You always want to make informed choices based on a good understanding of yourself as well as what is available to you. Research needs to be done on the occupations available by looking at the various resources, including labour market information, job descriptions, and future outlook for the career. You'll also need to identify and assess your priorities and the lifestyle you desire to ensure the career you choose fits your personal needs as well as your skills and interests.

Knowing yourself is the first step. To help you identify your strengths, answer these two questions: What do you do well? and What do you enjoy doing?

• Aptitude: What do you find easy to do? What are your talents? Think about these things and discuss them with others to see what talents you have that can be used in different occupations
• Skills and Education: Compile a list of skills you have, and relevant education and professional development
• Personality: List your qualities (be honest!). You can also ask others to help you with this list
• Responsibility: Consider the amount of responsibility you want within a job? Do you work better within a team or do you like to work independently and make your own decisions?
• Values and Needs: Consider what you want your job to offer you, and list these by importance. Understand that in order to have one thing, you may need to give up something. To work through something like this, write out each of the values of each that are important to you
• Interests: Make a list of your work interests and your hobbies - these may help in determining the type of job you'd like

 

Ultimately, you want to have a balance between your lifestyle and your career plans. When evaluating yourself, make sure you've included everything that might be useful in your choice.

More than likely, you've got a variety of careers to choose from that may be right for you. It's important to look at all the possibilities before making your decision.

List them under what you'd like and what you'd like a lot. The next step is looking at jobs, and job descriptions, and eliminating those that you're not interested in. What you should end up with is a list of jobs that you'd like to explore further.

In exploring options, think about asking a mentor, and talking to people within your network, as well as other professionals in the field to understand realistically how achievable your goals are and how to work towards them.

Once you have a list of jobs you are interested in, ask yourself some of the following questions to help you decide on what you'd like to do: Do I have the education required or do I require additional schooling or professional development? Do I want to go back to school? Can I see myself doing all the tasks involved in this occupation? Would I be happy doing it? Does the career satisfy my needs? Are there good opportunities for the future? Do I like my co-workers? My manager? The type of supervision involved?

All of these items together (your self-assessment, the type of occupations you've chosen, as well as the research you've done to help achieve your goals) should help you narrow the path to travel to get into the field of your choice.