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

Rethink Your Career Transition

Are you going nowhere in your career? If you've decided it's time to change your career completely, here's a new way of changing!

Before you jump ship, think about what's been happening in your career. Have you been making little or no progress for some time? You may be in the throes of what George Leonard, author of Mastery, calls the "plateau". Leonard argues that we master something with a series of one intense upward growth spurt followed by a long period of nearly flat growth - a plateau. In this age of "what have you done for me lately", you may have just tired of being on the plateau. Before you chuck your old career, decide whether it no longer works for you or whether you've just tired of being on the plateau. If you've decided to change careers completely, read on!

So you've decided to jump, eh? Well, you've got two choices of how to do it. First is the traditional "think, plan, do" linear sequence we've all been taught by career counselors and well-meaning family members. If you're just changing jobs within a career field, this strategy should work fine for you. But it sucks for career changers and here's why! We get much of our identity from what we do; just ask anyone about himself or herself. What does she or he tell you first? I'm a ___________ (fill in the blank here - doctor, lawyer, Indian chief.) We get that identity by what we've done in our careers. In my experience hiring hundreds of folks for law firms, interviewers are skeptical of "career changers". Hiring is a costly and time-consuming process, and interviewers don't want to do it any more than necessary nor take unnecessary risks. You've got to convince them that hiring you makes sense, and to tell a convincing story requires that you've convinced yourself the change makes sense. It's hard to convince yourself you can do if you haven't done it.

So how do you present a prospective employer with a risk worth taking? Use the second option for career changing - an iterative process. Ok, you say, I'll bite. What's an iterative process?

Merriam Webster's dictionary describes it as a repetitive process that yields results successively closer to the desired result, which is clarified as a result of the process. So take heart, all those who want something different but don't know exactly what it is - the iterative process comes to your rescue.

So what does an iterative career shifting process look like? Herminia Ibarra describes a three-step strategy in her book, Working Identity, Unconventional Strategies for Reinventing Your Career. First, create experiments. Stephen Covey once said we can't talk our way out of a situation we behaved our way into. Since our identities are defined by what we do, we need to pick some possible, alternative career identities and find activities that allow us to try these identities on for size. If they fit well, we can delve more deeply into them. If they fit poorly, we can put them back on the rack and try another.

Second, shift connections. Your working identity is also defined by your web of relationships in work and family life. Your current co-workers, bosses, family members, suppliers and customers all have vested interests in having you remain unchanged. Talk with any of them about a new career, and they'll steer you toward a slightly modified version of what you're doing now - not a career shift.

So, you'll need to meet new people in your experimental fields. Go on informational interviews. Write to authors in your new field and engage them in conversation. Investigate trade or professional associations in your new field, or talk with college professors who teach that subject. Use your imagination to find new people for your network. Since who you are is defined by the company you keep, you need to meet new people to guide and help you shape your career experiments successfully.

Third, revise your life story so it's compelling and coherent. Revising your life story involves revising your resume and story you'll tell during informational and job interviews. You need this revised story for two reasons. 1. To convince yourself during a time of turmoil and confusion that your career change makes sense; and 2. To convince a prospective employer that hiring you is worth the risk.

A good story is like a good movie. Good movies cause you to "suspend your disbelief". You care about the character, believe in him or her and relate to the struggle he or she is going through. You watch with bated breath as the protagonist struggles against obstacles that cause fundamental changes in character. You believe in the character as he or she reaches the point of no return and resolves his or her struggle, either successfully or unsuccessfully. You care and you believe in them.

How do you suspend your interviewer's disbelief? By making your story compelling and convincing. Demonstrate to your interviewer that your transformation is complete and sensible. Explain the internal reasons for your career change, for example, I changed to do something I'm really good at or that I really enjoy. Show how you've learned from what you've tried and how you used that learning to deepen your understanding of yourself. It's best to avoid external reasons (i.e. I was fired or laid off) to avoid the impression that you simply accept fate rather than actively shape it.

Cite as many reasons for your change as you can, and point out any explanations that have deeply rooted causes. Family or financial circumstances may have prevented you from realizing a goal from long ago. Persevering and overcoming obstacles are attractive qualities to employers.

Show continuity and causality - a natural series of unfolding events that make sense. Connect your past work life to your present situation and project it out into the future. Tell your story so that the obstacles you've overcome and what you've learned about your character inspire your prospective employer to believe in your motives, character and ability to reach your goals. Tell it so they can see you doing the same things for them!

No matter how you cut it, change is messy, and career change is no exception. Margaret Wheatley and Myron Kellner-Rogers, in A Simpler Way, share that life uses messes to get to well-ordered solutions. But messes don't feel very good while you're in the midst of them!

That's where professional help comes in. A broad shoulder to lean on when you need it. A productive mind to help you brainstorm experiments and shift connections. A capable life story editor to help make your story compelling and convincing. If you know you need a change, but don't feel comfortable going it alone, contact a career coach!

Copyright 2005, Fruition Coaching. All rights reserved.

Rick Hanes is a life and career coach, writer, outdoorsman, gardener and tireless advocate for living life with purpose and passion. He founded Fruition Coaching in 2004 to lead the fight against leading lives of quiet desperation. Check his website at [http://www.fruitioncoaching.com] to contact him about rekindling the fire of your life!