Career Change Resumes

December 27, 2009

Advanced Career Training: is it for You?

Advanced Career Training: Pluses and Minuses

There is one basic reason to consider advanced career training. That is the reason to further and grow your current career. Whether your advanced training is in the medical, management, technology or some other field the main factor behind your decision is to advance your career. A further consideration may not be to advance your career so much but to keep up with the changes going on in your career or industry so you continue to qualify for the position.

Generally, there are both plus and minus reasons to be considered before planning advanced career training. While there are many positive reasons the negative reasons should also be considered in your decision.

Let’s review some of the reasons that deserve consideration. Positive reasons for advanced career training are the first things that come to your mind when considering such training. These reasons may include the following:

• Career Promotion: In considering advanced career training, you always plan for the possibility of career promotion. Your value to your employer will increase and many times this is a prerequisite for promotion and greater responsibility.

• Awareness on updates in the area of expertise: Keeping yourself knowledgeable about the latest developments in your area of expertise is critical. As you become more knowledgeable your productivity and effectiveness will increase. Hopefully the added training will lead to greater earnings.

• Involvement in specialized training: Being involved in specialized yet advanced career training enables you to become highly-skilled and experienced in your particular career.

• Enhance your Resume: A completed training course can look good in your resume especially if you have acquired advanced career training which is highly in demand and very relevant in the present time. Advanced career training is essential if you decide to make a career change. It is necessary to get you prepared for the next level of career challenges and responsibilities.

Before you consider your advanced career training there are also some negative reasons that you may consider. They are as follows:

• Redundancy of Information: If you have the initiative of self-study in some preferred or highly in demand skills but you’ve already learned the required information and now your employer requires the training, there’s a great possibility that you will be required to spend valuable time going over what you already know. However, if there is a “ticket punching” requirement you may have no choice but to attend the training.

• Additional Risks Taking Your Career to the Next Level: The added training may be oversold so in reality you may not be as prepared t o move to the next level. Carefully study this factor before making your decision.

Advanced career training, in general, serves as an integral part of continuing education and career development. If however, the key ingredients for advancing your career are present in the additional training, approach the activity with a positive attitude and you’ll maximize the results to your career.

December 16, 2009

How To Get Tons Of Job Opportunities By Your Warm Contacts

When making a career change, it’s not unusual to ask family and friends for advice about possible job openings and business opportunities.  Your family and friends are what is known as your warm contact network. There are times when this network may not be able to give you all the help you need in finding a job.  You may need to extend your warm contact network by asking each contact to put you in touch with one or two other people who may have information that you can use.  You’ll often find that it may be difficult to get your warm contacts to put you in touch with other contacts who don’t know you well.  Even if they do, it’s not always easy getting useful information from these new contacts. These factors make it difficult to effectively use your contact network.   Here are a few tips to help overcome these obstacles and make it easier make a career change using referrals from contacts.Career Change Tip – Nurture your contacts Do everything possible to stay close to the people in your warm contact network, even before you need their help.  Send notes and emails, keep in touch by phone and suggest an occasional lunch.  Show that you’re interested in them and offer to help with their business.  Nurture your connection with them. When the time comes that you need help, your contacts will remember you and be more willing to give you help or find other contacts who can help you.Career Change Tip – Be Courteous You may not have a close relationship with all of your warm contacts.  In this case, a phone call looking for help with a career change may not be appropriate.  Decide if sending a note in advance or setting up a lunch meeting would be more effective.Career Change Tip – Be a Good Listener Many times a contact will be more than willing to give advice, even when they have scant knowledge about the job are you seeking.  Listen politely and with interest to this advice.  It may turn out to be valuable in the future.  Before asking for referrals, make sure your warm contact has told you everything he or she knows about the career field that you’re interested in.  Even if the advice they are giving doesn’t seem useful, it’s impolite to interrupt to ask for referrals to other contacts.Career Change Tips – Get Two Referrals Once you have listened to everything your warm contact has to say about your field of interest, ask for at least two additional referrals.  Two referrals are a good number to ask for from each warm contact.  If one doesn’t work out, there will be another one to turn to.  If may be inconvenient to your warm contact to ask for more than two referrals.  Also, it may give your warm contact the impression that you’re relying too much on him or her for your career change.  Unless they offer to give you more than two referrals, don’t ask. If your warm contact is unable to give you at least one referral, try to find out the reason.  In their answer, you may find some indirect information about your proposed career change.  Maybe your warm contact is lacking confidence about your plans.  If you feel this is the case, follow up to prove that you are serious about your career change and will not disappoint them if they give you a referral. However, it may the case that your warm contact doesn’t know anyone to refer you to.  If this turns out to be true, ask your contact to be on the lookout for opportunities for you.  You should also give your contact copies of your resume.Career Change Tips – Contact Referrals Quickly Once you have some referrals, pay attention to advice from your warm contacts about how to conduct yourself when communicating with these referrals.  Listen carefully for tips about the skills and experience that these referrals are interested in. Sometimes your warm contacts will call their referrals and let them know something about you.  Other time, you will be contacting the referrals directly.  After you contact a referral, chances are they will call your warm contact to find out more about you and verify that you are who you say you are.  This is nothing to worry about. The most important thing to remember is to contact the referrals quickly so that they will remember any details they’ve heard from your warm contact.  Also, if your warm contact has let a referral know that you will be calling, they will be anticipating your call and may even have put together a set of questions to ask you.  Don’t keep them waiting by hesitating to make your contact call. For more information, here is an excellent article about how to use the internet for networking during your career change: How to Look for Job Opportunities During a Recession If you keep these tips foremost in your mind, you will be able to benefit from useful referrals from your warm contacts.

December 13, 2009

How To Make Your Career Transition Positive By Quitting Your Job With Dignity

Are you, like so many other people, fed up with the present state of your career? If you are, you need to take a step back and see where your career is headed.
You want to see if you have any other options of career development besides slogging on at your current job. If you see any light at the end of the tunnel, you might want to make a bold career transition and quit your job.
When you decide on a career change it is advisable to give your employer as much notice as possible. If the terms of the employment contract specify a definite amount of time, you should give at least such amount of time to your employer as notice. If there is no such specification and your employer expects two weeks’ notice from those quitting, you may consider giving more than two weeks’ notice. You can also offer to stay on until a replacement is found or until you make your career dream find; maybe even offer to help your replacement learn the ropes before you actually say goodbye.
When you opt for a career transition, it is best to resign in a formal and dignified manner. Sensible career planning demands that you never quit over the phone or just email your resignation. Write a proper resignation letter, thanking your employer for the opportunity to work with them and thereby gather valuable knowledge and experience. Take a printout and hand it over personally to your employer, repeating the sentiments expressed in your letter verbally too.
The sense of dignity that you show when executing a career forward move will go a long way to create a good impression of you for years to come. Make sure that you deal with your bosses, colleagues, and clients genially at all times once you have served notice of your intention of career transition.
It is very important that you don’t burn any bridges when you leave. You would want the doors of the company to remain open for you should you ever wish to come back. Also, you need to remember that the world is a small place after all. Who knows where you might meet your boss again? The ideal scenario is that you are fondly remembered and missed once you move on.
When opting for a career job opportunity elsewhere and packing your stuff, be very particular about returning all stationery, equipment, documents or other company property that is currently with you. This you should do even if you are not asked. By ensuring this you not only prevent any misunderstanding or allegations of theft but also demonstrate your ethics to the company and add to the positive impression already created.
It is best left to your judgment when you decide on how you want to go about resigning your present job. For example, you would not like to put your current job as a reference on your resume in your quest for a career forward move until you have actually tendered your resignation officially. Again, unless such a situation arises that your safety is threatened, you should never decide impulsively to leave your job.
One way to give free rein to your judgment is to put yourself in the shoes of your employer or your boss. Ask yourself this question every time you take some step – how would it feel if an outgoing employee behaved like this? Answer this question honestly and you will know exactly what to do and what not to do when resigning your job. Remember, appropriate exit behavior is a clear sign of intelligent career planning. It is a great way to ensure good reference from your employer time and again.

December 8, 2009

Why Impulsive Decisions Are Not Wise When Planning Your Next Career Move

Are you frustrated with the present state of your career?
You might be, if you find yourself locked in workplace conflicts with a colleague or your boss. You might also feel that you deserve more than what you are being paid, or that you are regularly being required to work late without an overtime pay to match.
Such circumstances are bound to get you thinking about a career change. Of course you can find a new position of your liking, but you need to watch out for the pitfalls when you actually cross the threshold and make that bold career forward move.
Now you might want to give a good thought to your reasons of quitting before you seek a career transition. Making money after all is serious business; your livelihood and your family’s well-being depend on it. An impulsive decision is not in the best interest of your career planning.
A frivolous or petty reason should not make you put in your papers. You should not, for example, let conflict with another individual or small issues make you resign. However, if you feel you have no hope of any further career development, if there are concerns for your safety at work, or if you need a career change to support the changing needs of your family, you will want to look at all the options before you.
Speaking of your options, you need to carefully weigh the pros and cons of a career change before you actually take the plunge. That would entail taking a good, hard look at the current employment opportunities in and around your area.
Career transition has to go hand in hand with career planning. The last thing you would want is to give up your job on an impulse and find no good openings in your area. That would leave you in a precarious position with bills to pay and a family to support.
When contemplating a career change, you obviously need to explore all avenues to find out the current employment scenario in your area. You should start examining the employment pages of local newspapers for job openings in your quest of a career job opportunity. You also need to gather all the career information available with online recruitment portals on the internet.
In the course of your job search you should take into account the current pay levels, the benefits, and other relevant particulars of all the available jobs. If the package advertised looks attractive, it is important that you examine all job requirements, such as any training or work experience. Unless the job scenario in your target area is exceptionally bright, you cannot count on being offered employment in a position you are not fully qualified for.
When you are satisfied that there are enough opportunities for career transition, it is time you take your job search to the next level. This means you start applying for the job openings in and around your area. You need to apply right away for positions which interest you, for the best jobs always draw a lot of qualified applicants quickly.
Once you have made the career forward move, you may want to consider submitting your resignation, with the requisite period of notice, to your current employer. You realistically can only resign once you get a concrete offer, just to be on the safe side.
It is important for your career planning that you have a proper resume. Not only do you need to brush up your resume and make it up-to-date with all the skills and experience gained in your current job; it should be done with a professional get-up.
A nice resume creates a very good impression. It can land you a job interview, and may go a long way in leading you to a career dream find. You can take the help of free resume templates online or those provided with software such as Microsoft Word or Works. You can also seek professional help in writing your resume.
These are some of the things you will want to take into consideration in your quest of a career change. Just a small advice: do not terminate your position with your current employer until you have some concrete offer in hand.

November 16, 2009

Discover The Essential Information You Need When Considering A Career Change

Are you dismayed with the way your career is shaping up? More accurately, has it something to do with the lack of direction in your career management?
If that be the case, you are in need of a thorough overhaul of your career planning. You want to explore career job opportunities in areas totally different from what you are engaged in right now. While this is not impossible to achieve, one must remember that all career fields are not the same.
Often they require a completely different set of attributes and mind sets. For example, your expertise in legal security doesn’t necessarily qualify you to be a successful nurse or paramedic. This is something you need to remember before you opt for a radical career transition.
Now since all career fields are different, it is important that you do not suffer from any pre-conceived notions regarding your abilities. Feel-good assumptions having no basis in reality are the worst enemy of your career development goals.
Before seriously deciding on a career change, you need to step back a little, get a perspective on your career planning, and do some thorough research on the career fields that interest you. These may be anything from teaching, medicine, law, retail, to automobiles. The research should cover aspects like current and projected job prospects, average pay, requirements in terms of skill sets and so on. All the related career information that you may need can be obtained either online or at the local library.
Once you have zeroed in on a few career fields that you would be interested in, you may start searching for job openings. Don’t apply for those jobs just yet. Instead, it is advisable to examine these options with respect to the criteria mentioned above.
One of the primary concerns will be your earning prospects. You need to check if the salary and benefits offered in those positions are enough to carry out your financial obligations. Some circumstances like job satisfaction, additional benefits and prospects of career advancement may allow you to take a pay cut; but the onus of making the final decision rests with you.
Another such criterion in your quest for career development is the specific job requirements. You will want to examine some of the job openings in the light of required education, training, skills, aptitude, previous work experience, and the like. What is nice about this part of the research is that data in this regard is easy to come by.
You will find that most job listings, both in print and in online recruitment portals, usually outline all the requirements for the job. You will easily get a good idea as to whether or not you have got what it takes to qualify for your career dream find. If you find any divergence between your ambitions of career transition and the requirements of achieving them, you may want to invest in a few career training courses to help upgrade your expertise and experience.
Continuing with career training, you could access various kinds of courses, all designed to help you prepare for your career dream find. For example, if you want to become a successful accountant, you will have to learn how to keep books of accounts, prepare balance sheets and cash flow statements, maintain records of transactions; prepare tax returns, and so on. Needless to say, the period of training required will depend on the direction in which your career planning goals take you.
If you decide on attending career training courses to improve your chances of making a successful career transition, you will need to look for the career coaching option that will suit your requirements. Many career training courses are advertised in local newspapers. You could visit the local colleges and vocational centers to see what courses they offer.
You may also opt for online career training. These courses will cost you money, but it will invariably be worth it in the end. Hopefully the outcome of the whole exercise will be a foothold into a new career field and a stepping stone to career advancement and job satisfaction.

November 9, 2009

Considering A Career Change? The Vital Factors You Must Consider

Are you unhappy with the overall situation of your career? Has it got something to do with your job profile or your company? If that is the case, the thought of career change must have crossed your mind.
Now the flipside is you probably depend on your paycheck to discharge your financial obligations. A career transition has to be pondered over in the right perspective. You want to make sure that a job shift is in the best interest of you and your family. If you have asked yourself these questions before, please read on!
A number of important factors need to be taken into consideration when you start thinking of making a career change. No two individuals are in an identical situation when it comes to relying on your salary. So these factors should be carefully considered, and then you can use them in your own personal situation. This way you can properly weigh out the pros and cons of a career transition.
Your current job’s paycheck is an important factor to be taken into consideration, before deciding if you want a career change. For instance, try to judge for yourself whether the salary you are getting in your current job is a fair salary. To find out, you can start by comparing your current salary with the salary that is being offered in job openings in the local newspapers, recruitment agencies or online recruitment portals. If you do that, you can find out by yourself whether it is difficult for you to earn the same salary elsewhere. Unless you are lucky enough to land a job in the upper tier of an organization, you might find yourself having to work your way up the ladder all over again.
Apart from the crucial factor of your salary to pay your bills and support your family, there is the matter of other benefits too. Health insurance is one such important factor when you are toying with the idea of a career transition. If your current employers provide health insurance benefits for yourself or for your whole family, you should attach a lot of importance to that. You may of course buy health insurance for yourself or an extension of your coverage, but you should keep in mind that it can be quite an expensive proposition.
When comparing the pay packet of your current job with career job opportunities elsewhere that don’t offer health insurance benefits, you should take into consideration the imputed cost of having to buy one. If you still decide to make a career change, you may want to schedule your doctor’s appointments, including the dentist and the ophthalmologist if the coverage permits, before you actually quit.
Another factor that needs looking into when you are on a job search is the current job scenario in your area. Do you already have a firm job offer in your pocket? If that is the case then there is little to worry about. If you haven’t, you will at least want to ensure that there is a good prospect of seeking employment elsewhere.
You need to remember that you might not be eligible for unemployment benefits if you leave your job of your own volition. In such a situation, you may need a backup plan if you have financial obligations like a family to support or bills to pay like rent or mortgage.
When you decide on a career change, you need to have all the career information at your fingertips. Keeping the current job scenario in mind, you have to look at all career job opportunities in your area for any required training, work experience, or education. It is no use realizing too late that you are not qualified for that career dream find. Instead, you should scrutinize the average job requirements by examining all available job openings in the local newspapers or online recruitment portals. If you find yourself lacking the necessary skills, you may consider enrolling in a career training course to improve your chances of finding a new job.
It must be quite clear by now that you should proceed very carefully when you think about a career transition. There are just so many vital factors that need to be considered. Keeping all this in mind, whether you really want a change is ultimately your call.

November 7, 2009

Career Change After 50

Filed under: Career Change Resumes — Tags: , , , — admin @ 11:18 pm

Making a career change after 50 years of age presents its own advantages and disadvantages. There is often good reason for looking at a career change after 50.

Many workers find years of hard physical labor leave their body aching and injury too can debilitate a worker’s ability to perform in the workplace. Even stressful jobs can take their toll on workers in the white collar section of our society. These workers can look for more relaxed jobs and sometimes choose a more outdoor type of work environment as they scale down their workload towards retirement.

Making a career change after 50 years of age means that the worker will bring a wonderful variety of experiences to the workplace. They should take care to list and describe all aspects of their work history in resumes and cv’s, so that prospective employers can take advantage of useful skills already learned.

Even though a worker may not think they have relevant skills for a new career, any one who considers a career change after 50 will have a plethora of skills they may not recognize.

From years of driving, keeping accounts, arriving punctually, working as a team member, communicating with client and staff, understanding banking, taxation or social security, a worker develops a skill base that can transfer from one career to another. Making a career change after 50 may mean taking on more training.

The older worker should not be put off by the thought of retraining. A career change after 50 could be the perfect opportunity to peruse an interest that has been put aside for many years. Even a hobby can become a new career if training, enthusiasm and a niche in the industry allow. The more mature worker may find their dream job waiting just around the retraining corner.

Maturity can be a bonus to some employers. Finding someone who has chosen a career change after 50 years of age, provides them with a stable, experienced and dependable worker who has shown themselves capable of success through a lifetime of work. Although more mature the benefits of experience and training can be valuable to the employer. The older worker needs to see their years of training and practiced skills as a valuable asset to present to likely employers. Even in a new field, so many skills are transferable. With a career change after 50 years, the worker will be able to demonstrate, even if in a volunteer capacity to start with, the advantage of their expertise and experience.

Age should not limit the scope of the career change after 50, the more mature worker still has a great deal to offer any employer.

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