Once you’ve defined your purpose by identifying your passions, strengths, and values, you want to find a career that aligns with that purpose. This will involve a little research and some potential reskilling to optimize your qualifications to land a job in that career.
Research to Identify Your Dream Career
After using the online tools mentioned in Defining Your Purpose, you should have some ideas of a few career areas. Look at careers that are highlighted in your O*Net Profiler results. The O*Net Interest Profiler Career Areas show the six career interest areas and typical careers that are aligned with them.
Downselect to 2-3 careers to explore in more detail. You want to make sure your chosen career meets four simple criteria: 1. You’ll enjoy the work; 2. It’s a good fit for you; 3. It provides reasonable compensation; 4. It fulfills a need.
You should research growth projections and forecasted pay for your candidate careers. Some online resources are available and include:
- The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has employment projections so you can review growth projections over the next ten years. This table also shows the entry-level education needed for each career.
- Indeed Salaries can help you see the salaries for your careers of interest.
Understand Needed Skills
Once you narrow down your chosen career and your target job, you should search job boards like Indeed and LinkedIn to understand the requirements, skills, and experience needed for this role.
You can also reach out to professionals at companies you’re interested in. I recommend using LinkedIn to identify individuals who are in your target job and work for companies you’re interested in. Message them to see if they’re open for a 10-15 call to discuss how they got into their role and what’s needed to succeed.
These informational interviews can give you insights into the skills and abilities needed in your target job and also give you an idea of what it’s like to work in that company.
Resources For Reskilling
If you find out that you lack some skills or experience for the target role, several online resources provide classes and certifications in various areas:
- Coursera is one of the most popular platforms for online learning. It offers courses and certificates from leading universities and companies in various fields, such as data science, business, health, computer science, and more.
- edX is another leading platform for online learning. It offers courses and certificates from top universities and organizations, such as Harvard, MIT, Microsoft, and more.
- Udemy is a platform that offers thousands of courses on various topics, such as web design, digital marketing, photography, and more. You can find many free courses on Udemy, or pay a fee to get a certificate of completion.
- Salesforce Trailhead is a program provided by Saleforce that offers free self-guided, web-based training. It provides classes, certifications, and support needed for successful tech careers and guarantees job interviews.
Gaining Needed Experience
If you need to bolster your experience for your target job, there are a few ways to gain experience that you can add to your resume.
If you currently work in a company that has jobs in your target role, you can ask your assigned manager if you can shadow someone in this role. Shadowing can last a few hours or days depending on how long an employer allows you to do so. This allows you to try out the role to see if it is a good fit for you.
Another way to obtain some direct work experience in your target role is through freelance opportunities. Freelancing can be helpful if you’re looking for creative opportunities where there is demand. Upwork and Fiverr are two freelance websites where you can post your freelance services and get experience.
You can also volunteer at a nonprofit organization to gain experience in your target role. I worked with a military veteran to help him gain more experience in project management by connecting him to a nonprofit that needed project management help.
Reskilling for a career change is not an easy task, but it can be rewarding and worthwhile. To reskill successfully, you need to research the skills and qualifications necessary for your desired career. Take advantage of online resources to get the skills and credentials needed. You’ll then be able to market these new skills in your LinkedIn profile, resume, and cover letter to help you land your dream job.