Finding a New Career  Tweet

Losing your job and realizing that you suddenly have the seemingly momentous task of finding a new career is becoming a common problem.

So how can you find a new career quickly, if you have been working in the same area for twenty or more years and feel that you can't do anything else?

The important thing to remember is that it takes time to carve out a new career and so you might have to take a temporary job in the meantime,, if you have to start earning money quickly.

So, don't panic, check out what financial aid is available to people who are unemployed in your area and look for work which will tide you over while you figure out a long term plan.

Next, take a good look at your transferable skills and make a detailed list of these. You'll find a couple of exercises  designed to help you find your own here: transferable skills.

Next get out the local or national paper or online job sites- whichever are most likely to advertise the type of jobs which would interest you. Go through all the jobs at your level of experience eg, middle manager, experienced graduate and so on and look at the transferable skills which are being actively sought.

Don't worry if you don't have the right qualifications, this exercise is just to identify transferable skills.

Having identified the skills employers are looking for, you can list the ones you already have.

Now you want to go back to the paper or websites and look at who is hiring in general and which areas interest you as possible career alternatives.

Once you find a career area which interests you, you need to find a way to get there.

Do plenty of research to find how you can enter the new career.

Could you either train on the job, or train for part-time while you are employed elsewhere? There are plenty of opportunities to gain new skills while earning a living and so one option is to take a job which is not exactly what you want, but which gives you one or more of the skills needed for your ideal job.

If you take a job which is giving you relevant experience and then do a part-time course to get the qualifications you need, you will be several steps closer to finding your new career.