Changing career

There seems to be, in my opinion, a major gap in help for people wanting to change career who are lacking in confidence, or are still employed - which is particularly concerning given the number of jobs that will disappear in the next few decades (and workers at Hazelwood knew for years before the shut down that it was coming, so pre-emptive help then would have saved considerable distress and problems later). Yes, new jobs will appear, but it is necessary to to undertake new training etc for those new jobs. 

The below is aimed at possibly enabling people to take some pre-emptive control over what happens in their life. Feel free to use, adapt, or ignore, as you see fit.

Self-Assessment for Career Change

I have created this as I could not find any particularly useful / good guides anywhere. Hopefully it may be of some use.

To complete this, I suggest:

1.       complete the table as best you can;

2.       review your CV (create one if you don’t have one) and then revise the table;

3.       review the FYA report recommended below (create one if you don’t have one) and then revise the table;

4.       ask your friends to review the table and provide comments (missed skills, skills that are being over-rated by yourself, etc);

5.       ask former colleagues to review the report and also provide comments.

 

SWOT analysis of skills

Area	Physical	Emotional	Mental	Spiritual
Strengths	Prompts: strength, coordination, skills at activities, skills with tools, health, age effects (this is for you, so be honest), illness or other restrictions)	Prompts: what is happening / has happened in your life, and how has that affected you? Experience? Resilience? Trauma? Loss of confidence? Again, this is for you - be honest. Do you have empathy / skills with counselling etc? Ability to work with people - maybe mentor or build teams?	Prompts: this section covers what most people look at with job applications - the recognised skills for particular businesses, accomplishments from school and University (and other courses), computer skills, etc. Don’t forget to list the basic skills here - maths, writing, any level of computer skills (which you have, if you are reading this on the Internet), etc. The FYA report recommended below also has some very relevant prompts in it. Do NOT limit this to what you think employers might be looking for!	Prompts: no-one ever even considers this, but there are jobs (e.g., death doula) which touch on this role. Apart from that, this can be a potential source of strength for you, and thus should not be ignored if you have a particular faith.
Weaknesses	(same prompts as above)	(same prompts as above)	(same prompts as above)	(same prompts as above)
Opportunities	What can be done about the above - training, self-care, are there laws protecting you having different ability levels?	What can be done about the above - need counselling? Do course(s)?	What can be done about the above - do courses, possibly online?	No particular suggestions here: here in Australia there is an organisation which lists ethical jobs that would constitute an opportunity, but I do not know if there are similar organisations elsewhere.
Threats	How will employers view others with better skill levels? Can that be turned around - e.g., lack of experience / skill makes more open to training as the employer wishes?	How will employers view others with better skill levels? Can that be turned around - e.g., doing course(s), possibly online?	This is where the fairly standard advice from others about marketing oneself comes into play, but you also must consider future changes which will affect the nature or even existence of this job. The FYA report linked to below has some excellent starting comments on this.	Some organisations - or key people in them - take a dim view of religion in general, or particular religions. In many places there are laws against discrimination, but choosing to involve religion can be risky.

 

CV-based list

If you have a CV, a useful way to write it is:

• key personal details;
• skills:
• o   general,
• o   specific to work;
• employment history - for each company:
• o   company, title of position and period worked,
• o   responsibilities,
• o   key achievements;
• other experience;
• most people end by stating referees can be provided upon request.

Some suggestions I consider worthwhile:

• aim to show potential employers how you will “hit the ground running”;
• have examples of past experience (there is a bias towards more recent) to illustrate key skills.

Also, never  lie. Key details will be checked.

The skills and experience sections can be used as one source to help populate the above table.

 

From FYA’s “Towards a New Work Mindset”

URL https://www.fya.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/The-New-Work-Mindset.pdf

The FYA report proposes thinking about careers from the point of view of “skills clusters”. I consider it a brilliant and essential concept for the future - starting from about three decades ago.

The report is copyright, so I can’t include diagrams here (I’m not doing a review of the report), so you will have to have a look. There are some key gaps in what is provided in the report, but, even so, it is well worth having a look.

 

Summary

 

Option and Key Aspects	Pros (Strengths)	Cons (Weaknesses)	Comments (Opportunities and Threats)
Working for oneself (need good business skills and willingness not to take a break for several years, may need financial support first few years - if needed after that, possibly reconsider):
Physical options:   (list each viable option in a separate row, and complete the cells to the right)
Emotional options:   (list each viable option in a separate row, and complete the cells to the right)
Mental options:   (list each viable option in a separate row, and complete the cells to the right)
Spiritual options:   (list each viable option in a separate row, and complete the cells to the right)
Other options:   (list each viable option in a separate row, and complete the cells to the right)
Working part time for others, possibly in conjunction with work for oneself:
Physical options:   (list each viable option in a separate row, and complete the cells to the right)
Emotional options:   (list each viable option in a separate row, and complete the cells to the right)
Mental options:   (list each viable option in a separate row, and complete the cells to the right)
Spiritual options:   (list each viable option in a separate row, and complete the cells to the right)
Other options:   (list each viable option in a separate row, and complete the cells to the right)
Working full time for others:
Physical options:   (list each viable option in a separate row, and complete the cells to the right)
Emotional options:   (list each viable option in a separate row, and complete the cells to the right)
Mental options:   (list each viable option in a separate row, and complete the cells to the right)
Spiritual options:   (list each viable option in a separate row, and complete the cells to the right)
Other options:   (list each viable option in a separate row, and complete the cells to the right)