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This is the second and final part of this series on how to make a career transition. See part one for the first two steps. Step three is: Determine transferable skills. Note: Remember you should not start this step until you complete step three. This process will not work if you jump around. Transferable skills are those skills that you can bring from one job or industry into a new career. Break down each job that you have had in the past. You past activities can point to skills that may not have been obvious before this exercise. Think of what you do know or do so well that you could TEACH it? This is a powerful step, but it takes your thought processes to make it work! Creating the New Career Plan is step four. Now that you have a targeted career, you need to put together a plan to get there. This does not have to be a complex or complicated plan, just the key goals and a realistic timeline to accomplish them. Planning your education will probably be the focal point of this plan and will take up most of the time and effort. Let’s look at some of the goals you might want to address in your personal career plan. First, you need to determine the education or training necessary to become a participant in your chosen field. There may be opportunities such as interning, part time work or voluntary work in your chosen career. Do some research and find out what is available. You should establish a time frame for yourself to complete just this research segment. Then, create another time frame to achieve a part time position or interning job. As long as you make AND meet your personal goals, you are on your way. Look into the associations, newsletters, publications and trade shows in your selected industry. Start reading as much as you can about the products, services and players in the industry along with the “news” of the business. Joining trade associations is an excellent way of meeting people, creating a new business network and finding out about the local companies and their hiring needs. Determine educational requirements is step five. By now, if you have been doing the exercises properly, you should have some idea of your career goals. The next step is to determine the educational requirements needed to get the job. You can do this via the internet or by finding a local industry association or visiting your local college. You may need a specialized certification, degrees or trade schooling for your newly chosen career. You may well need a 4 year degree. There are a number of methods to achieve your goals. These include community colleges, three year colleges, on-line courses and hybrid courses. The sixth and final step is the new career appraisal. After you have completed the process of determining your new career, you need to do an appraisal in order to know if this is truly the direction you want to go. It can be difficult to know what you want to do until you actually start doing the work. And there is nothing wrong with changing your mind. Some positions are a lot tougher to get into than most people think, and it may take a year or two for you to determine if you really like your new position. Work your career plan and you can always be flexible enough to change your mind. You want to be sure you end up satisfied with your new career. Good luck with your new career! Jim Stedt is a partner at The Business SoftSkills Company (GetSoftSKillsNow.Com) located in Santa Ana, California. They provide job readiness and workforce success videos for education, business, prisons and individual use. Training is available online, on DVD, or through an affiliate program. These products are the most complete and concise soft skills training packages now available for the price of an average college textbook.
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