Career Change and Exploration
• Introduction: Career Change and Assessing Your Talents and Abilities
• Websites for Self-Assessment
• Websites for Career Change
• Books on Career Change
• Career Insights
Career Change and Assessing Your Talents and Abilities
Individuals today make job and career changes quite frequently. Gone are the days when workers - and employers - remain loyal to one another for 30 or more years. When career change is well-planned and thoughtful, individuals work through a process that logically leads them to the next position. This can be an enlightening exercise in self-assessment, research, and searching for just the right position. More often than not, however, the need for job or career change happens unexpectedly, when one is least prepared, and so it carries with it fear, frustration, and immobilization.
Young workers make job changes to advance their careers, try something new, acquire or hone needed skills, out of boredom, or because they become the victims of lay-off - the most recently hired/easily fired workers in the organization.
Mid-careerists are often affected by downsizing and consequently face sudden unemployment. They are also often the least prepared to deal with the change. It is time to evaluate themselves, their career goals and aspirations, their skills, interests, current values structure, and take this unwanted opportunity to find the next career. This group often is the most "stuck." Even before lay-off, they may have had a sense of wanting to make a change, but for a variety of reasons never took steps to make that happen. Individuals in this group often seek the help of a career counselor to sort out the many variables and obstacles to making positive career change. They appear in our offices frightened and depressed, knowing they must now find a new position, or simply knowing that something is wrong in their career but not what it is or how to fix it. Fortunately, we generally have remedies in our bag of tools to help them better understand the nature of their situation and move forward with their job or career change.
Upper-level executives may know their time within an organization is up and may be making quiet inquiries leading to the next position. They may be in denial that change is coming. They may be calling in all their cards - and should be. They may have made contact with or have been sought out by headhunters. They should be seeking the next position or reviewing their career to date to make new and perhaps life transition decisions.
Whatever your situation or employment level, an honest appraisal of your skills, interests, values, personality, strengths, weaknesses, talents, and abilities is in order first and foremost. Networking through the obvious channels (family, friends, colleagues, supervisors, former bosses and colleagues, professional associations) and the not-so-obvious (medical/dental offices, attorneys, former professors, civic and religious affiliations) is of utmost importance. See the Networking Resources and Networking and Informational Interviewing for a comprehensive look at how, when, where to network.
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Websites for Self Assessment
The first step to conducting a successful job search or career change is self-assessment. Engaging in the self-assessment process helps you develop a better understanding of your interests, work style, skills, aptitudes, attitudes, personality, values and priorities, and enables you to articulate this self-knowledge to others. Identifying this information about yourself will help you develop focus, clarify career goals, and find work that is the right “fit.” Investigate the websites below.
Note: Although an extensive array of self-assessment tools is available on the Internet, we recommend working with a Career Counselor to review how the information specifically relates to your career exploration, choices and goals.
Assess Your Interests
Steps to Career/Life Planning Success Comprehensive, interactive e-manual for the entire career planning process. Begin with self-assessment exercises and proceed step by step.
Check out the Career Interest Game
This is a game designed to help you match your interests and skills with similar careers. It can help you begin thinking about how your personality will fit in with specific work environments and careers.
Life Work Transitions Another comprehensive set of exercises to assist with all phases of self-assessment.
Assess Your Personality
TypeFocus – Free Personality Tool. Discover your personality type, strengths and how they relate to careers. Be sure to confirm your type as indicated. Use the below web sites below to help you interpret your results
Follow-up worksheets Click on your 4-letter code to print out worksheet(s)
For additional information: visit WSC's Personality Types and PersonalityType.com
The Keirsey Temperament Sorter Are you an Introvert or an Extrovert? Do you rely more on intuition or sensory data? Take the Keirsey test and find out what it all means.
Assess Your Skills
Transferable Skills Checklist
Career Management Skills
Assess Your Values
What's Important to You?
Motivational Factors
Fantasy Workday - If you could create your ideal workday, what would it look like?
MAPP Motivational Appraisal of Personal Potential “reveals the real you: natural motivations, interests and talents for work.” This tool assesses your top ten jobs with greatest potential for success; your interest in job content; your motivation to work with people; your preference to work with things; a personalized 6-7 page report the includes 5 free job matches. Premium packages also available.
Personal Traits - assessments from Life Transitions and Next Steps
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Websites for Career Change
• Quint Careers: Job and Career Resources for Career Changers• Monster: Career Changers
• Fast Company: How to Make Your Career Move
• Best Years: Career Changes
• MidLifeMentor Specifically geared to women, much is also relevant to men.
• The Transition Network: Life Options for Women Over 50
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