By Tita Datu Puangco
[Published April 22, 2012
in the Philippine Daily Inquirer]
You are in a job that does not fully optimize your talent. You graduated from a nursing course and have difficulty landing a job. You are a call center agent who can’t adjust to sleeping during the day. These and other reasons may make you consider shifting careers. There is a part of you that wants to cling to the old comfortable job and skills, yet the yearning for a fulfilling job encourages you.
Leider and Shapiro, in their book “Repacking your Bags”, ask: where is your smile? They encourage you to answer the following questions: Are you living your own vision of the good life or somebody else’s? Are you having more or less fun than you did 5 years ago? They formulated the concept for the good life“ as living in the place you belong, with the people you love, doing the right work on purpose.” If you have lost your smile, then it is time to consider shifting work or career.
LEARN MORE ABOUT THE JOB
Where do you start? First step is to get to know better the job that you are attracted to. Interview people who work your dream job and find out how they got to their jobs. You may also offer to do on the job training with a company that offers them. For some , the Chinese saying,” one step backward and two step forward” may apply
NETWORK EXTENSIVELY.
Step 2: Ask your friends if they have in their network people who can introduce you to the sector that you are interested in. In this age of social networking, people can introduce you to people in the know. Keep an active curiosity. Be open.
INVENTORY YOUR SKILLS
Step 3: Take an inventory of your skills and competencies. Remember to do an exhaustive list to include general, managerial or technical skills. Then ask yourself which skills are transferable to other jobs and those you enjoy most.
MATCH WITH SKILLS IN TARGETED JOB
Step 4: Make a list of skills and competencies in your targeted jobs and do a match of your earlier inventory. For those that match, are they your strong skills? If not what can you to build them? You may want to attend training programs or find a certificate course
DEVELOP YOUR JOB OBJECTIVE
Step 5 : Develop your job objective. Your job objective in essence becomes your vision. It is important because it calls attention to your potential and alerts the employer on the type of job you seek. You may choose to do it the short way or th long way. What is important is to clearly state your functional interest. It can also express what you want to offer. Make it work oriented rather than self directed.
WRITE AN INTERESTING RESUME
Step 6: Write an interesting yet concise resume covering your competencies, knowledge and skills as well as your work experience. If you are interested in a career shift note down your strengths that you can tap for the position applied. Then email your resumes to acquaintances and friends who can help pass it on. The goal is to get as many job interviews as possible that increase your chances of landing a job. Or be on the watch for job fairs where companies go out of their way to woo applicants.
REHEARSE FOR THE INTERVIEW
Step 7: Prepare and rehearse for the interview. Write down a list of possible questions and prepare answers. Ask a friend to rehearse with you the interviewer-applicant interaction so you can refine your answers while maintaining authenticity and integrity.
ANTICIPATE CHANGE
Step 8: Identify the helping and hindering forces in making the career transition. Find out how you can optimize the helping forces and how to minimize, neutralize or eliminate the driving forces. Develop action plans to facilitate your career transition.
COMPARE RISKS WITH BENEFITS
Step 9: Consider the risks compared to the benefits. Anticipate the potential discomforts of moving from your existing job and prepare mentally and emotionally for the endings, moving through the neutral zone, then moving to your new beginnings. Consider likewise the financial adjustments by ensuring you have enough savings when you make the career shift.
LEARN THE NEW JOB
Step 10: Starting in a new job requires enthusiasm and energy. Manage your stress as you adapt and flex to the new job. Remember your learning curve has to rise. Be patient with yourself and make time for building learning partners in your new workplace.
Shifting career is not easy. But if your new job is aligned to your talents and skills before long, you will find not just a smile on your face but money in your pocket as well.
"If you do not change, you can become extinct" i remember this on the story, WHO MOVED MY CHEESE"
ReplyDeletecareer shifting is life changing. there'll be risks, challenges, hardships, etc. but what matter;s most is that in the end there is the most delicious cheese as your reward.
bakit ko ito sinasabi? here's a catch:
simple lang.. if your talents, skills, personality may not fit to what you have as professional, than it's time to look for a right job for you. you will become extinct if you stick on that job that you don't really love. :)
how would you know that you are on the right path (job) feel that happiness inside you. if you don't feel it, then somebody might have moved your cheese.
“It is safer to search in the maze than to remain in a cheeseless situation”
Delete― Spencer Johnson, Who Moved My Cheese?