Career Change
- Assess your situation. It’s important
to honestly evaluate whether you are unhappy with your career,
or if you simply need to find a new job. If you determine early
on that all you need is a fresh start in a different work environment
to find satisfaction, you’ll save yourself a lot of time
in the long run.
- If you do decide that it’s time to make a career change, evaluate
your interests and aptitudes. Numerous assessment tools
are available to help you get a better understanding of yourself
and the careers for which you might be suited.
- Research potential careers. Once you have
identified careers that you might be interested in pursuing,
take the time to research them. Items to consider include salary
range and job availability. It can be particularly helpful to
talk to someone who is currently employed in the career you would
like to pursue.
- Figure out what training you will need. From
this point, you can decide how to proceed. Sometimes you can
keep working at your current job until you complete the training
for your new career. Other times, you may need to quit your current
job in order to dedicate yourself to obtaining the training you
need.
- Set your goals and develop an action plan. Sometimes
it helps to write these things down. That way you know what you
want to accomplish and what it will take to get there.
- Use the Montana Career Information System (MCIS). MCIS
is a free, Web-based resource that can help you plan your future.
It provides descriptions of different occupations, explanations
of the skills and education required to work in those occupations
and assessments of the predicted outlook for those career fields.
Plus, it can help you identify occupations you might be interested
in pursuing by providing a variety of assessments to complete,
including Occupation Sort, O*Net, Interest Profiler, Work Importance
Locator and Micro-SKILLS. To log on to MCIS, go to www.smartaboutcollege.org.
