Career Change
In this time of uncertainty you can feel like curling up and not
addressing the elephant in the room: your career.
By Angela Ennis
This is a good time to look at your career away from the environment gives you an opportunity to think and feel this out. To kick this off you could start with the following tips:
Ask yourself the following questions:
Is it going in the direction you want it to go?
Are you happy in the career?
Do you need a new career or a new job?
Are you happy in your company?
Or do you need to up skill to feel more confident in your job now?
The following tips might help you answer these questions:
1. Make a list of the pros and cons of you job then your company.
Look at the pros of your job on one side and the cons on the other side, Its amazing when you see this on paper it starts to clear the fog and gives you a more transparent picture of what is happening.
Look at the pros and cons of your company after doing both lists you can ask yourself is it the job or is it the team you are working with. What about the company is it a good company to work in but you are under utilised, or is it the company not appreciating its employees.
2. Make a list of the pros and cons of the industry.
Next make a list of pros and cons of your industry are the issues industry wide or limited to certain companies. Is it the size of the company are you better suited to an S.M.E or are you in an S.M.E and better suited to a larger company.
3. Put your lists together.
You can start to correlate the information. Use a mind map or an excel sheet or a note pad which ever medium suits you best, but this is a broader picture coming together to give you a better idea of what your next steps could be.
4. Do an Interest Test.
Do you know what your core interests are? We go to school then on to college or trade or profession most of the time without really taking time to think is this really what I want? Do you want to do this for ever or do you need to change more towards your core interests now.
Doing an interest inventory test is good here as it will help you see your core interests is it working lots of hours and high achievement or is it working more balanced and feeling appreciated.
5. Know your Skills.
Do you know what your core skills and strengths are? When exercising the idea is to build all areas of weakness and strength so the body works to its best capacity same as skills and strengths they are ready to be used but if we expect ourselves to shelve our strengths and keep working using our weaker skills then there will be problems and we get burnt out. If you know your strengths ensure you are using them, if you don’t know your strengths and skills use a professional to test what they are.
6. Time to take control and create a plan.
So time to plan now you will know what you need to do is it a new job or a new role in the company to aim towards or is it a new career this can feel like a weight lifted by making this decision.
“The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle.” — Steve Jobs