Starting a career or making a career transition can be both scary and challenging.  While many people have approached me for career profiling and coaching, one of the more interesting things I’ve heard is this: “Alex, the reason I’m approaching you for help is because I recently got terminated after my probation for my new role, and I’m actually very happy about it but I don’t understand why!” This is an indication that greater clarity would help this person to work towards a more suitable role.

Some of us are familiar with the term “mid-life crisis”, which usually occurs around the age of 45, when people start to re-evaluate the value of what they are doing, and align it with what’s important to them.  During such a time, they may decide to make a career transition into something more aligned with their self-identity.

Even if you are not currently experiencing a mid-life crisis, here are some things to consider for selecting a career or making a transition.

Things to Consider for a Career Transition

I recently came across a New York Times article,which profiled several people’s experiences in making a career switch. Here are some tips on Career Transition that I extracted from the article:

Skills, Skills, Skills

• Assess job opportunities
• Match your skills with desired skill-sets of the opportunities
• Obtain training to help speed the process
• Lean on hard-won skills that you already have

Clarity

• “Start with a clear-eyed analysis,” said Dorie Clark, author of Reinventing You. “Include what you’re good at, care about, and can make money in.”

Networking

• Use every available resource — including social media like Twitter and LinkedIn — to signal your technology expertise to hiring managers.
• Attend or organise meet-up sessions – in-person connections are extremely valuable.

Alignment

• Look for alignment in your career – you will feel complete and when you are on the right path, obstacles (seem to) disappear.

Some Helpful Resources For Career Transition

Skill Building Resources

Singaporeans can tap on government funding to learn new skills.  In addition to that, many Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) provide you with a way to upgrade yourself.

• SkillsFuture Funded Courses – SkillsFuture is a national movement to provide Singaporeans with the opportunities to develop their fullest potential throughout life, regardless of their starting points. Through this movement, the skills, passions, and contributions of every individual will drive Singapore’s next phase of development towards an advanced economy and inclusive society.
• Udemy – Udemy is a global marketplace for learning and teaching online where students are mastering new skills and achieving their goals by learning from an extensive library of over 45,000 courses taught by expert instructors.
• Coursera – Coursera provides universal access to the world’s best education, partnering with top universities and organizations to offer courses online.

Networking Resources

• Meetup – Meetup brings people together in thousands of cities to do more of what they want to do in life. It is organized around one simple idea: when we get together and do the things that matter to us, we’re at our best. And that’s what Meetup does. It brings people together to do, explore, teach and learn the things that help them come alive.
• EventBrite – EventBrite’s mission is to bring the world together through live experiences. They provide the platform to allow anyone to create, share, find and attend new events that fuel their passion and enrich their life.

Gaining Clarity

• Career Clarity Program – Using the highly recognized Strong Interest Inventory, the Career Clarity Program helps you to gain clarity and take tangible next steps towards crafting your dream career.
• Clifton StrengthsFinder 2.0 – Developed with over 40 years of research by Gallup Organisation, the Clifton StrengthsFinder helps you to identify what you naturally do well.  While the Clifton StrengthsFinder isn’t a career profiling tool, research shows that people who engage in their strengths zone are six times more engaged in their jobs.  Won’t that be something useful for you?