Thinking of Changing Careers? Next Steps Are Critical.
May 27, 2020
Increasing Your Awareness Is Essential
There are different ways to know it is time for a career change. The most common answer from our FREE Career Change Assessment is that people wake up in the morning and are not excited about going to work. Another way is reassessing your career after being fired, not being promoted, or realizing you have been playing victim when it is not really them or you. You are just in the wrong job. Last, you may realize career dissatisfaction is hurting other areas of your life, and the damage to your life and others has got to stop.
What are your next steps? Read on…
Set a Firm Foundation to Carry You Through the Change
Deciding that you need and want to make a career change is a BIG DEAL. Write down your decision along with the evidence supporting it. Let it all out, including the emotions and their strength. Share it with a spouse or friend. During the career change journey, you will need to refer to these realizations and emotional reminders. Along with your spouse and friend, review how bad things were and how big the decision was.
You Must Have a Career Vision of What Could Be to Leave What Your Career Has Been
I cannot emphasize this point enough. Without an idea of an inspiring future for you that will glorify God, you may never start. You may not take some of the needed risks nor be open to change if you do not have a picture of a new work life that is fulfilling, allows you to use God’s gifts with ease, and produces fruitful results and joy. This vision, your written decision and mostly the Holy Spirit will be the fuel for your journey.
Here is my Vision Statement: Help people thrive in their careers, discover their life purpose, and learn how to live a fulfilling life for God’s glory. I sold my company and changed my career to Career and Life Coaching. The change was not easy, but I am now more fulfilled than ever. You can be, too.
Identifying the Right Occupation for the Vision Statement – the Hard Way
At this point, you most likely do not know your ideal career. You need a process to help you pick an inspiring occupation that uses and needs the gifts that God has given you. You can do it the older and harder way or the easier way.
The hard way is to ask people what they think about your skills and personality while not hurting your feelings or exaggerating your positives. With this information, write a personality profile along with your strengths and weaknesses. Think about your life and what was fun while growing up until now. Of the 1,110 occupations in the US Department of Labor database, explore their website for info on those careers. Then rollup what you have learned about yourself and various occupations to draw connections or matches. Finally, sift through all of this and pick one career.
The Easier Way
Recently God has gave the world the gift of some great science. When picking a career assessment to use, ask if it identifies your aptitudes (not skills), some of which you may not be aware. Examples of aptitudes are Idea Generation, Inductive Reasoning and more.
Make sure the science program also assesses your approach to work, personality, tools of communication, some basic areas of interest, ideal team role, and more. These results will be much better than what your mother or your friends told you. Why? This science is objective, based on years of development, and proven to be effective.
Then use the science to match your results with the occupations that need people like you. These matching techniques under the hood are complicated, but they greatly simplify for you the career matching. Typically, you should receive about 12-24 strong career matches, avoiding so much time and research. As you research the careers matching you, your energy and enthusiasm will grow.
Conclusion
You can go to our website to see screen shots of elements of the assessment science we use. BTW and after much research, Georgia’s public-school system uses the same science we do. Finding the right career for you is so that you can be a bright light in the workplace for God’s glory. Do not delay. It is time for action.
Charlie Haines
