Totaljobs.com > Career Advice > Career Doctor > How can I find a new career path?

How can I find a new career path?

Our Career Doctor, Sophie Relf, receives hundreds of emails every day about work and jobseeking issues. Here she advises on how to get a fresh start in your career.

Dear Career Doctor,

I've worked, with a great degree of success, in an IT services sales role since I left university nearly ten years' ago.

While this role more than pays the rent, I'm finding it increasingly unfulfilling and I fancy doing something quite different - perhaps taking my skills and experience to a role that is completely different, or a similar role in an alternative industry.

I understand what my strengths and weaknesses are and believe I could be reasonably successful in anything I wanted to turn my hand to. My challenge is that I'm unable to imagine other opportunities outside my own industry.

What are the most effective ways to take my list of skills and then arrive at some creative, no-holds-barred suggestions for what my perfect next role would be?

Regards,
G.

Dear G,

Moving between industries and roles is much more commonplace now that a few years ago when workers often stayed in the same company for most of their working life. The key thing to remember is that you will have no doubt picked up many transferable skills during your career that will be applicable for a number of job functions.

A great place to start is to take a look around totaljobs.com at the variety of job descriptions that are out there. Do your skills meet the requirements? If not, what would you need to do to make yourself more marketable?

Other than that, there are three main ways you can find a new career path:

Recruitment fairs
Possibly the best place to meet employers and other jobseekers who may be able to share their experiences. You'll be able to gain lots of information on companies and the different types of roles they have available. You can then go away and conduct more research of your own before putting in your applications.

Recruitment agencies
Find a recruitment agency that covers lots of industries rather one that specialises. They'll be able to let you know how the skills and experience you've gained can be used in a new role, and also advise you on the best way to adapt your CV to attract employers.

Networking
Over your career you'll no doubt have made many contacts in former colleagues, suppliers and customers. They're likely to already have a good idea of what you have to offer and could be able to advise on opportunities they know of that may match your needs.

Before you leap head-first into a new career, it may be worth looking at taking on a couple of short-term temporary roles till you find something you really enjoy doing. Temporary work gives you a great insight into what it might be like to work in a particular role or company and if you're in a job you enjoy, you may be able to turn it into a permanent position. This also means that if you're in a role you're not enjoying, it won?t be long till the finishing line!

Regards,
Sophie

 

If you have a question for Sophie, please email career.doctor@totaljobs.com or click here to see if your query has already been answered.

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