Career Builders

Concentrate on the Career Builders

Planning is the key to building a career that you will enjoy and in which you will prosper. You need to think through whether the career you choose meets your specific needs and matches your skills. Then, once you have honed in on the right career choice, you can continue your planning and implement your career decision.

There are five basic steps which can be viewed as career builders, whether you are just entering the workforce or if you are mid-career:

• Career planning
• Job skill training
• Resume writing
• Networking
• Interviewing

Step One: Career Planning

Some people select a career like they are throwing darts at a dart board. Wherever they (or the dart!) land, that ends up being their career. They may or may not have the best personality or skills for the job, but they throw themselves into the day-to-day challenges to make their career choice a success. This works for some people. But for most this can lead to job dissatisfaction, burnout and often, job failure.

Career testing is an excellent way to evaluate a potential career choice. The results will not guarantee that you will love or excel in a specific career, but they can certainly tell you if you have a good chance for success. A wide variety of types of tests are available. Many of them are online and some are available at no cost. Testing can be a major building block in your success, whether you are starting a new career, evaluating your current profession, or are considering a career change.

Once you have focused yourself into one career choice, it is important to think through the possible career paths that could result from your choice. If you know the possible directions that your career could take, you will be better prepared to consider them when the time is right. Knowing your potential career paths, could help you identify the importance of taking an opportunity presented to you for learning a new job skill or taking on a new responsibility. Without understanding the options in your career path, you might turn down opportunities that you could regret later.

Step Two: Job Skill Training

Be sure you have all the job skills required for your career. This could include the technical skills necessary to do the job such as how to fix a specific problem on a car, how to develop a lesson plan for a classroom, or how to use specific software. You should also be sure that you have the non-technical skills that are required for your career such as managing people, problem solving, setting goals and establishing priorities. Non-technical skills are just as important as technical skills in your ability to thrive in your career.

The articles here at LoveToKnow Jobs are an excellent resource for career information. Talking with successful people in your career can also give you tips on the types of job skills that are necessary both to start a specific career and to remain successful in that career.

Skill training is widely available both in your community and online. Your local librarian, college placement department and online searches can all provide you with contact information for the available training courses.

Step Three: Resume Writing

Your resume is your tool for advertising your career skills and experience. Be sure that it accurately reflects your current abilities. Keep it updated, even if you are not actively job hunting. You never know when a new opportunity might come along that might require you to provide your resume. Tips on resume writing are available here at LoveToKnow Jobs, from many other online sources, at the library and through many local community sources.

Step Four: Networking

You never know when you will need to receive, or be asked to provide, advice and ideas about your career area. Develop a list of people you can contact if you have questions, need ideas or want feedback. They may be people you know socially or they could be people that you only met once. The key is to have people with whom you can share, or "network" information. Networking can point you in the right direction for career ideas, training needs and job opportunities. Be sure to stay in touch with the people in your network -- don't wait to contact them just when you need help.

Step Five: Interviewing

A career is a series of job steps, each step probably requiring some type of an interview. You don't have to change employers to be put in an interview situation. Even job changes with the same company may require some form of an interview, even if it is a chat over a cup of coffee. This need for a successful interview makes interviewing skills one of the key career builders.

Whatever the formality of the interview, be sure you have done the planning and practice needed to present yourself and your skills in their best light. Don't forget the basics of dressing appropriately, asking thoughtful questions of the interviewer and expressing your thanks for the interview.

Helpful Resources

There are many resources available for use as career builders. A Google search can uncover hundreds of websites with helpful information on every aspect of career-building. The more specific you are in your search, the more focused the results will be in providing you with the information you need. Here are a few sites that do a particularly good job at covering the key aspects to career building:

• Ask the Jobs Expert – Ask our LoveToKnow Jobs expert for tips on your particular career challenges.
• Monster.com – Tips on resume writing and image development, links to resources for career education and career testing and a job search engine.
• careerbuilder.com – Job search tools, free resume critique and career test, links to career-building resources and a job search engine.
• AARP – Helpful ideas for the over-50 worker who is considering a career change.