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6 Steps to Re-inventing Your CareerMeaningful work honors the deepest part of your being. It is the embodiment of your gifts and talents and all that you value. Finding it in a safe, smart way requires these six steps: 1. Soul Searching. Your journey begins with some intriguing self-examination. This step goes beyond looking at your work experience and skills. You also consider your values, interests, and personality preferences. This can be done informally through the use of specially-designed exercises or it can be done formally through professional assessment testing. Taken all together, the soul-search phase allows you to come up with a comprehensive personal profile that will help you develop future work possibilities. 2. Identifying Options. The key word here is "options"?not "answers". In this step, you use your profiling "clues" from Step 1 to brain- and heart-storm as many possibilities for future work as possible. This is one of the most creative parts of the change process ? and best done with one or more friends or colleagues who have a broad view of the business marketplace. At about this point, it's important to begin to create a compelling future vision for your work and life. The act of creating your vision is inspiring, and it can actually help to pull your career change journey forward. 3. Testing. Testing has three purposes. The obvious one is to avoid making a big mistake by jumping to a solution too fast. The not-so-obvious purposes are to network more deeply into an area that you think you might like to make a career of, and to learn as much as you can about it from an inside perspective rather than from afar. It is experimentation with a purpose ? while you keep an open mind and heart. 4. Crafting Your Transition Plan. Out of your testing comes a clear path ? where you can set a specific new career goal and create the strategy and steps that will get you there. Your goal may be radically different work, the same work in a different environment or starting a new business or some combination of these three. 5. Implementation. During the Implementation phase ? which can begin even before you leave your current employer -- you begin to put pieces of your transition plan into action. You may begin a course of study, reduce your expenses, if warranted, and/or even make physical preparations such as relocation or building a home office. Of course, to minimize your personal and financial risk, you want to do as much as possible while you are still working. 6. Integration. Seekers often think that once the shift ismade, their career transition is complete. I think it's more accurate to call it the "beginning of the end". A physical transition into new work is one thing ? but transitioning your "underneath" layers (like work patterns, assumptions) is another thing entirely. Career change typically takes from one to three years. And the tendency is to just 'jump in' anywhere. It helps to have a big picture view and to know that there actually is real method to the madness! Patricia Soldati is a former President & COO of a national finance organization who re-invented her working life in 1999. Now, as a career fulfillment specialist, she guides unhappy corporate professionals into meaningful work -- both inside and outside the corporate walls. For more about her approach or to receive 5 Complimentary Career Fulfillment Lessons, visit http://www.purposefulwork.com |  | | | RELATED ARTICLES Make Your Résumé Sizzle with Success Stories In today's competitive job market you can't afford a résumé that fizzles. Power up your résumé with solid success stories. Include simple, clear accomplishment statements to get and keep the attention of hiring managers. 15 Tips for Writing Winning Resumes The thought of writing a resume intimidates almost anyone. It's difficult to know where to start or what to include. It can seem like an insurmountable task. Here are 15 tips to help you not only tackle the task, but also write a winning resume. 1. Determine your job search objective prior to writing the resume. Once you have determined your objective, you can structure the content of your resume around that objective. Think of your objective as the bull's-eye to focus your resume on hitting. If you write your resume without having a clear objective in mind, it will likely come across as unfocused to those that read it. Take the time before you start your resume to form a clear objective.   2. Think of your resume as a marketing tool. Think of yourself as a product, potential employers as your customers, and your resume as a brochure about you. Market yourself through your resume. What are your features and benefits? What makes you unique? Make sure to convey this information in your resume.  3. Use your resume to obtain an interview, not a job. You don't need to go into detail about every accomplishment. Strive to be clear and concise. The purpose of your resume is to generate enough interest in you to have an employer contact you for an interview. Use the interview to provide a more detailed explanation of your accomplishments and to land a job offer. 4. Use bulleted sentences. In the body of your resume, use bullets with short sentences rather than lengthy paragraphs. Resumes are read quickly. This bulleted sentence format makes it easier for someone to quickly scan your resume and still absorb it. 5. Use action words. Action words cause your resume to pop. To add life to your resume, use bulleted sentences that begin with action words like prepared, developed, monitored, and presented.   6. Use #'s, $'s and %'s. Numbers, dollars, and percentages stand out in the body of a resume. Use them. Here are two examples: Managed a department of 10 with a budget of $1,000,000.Increased sales by 25% in a 15-state territory. 7. Lead with your strengths. Since resumes are typically reviewed in 30 seconds, take the time to determine which bullets most strongly support your job search objective. Put those strong points first where they are more apt to be read. 8. Play Match Game. Review want ads for positions that interest you. Use the key words listed in these ads to match them to bullets in your resume. If you have missed any key words, add them to your resume. 9. Use buzzwords. If there are terms that show your competence in a particular field, use them in your resume. For marketing people, use "competitive analysis." For accounting types, use "reconciled accounts."  10. Accent the positive. Leave off negatives and irrelevant points. If you feel your date of graduation will subject you to age discrimination, leave the date off your resume. If you do some duties in your current job that don't support your job search objective, leave them off your resume. Focus on the duties that do support your objective. Leave off irrelevant personal information like your height and weight. 11. Show what you know. Rather than going into depth in one area, use your resume to highlight your breadth of knowledge. Use an interview to provide more detail.   12. Show who you know. If you have reported to someone important such as a vice president or department manager, say so in your resume. Having reported to someone important causes the reader to infer that you are important. 13. Construct your resume to read easily.  Leave white space. Use a font size no smaller than 10 point. Limit the length of your resume to 1-2 pages. Remember, resumes are reviewed quickly. Help the reader to scan your resume efficiently and effectively.  14. Have someone else review your resume. Since you are so close to your situation, it can be difficult for you to hit all your high points and clearly convey all your accomplishments.  Have someone review your job search objective, your resume, and listings of positions that interest you. Encourage them to ask questions. Their questions can help you to discover items you inadvertently left off your resume. Revise your resume to include these items. Their questions can also point to items on your resume that are confusing to the reader. Clarify your resume based on this input.  15. Submit your resume to potential employers. Have the courage to submit your resume. Think of it as a game where your odds of winning increase with every resume you submit. You really do increase your odds with every resume you submit. Use a three-tiered approach. Apply for some jobs that appear to be beneath you. Perhaps they will turn out to be more than they appeared to be once you interview for them. Or perhaps once you have your foot in the door you can learn of other opportunities. Apply for jobs that seem to be just at your level. You will get interviews for some of those jobs. See how each job stacks up. Try for some jobs that seem like a stretch. That's how you grow -- by taking risks. Don't rule yourself out. Trust the process. Good luck in your job search!  Copyright 1999 - 2004 Quest Career Services, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Six of the Best for a Winning Resume 1. Be Complete Salary, Raises, & Perks: Negotiate to Get Paid What Youre Worth! Salary negotiation requires preparation and good timing. It's important to determine your salary needs and research the market value for the job you want. Timing is critical for negotiation. Discussing salary requirements too early in the interview process can jeopardize your chances of getting the salary you deserve. Failure to negotiate could result in losing money. From The WorkWise Collection: Ten Ways to Win the Job Search Mind Game Are you one of the thousands of job seekers who question their sanity, marketability, and capacity to make smart decisions-just because you've lost your job? Are you wondering how to overcome these psychological challenges, rebuild your self-confidence, increase your marketability, and regain your sense of sanity? Making Yourself More Relevant To The New Workplace Being a current job seeker can be quite a challenging prospect as there are many changes in the workplace. Life-long employment is no longer the norm and workers must also learn to adapt with the complementary expertise of foreign talents. We are very much living in a global village. Death By Workers Compensation Excerpt of Death By Workers' Compensation How To Write A Resume Cover Letter That Will Get Your Resume Read A Resume Cover Letter has only one purpose - to stimulate the recipient of your resume to review your resume. This free resume cover letter tutorial assumes that you will be sending your resume and resume cover letter by email. Creating a Winning Resume Preparing your resume can often seem like a daunting task. You've done your research, but there is so much information, and how do you pick from the countless formats?! 3 Questions No Job Seeker Ever Wants To Be Asked? Employer and interviewers expect you to answer tough question during interviews. Take a few minutes to brainstorm on how you might elaborate on the following answers. The answers you give to these questions that will be asked during your interview will be very important in your career prospects. Leaders Meet Challenge Heads-UP With Confidence -- Maybe "buck" is better referred to as the Boss' Challenge. Business owners are faced with making lots of decisions - some quickly made - others take more time with greater consequences. Speak Up: Your Job Is At Stake! How good are you at standing up for yourself? When All Is Not Well With Work When all is not well with work, what do you do? Do you quickly get frustrated and feel discontent? Do you look at each situation as a tiresome challenge or as an opportunity to learn something new? Have you ever considered looking at work problems from a spiritual point of view? Tales From the Corporate Frontlines: Here Today, Gone Tomorrow This article relates to the Job Security competency, commonly evaluated in employee satisfaction surveys. After a large scale cut in personnel, this particular group of employees needed some extra support. Examining the issue of job security measures how your employees view their job security within your organization. In today's often volatile or contingent labor market, it's crucial to understand the level of security your employees feel about maintaining their jobs. Studies show that employees who do not feel secure in their jobs are less likely to be committed to best assisting customers. Evaluating this competency can be especially useful if your organization has suffered recent layoffs or firings. Writing Resumes Use a resume as a foot in the door Interviewing Over Lunch: Are You at Risk? Sometimes a hiring process will include having lunch with the hiring manager. Despite anything said to the contrary (like "It'll just be an informal lunch so we can get to know each other."), this is a formal part of your interview! Working in Dubai Dubai in the United Arab Emirates is one of the world's fastest growing employment hotspots in the world. Up to 20 new companies establish themselves in the emirate's free trade zones every week and since 2002 some 650 companies have registered in the Dubai Media City free trade zone alone. Reading the Want Ads--Not for Jobs--For Information What? Want ads are where job announcementsare, not information! Why Do Interviews Die: That Sinking Feeling and How to Prevent it! Interviews die because a mistake occurred. Sometimes, you've made a mistake; sometimes they die because someone who screened a resume did. Resume Writing Service Website Promote Your Resume Business Website! |
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