Why Career Goal Setting Is Needed For A Successful Career?

Have you wondered why some people are so successful in their career and others are not? This is so as most people who are unsuccessful in their career, give up their hopes and dreams. These people settle for something lower than their own capabilities. They did not do the things that people who are successful in their career do, which is keeping their focus on their future, and working towards it no matter what happen.

So how did successful people attain their desired profession and achieve career success? The first thing they did was to carry out career goal setting.

To perform career goal setting successfully, start your career desires explicitly and write them down. This provides you with a basic outline to follow when you set your career goals. With your career goals written out, you know your final destination and can steadily work towards it.

Also, when carrying out career goal setting, do not assume that you can achieve your long-term career goals easily and successfully. There is a risk in trying to reach the end without having mid-term and short-term goals along the way. To prevent this potential mistake, always start from the end and work backwards as it provides you with the elements for a successful career. Moreover, seeing it from the end to the beginning gives you a fulfillment that the long term career goals is achievable.

Paul is attending university to become a doctor. His parents persuaded him to have everything that was part of becoming a doctor written out in detailed form. By asking Paul to perform the above steps, they were actually asking him to carry out career goal setting in becoming a doctor. This includes the short-term, mid-term and long-term career goals of his.

Because he knew everything that was covered in going to university, he was able to do better than the average student. He was aware of every element in pursuing the doctor career and this prepared him well for the challenges he faced.

People often think that having a successful career will come easily. However, when reality struck, they become fearful and quit. Being prepared mentally requires you to be disciplined and persistent in order to overcome fears of failure, and thus achieve your career goals. Always expect the best of yourself and do not settle for anything less than what you are capable of achieving.

Remember, in summary, to achieve career success, always carry out career goal setting first. Write out the different elements involved and have a definite plan in mind. This enables you to envision the final outcome. Once that plan is written, take action and start working towards the career goals you have set. Also, do check on how much closer you are to your destination; your long-term career goals.

Vincent Seah is a goal setting expert and publisher of http://www.GoalSettingSuccess.com. He provides more goal setting success help, tips and goal setting software [http://www.goalsettingsuccess.com/goal-setting-software.php] tips you can check out on his website.

Secrets of a Successful Career Aptitude Test

Career aptitude tests are very important when choosing the right career for your future.

There are different types of career aptitude tests that you can take online, and some are rigged but the majority of them are fairly accurate. These tests will help you with choosing the right career for your life.

You career is something that you will work on you're whole life and many people have a hard time choosing the right career for their future, and some people make the wrong choices for their career and eventually find out in their middle ages or some even after they retire. That's why it's important that you choose the right career for your life the first time before it's too late.

The best choice would be to take a career aptitude test, these tests can help you choose a career that you love and feel confident about. Because if you do not feel confident about you're career choice then there is no point choosing that career because employers want people who feel confident about their career choice and do well in it.

That's where career aptitude tests come in. They help you make these decisions by giving you a select amount of questions for you to answer. There are also various ways to make sure you have a successful career aptitude test.

One way would be to tell the truth. It seems very easy but very few people actually take this into mind and do the exact opposite. Telling the truth online seems like you may sharing your private life but most of these testing sites do not keep you're information, but to be safe you can check out their privacy policies.

The other way would be to list all the careers you are deciding to venture into, when you do this you can vividly see which careers are right for you and which are not. This can help you see clearly what career choices you are interested in and which ones you really aren't interested in.

The last one would be to evaluate each answer with a pros and cons list to get the best results for you're career aptitude test. This will help you know if your answers are truly the answers you would like to use to answer the question.

Learn more about Career Aptitude Test we have plenty more interesting Aptitude Test Information available at our site.

Plan a Successful Career Change After 50 - Key Questions to Ask!

There are as many reasons to consider a career change after 50 as there are careers. If you're over 50 now might be the right time to take a good look at your current career and your life situation.

Your working life and beyond is the longest personal project you'll be involved in. And no matter how hard we try the amount of time we have available in not infinite.

If you take the time after age 50 to review your accomplishments to date, whether your career plan is working for you and what you'll be doing in the future all are important first steps in a career change after 50.

Regardless of how you reached this point in your life; you lost your job, you were forced to change careers or you're thinking about doing making a career change voluntarily here are some questions to ask yourself.

Overall, are you personally pleased or displeased with things? Your career? Your employer? Your relationships? Your financial situation?

Additional questions to ask yourself: Are you doing things that please you and you get satisfaction on doing? Generally, are you in a place in your life that you wanted? What in your life would you change if you had a chance? (Please don't mention finding oil in your back yard. It's unlikely the government would let you pump it out.) What do you see for the rest of your life and career?

For many in considering the last question about viewing their future life and career they base their answer on what they've done in the past. If you only consider your past skills and abilities and create a future based on these experiences it's no wonder that many are mystified why their life and career does not change or seem much different.

Basically, to make meaningful change in your future career and life you have to consider another way. Your thinking has to move forward. If you start from where are you right now and go to "what would I like to be doing?" you've made the first step into the future.

Now in building your career and life plan you take your future dreams and use them to design and build your planned future. You now have created the life and career you want to be living. Don't you thing as you work the plan that you will be happier and more satisfied? You bet you will.

Unless you do this exercise, and go back to it frequently, any change in your career after 50, will just be more of the same. You'll be staring at the same results and it's no secret why nothing has changed even though you've changed careers.

Many spend much of their life waiting: waiting for the next promotion, waiting for things to get better, waiting for a relationship to improve, waiting for the working climate to get better but they never seem to get to the point where they can say things are better. Now may be the ideal time to do something about it.

You can't get where you want to be simply doing the same things over and over and even a bit differently. Even a career change after 50 may just be a career change-other things in your life may not change.

For example, if you are in a financial bind in your current career, you change careers with a greater salary and if you're still in financial trouble with the same stresses-what have you accomplished? Not much. The key is to overhaul and reexamine all aspects of your life. Do this and a career change after 50 will be more meaningful and closer to your overall life goals.

Bottom line: you need to re-examine how and what you think about yourself. The result will be you will live your life differently and combined with a career change to your dream career; your waiting will be over because things important to you have gotten better.

For more detailed information about career change after 50 go to http://careersafter50.com. Also, discover the stories of mid-life career changes that resulted in individuals finding their dream careers.

How to Transition From Your Day Job Into a Successful Music Career

Do you want to be a professional musician, but don't know where and how to start? Do you really want a successful career in music, but your fear of failure is holding you back? Are you unsure about what to do if your plan doesn't work?

Most aspiring musicians receive a lot of advice from friends and family about the best approach to take with building their music career. Among the many things suggested, is the idea of having a backup plan. Many people give advice about "the need to have something to fall back on in case the music career doesn't work out" or "a Plan B". Typically, musicians are encouraged to go to school and get a degree in something they can easily find a job in, and do music on the side, in their "free time".

If/when you reach the point where your music career begins to develop, you are probably advised to work less in your day job and focus more on the music until you can leave the day job and make the music career work for you. This advice sounds good in theory, but in reality fails to work as intended in almost every case. Why? Usually the job that most musicians get to support themselves until their music career kicks off, has nothing to do with music in general, or their music career specifically. As a result, most end up in a very frustrating situation that makes it virtually impossible to achieve any kind of lasting success as a professional musician.

4 Reasons why this kind of "backup plan" is usually doomed to fail

Reason #1: Not having an effective exit strategy

The idea of slowly phasing out your day job while building your music career is good, but in order to work, it needs to be done in the right way. Most musicians have nothing planned or prepared that will allow them to gradually decrease the time spent at their day job and focus more on music. When choosing a "backup plan", musicians typically find a job that is the most "safe and secure" and the one that pays the most money. However, most people fail to plan the "exit strategy" and think ahead to the time when their music career situation will allow you to focus less of your time on the day job. When they finally reach that point, they realize that they are trapped in their day job and are unable to "gradually" phase it out. They are faced with the choice of either quitting the job entirely, or sticking to it until retirement (more on this shortly).

The best exit plan is to have a job that will allow you to gradually decrease the number of hours you spend on it: from 40 hours per week to 30, from 30 hours to 20, from 20 to 10, until eventually you can quit the job altogether! So you must take care to select an occupation that allows a lot of flexibility in work schedule. That means you need to be careful to select an occupation that allows a lot of flexibility in work schedule. This way, when the time is right, you can make a "gradual" transition into a full time music career. Unfortunately, most traditional occupations (such as being an accountant, computer programmer, office manager etc...) do not allow this flexibility. Remember, your boss at work will not all of a sudden allow you to "work 3-4 days per week instead of 5", simply because you want to work on your new CD an extra few days per week. It is possible to begin by working in a non-music related job at first, BUT do not select "any" job offer without considering the exit strategy first.

An ideal job for an aspiring professional musician is teaching guitar. Not only can you make very good money doing it, but you are in complete control over how many hours you choose to work. Not everyone may desire to teach full time for the rest of their life (and this is fine). But as long as you are going to be working anyway, why not do something that is already related to what you enjoy, help students reach their goals faster and make money in the process? In addition, teaching is already a "music related" activity that is probably much more fun to do than sitting in an office!

Another possibility is to work as an independent contractor in sales or marketing or doing consulting work for hire. Always check about the flexibility of work schedule before accepting a job offer. Remember that in most industries, the 40-60 hour work week is the norm, with little or no possibility for part time employment. This makes it impossible to make a smooth transition to a full time music career.

Reason #2: There is too much risk involved

Slowly phasing out your day job seems to be a very 'safe and secure' approach, but it can actually backfire and "trap" you by its sense of security. If you are making $60,000 per year at your day job, and have managed (through working nights and weekends) to build up your music related income to $25,000 per year, then, all together, you have a total income of $85,000 for the year. Here is where the reality catches up to you. Should you decide to go full time into music, you will invariably need to quit your day job completely at some point. Until you can recover and build your music career to higher and higher levels, you will be making $60,000 less per year than before! This kind of risk is uncomfortable to think about for most people (especially those who get married, have kids and/or have significant expenses), and keeps them trapped at their day jobs their whole lives.

Reason #3: You are often not able to take advantage of opportunities.

What if you put extraordinary effort on nights and weekends into recording a great sounding CD with your band, spend a lot of time promoting it in hopes of getting signed by a record company and go on tour, and then you really get the opportunity to do a 10 week tour in another country in the world. It is VERY probable that you would NOT get paid a lot of money while on a first tour, but as a whole, this kind of tour is exactly the kind of breakthrough you have been searching for. What are you going to do? Are you going to turn down a huge opportunity to advance your music career? Or are you going to agree to take a huge cut in pay by quitting your day job to do the tour? I think you can agree that neither of these options sounds entirely appealing. Wouldn't it be great to do the tour and not worry about how you are going to feed yourself (and your family) while you are gone?

Reason #4: There is not much quality time and energy to get anything done.

This may seem like a more subtle issue, but it is actually very important. If your most productive hours in the day are spent on the least productive activities, then reaching your goals will take MUCH longer than it needs to. Think about it: if you wake up at 6:00, get to work by 8:00 or 9:00 and spend 8-10 hours there, and another 1-2 hours commuting back home, by the time you are ready to begin working on your music career, you are already tired! This is also not taking into account the time taken up by other things in life that you have to tend to. It will take a truly extraordinary effort to get anything worthwhile accomplished during the time on nights and weekends, to build multiple streams of music related income that will enable you to quit your non-music related job without putting yourself and your family in financial struggle.

Now that you see why this kind of backup plan isn't as good as it seems to be, you may ask yourself what you should do instead.

What is the solution?

Well, having no backup plan is definitely NOT the solution. In order to build a successful music career, you need to be prepared and you cannot simply hope that "things will work out". The underlying problem with the conventional backup plan I described is that it originates from thinking about how not "to lose". This type of thinking lacks real ambition and it forces you to stick to that which is the most familiar and so called "safe and secure". As a result, you typically end up with what you wish for: a familiar, average, safe and secure life. However, this attitude rarely leads to significant achievements, breakthroughs and victories in the music industry.

What the most successful musicians do is arrange their backup plan or Plan B around their MUSIC CAREER GOALS (Plan A). This requires real ambition and courage, and it is based on thinking about how "to win". This also requires you to think how you can integrate Plan B with your present and future life as a professional musician.

There are many possibilities for truly effective "back up" (which are more like "support") plans. In many cases, they involve designing systems and multiple income streams coming from music business sources that will support them continuously.

It's important to put a lot of thought into which kinds of "backup plans" and approaches are best suited to your specific goals. To find the right plan for you, there are two important things you need to do:

First, study how the music business works (this is key!). Understanding it will greatly help you with designing the most effective strategy for reaching your goals in the fastest period of time. Building a successful, long term career takes a lot of focused effort and dedication. The more you understand about the music business, the easier it will be to design the kind of backup plan that will help you reach your goals instead of restricting and trapping you.

Second, be careful about taking advice from people who may have great intentions, but lack knowledge and experience about how the music industry works. Very often, our friends and family, with the very best intentions at heart, attempt to give us advice on what to do to "make it". However, if you pay attention, you will notice that this advice has a common theme, which is "here is what you must do in order not to lose". Very rarely do you get advice about how "to win"! This mentality (as described above) keeps you away from taking steps that will propel your dreams forward.

To make matters worse, although your friends and family may have the best intentions in their heart, most of the time, they simply aren't qualified to give advice about the music business. It will be similar to you asking your brother who is a plumber (for example) about how to cure a disease, or asking your uncle who is a carpenter (for example) about how to solve a legal problem. It doesn't matter that these people have your best interest at heart. If they don't know what they are talking about (in a particular subject), they are not likely to give helpful advice.

If you truly want advice that works and if you want to learn the strategies of how to reach all of your music career goals, you need to find a mentor who you can rely on for effective advice. This means learning from someone who has already done what you want to do, and ideally someone who has trained many others to do the same.

The most effective, predictable and safe strategies to "phasing in" your music career

Now that you know about the problems with the conventional approaches to backup plans, I will show you the characteristics of a good backup plan (Plan B).

1. Flexibility

Your plan must be flexible. This can mean many things. One of them is having the ability to "gradually" decrease the amount of time you spend working on Plan B and increase the time you invest into Plan A! This can also mean the ability to integrate (leverage) the skills acquired (or the results earned) from Plan B into Plan A.

2. Passivity

Your plan should be mostly passive: it will really help if your Plan B mostly consists of passive income streams that you have created by only investing the work once! It should be pretty obvious to see how this will free up a lot of time to dedicate to your Plan A! (your music career)

3. Diversity

The plan should be diversified: do not become so dependent on only one stream of income! Many people argue that a music career is not secure, when nothing could be further from the truth. Which do you think is more likely, that a company lays off an employee in the blink of an eye (cutting off his one and only source of income, the paycheck), or that a music teacher with 40 students (who essentially has at least 40 "diversified" income streams) will suddenly lose all of his clients overnight?

By making your Plan B options diversified, you also build your own financial security, without depending on anyone else. I don't know about you, but I feel much safer knowing that I am in control of my own future, rather than putting my faith into someone else's idea of security.

4. Congruency and Relevance

This means that Plan B needs to make your primary goal (music career) MORE likely to occur! This also means (ideally), that the time you invest into developing skills and experience in Plan B can be easily used to enhance Plan A. For example, if you are known as an excellent guitar teacher, you can easily integrate teaching clinics and workshops with performances of your music, selling your future music CDs, other merchandise etc...etc...

I hope that you can see now how this strategy is vastly different (and superior) to the conventional wisdom of getting a day job, and then doing your best on evenings and weekends to launch a music career from scratch.

As you design your own path to a successful music career, compare the steps you are taking against the criteria above and modify your strategy if necessary. This will help save you from the frustration felt by most of the 'wannabe' musicians, who realize (much too late) that their strategy leaves them no way to manifest their dreams.

If you haven't done so yet, I encourage you to test the effectiveness of your music career back up plan.
Learn more about how to build a Music Career. Visit tomhess.net to get 15 free music career tips. Tom Hess is a professional touring guitarist and recording artist. He teaches, trains and mentors musicians from around the world.

Midlife Career Change - Proper Financial Planning will make the Career Change Successful

Making a mid-life career change is a lot harder than making a career change when you are young. You've got a lot more to lose because you may have already worked your way a good bit up the ladder of success at the career you are in today.

Many who have remained in jobs they didn't like longer than they should have because the job seemed "good enough." Many times that's a mistake. When you are forming an assessment as to whether a job is "good enough," you usually focus on whether the pay and benefits are good. That sort of analysis misses the mark.

What you earn is only part of the total pay package you obtain from the work you do. Your paycheck represents your day-to-day profits. The skills you develop are the result of your long-term research and development project. A company that ignores research and development because today's profits are acceptable is a company with a less than favorable future. Don't fall into this trap.

There is a good bit of wisdom in the "Do What You Love" maxim. It really is true that the most financially rewarding jobs go to those doing work that so motivates them that they possess the energy to become the absolute best at what they do.

When planning a mid-life career change, you need to answer the question: When will the money follow? If you don't get a reliable income stream in place in time, you might not be able to stick it out long enough at the new career to see the benefits of doing what you love ever generate real-world financial profits for you.

You need to have a plan in place before making a mid-life career change. Not just a career plan. You need a financial plan to protect you from the downside risks you take on in making such a dramatic life transition.

There are lots of work issues that need to be taken into account in putting together a plan for a mid-life career change. You need to take tests to learn what sorts of things you are best equipped to do. You need to talk to people now working in the career you hope to enter to see whether jobs in that field are as enjoyable to those on the inside as they appear to be to those on the outside.

Doing that sort of thing is not enough because, no matter how much you plan; you will never be able to anticipate every possible future development that will affect your job satisfaction years down the road. Jump to a new career without putting a financial plan into place to smooth out both the current and future transitions, and there is a good chance that a few years down the road you will be back in the same sorts of circumstances that caused you to want to make the first mid-life career change.

Even career changes that are successful in the short-term are often not so successful after a number of years pass by. You must explore new career options if you are dissatisfied with the career you are in today.

But you must also accumulate the financial resources that will open up options for future changes. Otherwise, you may find yourself five or ten years from now as dissatisfied as you are today but also five or ten years older. Not a good plan.

John Groth is a former HR executive and career coach. Find Career Changing Ideas, valuable articles and a Free seven day career planning guide. Discover up to date career and recruitment strategies at our Midlife Career Ideas all to assist you in advancing and managing your career.

Career Change - A Successful Game Plan To Get You Started

Are you thinking of changing careers? Do you skills in one professional area complement the skill requirements in another more desirable area? If so you may have the starting foundation toward building another career.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the average worker will change careers an average of five times in their lifetime. But after years of professional experience and skills developed in one area, how do you package your skills to impress an employer in another career? Your resume is an extension and reflection of you and should illustrate everything you can offer an employer.

Here are some ideas to assist you in thinking through the problem and then reworking your resume to highlight your skills and qualifications:

1.Prepare for change: What sort of preparation have you done to qualify for the career you want? It can range from self-study, additional formal education, volunteer work, part-time work and everything in between. Your new employer could care less of what you want to do-rather they want to know if you have the skill sets to do what they need you to do.

2. Focus on the required skills: Many professionals get hung up on their job titles instead of focusing on the skills they've learned and acquired on their jobs. Many job skills are easily transferable across industries and careers.

Think more about the skills you've used to manage successful projects, develop successful campaigns, supervise staff or develop and manage a budget.

3. Don't neglect research in your desired field: If you are not fully committed to a career transition, hiring managers many times can detect when an applicant is simply trying to escape a problem in their current job or career. The more you research the new career, and this includes interviewing those currently working in the career, the more focused you can make your resume. Further, this depth of knowledge will clearly come through in the interview.

Once you've identified you natural talents and abilities, combined with your research, the ideal career should be clearly revealed.

4. Don't forget your unpaid career related experience: Volunteer work, particularly activity connected to your planned career field, will count as valuable experience. This related activity should be part of your preparation in making the change in careers. It's also a valuable source of networking contacts.

5. Look for valuable assistance: Nothing will help more in identifying you strengths and interests than by teaming up with a career counselor or career coach. They can tell you which skills you should learn and which you should highlight on your resume. They can point out which careers match your current and projected skills.

6. Be truthful with yourself and what you are presenting: There is the story making the recruiting rounds about the applicant for a pilot's position and their listed qualifications being that they lived at the end of the runway at a busy airport and watched a "lot" of planes land and takeoff. This may be accurate but it doesn't pass the basic qualification test.

Present accurate information in your resume, don't stretch the truth and be realistic about your career goals. By combining your research into the new career field, carefully developing a plan to acquire the necessary skills and qualifications (at least for the entry level position) you'll be well on your way to successfully change careers.

John Groth is a former HR executive and career coach. Find Career Changing Ideas, valuable articles and a Free seven day career planning guide. Discover up to date career and recruitment strategies at our Career Change Guide all to assist you in advancing and managing your career.

Choose a Great Career Coach For Your Successful Career Change

Have you reached a point in your career life where everything seems to go wrong? Do you struggle to find a purpose in your work? Are you hoping for a career boost? Are you planning on a change or coping with job loss?

If you answered yes to any one of these questions, then you definitely need a career coach. Your coach is someone who can give you guidance and mentorship as you make work-related decisions. He or she can help you unleash your worklife potential. A good career coach is someone who can give you all the assistance you need as you start your career transition or move up the corporate ladder.

How to choose your career coach

Looking for a good coach who can best support your passion to succeed is quite a difficult task. Many coaches claim expertise but you have to scrutinize their services and competencies to make sure that you are getting the right advice for your career development. A coach should have specific career development University qualifications. Human resource professionals are skilled at HR matters, and recruitment professionals are wonderful in recruiting the right person for a job, but neither of these disciplines is the same as career development. Be sure you are getting the right help for your need.

Don't be baffled by great marketing! Look beyond the enticing words and the alluring promises to find out what they are really offering.

You must also consider the type of person you want to work with. Is there a particular coaching style that you expect from your career mentor? Finally, learn if there are any guarantees that the coaching company offers in case you aren't satisfied with the service that you are getting from your coach.

Having a career coach to help you out as you go through a major career process suggests that you are totally serious about becoming successful. Your career coach will help you come up with effective career change strategies and will assist you as you recognise your strengths, skills and interests so that you can determine the kind of work that will suit you best. Your coach will also provide you with great suggestions on how you can successfully achieve your dream career.

Your mentor will provide regular personalised coaching, provide you with feedback and will give you a (virtual) pat on the back for every successful step taken. He or she will help you find solutions to career-related issues you may face. You should look for a career coach who is knowledgeable and committed to helping you succeed in your career plans. People who work with great mentors benefit from the mentor's professional expertise. Once you have the right coach to help you, you are sure to gain great advantage from his or her experience as you move forward and reach your career goals.

Life Directions Institute works with people who are contemplating a successful career change, from one job to another, from employee to entrepreneur and from "traditional" work to an income producing laptop lifestyle. Life Directions Institute takes pride in its vast experience in career development, training and education as well as creating a successful offline and online business.

http://LifeDirectionsInstitute.com Jenni Proctor is a career coach and career consultant based in Brisbane Queensland Australia. Life Directions Institute offers career coaching programs which are available by Skype and telephone and are supported by outstanding career resources, empowering clients to develop their own career management skills while being supported through regular coaching. Visit http://LifeDirectionsInstitute.com today to request our 7 day Refresh Your Career video series.

Take A Free Career Test - First Step To A Successful Career

Deciding and choosing what career an individual must take is thrilling and interesting. But, sometime after, some will be left wondering if they chose the right career path. Life has its own ups and downs, but getting stuck in a job you hate is the pits and can drive the individual to depression. The individual then feels the need to assess and begins to question his/her decisions. A possible solution to this problem is by taking a career test, many of which are online or if you want, a career center in the community. One has to answer the answers truthfully, only then can the individual know if s/he needs a career change or not.

Looking for career tests are easy. Many are available in the internet and most have taken one or two of these tests. Career tests are very simple and easy to read, and can easily become a part of a career planning program. A word of caution though, one must read the fine print at the bottom or top of the page, a lot of these career tests were first devised for entertainment, so a little caution should be exercised. Nonetheless, results should be utilized as a reference, even if it's a legitimate career test, not as the ultimate answer or solution. People who are in limbo about their careers might find it comforting to read the results of these exams. These tests can also give the job seeker the right direction they want.

These tests are sometimes condensed from larger career tests. Online tests often give out general results, and if the individual wants a deeper interpretation of the test, s/he must pay a certain amount to the site owners to gain access to it. Career tests are helpful but one has to remember that there are other methods available too. Signing on to a career management site can give you useful insights and information. After reading the information the next step is to check if the kind of career you are looking for offer the duties and salaries you want.

An individual should not be afraid to examine their career choices every once in a while. Career tests that are free are extremely useful as an individual doesn't have to spend anything. For beginners and new graduates taking these tests can be of great help and can stop you from making the mistake of pursuing the wrong career. Career tests can also help the individual figure out if s/he fits another position in the same industry.

Abhishek is a Career Counselor and he has got some great Career Planning Secrets up his sleeves! Download his FREE 71 Pages Ebook, "Career Planning Made Easy!" from his website http://www.Career-Guru.com/769/index.htm. Only limited Free Copies available.

Enjoy A Successful Career Through Simple Career Planning

Once you have come to realise what that genuine desire is, and have ensured that it is consistent with your personal values. Then all you have to do is simply to move in the obvious direction that leads towards your desire.

The 3 Pillars of Career Success

You can start by reading several self-help books or listen to motivational cd's and subscribe to career related newsletters. There are loads of information out there about the right way and the ultimate solution etc. Hey, I have even written some of them and I also publish a newsletter and I would be glad to have you buy them and subscribe to them. But, you are really no different from any of the so-called Guru's or from me.

In fact you have all the same potentials and unless you are mentally or physically impaired, then you can make you career as success story all by yourself, if you so desire. All you have to do is learn and follow the Three Pillars of Career Success.

Point 1. Nothing happens until something moves

Point 2. Become internally who you want to be externally

Point 3. It is not the journey itself, but the destination that is important

Career Coaching is simply Career Planning... With Help and Motivation

There are never any "quick solutions" to life's many problems, including career problems. There are only gradual improvements. When you search for solutions, you are wasting precious time and energy, which you could instead have used to make several small but highly important improvements. Following a simple plan of incremental improvements, such as the "Six Step" SECURE career coaching strategy, will always prove to be far more efficient and profitable than any "quick solution" fix as frequently advertised.

Every journey and career move, begins with a small step and continues step by step until you reach your destination. However, once you are there and have enjoyed the sights and experiences, you will feel the urge to go to somewhere better. That is the natural journey of life and it is a journey that never ends, and which consists of many different phases and travels, which will take you to various places.

To effectively move forward in your career, you will have to keep looking forward and you will have to regularly look up towards your points of destination. However, in order for you to arrive successfully, you will have to look most at what is directly in front of you. This is essential so that you can steer around any obstacles and avoid any pitfalls. Thus you should only look up at your point of destination, in order to keep your general point of direction.

The problem most people have with their career and life, is that they look to the past for causes and to the future for solutions. Thus they go through life and career with one leg stuck in the past and the other leg ahead in the future. As a result... they are "urinating" on today's opportunities!

If your daily actions is build upon a "future vision" that is based on some "utopian" idea. And if your current re-actions to challenges and problems are based on finding causes in your past, and what has happened. Then you will be using those causes as excuses for your current problems and recent failures. Well... is it then really a mystery, why your current career situation seems stained with "yellow"?

Referring back to Point 1. "Nothing happens until something moves", then that simply mean that if you genuinely want change your career or specific parts of it, then you need to take action. You will need to move your life and your career in a new direction Today! Planning and research is good, but too much planning and research is just an excuse for delaying actions due to fear of failure.

Referring back to Point 2. "Become internally who you want to be externally", that that simply mean that you have to have the self-discipline to change yourself and your life. Do not allow yourself to fall into the trap in which you pretend to yourself and others that you do not know what to do or how to do it. You already know what you need to do and you know how you can learn to do it, SO STOP Wasting Time and Just DO IT!

Referring back to Point 3. "It is not the journey itself, but the destination that is important", then that simply mean that Whether your journey is constantly fun and exciting, or at times seems long and hard. Then it is important to realize that it is not the specific phases of the journey that is important, it is the arrival at your chosen destination that is important.

Your Career Development

Every choice you make affects your life and career, whether for good or for bad depends entirely upon you. You will know exactly what choices to make, if you just allow your values to lead you towards your goals. Start by focusing on what you have achieved in your career and you will soon find yourself feeling good about yourself. When you feel good about yourself then other people will also feel good about you. Your career will only move in the direction you lead it and it will only move at a pace equal to the time and energy you put into it.

Dan Sommer's "SECURE" Career Coaching Program

You will achieve what you want in your career, by following my tested and proven 6-step; "SECURE" career program

See: http://www.dansommer.biz/Career_Coaching.html

Dan Sommer is a world known Security & Protection Consultant and training program designer. Dan teach and coach from his experience in successful Marketing & Business Management strategies to small businesses, entrepreneurs and Close Protection Officers, who are setting up their own consultancy and protection agencies.

Dan regularly posts informative and at times "provocative" articles in magazines and ezines and he publishes monthly newsletters. Dan has worked on security and protection projects in several countries including: Denmark, England, Hong Kong, Iceland, Macau, Mexico, Northern Ireland and Wales.

As a consultant he has coached and mentored more than 300 students from 15 different countries and three continents. He has completed dozens of security, protection and counter terrorism courses and has Diplomas in Marketing & Business Management.

Dan has completed dozens of security, protection and counter terrorism courses and has Diplomas in Marketing & Business Management. Go to http://www.dansommer.biz to learn more about how Dan can help you succeed.

Career Counseling for Change - Five Important Keys to a Successful Direction and Transition

Are you unsatisfied with your career and want to make a change? Do you feel like you are not achieving your full career potential? Do you want to make a change, but want to make sure it is the right career this time? Don't know what you want to do, but know its not what you do now?

People are most fulfilled and successful when they find work they love to do and that suits their talents and abilities. This article shares five important keys to making a successful career change. Some concepts may be new to you, some may not. I encourage you to read through them either way, and let them stimulate your thinking. The exercises included are optional, but you are invited to reap

the full benefits by participating in them.

Key #1: Establish a career direction based on excellent self-understanding.

The first stages of a career change involve thinking, self-assessment, exploring, and planning. You can embark on these steps now--without disrupting your current employment situation. After you know more about your new direction, you can decide when to make your move. A career-direction goal should always aim for the ideal career and job fit for yourself. The first steps to identifying the ideal career involve self-assessment and generating insights into what career will make you most satisfied while meeting your needs. Research shows that people who are most satisfied and motivated in their careers are people who have a career that reflects their values, interests, skills, and talents plus their ideal work environment.

How can you clarify these kinds of self-understanding insights? You can do this first of all through a process of reflection on your favorite passions, skills, and interests as well as preferences. Career tests or assessments can also provide help here, and lend some objectivity to the exploration. There are a number of reliable and valid career-oriented tests that are widely available through career counselors and coaches.

Career counseling is geared exactly for this purpose. You may enjoy and benefit from the guidance of a counselor or coach to facilitate the development of a career direction based on who you are. This kind of self-understanding then translates into identifying specific careers that match up with who you are, and are likely to bring you the most satisfaction and motivation.

Here are some tips:

* Think ideally. What do you really want?

* Listen to your longings and desires.

* Pay attention to what attracts you.

* Stay away from things that repel you.

* Understand fully your unique style.

As you go about a career change, it is important to realize you cannot do everything well. You must choose a career direction and a job based on your best abilities and strengths. There are businesses that very much need the capabilities that you are able to provide.

Key #2 to a successful career change is to take stock of your skills, natural talents, competencies, and strengths, and to be able to articulate these well to potential employers as well as others.

Go with your strengths, and be able to communicate them impressively.If you think you have already identified your skills, talents, and strengths, and are looking for work that emphasizes these, great.

Take this opportunity to ask yourself, "Am I successfully saying no to careers and jobs that do not focus on my favorite skills, talents, and strengths?"

Focus your career direction into a career and job for which you are especially equipped. Each person has natural talent and intelligence in one or more areas. The idea is to be very clear on what you are naturally gifted at and let your talents guide you to your next career.

To further discover or clarify where your strengths and talents fall, think back on your life and previous work experience. What tasks and projects came easiest to you? What were the most important accomplishments in your life? What have you received the most recognition for?

You may want to ask several friends what they see as your greatest professional strengths. Career assessment can also yield good information. Take stock. Write down a list now. What themes emerge as you reflect on this?

This is a valuable exercise for self-understanding and career direction, but also when it comes to getting a job. The better you can articulate who you are and the talents and skills you bring to a business, the better impression you make on a potential employer.

There are a number of variables to consider in choosing a career or a job, including the market realities. This brings us to another concept that is necessary to be successful in your transition.

Key #3 is to identify a career that involves what you love to do, can be the best at, and for which you can be well compensated.

Imagine a Ven diagram consisting of three overlapping circles. One circle represents those activities, tasks, functions, and roles that you love to do. All of us at one time or another have experienced doing work that really did not seem like work because we enjoyed doing it. That's what I mean by work that you love to do.

The second circle represents work that you have the potential to be best at--work that you can do better than most others. This means tasks and projects that you have the right skills and natural talent for, and excel at. Work that you will be highly competitive at and perhaps (potentially) better than anyone else.

The third circle represents work that you will be paid well for. If there is work that you love to do and are great at, it will not matter unless someone will compensate you what you need. It is important to understand and take into account the realities of the job market.

Now, in this Ven diagram, the three circles overlap with each other equally. In the center is an area where the three circles converge and all three circles are overlapping. This is the area that represents the right career(s) for you. You want to consider careers or jobs that align with these three areas--work that you love to do, can do best, and will be well- compensated for.

By the way, if this sounds similar to Jim Collin's Hedgehog Concept in his book "Good to Great", it is. It is an adaptation of his model for business success applied to career success. I highly recommend his book.

So now, I suggest you take a few minutes and apply this to yourself. Where is the convergence of these three circles for you? If you cannot discover this, how will you find out? When all is said and done, one of the biggest factors in a career transition is money. Although you may love the idea of quitting your job and jumping into your next career, financial realities are in play.

Key #4: To transition smoothly into your next career, plan the best

way to juggle the finances to support you along the way.

I know from my work as a career counselor and coach that the money issue can cause significant angst and difficulty. Here are some ideas for managing it well.

1. Use your current income wisely. If you have a job, keep it. There's a saying that its easier to get a job when you have one. Before initiating a move: increase your savings, reduce your expenses, live within, or better, below your means for a while.

2. Build cash reserves through supplementing your full-time job with other work. You can get a part-time job, do contract work, etc.

3. Add a part-time business to your full-time job. If you must let go of your full-time job, then do what you can to produce an income while you are in transition.

4. Get an interim full-time or part-time job.

5. Do contract or freelance work.

6. Have a well-paying part-time job while you work on starting a business, if that will be your next career.

7. Use consulting gigs to generate income. Put your key strengths and capabilities to good use to generate income as a consultant while in transition.

8. Work full-time or part-time while attending school to prepare for your next career, if that is your plan.

A number of these options also have fringe benefits. While providing income, you can hopefully put yourself in positions where you can develop skills, experience, or contacts for your next career. How will you make the finances work during your career transition? Take a few minutes and jot down your thoughts.

Key #5: Network, network, network.

People who are most successful at career change and job-hunting use methods that require more effort. People who are less successful do the usual: passive methods such as sending out resumes, going through agencies, looking at the ads, and using the Internet. There is nothing wrong with these methods; in a strong job market they may be sufficient.

More active approaches include researching organizations in detail, doing informational interviewing, and building a network of contacts. These methods involve more work, but they are also the most effective.

Despite the fact that we are in the age of the Internet (it is estimated that about 5 to 10% of jobs are filled by on-line job boards--not bad, but what about the other 90%?), networking is still the best strategy.

So, to be successful in making a career change, it really pays to build a strong list of contacts and reconnect with them. If you don't know how to network effectively or your skills could be better, it is a good time to work on this. Consider utilizing the help of a career counselor or coach.

Never underestimate who your friends and associates know. Keep track of your contacts as your list grows, and revitalize old relationships.

Your contacts may be the key to getting job leads, crucial inside information, getting the attention of whoever is hiring for the position you want, and many other valuable benefits. Many, many people have a job they love because they knew someone who knew someone.

Now comes the end of this article on keys to a successful career change.

Review:

Key #1: Establish a career direction based on excellent self-understanding.

Key #2: Take stock of your skills, natural talents, competencies, and strengths, and be able to articulate these well.

Key #3: Identify a career that involves what you love to do, can be the best at, and for which you can be well compensated.

Key #4 Plan the best way to juggle the finances to support you along the way.

Key #5: Network, network, network.

I hope you have enjoyed this article and are now taking steps to make a great career change. What was the biggest thing you will take away from this? What questions remain unanswered? Where will you go from here? Write out your thoughts.

William Morgan, Psy.D. is a career counselor and coach in the greater Philadelphia area serving clients nationwide. For more information on his career transition and development services and helpful resources visit his website at http://www.Counseling4Careers.com

The Making of a Successful Virtual Job Fair

The relevance of a virtual job fair today

With the widespread use of the Internet for job searches, recruiters and hiring managers have a larger pool of accessible job candidates. The consequent information overload is inevitable. A typical search within a job board gives a recruiter thousands of choices and not enough time in the day to review all of them. A virtual job fair serves as a levee to arrest the information deluge, capture a relevant, interested and manageable part of the database, invite them to a job fair, and fish for the best candidates. From the candidates' perspective, they enjoy the ability to fish for the best opportunities. By creating manageable capsules of time, (web) space, and information, a virtual job fair creates a sheltered environment without the noise and clutter of the Internet for a recruiter or hiring manager to directly connect with a potential job candidate.

The other reason that a virtual job fair has become relevant is that hiring companies are trying their best to make their brand stand out amongst their competitors to attract the best talent that is out there. Many organizations are able to receive résumés of interested job candidates at their own career websites. Some even have a .jobs domain name to go with their overall web presence. With such elements they are trying to create an exclusive corner for their hiring needs and thus build some branding. To create an element of brand-loyalty even before they have become an employee of the company, many organizations prefer to have their own online event to invite and engage candidates who have expressed interest in working for that specific organization. The virtual job fair is an ideal way to maintain a pipeline of future employees that care about an organization's brand

Three 'C's for a successful virtual job fair

There are several factors that make for a successful virtual job fair, but in our experience the most critical ones are making them Convenient, Crisp and Current.

a) Convenient: If a job fair can be wrapped around the needs of the job candidate, it has a better chance of success. We conducted a job fair where the recruiters 'staffed' their virtual booth on a Sunday morning (from the comfort of their home via the Internet) just to make it convenient to working professionals who may not have time during the work week for a serious job search. Candidates were able to attend online, connect instantly via chat with the recruiter, schedule an interview or even have an initial phone interview with the recruiter that Sunday morning. Since the internet does not have any boundaries of time, it stands a better chance of success if it creates spells of interactivity aligned with the convenience of the job candidates in mind. Convenience is also important to the hiring manager. Should a hiring manager wish to involve an engineer in the hiring process, it can be accomplished without the engineer leaving her or his desk, and still be able to address technical questions and concerns of a job candidate instantaneously. Making it convenient is the biggest hallmark of the success of a virtual job fair. Taking this a little further, it also means that the virtual job fair must be easy to participate from behind firewalls in case a working professional chooses to attend from the office. It goes without saying that the virtual job fair then must enjoy timely customer support during any hour that has been chosen by the fair organizers. It is all about making it convenient for the job candidate and the recruiter in terms of getting the required customer support for an easy and seamless experience. Respecting the time of all participants is paramount. To assume that the job candidate, hiring managers or recruiters have a lot of time to spend on the Internet is a fallacy. That leads us to the next C - Crisp.

b) Crisp: Time is a scarce resource. Let us not forget that the hiring manager, recruiter and the job candidate, each have a specific need - to be able to find one another, to find the right fit, and to connect as quickly as possible armed with as much information as possible. Virtual job fairs work best when they are used to facilitate and swiftly arrange for a phone conversation or an email follow-up leading to a phone conversation. Throwing too much technology at the users is inconsiderate and counter-productive. The second most important hallmark of a successful virtual job fair is to keep it simple and crisp, serving as a tool to establish an instant connection between the job giver and the job seeker. Anything else that interferes with this ultimate objective is a waste of time and therefore money. Keeping all the content in the virtual job fair concise, keeping the navigation consistent and predictable is very important. Of course, all of the convenience and conciseness you offer in a virtual job fair is meaningless if the content is not current, taking us to the next C -Current.

c) Current: Even if your virtual job fair is being created out of an existing database of job candidates or an existing job listing pool, and even if it is easy to simply pull all of that data into a virtual job fair venue, I would urge to resist the temptation to serve old wine in a new bottle. My recommendation would be to leave certain pieces of information out of any automated data transfers, and mandate that the job fair participants - both employers and job candidates demonstrate their commitment by making current their job listings and résumés respectively, as well as their contact information. Employers will tell you how frustrating it is to find interesting résumés that are outdated, emails that bounce back and phones numbers that never ring. In the same vein, job candidates will tell you how exasperating it is to go through job listings, fill out an application form, click on the 'apply' button only to find that the job posting has 'expired' or is 'not available any longer'. Keep all content in the virtual job fair current, and you will have a winner.

The first steps towards building a brand

To keep all content in a virtual job fair current, it is also important that the job fair has a specific start and an end. A virtual job fair with a defined time-frame is successful for the following few reasons. It is not reasonable to expect hiring managers to be online 'staffing' virtual booths for more than a few hours. Hiring processes have a life-cycle, and matters have to move beyond the initial screening that the virtual job fair painlessly allows. When a virtual job fair is closed, it is best to open pre-registration and pre-announce the next virtual job fair. A pre-announced calendar of job fairs helps sustain the momentum of the first fair. It gives job candidates something to look forward to. It gives recruiters a breather. Most of all, it helps the job fair organizer build a brand for the job fair. Based on our experience, if you deliver virtual job fairs in brief spells of time, and also use it in conjunction with face-to-face job fairs, you will experience measurable success. One must remember that the Internet works best when used as a tool to enhance human interaction.

The author, Ramesh Sambasivan is the co-founder of iTradeFair.com, Inc. Thanks to Grant Hartman, a virtual event manager and social networking evangelist at iTradeFair.com for valuable edits to the article.