Careers 101: Making a career change
Careers 101: Making a career change
Has the economic downturn forced you to consider transitioning to a new career? While this may be a challenging and frightening time in your life, it may also be an opportunity to move in a new direction. To be successful, take the following steps in researching and identifying your potential new career.
Step 1: Consider your interests
When times are tough economically, you can become so focused on getting a paycheck that you fail to identify careers that will actually interest you. While it is certainly important to assess demand, not examining your interests is a mistake. If you are interested in your job, it will lead to greater satisfaction and the likelihood that you will stay. Also, finding a good match will make the sacrifices you may have to make in the short term worthwhile. These may include paying for additional education or certification, or accepting a lower wage in an entry-level position. To help you identify jobs that match your strengths and interests, take a few online personality and interest inventories.
RESOURCES
• Jung Typology Test www.humanmetrics.com Personality assessment
• O*NET Interest Profiler www.onetcenter.org/IP.html Self-assessment/career exploration tool
• The Career Key http://www1.cfnc.org/Career_Center/Career_Key/home_-_Career_Key.aspx Interests assessment
Step 2: Research careers
Once you have identified careers that interest you, research them carefully. Sometimes what we think might be exciting careers for us turn out to be more tedious than we imagined. Do your homework to avoid such misjudgments.
Questions to ask yourself when researching new careers:
1. Are any of the skills I already have transferrable to this new career?
2. Does this new career offer an opportunity to advance or move laterally within an organization or across industries?
3. Will the typical work environment suit my personality and work style?
4. Will I need additional education or certifications to transition to this career?
RESOURCES
• O*NET Online www.online.onetcenter.org Helps you learn about the duties and skills required in different occupations
• Occupational Outlook Handbook www.bls.gov/oco Provides detailed descriptions of the functions performed in each occupation, as well as descriptions of work environments
• Career Voyages www.careervoyages.org Lets you view videos of individuals working in different occupations to get a glimpse of what those jobs are like in real-world settings
Step 3: Determine demand
The Employment Security Commission of North Carolina provides labor market information that you can use to identify occupations that are growing or declining. Go to the occupational projections link (www.ncesc.com/lmi/occupational/occupationMain-new.asp), where you can find the following:
RESOURCES
• What occupations are projected to grow in the coming years.
• How many projected job openings there will be annually.
• Of these openings, which will be growth openings (new positions being created), and which will be replacement openings (existing positions being refilled).
Examining this information will help you determine if your careers of interest are actually in demand. Using ESC information, along with the national employment outlook information provided through the Occupational Outlook Handbook, you should be able to determine if an occupation is growing nationally or regionally. Regional trends are important because every region has its own demand for specific occupations. Just because an occupation is in demand nationally doesn’t necessarily mean it’s in demand locally.
Also find out what is driving the demand for the occupation. For example, many jobs were created because of artificially inflated housing or technology bubbles. Once the bubbles burst, those jobs went away quickly. So ask yourself: Is the demand for this occupation driven by a stable, growing market? For instance, many job seekers have gravitated toward health care jobs that serve the elderly because everybody needs medical care and nobody ever stops aging. That’s a stable market.
Step 4: Research salaries
While researching salaries may seem like a simple step, there are several factors you should consider.
First, can you be self-sufficient earning an entry-level salary in your new career of interest? If you are transitioning to a completely new field, you may not be able to leverage any of your previous work experience. Consequently, you must be able to make an entry-level salary work for you because that’s all you will be qualified for when you first start in the field.
Second, what are the benefits you will most likely receive by working in this occupation? Factors such as more time off, paid vacations, health benefits and opportunities to telecommute should all be considered as part of your salary when researching careers. Just because your take-home pay may be lower doesn’t necessarily mean your compensation is less.
RESOURCES
• Employment Security Commission of North Carolina www.ncesc.com/lmi/occupational/occupationMain-new.asp This link will lead you to estimated wages for entry level, average and experienced workers.
• www.salary.com This Web site allows you to find average salaries for an occupation. A link to this calculator can also be found at www.triadcareers.com.
Vivek Kshetrapal is a career developer with the City of Greensboro Training Employment Services, which operates under the JobLink Career Center umbrella. He can be reached at 885-8826 or vivek.kshetrapal@greensboro-nc.gov.
Interested in contributing to this monthly feature? Contact Patrick Collins at 412-5934 or patrick.collins@news-record.com.
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