5 Steps To Switching Careers

If you are thinking about switching careers and are not sure how to go about it, here are some suggestions on making the transition.

1) Research Your Career Interests
2) Complete a Career Assessment
3) Determine Your Transferable Skills
4) Upgrade Your Training and Education
5) Craft a New Resume

You will want to evaluate the career that you are interested in by doing some research. See what you can find out on the internet regarding qualifications, salary expectations, training and job satisfaction. Talk to others in your target career to gain additional insight. You will probably be able to find a forum somewhere on the internet devoted to your field of interest where you can post your questions and find out if it is a good fit for you.

Complete a career assessment to ensure that your personality traits and work behaviors are a match otherwise, you may find out after the fact that you’re unhappy in your new career. You can find many career assessments on the internet that are either free or for a small charge of $20 or $30.

Take stock of your current strengths, qualifications and experience and determine which of your skills are transferable to your new career aspirations. Think about both the technical skills and soft skills that you’ve developed in your current career. Consider any company sponsored training that you’ve undertaken as well as the duties that you perform on a daily basis.

Next, find out what kind of training or education you’ll need to fill in any gaps between your current career and the one that you want to transition to. You will need to evaluate whether the time and expense of the training makes sense for you. Research all available training options. You may be able to train for your new career from the comfort of your home. There are many online courses available for various careers.

Lastly, you will want to craft a new resume so that you can successfully transition to your new career. Consider your transferable skills from earlier and incorporate them into your new resume. A professional resume writer can help you do this if you feel that it is too daunting a task. A cover letter explaining to prospective employers your reason for the switch, the steps that you’ve taken to transition to this new career, the research you’ve done on the company or industry and the additional training that you’ve undertaken will help to sell you.

Studies show that people will change careers several times over the course of their lifetime. If you are feeling unmotivated with your current line of work or have discovered another profession that interests you, you owe it to yourself to do some research to figure out if it will be the right fit for you.