Happy New Year!

Does the New Year have you looking at your life and contemplating changes? Job changes? Or, even bigger, career changes? Although, with the present economy, now may not be the best time to be looking for a new job, it is a great time to be putting some things in place to help you get started in a new direction when the economy improves—or, if you’re lucky, even sooner.

Start now to explore jobs or careers of interest to you. Refer online to the federal government resources, Occupational Outlook Handbook and O*Net, to get a great overview of any job you could probably ever think of. Conduct informational interviews with people actually doing the kind of work you are interested in.

Look at the many skills you have – what ones would be transferrable to the job you are considering. If you need to bump up your skills, is there experience you could get that would be helpful? Start making connections with people working in your desired field. Make connections and get experience by doing volunteer work in the field you are contemplating. Is there training you could/should be taking that would help you break into the line of work? Lucky for you if you can take classes/get training, or reimbursement for training, through your current employer.

This exploration and research will take some time. I encourage you to do it anyway. You and your happiness are worth it!

Happy New Year! Have fun exploring --

~jan

For more information on topics mentioned in above paragraph, read previous blogs.
Informational interviews April, 2010
LinkedIn, April 2010
Volunteering, January, 2010