Career Change Ideas For Teachers After 50

Change careers on your own terms using outside the box career planning.

Career change at any age is scary. And after 50 changing careers can feel like walking a tight rope without a net.

Teachers, more and more, are looking at changing careers. School budgets are being cut, school administrators are failing to support the class room teacher, and parents that take the position their child is always right. All are negative factors that add a level of unnecessary stress to an already stressful job.

As a teacher you do not have to have an entrepreneurial outlook to make the career change after 50 but you need to put your research and planning skills to work to make the right move at the right time. The time to plan on changing careers after 50 is not when things have reached the breaking point but now when you can begin taking action exploring new ideas and new careers. Teachers have a variety of skill sets that give them a head start in many challenging and well paid careers.

First you need to analyze your strengths and interests and how they relate to a particular career. Use informational interviews to get a clearer picture on the experience requirements of the career, future prospects and where they are employed.

Let's say that after you do the required research you believe you would enjoy the challenges of working as a Human Resource (HR) Manager. (These ideas will work for almost any career including starting a business.)

In building your career plan for a career change you need to address several key points.

First, take a look at education required. You life experiences will translate well for many of the requirements. Look at local junior colleges for additional formal education. Also, the internet has many on line courses that will fill additional gaps. Self-study is a viable option. Finding a mentor that will guild you through the overall educational requirements can help you smooth over the rough spots.

Next is to study the work experience requirements. If the job you are shooting for requires five years of relevant experience, how do you demonstrate that you have the required experience?

There are several avenues you can take in building your career plan. Consider projects within the school district that relate to HR. Volunteer HR work done for a non-profit or your church or alumni and state teacher associations. HR work done during your summer vacation can also be credited toward the work experience requirements. Finally, all HR Manager positions require training and platform skills which you have in abundance.

Now comes the time to think outside to box. What can you do which will make your resume and experience stand out from others competing for the open HR position?

Start a Word Press blog. If you need help setting it up ask around you'll find someone to help you.

Use Google and find a number of blogs and forums that relate to various HR functions. Keep a record of the questions asked and subjects commented on. They will fall into several general groups.

Go to Google Keyword Tool and take HR related keywords and find those with the most monthly inquiries. Look at those keyword that get from 3000 to 10000 inquiries per month. Group the keywords by subject matter. Now you're ready to write some 400 or so word articles on the general subject. Naturally include the grouped keywords in your article.

Post the article on several article directories including the number one directory ezinearticles.com. In the resource box refer back to your blog and include a relevant anchor text link back to your blog. Post a summary of your article on your blog.

As you get more comfortable with the HR field, make comments on HR blogs with links back to your blog. Write and issue a press release when you open the blog. Try to find some way to write and issue a press release after you've written a number of articles on a particular HR related subject.

As you gain experience is there one subject that has wide appeal. For sake of discussion let's say it, "Focused employee training and the bottom line." Do you thing your local Chamber of Commerce at their next monthly meeting would be interested in you giving a 20 minute or so presentation on this subject? You bet they would. And after every speech, write a press release.

Do you see where we are going with this? You become an expert on the subject. You may appear on local TV and radio. All this will be reflected in your resume and cover letter. Your continued learning, writing and speaking will put you in contact with prospective employers.

This activity will more than substitute for years of HR required experience, and don't you think that's what the prospective employer wants? You bet it is and you've now made the career change after 50 on your own terms.

To learn more about career planning and career development go to http://careersafter50.com. Discover how eight after age 50 career changers build their career plans, worked the plan and found their planned career after 50.

Career Planning After 50 - Spring Cleaning Ideas for Your Career Plan

Spring cleaning for your career plan here are 15 tips to get you started.

Career planning after 50 should not be a one time transaction, but rather career planning at any age, should be a lifelong process.

If you need to jumpstart you after 50 career planning, now is the time to start on spring cleaning out your career closet. Spend you time and effort now in building your career future-it will be time well spent.

Here are some actions you can start right now-get a head start on your spring cleaning:

1. Update your network. Make contact with everyone you haven't talked to in a while. If they have some career or job hunting issues offer to help.

2. Build an "atta-boy," file. Go back over the past year or more and start a file on performance reviews, thank-you letters, seminars and workshops attended, samples of work, projects managed, accomplishments and memo's outlining results. For the future keep the file up to date.

3. Draft a personal training and educational plan. What are your training needs? Books you need to read? Plan on reading at least two books a month-one about your career and another to stretch your knowledge. Other gaps in you skills that need to be filled?

4. Discover 10 or more people working in your career, or working in a proposed new career. Make arrangements to meet with them and share ideas. Add them to your career network and keep in touch.

5. Find 6 or more blogs or forums related to your career and industry. Visit them on a regular basis to stay up to date. Share the list with others in your career and ask for their favorites.

6. Review your overall systems and computer competencies with someone knowledgeable in IT. Make arrangements to add to your learning in this area. Get one related problem solved that has been vexing you.

7. Become more active in you local professional association. Add contacts to your network.

8. Volunteer you time in a cause or organization you admire. You'll realize a variety of rewards along with the chance to meet new people. Add contacts to your network.

9. Search for additional ways to add value to your job and department. Find ways to become more efficient and more responsive to both your internal and external customers.

10. Carefully analyze you own performance. Did you meet the goals you set for yourself last year? What went right and what went wrong? Plan to do better in the coming year.

11. Whenever possible look for opportunities to use a skill or interest working temporarily in another function or in a task that will give you the opportunity to work with another department or different group of people.

12. It's spring so give your wardrobe an updating. Look for sales and donate everything you haven't worn for-awhile.

13. Schedule a physical check-up. Get approval to start an exercise and diet program. Set your goals in short chunks and celebrate achieving each goal.

14. Build your coaching skills. Help a subordinate or co-worker advance their skills.

15. Draft your resume in a functional, chronological and targeted format. The exercise will help you respond to possible opportunities.

Now after your spring cleaning you've got your career planning after 50 back on track. With any plan it should not be ignored and put back in the closet. Put each action item in writing and work on your career plan every day.

You'll now be prepared for any and all after 50 career opportunities.

For information and background in building a career plan to better prepare you for moving up in your current career or for a planned career change go to http://careersafter50.com. Learn the stories of others who build robust career plans changed careers and found the right job.

Ten Career Ideas to Change Your Career Track

(Adopted from Ten Paths in the Woods by H. Figler)

People are often immobilised when they lose their jobs. You may be wondering, "What else can I do?". You will probably look for the job you have left. This commonly leads to frustration.

But there are other options. Just as there are "50 ways to leave your lover", there are 10 productive career ideas and ways to leave your organisation behind. If you limit yourself to looking for the job you just lost you limit your options. Give yourself as many choices to win as you can.

How to choose a career mentor

Career Idea 1. Same Job, New Location

It's okay to look for the work you have done before, especially if you feel a new locale will give you new life. There is competition everywhere, but choose a setting where you fell more yourself. As much as possible, go for the environment which fits your priorities, not the location that has the 'hot' job market.

Career Idea 2. Change Industries

You can apply your same skills to new kinds of employers. For example, if you like dealing with people, choose an industry that appeals to you. Customer services is a highly transferable skill. Any industry needs it. Choose an industry that is entirely different from where you've been before.

Career Idea 3. Do Contract Work

You can earn a living this way. It is a version of having your own business. Most jobs can be done on a contract basis, if that is the employer's preference. This is a way for you to earn income without being committed fully to a particular company.

Career Ideas 4. Change Careers

People are most afraid to do this. "How can I start over, at my age? It'll take me forever to work my way up". Yet people do it every day. Often they take pay cuts, but they do not 'start over'. The better you sell your transferable skills, and the more motivated you are, the more a lateral move is possible. The key - try your career move on a part-time basis, to see if it suits you.

Career Idea 5. Start Your Own Business

There are numerous home-based businesses today and the number increases every day. Advances in business technology, coupled with the low-capital nature of service businesses, puts a home business within reach of everyone. The key, once again - seed your entrepreneurial garden on a part-time basis, to learn if it will grown and if you like what it produces.

Career Idea 6. Have Multiple Businesses

If one business is good, then perhaps five enterprises are better. We used to laugh at the person who displayed five business cards. Now they are our next-door neighbours, and it's not such a silly idea. Each of us has multiple skills. Now, let me see, I can do carpentry in my garage, sell insurance on the weekends, contract work for the local plumber, sell home-made toys by mail order, and get paid to referee football games for the youth leagues.

Career Idea 7. Barter Your Way Through Life

Of course, in a money-obsessed society, bartering never happens. No one ever exchanges what they do well for what someone else does well, which they happen to need. And, in a tax-based society, this is a highly-irregular activity. So, it never happens. But, as a way of preparing for your next life, when it might possibly be legal and acceptable to trade your skills for others', think about how you might do it.

Career Choice 8. Have a Day Job, And Your Real Career At Night

Musicians, artists and theatre people have been doing this for a long time. The 'day' job is usually a salaried one, not especially high in pay, but one that helps pay the bills. The evening work is what gets you up in the morning, your real career, the stuff that keeps you going. Your goal is to eliminate the day job eventually, once the first love produces enough income.

Career Choice 9. Enroll in Further Study

School connects best to career prospects when it does any of these:

" Gives you specific technical skills that are needed in today's fast-changing technological scene;

" Builds your generic learning and communication skills, especially if they are deficient;

" Expands the perspective of your thinking.

One caution: do not enroll in a program until you have sampled it first-hand (observe classes in action) and talked with its graduates.

Career Choice 10. Be An Investor

A pipe dream, perhaps, but possible nonetheless. If you would rather derive your income from the efforts of others, then cast a sharp eye at who you believe has potential and put your money behind them. In researching possible investments, you will do many full days' work, but it's a path toward being paid well without having a job.

Graham Hart has been a HR Manager, Management Consultant, Business owner and Executive Coach. He is currently a Director with the Human Resources Institute Of New Zealand.

Having trouble deciding on your next career move?
Catch his career blog at http://www.bestcareer-4you.com/

To help professional people get the information and resources to help them plan their next career move.
Free career and development advice at http://www.leopard-learning.com/

New Career Ideas - The Top 5 Career Themes to Inspire You

Are you racking your brains for some new career ideas?

Many of my career change clients seem to get really stuck when it comes to generating new career ideas for themselves. They are often find it hard to let go of the idea that any new career has got to somehow connect up with what they have done before.

Well, that can be one place to start and there is no doubt that some career changes do build on previous work experience.

But it doesn't have to be so.

I like to encourage clients to really think laterally when exploring new career options. And one way of doing this is to try thinking about general themes that underline what they really want to do.

What career themes inspire you? What underlying issues are important to you in the work you do?

Themes are important guides to what might be right for you and can be great starting points for more detailed thinking about career change. Here are the top five themes that come up regularly from would-be career changers together with a few of the questions you need to ask yourself to unpack what these themes really mean for you.

I want to work with people

What kind of people? Adults, children, teenagers, people who are ill, those who need advice? And how will you be working with them? Educating or training them? Selling to them? Curing them of physical or mental illness? Managing and directing them?

I want to do something creative

What does creative mean to you? What will you be creating? A novel? Paintings or sculptures? Will you be designing clothes, jewellery, stage sets? Or will your creativity be inventive involving you in coming up with new ways to solve technical or business problems?

I want to travel

Where do you want to travel to? Do you just mean getting out of the office, or do you want to travel locally, nationally or internationally? How frequently do you want to be away from home? Do you actually wan tot live and work abroad?

I want to earn lots of money

How much is lots of money? What will money give you? What difference will that make for you? How long and hard are you prepared to work to achieve this goal? Have you got a particular skill or talent that you can develop and sell?

I want to make a difference

In what way do you want to make a difference? What influence do you want to have and on whom? Do you want to help individuals or change political systems to help many? Do you want to discover or invent something that will change lives?

Do any of these themes and questions ring true for you? Take some time to reflect on what your top career themes are. They can be a great starting point for many new career ideas.

Want to read a bit more about career themes and discover some specific new career ideas that link with these themes? Then I invite you to take a look at the How To Change Careers website. You'll find lots of ideas and inspiration there to get you thinking laterally about your career change and while your there, why not also download my free Career Change Blueprint http://www.how-to-change-careers.com/career-change-blueprint.html which gives you a step-by-step guide to successful career change.

From Cherry Douglas - Your Career Change Guide

New Career Ideas - 7 Ways to Rethink Your Career Options

Are you desperate to change careers and looking around for new career ideas? Here is a great tip to help you free up your thinking. The secret is to take a sideways step and look at your career change from a new angle. So stop desperately trying to think of the job titles of some new career ideas that might inspire you and switch to considering new ways of working.

New ways of working

Especially with the current economic climate, employers and employees are looking for more flexible ways of working. The challenge for you is to break out of that mindset that says you have to be in a full-time job that broadly operates Monday - Friday from 9:00am - 5:00pm (or longer in may cases).

Why does this have to be so? Who says that this is the way work has to be constructed? Are you just assuming that this is the only way?

So what are the alternatives?

1. Employed - but part time. This does not necessarily mean dropping your hours. You could be in 2 or more part time jobs that add up to the equivalent of full time work. And they do not need to be all the same kind of job - this could be your chance to try out something new.

2. Freelance / consultancy. You could explore the possibility of offering your services on a fee basis to a range of different employers. The work will be on a contract basis, but as you build up your reputation, you will find that contracts are often renewed and recommendations for your services are passed on.

3. Self employed. Yes, you could set up your own business. Don't be put off by the thought that you have to have a plan to build a massive business empire. Many successful businesses start on a very small scale and just build gradually. Why not explore creating a small business alongside some of your employed work?

4. Sabbatical. If you are well established with your company, you may want to discuss the possibility of taking a sabbatical - a period of weeks or months away from your job on full/half/no pay. This frees you up to explore some new ideas or take a course of further study but gives you the security of being able to return to your job refreshed and renewed. Think they wouldn't consider it? You'll never know if you don't ask!

5. Voluntary work. This is a great way of testing the water with new career ideas. As it is voluntary, you can commit as much or as little time as you feel able. It could be simply a matter of shadowing someone in a field that interests you for a single day. Or it could be an evening a week for a longer period. You could even take a few days annual leave to go and test drive a new career idea somewhere else.

6. Study. I know this is not often seen as work - but maybe we should acknowledge its place in the grand scheme of our working lives. Further study can be a stepping stone to a new career, whether it is a short evening class or a three year degree course. How could taking a class open up new career options for you?

7. A combination of these. This is the really exciting bit. You can combine many of the above ideas in lots of interesting and creative ways. You could be self employed, part time employed and freelance, while doing an evening class and a bit of voluntary work. And do you know what? You will probably find that this makes for a much more interesting working life than being stuck in one job day in day out.

So I challenge you to free up your thinking and consider how structuring your working life differently could give you the breakthrough you need with your career change. Your first step is just to start investigating the possibilities, so no excuses!

And while these tips are beginning to free up your thinking about new career options, I invite you to take a look around the How To Change Careers website where you will find a host of career change ideas to get you moving, and you can also download my free Career Change Blueprint http://www.how-to-change-careers.com/career-change-blueprint.html which offers you a simple 5 step process to career change success.

From Cherry Douglas - Your Career Change Guide

Career Change Ideas - 7 Ways to Find Out What You Really Want to Do

You know, it is the lack of career change ideas that seems to keep many would-be career changers stuck.

One of the things that clients often say to me is:

I know I want to change careers, to do something different, but I just don't know what I want to do instead.

The problem is they are stuck in a habitual pattern of boxed-in thinking that prevents them from seeing the wealth of possibilities that are out there.

Would you like some tips to help you get out of that place and to help you to generate a range of new career ideas to explore? Then read on.

Tip 1 - Forget job titles
Job titles really inhibit your thinking. If I asked you to list all the jobs you could think of, you might come up with a couple of hundred before you ran dry. In reality there are thousands of jobs out there that you would never identify under your own steam, so forget the job title and focus instead on the key themes that are important for you in a job. What do you want your dream job to involve?

Tip 2 - List what you don't want to do
This is often quite easy to do if you are in a job you hate and it can be a very useful exercise. It helps you to focus on the aspects of a job that really drive you nuts and then also identify those that are annoying in your current job but actually you'd be prepared to put up with to some degree in a different situation. When you identify something as a no-no, ask if it would always be no under all circumstances. This will help you to avoid rejecting jobs in a knee-jerk way because they share similarities with your current role.

Tip 3 - List what you think you should want to do
What do you think your career should look like? What pressure are you putting on yourself to confirm to certain benchmarks (eg I must be earning a certain salary, I should be in a professional role, it must be something that other people will respect and admire me for). Just check with yourself whose rules you are following here. Who exactly says that your career must look like this? Is this really what you want or what other people say you should aspire to?

Tip 4 - List what you would do if anything were possible
Yes, you are allowed to take the brakes off here and create a big dream. Forget the constraints you put on yourself, wherever they come from. If your fairy godmother arrived to take you to the ball, what job or career would you ask her to line up for you as part of the deal?

Tip 5 - List what you would do if you gave yourself permission to say that you want it
So often, we limit the possibilities in our lives because we just don't allow ourselves to want something. Maybe you want to earn lots of money - but that seems too greedy. Maybe you want to have an easy, quiet job - but that seems too lazy. Maybe you want to set up your own business - but you can't because you have to think about so many other people in your life first. What do you need to give yourself permission to want to do?

Tip 6 - Reinvent yourself
If you could rewind the tape on your life and re-run it, what would you do? If you could dump all the stuff, the rules, the history that you have gathered on your journey through life to this point and travel light without the baggage, where would your journey take you? What would the new you look like and what work would this new person be doing? What does this tell you about what would really inspire you?

Tip 7 - Think big and think small
Your new career does not have to be something world changing and grand. If you want to change the world, great! Go ahead and build your new career around this big vision. But if you feel drawn to operating on a more local scale, that's fine too. Small changes can be just as transforming for your career and your life as big ones, so don't be fooled into thinking that bigger is necessarily better. Career change success is about finding what feels right for you.

So take some time to think about your career change with these 7 tips in mind - and by time I mean days, weeks, maybe even months if necessary. Changing career is a big step, so allow yourself the time and space to really think it through.

And while these tips are beginning to free up your thinking about new career possibilities, I invite you to take a look around the How To Change Careers website where you will find a host of career change ideas to get you moving, and you can also download my free Career Change Blueprint http://www.how-to-change-careers.com/career-change-blueprint.html - a step-by-step guide to career change success.

From Cherry Douglas - Your Career Change Guide

200 Job Ideas - Start Today!

200 Original Job And Work Ideas. Ideas You Have Never Thought Of, And Jobs That You Didn't Know Existed. Never Look For A Job Again, This Guide Has Something For Everyone. You Can Start Tomorrow, And Create A Lifelong Lucrative Career For Yourself!

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