[svp]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-U0T3jqQO6w[/svp]
This video begins a series I’m going to do about changing careers and how to go about doing it.
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Changing careers is often will most difficult things a person has to decide to do. You have spent time working in one profession. You’ve been a business owner and, perhaps, decided to go back to corporate, you worked in corporate and now you decide to go into business for yourself or you decide to get a job in a completely unrelated field but you don’t know quite what to do.
These are pretty common scenarios for career changers. I’m beginning a series for those of you who are interested in changing careers with steps that you can take to start the exploration process.
Now, if you think you are suddenly going to have an epiphany, that isn’t the way I’m going to leave this process. The way you will need to go through. This is with care, with time, and with concern. So I want you to understand this going into the process, because if you aren’t prepared to take time
you will wind up barking up the wrong tree and not get the results that you want. If that is what you want to do, you don’t need these videos. Where we are going to go with these videos is through a number of steps that you can take that, hopefully, you can stare at and used to evaluate a number of potential opportunities and possibilities, to eliminate ones that don’t fit and stick with ones that do.
Let’s start by looking at this process from the viewpoint of being a child. My son has been looking at a career in the medical profession for the longest time. Recently, he’s come to realize the amount of effort that is going to go into becoming the kind of doctor he said he wanted to become. As a result, his aspirations have rolled back pretty profoundly.
For a lot of job hunters, for a lot of career changers, it is much the same thing. For example, many job changers will say (to use an example that I know), “Oh! I really want to be a quantitative analyst on Wall Street,” without really knowing anything about the profession. Then, when they start to look at it closely, decide that is pretty boring and not a lot of fun for them.
The Starting Line
Here’s where we start today. I want you to sit down and create an enormous list of what your strengths are. You may think of yourself as one way, but I want you to ask those around you about some of the things they see you as being particularly good at.
Are you empathetic with people?
Are you a great listener?
Are you a terrific speaker?
Are you great in front of a camera?
They can be things that you think are dumb… No filtering!
If you like sports on TV, that goes on the list. If you like playing tennis, that goes on the list.
Anything goes on that list for now. Make it long. Make a comprehensive. Take time with it. This is not spending 5 minutes with it and then you are done.
I want you really thinking about.
I like making dinner for my family can go on the list.
I like going to church/the synagogue/no mosque/the meditation center… Whatever it is, it goes on the list. Every last item.
That’s where we are going to start.
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