An Alternate Career Path ?

Considering a Different Kind of Job or a New Career?

Here are two approaches.

There are many reasons why you might want to consider a career change. Perhaps you're yearning for a work-life balance that actually includes some life. Or maybe you're just tired of your current job and want to pursue something that makes you jump out of bed in the morning (instead of hitting snooze five times). These motivations are often emotional and can be tricky to evaluate systematically. Emotions can both drive you towards a new career and away from the one you're in. In my experience, discussing these issues with someone who knows you well can help you understand why you want to move and what you might want to move to.

While there are many ways to make important career decisions, here are two approaches. One is simple and straightforward, and the other requires more reading, research, and consideration.

A Basic Approach

Let's start with the basics. Ask yourself a few questions:

·         What do I like/dislike about my current work?

·         Why am I considering an alternative?

·         What do I like/dislike generally?

·         What skills do I have that I would like to use more?

·         What are my interests inside and outside work?

·         Am I an introvert or an extrovert?

Now, put these same questions to someone who knows you well and get their opinion. If the combined answers point in a certain direction, start looking at job advertisements related to that area or jobs that would utilize these primary skills and/or interests.

A More Systematic Approach

There are many fine books written about choosing the right career or an alternate career path. A visit to your local library will provide you with a lot of reading material and decision-making methodologies on this subject. There are also many services, both online and face-to-face, to dig deeper into the subject of career choice. I'll outline one of them to demonstrate roughly how they work.

I've been particularly impressed by the work of Dr. Martin Seligman from the University of Pennsylvania. There's a lot about him on the internet, including YouTube presentations. These talk about his main focus of Positive Psychology. Within this broad area, he also focuses on the impact of Positive Psychology on job choice. You can find his website and do the "Via Character Strengths Questionnaire." There is a modest cost involved.

There are 24 Character Strengths in all, and they include such subjects as Wisdom and Knowledge, Courage, Humanity, Justice, Temperance, and Transcendence. The results of the questionnaire won't tell you what job you should be doing but will describe what things are important to you. That's a good starting point for choosing a new career or even looking at your current career in a new and unique way by leveraging your strong characteristics to gain more satisfaction and purpose from your current work.

Reading your report alongside the relevant book (which can often be found in your local library) is a way of deeply examining the question of career direction.

As I said, the above is just one example of an approach you might take to consider a new career direction. There are many alternatives, both online and face-to-face, with a Career Coach or a Psychologist who specializes in career counseling. Dedicated work with an individual Career Coach or Psychologist is obviously more effective because they are deeply focusing on you and your needs. However, such individual consultation is more expensive, of course.

Looking at the Alternatives

Once you have a view about a new direction, researching that direction is quite important. A useful government website is O*NET Online. This site contains a lot of information about different jobs, the skills and qualifications required, the work involved, and the requirements, including personal characteristics. It also looks at the strength of demand for jobs in most of their categories.

Beyond that, talking to people in that field is by far the most useful thing you can do to get some interactive feedback on what is involved in general and on a day-to-day basis. This will help you understand the job and the career in much more detail and is a very good line of inquiry along the pathway to making a new choice in your career direction.

That’s all for now. Have a great week!

Phillip Powell

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The Mr Job Tracker Job Search Learning and Coaching Program. (Resume writing, interviews, everything your Job Search needs) Helping you to get the job you want .... faster. Mr Job Tracker (thinkific.com)

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