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Posts Tagged ‘Time’

Today’s job market is tough. Millions of people are looking for jobs for the first time in years.  They’re looking for jobs that don’t seem to exist. Recruiters don’t return phone calls. Job seekers are fed up and frustrated. They wonder if all the effort is ever going to pay off and if it’s time to change careers. You might be wondering the same thing. But, it seems so risky in this economy. 

If you are experiencing these feelings, it might be time for a career change:
• You’ve always been interested in other career areas but went with the “safe” route and now you feel burned out
• You don’t enjoy your work anymore and you wonder what other options are out there for you
• You feel stuck and stagnant
• You are finding fewer and fewer jobs available in your industry
• You’re over-qualified for the jobs that are available in your industry
• You feel the effort to get a new job in your industry is more than you want to undertake

How do you know if now is a good time to change career direction?

The reality is that job loss and job creation are natural components of the world of work. It happens all the time to varying degrees.  So there probably isn’t one perfect time to change jobs or careers. The decision depends a lot on your personal situation.

Before launching a job search or career change, though, there are several important steps to take which I also outline in my career guide and audio program, Fast Track Your Career: Three Steps for Finding Work You Love.

Gaining Personal Insight
Before you change careers, you need to figure out what you want. By assessing your current situation you can determine what you need in your career to be satisfied. Analyze your values, skills, personality characteristics, interests, and lifestyle preferences. It’s also useful to take inventory of your financial situation, especially if the career you’re considering might require additional education and training or relocation.

Getting a Reality Check
A critical mistake in making a career change is making the leap without getting enough career information. By exploring career possibilities you’ll be able to identify options that are best suited to your personal attributes and preferences. There are online and print resources you can use to learn about job outlooks and industry trends. The people in your network can also be great sources for information about trends and opportunities in various career fields. In addition, they can make introductions and give you referrals.

Charting Your Career Path
After you’ve done some self-assessment to learn what you want in a career and done career research to generate options, you have to make a decision about next steps. Your transition and job search plans will guide you to successfully getting the job you want and expanding your professional network. You’ll also need to update your resume, cover letter, and other support materials and fine-tune your interviewing and networking skills.
People change jobs or careers in search of greater satisfaction. By following the steps outlined above, you  will increase your chances for finding a career that better suits your personal goals and uses your talents in meaningful ways.

If you’re thinking about a career change, purchase the The Fast Track Your Career: Three Steps for Finding Work You Love career guide and audio program today. You will go through a step-by-step exploration and planning process by completing several exercises, so you can get clear about your career direction.

Special thanks to Andrea Delgado for contributing to this article. For more than 10 years, Andrea, was a program manager at an international development organization during which time she held multiple positions involving program and grant management and administrative support.  Andrea has been networking to find employment opportunities and has considered a career change into the private sector. Her dream job would take her into the international financial arena analyzing economic policy and regulations. Andrea has her M.A. degree in International Political Economy and Development from Fordham University; a Graduate Certificate in Women’s Politics & Public Policy from the University of Massachusetts at Boston and a B.A degree in Political Science from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.”

Andrea can be contacted on LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/pub/andrea-delgado/10/3b6/717

Related Careers Articles

Before you can have a successful home based business, you must first possess 3 “intangibles.” These are things that must come from WITHIN you.

Intangible 1

First,you must have a strong WHY.

Why MUST you have a successful home business? What is driving you? What is it that you CAN’T have in your life anymore and/or what is it that you absolutely MUST HAVE now?
For me, I couldn’t stand working 12+ hours a day anymore and missing the experience of my children growing up. I also absolutely HAD TO HAVE the freedom of being able to control my life and finances through a little box (laptop computer) that I could carry with me anywhere in the world and not be tied to anyone’s time pressures or demands but my own. That was my carrot and my stick. I felt a great pain deep in my gut of missing out on my children’s lives and the incredible freedom that succeeding in a home based business would provide for me. I found my why. You MUST find yours.

Intangible 2

You must BELIEVE that it is possible.

If you don’t believe that it’s POSSIBLE for you to have a successful home based business or make your living from home, you won’t. It’s that simple.
For me, figuring out that it was possible was just a matter of realizing that many other people were ALREADY making great money working from home. If they could do it, I could too. It would just be a matter of figuring out what those people were doing and then adapting it to my situation.

There is no shortage of undeniable PROOF that people (millions of them) are making money working from home. Just get online and do some research and you’ll find countless testimonials and stories of REAL PEOPLE making real money on the Internet. Or head to your local bookstore and you’ll find the same documented evidence of this fact. Truth is, it’s getting easier and easier to make money with your own home based business.

I’ve always said that “affiliate marketing” (a simple way to make money from home) is the job of the future. In the old days, you had to go to a potential employer, apply for the position and hope for the best. Now you can simply go to any company you want, fill out their affiliate application and start work immediately. Affiliates are the new working class. In fact, making money with affiliate programs or making your living on the Internet is WAY MORE than possible. It is pretty much (or will be soon enough) unavoidable now. Affiliate marketing is the “job” of the future that’s already here TODAY.

Intangible 3

You must be willing to MAKE THE LEAP.

Ready, FIRE, then aim… This is the operating philosophy you MUST adopt to succeed with a home based business.
That’s backwards for most people who like to aim before they fire. The fact is that home based business success is a moving target… The only thing constant about it is change. You need to stop analyzing the game and simply jump into it. You can’t learn from the outside… You have to be *IN THE RING* to truly understand and profit from it. In fact, this is a business where you can truly be earning WHILE you’re still learning…

The lesson here is that you will never really be READY to start a home based business. You simply have to start one. It’s like having children… You’re never really ready, but when it happens you adapt and grow and therefore you succeed. This is what I call: “Making the Leap”!

The good news is that the cost of failure with having your own home based business is very small. In the “brick and mortar” world you need to evaluate things very carefully before you decide to open up a business. It’s almost always necessary to invest thousands of dollars to get an offline business off the ground. However, on the Internet you can often start a successful business for less than 0. The Plug-In Profit Site is a great example of this where you can get your own money-making site setup free within 24 hours:

http://www.PlugInProfitSite.com/main-28425

You simply need get IN THE GAME… Each moment that you stay “out there,” you’re wasting valuable time that you could be learning and skills necessary to build a successful home based business. In fact, if you’re not in the game yet, you’re ALREADY behind the times… Make the leap to starting and building a successful home business TODAY!

About Stone Evans, The Home Biz Guy:
“I Was A Washed Up Restaurant Worker Desperately Searching For
A Way To Save My Family When I Discovered The Internet And
Affiliate Marketing… 24 Months Later I Finally Cracked The
Code And Started Earning Over ,000.00 Per Month…

Australia’s largest supplier of personalised pens is Dynamic Gift.