Finding Career Change Ideas

Choosing the right career change ideas can be difficult, because there are so many options out there. Yet it’s an important decision, because your future depends will be defined in many ways by your choice.

Here are a few questions to help you decide what is right for you.

What do you enjoy doing? Both from your work life and your private life.

Let’s start with jobs

 Career Change Ideas from Previous Jobs

One of my jobs including training mentors to work with homeless people and that really stands out as something that I loved to do. What did I enjoy about that aspect of the job? It included working with two particular groups of people, understanding the needs of homeless people, creating and delivering a training programme and developing it as it went along. It was also very satisfying to see the results.

Take a look at what you have enjoyed in the workplace and identify the verbs associated with it. I’ll give you a few more examples:

Problem solving, managing, organizing, writing, assisting, treating, teaching, repairing, building, programming.

Which aspect of your present and or previous jobs did you hate so much you never want to do it again? This is probably a lot easier and may be the reason you left particular jobs. It could be actual tasks or more general factors such as working with difficult colleagues or having to work in a cubicle all day.

Once you’ve made a list of the negatives, see if there are an opposites which could go on the positive list. If you hate working in an office, where would you rather work? Outside,on a farm, in a school or hospital?

Career Change Ideas from Hobbies

Some hobbies lend themselves to careers, for example, if you love going to the gym, or are very good at a particular sport, you could become a personal trainer or coach.

Many hobbies can make money for you, but this often means setting up your own business. However, you can try it out in your spare time before giving up your day job. Setting up your own business isn’t always easy, but being self employed can be very rewarding and you get to be your own boss, which is an advantage for most people.

 Inspired Career Change Ideas

There are many ways in which you can find inspiration for career change ideas – reading about someone’s experience, watching a TV show or finding a solution to a problem you are experiencing in your own life or the life of someone close to you.

Read more about self employment on the main website:http://www.coolercareers.com

Career Change Resume

When you need or want to change careers. it’s important to create the right type of resume. It can be difficult to know how to set out your career history if you have no experience which is directly related to the new direction in which you plan to take your career.

So you need to be able to identify your transferable skills in a way that shows the skills you have gained in your working life so far will be relevant to your career change.

Career Change Resume Format

The best format for your career change resume will usually be skill based or will focus on keywords. A traditional chronological CV or resume is generally not appropriate because you will be drawing attention to your earlier career in a different field.

It is important to focus on what you can offer in your new career area and the best way to do this in most cases is by highlighting skills and experiences which are relevant. You might have developed skills during your time as a student or in your first job or holiday jobs and not used them afterwards. However, they may come in useful in your new career and so need to stand out.

 Include Transferable Skills in Your Career Change Resume

These skills may not have been gained in your job, but can be very useful in your new career and so should be prominent in your career change resume or CV.  So make sure you look at every part of your life when assessing your skills – include voluntary work, sports, committees, participation in your local community, hobbies and family life.

You can buy 9 Steps to Resume and CV Success for only $17 – make sure your career change resume is on target to get you the right interview for the right job.

Jobs for School Leavers

Jobs for school leavers haven’t been the most popular option for young people in recent years, especially with so much pressure to go to college or university.

However, with graduate employment down and approximately 70 applicants for each job, degrees are looking less attractive. And of course, there is also the question of student debt, which is predicted to reach an average of £25,000 in the near future.

And university places are down too, with many young people missing out on a place this year.

So what is the situation with jobs for school leavers?

Apprenticeships are the main area in which school leaver vacancies can be found and these are now available in a huge range of subjects. So it’s not just the traditional apprenticeships such as plumbing, carpentry or hairdressing that are open to today’s school leavers.

But what exactly is an Apprenticeship?

Apprenticeships are really jobs for school leavers which include training. They allow young people between the ages of 16 and 24 to learn a trade while being paid a wage. So they consist of a combination of work with a company and training, usually for NVQ qualifications in a further education college. The amount an apprentice is paid varies from between about £95 – over £200 per week and the average is £170. So that makes this option a lot more inviting than 3 or 4 years chalking up debt!

Some apprenticeships will have to pay their own college fees, but they are earning money and as with most jobs for school leavers, won’t necessarily expect this to be high to start with. At least it is better than accumulating a load of student debt,with no guaranteed job at the end of a university course.

Depending on the subject and level, apprenticeships last between one and three years

There are approximately 180 different apprenticeships in 80 different industries . so there is plenty to choose from. Some of the more recent additions to the list of areas in which apprentices can receive training are Creative and Digital Media, Information and Library Services and Design.

Things to Consider When Looking for Jobs for School leavers

If you aren’t able to take up an apprenticeship, you can think about going straight into the workplace. Progressive employers,who understand that learning on the job can be more valuable than a degree, will be offering jobs for school leavers.

When applying for a job, you want to consider your own interests and your long term goals. These days it is much more common to change jobs and even careers several times over the course of your working life. So you don’t have to worry about committing yourself to a career path for the rest of your life.

However, before taking a job, make sure that you will gain the sort of experience and training that you will need for your long term goals. So be sure you will be able to improve skills in computing, communication and team work, as well as any specialist skills related to the industry or career.

Entry level jobs for school leavers should help prepare you to take the next step in your career, whether in the same company or elsewhere.

It’s been a while since I posted and there have been several reasons. First of all, I managed to hurt my arm quite badly before Christmas – getting a bit too impatient with the weights that has slowed me down quite a bit. I’m finally seeing a bit of an improvement after some Feldenkreis treatment.

Work is continuing on the software project – my video editing skills are not the greatest, and of course, I need to make lots of videos to show what the software is capable of. But I’m getting there and should soon be ready to send out some test copies. If you are interested, keep an eye on the blog. Now for the Something New . . .

I’m a big fan of portfolio careers, when you have several “jobs” at the same time and so I’ve added a new potential source of income to my own portfolio. I’m co-authoring a book with Veronica Torres, a friend in the US. The title is The Choice for Consciousness and no sooner had we decided to work together, than I received an email from Neale Donald Walsch (not a personal email, I’m on his mailing list ) announcing The Next Top Spiritual Author Competition.

We have entered and now we have to drum up votes! 2500 people have entered. Only 250 will progress to the next round and that will be determined mainly by the number of votes we receive. Apparently this is to teach us about the publishing industry (all you aspiring authors take note). It’s not enough to write a great book, you have to get out there and promote the hell out of it.

We’ve even been encouraged to offer incentives to voters. So, we are offering a free recording to everyone:
sign up here: Free Recording

And we will be having several draws – prizes will include a month’s free recordings and since I’m asking my readers to participate, a copy of my Jobseekers’ Success Kit.

So, check out our video pitch and cast your vote here:
Vote for Veronica and Waller!!

Important We don’t have access to the voting details and so the only way we will know if you have voted and are eligible for the draws is if you let us know! Click here Enter the draw and send a quick message “I’ve voted ” is enough!

Vote First then Enter the draw

I have finally completed the software and am now working on the videos and user manual. Once those are ready, I’ll be looking for a few people to test the software.

Trying to create something which is automated, yet allows you to create targeted resumes and CVs, was quite a challenge, but I’m pleased with the results.  You will also be able to create cover letters.

There are quite a few additional features too.

If you’d like a sneak peek, here is the first instructional video

http://www.coolercareers.com/VideoOne/VideoOne.html

I’ve just created a new page on my website, which has a selection of videos related to careers.

So if you’d rather watch videos than read articles or blog posts,  you can check them out here:

http://www.coolercareers.com/career-videos.php

If you want to add video marketing to your traffic generation techniques or want to find out how to change articles into videos quickly

check out Article Video Robot. You’ll also be able to create your own video page.

It’s surprising what a bit of snow can do to the economy, especially here in the UK, where we aren’t prepared for it!
Thousands of schools are closed, meaning that many students may not be able to sit their exams.

But kids being at home also means parents can’t get to work.

And of course, many people can’t get to work because of the state of the roads.

And people aren’t shopping, except for essentials. It’s been good for local shops, but not so good for the big supermarkets and even worse for the department stores. Some small businesses are also losing out as deliveries can’t be made.

As with most factors which are outside our control, the bad weather has very positive results for some people and spells disaster for others. So can you weather-proof your career?

One solution for many office workers is to work from home – if they have the technology. since most people have computers these days, this is a definite possibility for many.

The effects are likely to be temporary and despite claims that the snow is costing the economy millions of pounds, most people and most companies will bounce back.

But wouldn’t it be nice not to have to rely on the weather to get paid?

Job security is hard to find because of the economic climate, never mind the weather and so for more and more people, developing a portfolio career – that is one which gives you several streams of income – is becoming an enticing possibility.

Find out more about portfolio careers.

After more technical difficulties – I’m finally getting on with creating the CV and resume writing software.

I mentioned more nightmares and here they come! I decided to upgrade this blog to the latest version of WordPress.

Last time I attempted that, I got into a terrible mess and had to get help. This time I managed to do it alone and was feeling extremely pleased with myself. But the reason for updating was to use new plugins and they simply wouldn’t work.  That seemed to be related to the theme and so I updated that.

The result? My blog vanished from the face of the internet! I was left with a blank page.

Fortunately I was able to work out what had gone wrong and retrace my steps.

But I’m very happy to see that Chris Farrell’s site, of which I’m a member, now has a WordPress Section, where Jeff the Webguy is teaching us how to use WordPress properly.

So, I can finally get back to work on the CV and resume writing software to go with my CV and Resume E-book and videos. (There will be a free uprade to existing customers and anyone who buys before it is released) It is quite complicated since I want to include several templates, to give people some choice.  So it is keeping me busy

I haven’t posted for a while due to a series of technological nightmares!

First of all, getting new anti-virus software installed on my computer was fun (at first) Having the software installed remotely was like an electronic game of pin the tail on the donkey. Unfortunately they missed the donkey’s rear end and got its jugular vein.

The computer froze and crashed. After4 attempts at installation, it crashed every 5 minutes. The company were supposed to phone me, but never did. Luckily, I managed to stay calm  – “Isn’t it interesting that this software which is supposed to protect my computer has totally screwed it up??

I decided , between crashes,to uninstall some old programmes which I no longer use.

Miraculously, after several programmes had bitten the dust, the anti-virus software suddenly started to work.

A couple of days later, my monitor started to flicker and shortly afterwards died.  Attempts at resucitation failed this time.

So it was off to Tottenham Court Road and a journey back on one of the bendy buses Boris is so keen to get rid of, clutching a huge box with no handles in a carrier bag, which is just too small and has handles which aren’t strong enough to carry the box.  With the ability to produce such amazing technology, you’d think they could create packaging you can actually carry.

More nightmares tomorrow and if you don’t live in London ( and think I am completely mad),  you can Google “Boris bendy buses” and see for yourself.