Step 1 – Detach Yourself from your Current Job

To move on and change jobs you need to detach yourself from your existing job. The more emotionally attached you are to your role, your environment and its traits the more difficult it is to move forward. This emotional baggage is like heavy weights on your shoulder which can paralyse you from making a decision.

The decision is either to remain in the job or to change jobs, a decision in between means you will continue to remain attached to the current job.

Before making the big decision to change jobs, it is recommended that you list the compelling reasons WHY you should change jobs (find the positive reasons) and why you should stay. If the reasons for the change outweighs the reasons against the change this should work as a tipping point to change jobs. HOW to change jobs will then miraculously follow.

Is it a combination of boredom, lack of challenge, working environment, stress, remuneration, misaligned values, other? Take some time to assess your current situation.

Step 2 – The Destination as a Motivation

If you have made up your mind to change jobs, you will now need to know or have an idea of where you want to go that is, a destination, without a destination there is no clear action.

Do some research on where and what your next job could be. If you can find and narrow in on a job or industry that interest, challenges and excites you, this will motivate you further to make that change into your desired career.

Step 3 – Standout Resume and Cover Letter (First Impressions)

Given that a recruiter is likely to receive multiple resumes, your resume must stand out from the competition.

From a recruiter and employer’s perspective, the first thing that they see is your resume and cover letter therefore, you must polish off your writing skills and create a standout resume and cover letter.

A standout resume simply addresses what the employer is looking for. If the employer is looking for a checklist of 10 requirements then ensure that those key points are notably and clearly addressed n your resume.

Consider also the following:

Customise your resume for each new role. There should not be a one resume fits all approach. Make some changes to mirror what the employer is looking for even if it may be just some minor adjustments.

Use bullet points to address their requirements and your experiences.

Be concise and get straight to the point.

If you have a long working history, leave out any previous roles that are totally unrelated to the role that you will be applying for (from the employment history section of your resume). For example, if you’re applying for a Finance Analyst role, there is no reason to list your previous positions as a Teacher or a Personal Trainer. The exception would be if you are new to the industry then it helps to display your working history.

Other points to consider are preparations for the Interview and etiquette.

Step 4 – Three Key Personality Traits (Apart from Experience)

Apart from experience, employers will more likely be interested in you if you are naturally enthusiastic about the position. If you are going to the interview, ensure that you are 100% committed (leave any doubts at home, you can cast any doubts after the interview) and ensure you bring with you three essential qualities that they are seeking for from job candidates:

A) Aptitude – Your ability, readiness and intelligence or quickness in learning.

B) Motivation – Your drive and enthusiasm for the position

C) Optimism – Your confidence, ‘can do’ and positive attitude

For any given position it is likely that you will be up against competition for the role, so if you possess the above qualities more so than your competitor then you are in the lead.

Step 5 – Cast a Net

To accomplish your ideal job there is the fast way and the slower way. Using fishing as an analogy, to catch fish the fast way would be to cast a wide net into the ocean versus the slower way which involves using a single rod to cast a hook one at a time.

In relation to job hunting this mean to contact multiple recruiter’s and organisations that you have an interest in simultaneously and as many as you can. It is likely that you will be rejected several times depending on how far you are trying to reach however, your acceptances are likely to be the great catch. So expect rejections, the harder something is to catch the more satisfying it is once caught, the easier it is to catch the lower the satisfaction.

Step 6 – Timing

Timing is quite important based on the laws of supply and demand. Generally if you are looking to change jobs during tough economic conditions there will be fewer supply (jobs) with more demand (job seekers). In this case, as a job seeker you are more likely to be disadvantaged as your bargaining power is lower. For this reason, it is prudent to be aware of current economic conditions before making that move, weigh up the options in whether it is the right time to move for you.

This is a guest post. About the author:

Gordon Chen is a Motivational Speaker, Career Consultant and Business Analyst

He blogs at: http://www.sparklife.com.au/blog

Related posts:

1. Seven Reasons You Might Need a Career Change
2. Career Change After 50 – How to Market Your Experience
3. Should You Consider A Career Change?

Are you feeling stuck?  Sometimes people don’t know why they are unhappy in a job, they just know that it doesn’t feel right.

These seven factors each contribute to how you feel about your work, and once you recognise the problem it can help you to decide if it is a career change you need, or just a change in your current working conditions.

1. Does your work match who you are as a person?  It could be that you have changed, the job role has changed, or the business you work for has changed.  But whatever it is, if there is incongruence between you and your work then you are going to feel uncomfortable.  It is a bit like a bad knee – It still works but the bones are grating against one another!
2. Do you have balance in your life?  Everyone needs different levels of worklife balance, but if your current balance doesn’t match what you need then you will constantly feel that things are not as they should be.
3. Are you being recognised for the work you do, and is that recognition in a form that suits you? For some people a simple “thank you” is the recognition that they need to be satisfied at work.  For others it is small tokens of appreciation while some need to have their good work made public.  None of these are better or worse than the others, just different, but if you are getting no recognition or the wrong sort of recognition for the work you are doing, then you won’t be feeling happy in your job.
4. Are you comfortable with the boundaries of your current job role?  If your job is elastic-sided, that is you keep getting new and more things dumped onto you and this is getting you down, then your boundaries need to be negotiated.   Most people like to know what they are expected to do so that they can live up to those expectations.  If you don’t ever know what you are responsible for, then how can you ever feel that you have completed your work properly?   This will particularly bother some personality types, especially those who like everything in their lives to be orderly.
5. Are your values in harmony with the organisation you work for?  If you are going in one direction and you feel that you are on a different path from the organisation that you represent, then there will always be a sense of your work being without purpose.
6. Have you just been there too long?  It doesn’t matter how great an organisation might be, sometimes the time comes to leave just because you are really “over it”.  This can also tie in with you feeling tired or unwell.
7. Does the risk of changing your job within the organisation, or changing careers altogether, fill you with dread and fear?  It is one thing to not be happy at work and choose to stay for a number of practical reasons.  That’s your choice, with you in control.  It is quite another to choose to stay simply because you are afraid of making a change.  That gives you a sense of being out of control, forced to remain when you don’t want to.

This is a guest post. About the author:

Related posts:

1. Should You Consider A Career Change?
2. Career Change After 50 – How to Market Your Experience
3. Career Change- Should You Join A Start-up Company?

If you lost your job after age 50, or you see a bleak future in your current job or industry now may be the time to consider planning a career change.

After you’ve researched a possible new careers after 50, and you find you had little or no experience in the field what do you do?

What job skills are you really good at? Start at this point. Do a complete assessment of all of your job skills and competencies.

Now use LinkedIn.com and other sources, like alumni groups and business associations, to secure informational interviews with others working in the planned career. Keep the interview short, you are not looking for a job, you are looking for information. Learn information about the career, educational requirements, special experience, where the jobs are, specific employers and referrals to others that can help you in your search.

The next step is to make the transition to the possible new career after 50. Become a member of appropriate career associations. Get on committees, do work on events, and become noticed in your planned field.

If you need specific education or certifications make arrangements to get this done. Educational requirements can sometimes be completed through self-study or on-line learning.

Now redo your resume to focus on your career change after 50, to include additional self-study and education, and possible relevant non-profit experience. You now have a better picture of what is required in the new career so it can be highlighted in your cover letter and sourcing possible employers.

For example, if in your planned new career after 50 many of the jobs require working with and managing multi-million dollar budgets and your experience is at the $250,000 level how do you bridge the gap? Highlight your results in saving money, being more efficient, making do with less, getting jobs done on time and under budget, these accomplishments are more important that the amounts of money handled.

If you worked in industry A and you are now looking for a job in industry B, what are similar issues facing each industry? How do you find this out? By using your network, by finding individuals working in industry B through LinkedIn, by researching industry publications and through research on the internet are all some of the sources of the required information.

Another key factor in highlighting your work experience is that the new career required working a high percentage of time doing a particular activity. In you past career you only did this activity occasionally; however you did this over a relatively long period of time. Who has more experience? You who negotiated a variety of real estate leases, one or two a year over 20 years and spent less than 2% of your time or someone who spent 30% of their time over three years doing 5 a year? With knowledge of what is required in the new career you can tailor your resume and respond to interview questions appropriately. Remember, you are selling accomplishments, a steep learning curve, the willingness to resolve new challenges and not your age.

By re-crafting your pitch your years of work experience will now more closely fit the employer’s requirements, your career change after 50 will be successful and by continuing to work your career plan you will now be on your way to a rewarding new career.

This is a guest post. About the author:

For specific information on self-assessment, career discovery and qualifying yourself for a new career go tohttp://careersafter50.com. Also, read about others who developed career change plans and found the right careers after 50.

Related posts:

1. Should You Consider A Career Change?
2. Seven Reasons You Might Need a Career Change
3. Career Change- Should You Join A Start-up Company?

Each month thousands of employees move to a new community to start a new job. Moves often are more expensive than anticipated. Not only is there the actual expense of moving but, for a homeowner, there are expenses connected with selling the current home and buying another home.

Some corporations may offer to cover some or all of the relocation costs for employees who are moving at the company’s request. Larger companies usually offer a more elaborate relocation package than smaller firms. These benefits become particularly important when there is a large increase in housing costs.

When interviewing for a job, or considering a transfer, ask whether or not the company has a relocation program and find out as much about it as possible.

Below are listed some of the benefits which may be offered to a relocating employee. Each situation may call for a different bundle of benefits; analyze your own situation carefully. It is always best to negotiate these matters as part of a transfer package, before accepting the new job to avoid surprises to either party after the move has taken place.

• Cost of a familiarization and house hunting trip for the employee, spouse, and family.
• Extra time off (with pay) for traveling and house hunting in the new location.
• Moving expenses, including packing and insurance.
• Travel expenses (lodging, meals, gas, etc.) while traveling to the new location.
• Assistance in the sale of your current home:
  company assumes responsibility for monthly payments, taxes and insurance until the home is sold; price guarantee – if sold by the employee, the company will pay the difference between the net selling price and a specified price; alternative price guarantee - if employee cannot sell the house within a specified period of time, the company will buy it at a specified price; company will pay commissions and other costs of sale.
• Assistance in the purchase of a new home:
  company to pay rent of temporary quarters until a permanent home is located;
  buy down the interest rate; company may offer low or no interest loans. A salary level commensurate with any increase in cost of living between the new location and your old location.

How hard should you push for relocation expenses?

Try to analyze your bargaining position relative to the prospective employer. Does the employer have many options? Are there many qualified local applicants for the same job? Or do you have unique skills unavailable in the local market?

Ask yourself, “If I owned the company would I be willing to pay for my relocation?”

Join the forum discussion on this post

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Many people who want to change career — and I meet many of them in my job as a career coach — buy into the myth that it is near on impossible to change sectors in a recession. It is easy to assume that when competition is tough, recruiters are going to default hire the candidate with the most relevant experience. However, through conversations with recruitment consultants, I have found employers want much more for their money and are looking at people with a wider skill set who can work across a number of areas.

This is a key advantage for job seekers who are looking at changing careers. Everyone has transferable skills of great use to employers in different industry sectors that are facing talent shortages and skills gaps. According to recruitment intelligence site ERE the recession is not affecting employment across the board, as has happened in previous downturns, but has instead impacted on specific sectors and types of work. We’ve seen the effects on banking and financial services but manufacturing and those semi-skilled jobs, such as auto workers, are also being affected.

Yet specific talent shortages remain. Kevin Wheeler, the president and founder of Global Learning Resources, has had numerous calls from search firms looking for key sales and marketing people, and for R&D talent. Senior HR executives are also in demand, especially if they have global experience. Sectors still largely unscathed by the recession — health care, gaming, entertainment, pharmaceuticals and biotech — are still facing skills gaps and the need to stay ahead of global competition.

Some industry sectors have become strategic in looking to recruit those from industry sectors which have been adversely affected by the recession. In late 2008 the BBC reported that UK government department, the Training and Development Agency was planning recruitment drives later that year in Canary Wharf to target those in the financial services sector for career changes into teaching.

Assessing your own experience, in order to work how you can fill gaps in the sectors you want to move into, is an essential exercise if you want to stand out from the crowd utilising your core transferable skills.

Alex, a recent client, came to me for career coaching. She had worked in the competitive and highly pressured arena of corporate consulting for blue chip multinationals and was feeling pretty burnt out after 25 years focusing on for-profit companies. All this on top of of a forthcoming redundancy, Alex was now ready to change roles and focus on a career where she would be giving something back.

To help Alex work out her new direction, I asked her a series of questions in order for her to carry out an audit of her own skills. If you also want to change careers; a simple way to start is to list items in key areas:

1 — The things you love to do

2 — The aspects you are good at

3 — Your personal qualities

4 — Your specific work experience

5 — The dream organisations you would want to work for

Then write down how 1+ 2 + 3 + 4 are transferable to the organisations you are targeting (5) with speculative approaches. The idea of the exercise is to understand the organisations you are targeting and what strategic value you can offer them.

If you are still having difficulties in identifying what you think you are good at and what you think your personal qualities are, the following further exercise has proved useful when working with our coaching clients who have been looking to change careers and identify their core skill set and expertise in both their working and personal lives:

Think about the successes you achieved in your previous roles. How were these achieved, what steps did you undertake to reach your goals and how did you implement these?

How did you problem solve and overcome challenges that arose during the process?

What personal qualities played a part in you reaching these achievements?

Were these successes as part of a team, if so, how did you get everyone on board, supporting and motivating them to share the common goal?

How goal orientated are you and what key skills have you brought to the fore in reaching your personal milestones?

How do you create a balance between your personal and work life?

What things are you truly passionate about?
Next, to help Alex develop a your successful career change campaign, I focused on her areas of personal interest, the life/work balance she was now aiming for and fulfilling her need of doing something for the greater good. We then packaged together her transferable skills, which included her ability to meet ever changing needs, excellent communication and interpersonal skills, a well-honed resilience working within time-critical environments, a persuasive and confident nature, extensive knowledge and business contacts within blue chip organisations

We focused on common denominators which would package well to prospective employers, in particular the charity sector which Alex was now sure she wanted to move into. In Alex’s case, these key skills were perfect in marketing herself to charities for corporate fundraising roles. So, she was able to target the charities she most wanted to work for and cold prospect her wish list.

Alex made a decision to change; planned a step-by-step route to that change — incorporating specific goals and a time plan — and then executed all of these to reach a successful outcome; being offered her “dream job” at a leading UK charity.

Elizabeth Bacchus is a leading Career Coach, Writer and Founder of The Successful CV Company, provider of interview winning CV’s, Cover Letters and Career Coaching to clients around the world. http://www.thesuccessfulcv.com

Related posts:

1. Career Change After 50 – How to Market Your Experience
2. Seven Reasons You Might Need a Career Change
3. Should You Consider A Career Change?

Here’s a different philosophical take. From the make lemons from lemonade department…

A bad job market might mean you’re not going to get your dream job for a while. But maybe you should take this time as an opportunity to figure out where you want to see yourself when the bad times end.

The storm will pass. Now is the time to position your career for where you want to be 5 or even 10 years from now.

Conserve What You Have

Even if you have a job you’re not happy with, keep your hands on what you’ve got. It’s something. It’s better to be dreaming of better days while employed, as opposed to the alternative.

Keep the sh*t job for now, and begin positioning yourself for the dream job. Instead of sitting around dreaming…

Get Educated/Get Prepared

If you have to hunker down for a few years and ride out the storm, use this time productively. Pursue some further education or training.

Look around and see what skills are proving valuable in the down times. Gain these skills for yourself.

While you’re looking around, notice which jobs and industries are surviving the bad times and/or positioning themselves to thrive when the bad times are over. Consider a career or job change to position yourself along with them.

Make Moves Now Toward The Promised Land

Got a specific job or even company in mind? Instead of bumming out, counting the years you’ll have to wait until you get there, start moving there now.

Start networking and ingratiating/introducing yourself to those who work at your promised land.

Maybe consider getting a menial job at your promised land. If you have a dream company, even getting in at the mail room now will position you to advance quickly when the storm clouds pass.

Related posts:

1. A Bad Job Market Means Position Yourself For The Future
2. When A Bad Job Market Means Opportunities For The Future
3. How To Find A Job In A Tight Job Market

Here’s a different philosophical take. From the make lemons from lemonade department…

A bad job market might mean you’re not going to get your dream job for a while. But maybe you should take this time as an opportunity to figure out where you want to see yourself when the bad times end.

The storm will pass. Now is the time to position your career for where you want to be 5 or even 10 years from now.

Conserve What You Have

Even if you have a job you’re not happy with, keep your hands on what you’ve got. It’s something. It’s better to be dreaming of better days while employed, as opposed to the alternative.

Keep the sh*t job for now, and begin positioning yourself for the dream job. Instead of sitting around dreaming…

Get Educated/Get Prepared

If you have to hunker down for a few years and ride out the storm, use this time productively. Pursue some further education or training.

Look around and see what skills are proving valuable in the down times. Gain these skills for yourself.

While you’re looking around, notice which jobs and industries are surviving the bad times and/or positioning themselves to thrive when the bad times are over. Consider a career or job change to position yourself along with them.

Make Moves Now Toward The Promised Land

Got a specific job or even company in mind? Instead of bumming out, counting the years you’ll have to wait until you get there, start moving there now.

Start networking and ingratiating/introducing yourself to those who work at your promised land.

Maybe consider getting a menial job at your promised land. If you have a dream company, even getting in at the mail room now will position you to advance quickly when the storm clouds pass.

Related posts:

1. A Bad Job Market Means Position Yourself For The Future (Repost)
2. When A Bad Job Market Means Opportunities For The Future
3. How To Find A Job In A Tight Job Market

I don’t know if your cable company has this, but I started watching this new program on the Mojo channel this weekend called Start-Up Junkies. It’s exactly what the name says it’s about: people who love working for start-up companies. The show’s sort-of superficial and fascinating all at the same time… which is exactly like the other show on Mojo that has me hooked: Wall Street Warriors.

Anyway, the show got me thinking about working at start-up companies as a career path… the pluses and the minuses. I don’t think this gets discussed a lot in the general business or career press. People just assume that unless you’re 22 and a coding genius, then you’re not start-up material. This simply isn’t true. A start-up is a start-up COMPANY, which means if it’s going to grow into a grown up company, it needs all the ingredients every other company has: accounting people, payroll people, hr people, secretarial people, custodial people, customer service people, and on and on and on.

So, here are some thoughts and tips on the Start-Up lifestyle and career path. Full disclosure: I’ve founded 3 start-ups in my career, and am batting 1-for-3 in terms of successes. So, while I’ve got a fair amount of background in this area, my experience is as management. Just sayin.

• Start-ups, even failed start-ups look sexy on a resume. Trust me, they’re a conversation topic. There’s a whole air of excitement and risk surrounding the notion of start-up companies. The only other jobs I’ve seen get so much attention from employers: work on national political campaigns and personal assistant work for celebrities. All I can say is, even if the company crashed and burned… even if you were only there for six months… your experience with a start-up is all good on a resume. It shows you have initiative, drive and ambition.
• Start-ups are not for the faint-hearted. More than 90% of startups fail. And before the failure comes, there is an incredible amount of turmoil: bouts of layoffs, followed by hiring binges; sudden downsizing because a round of VC financing falls through; the founding executive team get’s wiped out and replaced by “grown-ups” appointed by the board; payroll gets “delayed” for 2 months or more; yesterday your product was a social network for left-handed belly dancers? Forget it. Today the company is relaunching as pet food emporium.
• But… for some people, start-ups are the only way to go. The start-up life is very much a trade-off of risk versus how much juice you get out of the excitement of your job. If you prefer a guaranteed paycheck and no surprises at work, then the start-up life is not for you. If, however, you thrive off of energy and excitement… if a boring, repetitive, “safe” job is an anathema to you… If you’re one of those people who would prefer to make up the rules (your own rules) as you go along, then the start-up life is the only life for you. If you can handle chaos because you thrive on building wonderful things from absolute scratch and elbow grease, then the start-up life is the only life for you. If you can handle 48-hour deadline-intensive work days and a crazy, almost college-like, partying social atmosphere, then you might be a redneck… I mean…. a start-up employee.
• Those crazy offices with the nerf wars and hammocks and non-existent dress code… they’re real. If that kind of thing floats your boat, the start-up life is for you.
• If you ever wanted to bluff your way into a career you’re otherwise not qualified for, start-ups are the way to go. Start-ups are like young job searchers. They’ll take anything and anyone they can get. It’s very much a “Hey kids, let’s put on a play!” atmosphere. Took an accounting class once? Know how to do spreadsheets? Fine! You’re our accountant. You might not last forever: one day the company could actually grow up and grow beyond your skills to bluff. But if you’re the sort of person who can adapt, learn on the fly, and grow with your position and your increasing responsibilities, start-ups allow people to get big-time career titles in the shortest amount of time.
• It’s hard to tell a good team from a crazy team. The best thing you can do is decide if you feel passionate about the product or your role on the team. I’ll let that one speak for itself. If the normal rules of decorum or behavior or best practices meant anything in the start-up world, no one would ever have worked with a young Steve Jobs. Or Bill Gates. Or Mark Zuckerberg. In the start-up world, reputations mean nothing. There is a high-tolerance for risk-taking, unusual decisions and behavior. And results… results matter above anything else… even body odor and poor-social skills.
• Only the earliest people at the company get really rich. Assuming the company is a success. You can be the mail room clerk, but if you are employee number 8, you’ll probably end up with more money than the CFO the company hires 5 years later. This is because stock options (the gold everyone chases) is based upon whatever the most recent valuation of your company was when you were hired. So, if you get in when the company is still in the angel round with only a couple hundred thousand in the bank, your options are going to be worth tons. If you get in after funding round “D” and the company is valued north of $100 million, then you better hope that your company is wildly successful and one day does a $20 billion IPO. I’ve seen several people cash out of companies with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of stock after only a few years work. But they had good timing in got in early at good companies.

Related posts:

1. Should You Consider A Career Change?
2. Seven Reasons You Might Need a Career Change
3. Career Change After 50 – How to Market Your Experience

Earlier this week, we featured a young woman who was considering changing her career path… before she had even gotten started. I, along with several of the commenters, advised her to stick it out a bit longer and fight for her dream.

Still, it got me thinking: When is the right time to consider a career change? We’ve talked a lot about saving your job, finding a generic new job and generally advancing your chosen career path in earlier posts. But we haven’t really talked about the situation of career changers.

So, I’ve drawn up a list of circumstances under which I might counsel a client that it’s time for a career change. If you find some or most of these situations fit you, then you might be in the career change market.

1. You’re no longer excited about your career.
   This probably falls into the “no duh” category. But seriously, life is too short. If you find you just can’t hack it anymore; if getting motivated to get up every day is becoming too much; if you’re just not having any fun anymore, then what are you waiting for? Job happiness is out there for everyone. Being too timid to take the leap is no one’s fault but your own.
2. There’s no future in your current career path.
   Sometimes it’s not you that’s the problem… sometimes it’s your job that has run it’s course. Maybe you still love your job and you’re proud of all you’ve accomplished, but you’ve gone about as far as you can go. Why not look for new challenges and new horizons? Your only alternative is to sit around resting on your laurels and living in the faded glory of past accomplishments.
3. Your industry is struggling.
   Despite our advice to Dee to stick it out in the face of the troubles of the print newspaper industry, the health of your industry or career field is a valid consideration. For example, I spent the last several years helping clients begin new careers as real estate agents. It made sense at the time: it was a red hot industry. Now, a lot of those clients are considering transitioning back out and I don’t blame them. One day the real estate market WILL recover. And there are still good real estate agents out there making money. But again… life is too short. There are other careers out there that won’t require swimming against such a strong current for the foreseeable future.
4. You’ve identified a new challenge.
   Again, maybe you’re perfectly happy where you’re at. Still… still… there’s this THING out there… this new idea or this new job… it’s gotten under your skin and you’ve become fascinated. You want to give it a try. You can’t help yourself. Isn’t that part of what makes life great? Chasing those new interests and new dreams?
5. You can afford to cut loose from what you’ve invested in your old career.
   I’m speaking here in both a financial and an experience/reputation sense. Sometimes you’ve reached a point in your career where you can afford to take new risks, and it’s almost silly not to. If you fail, you’re not really out all that much. And besides, isn’t this what you’ve worked so hard for all these years: to earn the freedom to take chances now and then?
6. You have skills and experiences that can transfer.
   Here you’ve been sitting in this career backwater for years and no one’s been looking for you. Suddenly, there are all these new opportunities and your skills and experiences are in great demand. If you’ve got a skill set that you can suddenly utilize in a new or exciting way, it’s at least worth considering if the grass is greener elsewhere.
7. You’ve reached a state in your life where this career path doesn’t fit with your lifestyle.
   Trying to start a family? Need more free time or (conversely) more money? Maybe you’re in the latter half of your career and you want to slow the rat race down a tad. When your job doesn’t mesh with your lifestyle, that’s always a good time to reassess. You never want to be living to work. You want to be doing the opposite.
8. If you don’t make the change now, you never will.
   Sometimes opportunities come around that are once in a career or once in a lifetime. If you let them pass you by, you might find yourself wondering what if. This is also a situation to consider when addressing time-of-life issues. Maybe you’ve got the opportunity to do something now that financial, family or even career considerations won’t allow you gamble on in the future. If it’s now or never, then it’s worth thinking hard.
9. Better income, greater recognition.
   This one’s another “no duh” situation. If you can make more money while getting at least the same level of satisfaction, then why not? And if you’re at a place where no one appreciates you, what are you going to do, sit around and hope everyone wakes up one fine day? Why not go now and get the recognition you deserve for your hard work?
10. It’s good for your career in the long run.
    These days a variety of experience and the ability to adapt to new situations is an overwhelming advantage. It’s no longer about working your way up from the mail room. Jumping from job to job and even career to career is now very common. Here are just 2 exampes: IT… you need to be the fluent with of lots of different technologies and languages, master of a variety of positions and projects. Or take the young woman dreaming of being a CEO some day. Meg Whitman cut her teeth at Procter & Gamble and Disney before eBay came calling. She didn’t know much about the web, but it was her experience in other industries that eBay was really looking for.
11. The idea of starting from scratch is appealing.
    Some people discover the career ladder is not for them. Try testing your entrepreneurial mettle. Become your own boss. Or jump ship to that cool new startup. Your career could use the shakeup.
12. It’s time for a geographical move.
    Finally, is it time for you to start over in a new town in a new part of the country? That’s often the best time to start from scratch with everything and make a start on a completely new career path.

Related posts:

1. Career Change After 50 – How to Market Your Experience
2. Career Change- Should You Join A Start-up Company?
3. In Career Planning, Follow Your Heart, Not The Ebb And Flow Of The Economy Or Job Market

The second Marketwatch article is all about which industries won’t be hiring as much in 2008.

Again, the obvious subjects are mentioned up front; i.e.: anyone in any field related to the housing bubble. So the hardest industries to get hired in will be:

• Real Estate
• Mortgage Broker/Banking
• Finance and Banking in general
• Construction
• Home materials retail and manufacturing
• Even architects and engineers.

To this list, I would add the following, again, based on the anecdotal evidence I’ve seen this year at ResumeWriters.com and on this blog:

• Pharmaceuticals and pharmaceutical sales. We’ve seen a lot of layoffs in this industry this year, and the rumors say they’re going to continue.
• If a recession comes, the first layoffs will be in retail and certain sectors of the hospitality and resturaunt industries.
• Anecdotally, we’re seeing weakness in the industries that serve Homeland Security. After half a decade of growth, people just seem to have a harder time getting work in these fields. Most positions seem to be filled already, spending in this area seems to have leveled off and there are a ton of qualified veterans leaving the military who are flooding into these industries.

Related posts:

1. 2008 Crystal Ball- Where The Jobs Are
2. Where The Jobs Aren’t- Retail Edition
3. Where The Jobs Are – In This Recession Edition