In the final article in this series I will outline another two methods of finding career direction.

So far we have looked at recalling childhood dreams and career hopes, and also examined some online career self assessment tests, as well as creating a “skills inventory”, a list of all our talents and abilities.

Now it is time to do some reading.

This part of the exercise may take a little longer to complete than the steps covered so far, but then again this is not a process that you want to rush. Making a decision too quickly could prove costly if it turns out to be the wrong one.

I have known of people who have raced out to sign up for expensive (and worse still, “pay upfront”) courses, only to find part way into it, that they have no interest, whatsoever, in what they are studying.

So it is far better to take your time, ask many and varying questions, and if at the end of that process the answers are all the same, then you can be far more reassured when it comes to working out a career change strategy.

There are two books that are not only favourites of mine, but also millions of other career changers worldwide.

In fact I knew of one, “What Color Is Your Parachute?” (written by Richard N Bolles) by name, from hearing people refer to it in conversation, before I even knew what it was about. Recreational parachute jumping perhaps?

Well not quite. The title not only refers to taking chances and risks, as you would if you were making a parachute jump, but also to building up the confidence necessary to make such a “jump”, or in this case, career change.

The second title, “Do What You Are” (written by Paul D Tieger and Barbara Barron-Tieger), identifies ideal careers and jobs that correlate to your Myers-Briggs personality type, in a similar vein to the Career Personality Test I wrote about in part 2 of this series.

By the way, it is not my intention to review these books at this stage (though I will be in the future), but rather introduce them and suggest reading them as part of your research.

Both these books differ markedly in their approaches, and it is for this reason that I recommend you read both.

And while both offer far more than just methods of discovering an ideal career, if after reading both books, and working through the exercises and evaluations they include, and they both give you the same answer, then you can be certain you have identified a career direction worth pursuing more seriously.

Once you have completed this step (and, as I say, it will take some time), you can then review where you are. Are there some clear career options in view now? Do the outcomes of your testing, and reading, exercises back each other up?

How do these results compare with the career thoughts you had while growing up?

At this point though you may find some variation, or difference, with the outcome of your more recent research. As a youngster you may have dreamed of being a reporter, but after doing some reading and competency tests, now find a career in web design appeals to you.

And this is fine. What we want does change overtime. For example, there would be people who grew up wanting to be reporters, who went on to become reporters, and after fulfilling careers as reporters, decided they wanted to try something else.

And likewise, your preferences may have changed over time. Remember, referring back to, or recalling childhood career ambitions, was just one suggestion for finding career direction.

Now that you have found a potential new career, it is time to speak to other people about it. Begin by sounding out family and friends. Ask them if they think you would make a good web designer, coffee shop owner, or whatever you have identified.

This partially relates to a point I made in The Road Map article, where I said an important part of the career change process was having the backing and support of those close to you.

But there is another way friends and family can play a part. They know you, and how you tick. And they usually have no quibbles offering quite direct (and blunt!) observations or feedback on your ideas. In short, if they like it, chances are it’s a good idea!

So at the end of this period of self assessment you should have narrowed down at least one or two definite career options. You should also be confident in yourself of these outcomes, as a result of cross checking and testing, and also have some affirmation from friends and family as well.

You can now start looking at the skills requirements of your intended new career, and equipped with your skills inventory, ascertain what transferable skills you have, and then work out what effort is required to make the career transition.

Here’s a short summary of the steps involved in finding career direction:

• 1: Think back to your career ambitions when growing up. What careers or jobs excited you as a child? As I said, not all of these dreams or hopes are naive or overly fantastic, and in some cases “life may have got in the way” of these ambitions, or they were clouded over by the doubts of ourselves and others.
• 2: Embark on some self discovery. Take some online career aptitude tests.
• 3: Read! There are some very good books (see above) that illustrate methods of discovering career direction.
• 4: Seek reaffirmation and feedback. Speak to people who know you well. Sound out their opinions of the ideas you have. Do others think your choice is a good idea?

Last week I wrote about a conversation I had with a former colleague some years ago.

To recap, he had been working for almost 30 years but could not find a job, or career, he enjoyed. His words still echo in my mind, “I have no idea what I want to do.” In the first part of this article, we discussed turning to, and recalling our childhood dreams, in the search for career direction and inspiration.

And we probably all know several people who went on to become what they dreamed of being as children, such as accountants, architects, real estate agents, dentists, writers, or lawyers, to name but a few ambitions.

But what about those of us who did not have such clear ideas about what we wanted to do? What about those of us who, despite giving the matter considerable thought, still cannot find any career inspiration or direction?

We were not quite as lucky as our school mates who, at what seems like age 11, knew where they were going. But the only difference between us and them, is that we are the people who have to do a little work, or research, to find a career that, in the words of Gilligan to the Skipper, “floats our boat”.

Let’s make a start. The first step is to compile, or list, your existing skills and qualifications. Whether you put these on paper or a spreadsheet, make sure that you have them recorded somewhere. This list, or skills inventory, will also be useful in determining your transferable skills, that is, talents and abilities that can be “reused” in other career fields.

A good example of a skills inventory can be found at the Online Writing Lab, and you can print out the list they have compiled, and simply mark or highlight whatever skills of yours appear on their list. Be sure to also add your own ideas.

As I’ve said before, knowing exactly what skills you already have will make the process of working out what you need to acquire a whole lot simpler. Once you have completed your skills inventory, put it aside for later reference.

Now it is time to embark on a little self discovery. Personally this was the part of the career change process I enjoyed the most, because while I was learning a little bit about myself, I was also having some fun.

Online career aptitude and competency tests are a relatively quick, and inexpensive, method of garnering information about yourself while also discovering some career direction possibilities.

While there are number of organizations providing online tests of this nature (one or two are listed in these posts), I have always found the tests offered by Tickle (formerly known as Emode) to be comprehensive and informative.

These are not tests of the “five question instant result” variety, and in fact you will need to allow 20 to 30 minutes to work through individual tests. I have listed four that I have found to be the most helpful, and while more are available, given that almost two hours is required to complete these four, I won’t suggest any more right now!

Career Personality Test is based on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator which analyses aspects of your personality and then suggests careers best suited to your Myers-Briggs personality type.

Career Interest Inventory tests your interest in 12 different career areas and determines where your work related preferences lie. It provides a number of career options that suit your interests, plus also a list of more “off beat” possibilities that remain in keeping with your core career interests.

Right Job/Wrong Job examines some of your competencies and assesses your primary and secondary career personality types (unrelated, by the way, to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test).

The results suggest a job that is right for you, with reasoning why, and to offer contrast, a job that is wrong for you, and why. I found studying the comparisons between the two quite revealing. It also offers salary expectations, although these may only be of relevance in the US.

What’s Your True Talent? This test is a little more testing as it assesses your skills in five primary areas being, abstract reasoning, verbal ability, numerical ability, spatial ability, and mechanical ability. Again, career and job options that match your strongest ability or talent are provided.

By the time you have completed these four test you will certainly have two or three definite career possibilities that you can begin to further investigate.

There are a few points to bear in mind while taking tests of this nature though. The first, and perhaps most important, is the need to be completely honest with yourself. Remember no-one needs to see, or even know that you took these tests, so be completely open, completely yourself, when answering the questions.

Also, approach these tests with an impartial attitude. Answer questions as things are, not as you would like them to be. You may despise your current job or career with a loathing, but don’t answer the questions with any sort of bias.

For example, if you are an accountant and you are asked whether you enjoy a particular part of that work, answer honestly. Don’t adopt the mind-set that because you can’t stand accounting period, you therefore hate every last aspect of the work involved, and are determined your answers will reflect that attitude also! This will only skew the results in a wrong direction.

Another tip is to print out your test results and reports. Although a service like Tickle/Emode keeps the results archived permanently on your account which you can always access, having a paper version you can sit down and study, and also refer to at anytime, is very handy.

These tests not only suggest career options, and also some alternatives, they also offer a plan of action so that you can get the ball rolling, should you find something of interest.

Finally, you will be required to set up an account, which includes supplying an email address, and while basic test results are free, to receive the detailed reports you will need to pay a small cost.

At the time of writing this was about US$10 (ten) per report, but usually when you buy one report, you are granted full access for a week to all Tickle/Emode tests, so what you can do is buy one report, and then take as many others as you want, free, over the next seven days.

Tomorrow I will look at a few more methods of finding career direction, in the third part of this series.

What do you want to do as a career? It may surprise you to know people who have been working for decades cannot answer this question. But sometimes we’ve known all along what we want, it’s just that ambitions we had from an early age have become clouded over and forgotten.

I was leaving work one evening a few years ago, and was chatting with another colleague, who was likewise going home.

“Another day, another dollar?” I joked. He shook his head in despair, and wryly said that while he didn’t mind working for just a dollar, he would much rather have spent the day doing something more fulfilling.

“Oh? You don’t like being a sales analyst?” I enquired. He shook his head. “No, and nor the other dozen or so things I’ve done before this either.” He summed up his working life to date by saying, “I’ve done this, and I’ve done that, but I still don’t know what I really want to do!”

Although I could partially relate to his situation, his admission did surprise me. He would have been in his late forties, and while some people can take time to work out “what they want to do”, I’d have thought by his stage in his life he would have found a career that satisfied him.

I remember in my final years at high school being asked to give thought to what I’d like to do for a living when I left school. I could think of nothing. Even for my first few years in the working world, I was just “taking” jobs, thinking that I’d have a career epiphany sooner or later. And preferably sooner, if possible.

Whatever the case though, I thought I would find my desired career within “five or so years”, but certainly never be in the position of my former colleague, who was still trying to find his niche, almost 30 years after leaving school!

So how do we find that desired career? While some people seemingly know their career ambitions from the time they are “knee high to a grasshopper”, why are others struggling to find the merest hint of career direction decades later?

Ironically part of the answer could lie in those childhood dreams. When we are younger, we tend to be bolder in our thinking, and believe all manner of things are possible. It’s as we become older, and more cautious, that we start to discount our options and possibilities. We also tend to be more receptive to the comments, particularly the negative opinions, of those close to us.

How many times would you have someone say, “What? You want to be a… photographer? Well that’s a very hard field to get into, you’d be better off choosing something else!”

And so it goes. We hear disparaging thoughts like that, and begin to believe that we are wasting our time pursuing such “lofty” ambitions. Pretty soon we have narrowed the field down to a few “safe” career choices, and think we have made the “right” decision.

But what happened to those people, who as children, wanted to be entrepreneurs, photographers, film producers, journalists, or whatever it was they set their hearts on? And by the way, I’m not talking about the people who had the movie, and rock star ambitions, although one or two would have succeeded I’m sure!

I talking about the people who, at a young age, had a very clear, and shall we say, “down to earth”, career goal in their mind. Chances are they went on to do what they dreamed of. Why? Because they believed in their dream, and themselves, and were able to see passed the detracting comments of others. If they even listened to those comments in the first place!

So what was your dream growing up, and why are you not doing that now, today? For my part I knew I wanted to be a free agent of some sort, working in a field that was somehow creative. I used to read the Tintin books (don’t laugh, now!) as a boy, and thought Tintin, as a freelance reporter, had a pretty cool job, and lifestyle.

While Tintin embarked on all sorts of weird and wonderful adventures along the way, I realised early on, that aspect of his “career” may have been slightly far fetched, but being a freelance journalist, or writer, or content producer, wasn’t exactly that unrealistic an expectation.

That dream however just seemed to get lost somewhere for many years. Perhaps when I was younger, and spoke of this future possible career, I didn’t word myself carefully enough, and took too seriously the jibes that I was setting myself up for failure by trying to be the next Tintin! It was a comic book, not real life after all, how you base any career dreams on something like that?!

I wonder what my former colleague had dreamed of doing when he was a child? Despite declaring that he had “no idea” what he wanted to do, I’ll bet he did once. It’s just that he’s forgotten it, or let himself dismiss the thought long ago, after hearing a few ill-conceived and negative thoughts.

Of course not all childhood career dreams are achievable. And this can sometimes be due to reasons beyond an individual’s control. An old school friend for years had wanted to be a commercial pilot. Again, not an especially unrealistic ambition, but eye tests revealed he was colour blind, which at the time, was enough to rule that out as a career option.

And assuming a situation like that doesn’t apply to you, as a first step in finding yourself a new career direction, think back, and recall your childhood dreams and thoughts. And remember not all of these ambitions are necessarily naive or far fetched, and even at a young age, you may have known more about yourself than you thought!

As I say, regard this as only a first step, and see what options or ideas it produces. I know it won’t work for everyone, and in the second part of this article, next Monday, we will examine some more methods of identifying career direction.