What type of job or career are you looking for? I often talk to people who have no idea. They seem sure that they want something else, but they have not done the hard thinking about what the “else” might be. If you truly want to escape a job or career you hate, you need to think about what you might like to do, what skills you will need, if you will be required to move and a host of other issues before you can hope to make any progress. We all need a goal before we can set our path to get there.
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Career Compass: Finding Your Career North by Douglas E. Welch
5100 Words
Download Sample/Buy Now from Amazon.com
View other books by Douglas E. Welch
What do you want, like and dislike?
First, you need to clearly investigate what you like and dislike about your current work or your overall career. In my eBook, “Career Compass: Finding Your Career North” I lay out how you might start to think about this. There are four areas where your current work might fall — Work you do today but don’t enjoy, work you don’t do today and don’t enjoy, work you do today and enjoy and work you don’t do but think you would enjoy.
If you take each aspect of your work — daily tasks, management, rewards, environment — and start plotting them into each of these quadrants, you might just discover something important. Often the reason we dislike a job is not about the whole job but rather about certain aspects of the job. There are also tasks that you would like to do as part of your job that you aren’t allowed to do or that aren’t seen as important.
You might find that you can alter your current job or career to match your needs without changing everything. You might find that you could transition to a job within your current company that better fits your wants, needs and desires. You can’t do this, though, unless you truly and deeply know what you want and need to be more fulfilled in your work life.
You can buy “Career Compass”, a 5100 word Amazon Kindle book using this link for $2.99. It is readable on almost any device including your computer, iPhone/iPad, and Android phones and tablets using the free Kindle Software.
Small, defined, steps
Once you have a better idea about what you want out of your job and career you need to start plotting small, defined steps to develop that career. Maybe you need to do some research into the types of companies and organizations that could use your skills in new ways. Perhaps you need to get some more training or a certificate in a particular area of study. It is always a good idea to talk with someone who is currently working in your area of interest and see what they can tell you about the good and bad of their work. It is often hard to get a clear picture of a job from the outside. There are always those little quirks and problems that often only insiders know and understand.
Line up these small, defined, steps in your to-do list and start thinking about them every day. Make them part of your daily actions and thinking. Post them in a place where you can see them every day. Job and career changes don’t just happen. They require attention and work. That said, by breaking them down into small tasks, you can often accomplish much without feeling overburdened. Before too long you will start to see movement in your search
Even more, when we start taking action on our goals, opportunities often present themselves. Perhaps we ignored those opportunities in the past because we weren’t focused on the change we wanted to create or perhaps your action and initiative has caught the eye of someone who is looking for someone just like you. Action begets action, so get started today.
Have you really thought about what you want out of your job and career? Have you thought about what particular parts of your job you love or hate? Can this thought and knowledge lead you to the career you deserve? I think so. We have the ability to change our minds and our lives if we only listen to ourselves. Don’t feel trapped in your current position. Start taking those small steps today that can build the career you deserve in the future.
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