Change is inevitable. Change is constant.
Benjamin Disraeli

For you change might be needed because the job you had will never exist again, you are unhappy in your current job, you want to start your own business, or you made a wrong career choice and want to start a completely different career. We can never get over the fear that these changes evoke, what we can do is to manage the situation to get through our fears and move on.

 Here are five tips to help you manage the change process and thus get through your natural fears when facing a change of careers.

1. Define your ideal job

What is dissatisfying about your current or past jobs? What are your recurring interests? What is your desirable work environment? What are your passions? How much income do you need?  Write these down.

2. Objectively define your transferable strengths and skills

What do you do best? When others think about you, how would they describe you? What evidence do you have that these are your strengths and skills? Define you 5-8 transferable strengths and skills. Write these down.

 3. Investigate alternative career

The internet is an excellent source of information, don’t stop here, talk to people doing your ideal jobs, there is no substitute for first hand, personal information. Some of the questions to ask: how did they land this job, what are the keys to success, any down sides or frustrations with this job?

 4. Make a plan that takes your financial needs into account

Outlines your steps and financial requirements,  Will your new career require additional training, outside financial assistance, relocation, time off from work, relocation. There is comfort in being prepared, being prepared means having a solid plan and access to the resources necessary to execute that plan.

 5. Keep positive and motivated

Write down your negative thoughts and each time you find yourself thinking or saying something that reinforces your fear, write down the corresponding positive statement. Replace, “I think I can’t….” with “I think I can…” Surround yourself with positive, supportive people who believe in you—talk about your reservations and how they can be managed. Remember you have a choice to be happy or unhappy, positive or negative.

Before you jump into a recommendation on sites like Linkedin think about this:  Does your company have a policy against it?  For example one company has a policy that says managers aren’t allowed to write any type of recommendation—virtual or not—for an employee. Because an electronic reference lives online, it actually lasts longer and may have greater effect than a letter or phone call. You may be opening yourself up to potential legal problems if you knowingly write a positive recommendation for someone you know has done something wrong. If asked to write a recommendation you can always opt out with “it’s our policy not to.”  If you’re looking for recommendations consider asking your colleagues instead of your boss.

The processes and tools for career planning are time tested and proven.  What is needed is the personal conviction and discipline to work the process.  Conviction and discipline is reinforced by a set of Career Club International’s eight personal principles or beliefs that are central to the entire effort.

Effective Career Planning:

1. Is my responsibility. We owe it to ourselves and our families to make the most of our strengths. It’s not our employers responsibility or the government’s or a school’s or anybody else’s job to plan our careers.
2. Is an on-going process. Developing options, setting and reaching goals and building networks of contacts is not done well in a crisis mode.
3. Builds on strengths. We will typically earn the most doing what we do best and we need to know what those strengths are and be able to communicate them effectively.
4. Delivers employer value. Employers hire and pay the most for people who can help them the most; we need to be able to persuade them that we’re the ones who can provide that help.
5. Is group-powered. Groups provide the widest insight into developing and evaluating career options; they also provide a supportive setting to practice job skills – no man is an island!
6. Builds networks of contacts. Most jobs are found through people we know – it only makes sense to develop a network of people who can help us.
7. Accommodates my preferences. Career planning is not a cookie-cutter process; we need to be aware of our personal preferences in a variety of areas and find ways to accommodate them.
8. Requires flexibility and adaptability. With changes in technology and global competition, entire industries or jobs can go away; there are no career guarantees, we need to be flexible and adaptable.

According to Peter Drucker, noted Management Consultant—Most Americans do not know what their strengths are.  When you ask, they look at you with a blank stare, or they respond in terms of subject knowledge, which is the wrong answer.

Our own experience conducting career workshops confirms his view.  People have a hard time identifying and articulating their unique strengths.  They often refer to educational degrees, certificates, or positions held.  Your strengths are what you can do to achieve superior performance in these arenas. The main culprit is that we don’t see in ourselves what others do and we take our strength either for granted or assume that everyone can do what you do—no big deal!

Your strengths are transferable skills that make you unique—they are why others want to hire you. Can you put in writing or articulate these in an interview with instances to support each strength? Most people have 5-8 unique strengths that set them apart from others. The best way to define your strengths is through 360° feedback. Ask others who know you well to complete an email survey to identify the times they saw you performing at your best.

Career Clubs International uses this process then shares the responses in a group where your peers can help you interpret the responses and possibly validate what is being said with their own observations. Through this process you will be way ahead of the curve—you will know your own strengths!

We’re all familiar with networking either through social networking sites like Linkedin or through people we know on a local level. Developing and managing your contacts is best when it is part of a daily routine, not when it is used all at once and must carry the burden of a hurry-up job search.  This is a one way; self centered approach and has the possibility of leaving your contacts feeling “used.” The other half, which is all too often ignored, is what have or are you doing for your contacts?  Does “giving back” sound familiar?

What does giving back mean, it doesn’t mean superficial gestures, it does mean giving real value.  You might suggest articles or books you have read that fit their interests. An update on your progress and an interest in what is new with them keeps you both in the loop.  Volunteer to help on a particular project where your contact is involved like a blood drive, or a charity function.  If you hear of an opportunity that might interest them, pass it along.  An occasional call just to visit and check in shows a real interest.  The list is endless and only limited by your imagination.

Your contacts will notice genuine acts of giving that have substance—ideas, information, and resources.  Networking is a two-way street.

One study concluded that, “Mutual support groups are just as effective as meeting one-on-one with a trained counselor.”* Richard Nelson Bolles in the 2009 What Color is Your Parachute assert that working in a group with other job-hunters has a 84% success rate.  All this at a fraction of the cost when one considers that a conservative figure for a one-on-one series of career meeting is $5,000.

We can safely affirm that career planning is more effective when done is a small group of like minded peers where each individual gains:

• support, you don’t have to go through these challenging times alone
• a safe place to practice your skills with feedback for improvement
• increased responsibility and accountability for action plans.

But just meeting as a group is not sufficient; the group needs a proven process to follow during their meetings.  Career Club Internationals eleven modules provide your Club the content, structure and process to lead and form a Career Club that is self-pace and self managed by the members. Plus it is fun, don’t wait let the power of groups work for you throughout your career journey.

* Bright, J.I., Baker, K.D., & Neimeyer, R.A. (1999). Professional and paraprofessional group treatments for depression: a comparison of cognitive-behavioral and mutual support interventions. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 67(4), 491-501.

The NPR June 17, 2009 Morning Edition segment asserts that the paper resume is laughably passé, at least in some circles. Not having a profile on the social networking site LinkedIn is, for some employers, not only a major liability but a sign that the candidate is horribly out of touch.

For example, Glenn Kelman, chief executive of Redfin, an online real estate brokerage says blogs and Facebook pages have gone from mere kids’ play to essential for communicating with employers online. Someone applying for a job in marketing, for example, will do much better in an interview if he or she already commands an audience through a blog. People in sales look better if they can prove they have a broad network of contacts in their field.

These new rules especially hold true in the high-tech fields, where being up to the minute is considered essential. But even other industries are following suit.

“We get very few paper resumes,” says Pat Cassady, the director of recruitment at UMB Financial, a bank based in Kansas City, Mo. Cassady says 10 to 12 percent of UMB hires come through LinkedIn, and she searches niche networking sites for active users who might be promising business leaders. She is even planning to use Twitter to reach out to new recruits.

We believe it is not an either or but both condition.  Picture going through multiple interviews with a prospective employer and one of the interviewer’s asks, “I haven’t seen any paper on you, did I miss something?” Or another who asks, “In addition to your on-line information, please send me a resume that I can circulate before your interview.”  If this is not enough evidence that you need a paper resume then the ability to customize your resume to a specific employer or job should end the argument that relying on just a social network profile sufficient.  It is not, the paper resume still remains an important part of your overall job campaign strategy.

“A sense of belonging,” writes Dr. Kenneth Pelletier of the Stanford Center for Research and Disease Prevention, “appears to be a basic human need—as basic as food and shelter. In fact, social support may be one of the critical elements distinguishing those who remain healthy from those who become ill.”

We think this is even more critical in times of stress, e.g., entering or re-entering the job market, unemployed, underemployed, unhappily employed or seeking to be more proactive in controlling your career.

Career Clubs provide the structure and processes to support you during these times of stress. Through the various meetings with a like minded group of peers you will focus on your strengths not your weakness, what you can do versus what you can’t do, what is right with you versus what may be wrong. Others will empathetically listen to your stories and concerns. Your club members will partner with you to help you discover and define your career plans and strategies. All this in an environment where it is safe to be yourself, a place to “belong.”

Pelletier, K. (1994). Sound mind, sound body: A new model for life-long health. New York: Simon and Shuster.

If there is any doubt about the value of your contacts in identifying and putting you in touch with the hiring person at your targeted organization, consider:

Researchers analyzed 30 billion Microsoft Messenger instant messages sent among 180 million people from around the world.  They concluded that any two people are, on average, just 6.6 degrees of separation apart, meaning that they could be linked by a string of seven or fewer acquaintances.  The database covered the entire Microsoft Messenger instant-messaging network in June 2006, or roughly half the world’s instant-messaging traffic at that time, researchers said.  (Peter Whoriskey, “Messagers Really Are About Six Degrees From Kevin Bacon,” Washington Post, Saturday, August 2, 2008)

Your contacts are the ultimate resource to identify and communicate with potential employers.  For the skeptics try this experiment, email all your contacts with the following request:

“I am trying to find the name, email and telephone number of the person responsible for hiring at____ (you fill in the organization). If you can’t help me can you ask your network of acquaintances if they or one of their friends can help?”  The results will amaze and reinforce the value of developing and keeping in touch with a wide and varied group of contacts.  Don’t wait until you need them, start today, and have the discipline to make this a recurring activity!

In these rough economic times many find themselves facing a new experience—unemployed and at a loss for what to do.  Three books were written during the Great Depression of the 30’s to address this very problem*. All three are summarized at http://www.careerclubsinternational.com/freeresources.html

The central solution for the unemployed is being able to articulate exactly what it is that you can do for an employer, based on actual experiences.  We offer two ways to define and validate you unique transferable strengths.  Finding jobs that utilize your unique strengths may mean a career change.  The good news is that a career which utilizes more of your unique strengths will be more satisfying.

Even in depressed times employers are looking for employees who can make a contribution.  Don’t think about careers or jobs, think about how your unique strengths can be presented to fulfill a potential employers needs.  Those who do will always find satisfying work.

 * Sidney and Mary Edlund. Pick Your Job and Land It! Prentice Hall, New York, 1938 

A.W. Rahn. Your Work Abilities: How to Express and Apply Them Through Man Power Specifications, Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1938

C.B. Thompson and M.L.Wise. We Are Forty and We Did Get Jobs.  Philadelphia, J.B. Likppincott Company.  1938