Many people want to change their career path and find a career they’ll love, however they often see this as a daunting task, and put off their dream. It’s hardly surprising; we choose our career path in our teenage years before we truly understand ourselves; our unique personality, skills, passions and core-values.

This article outlines how to turn your dream of a new career into reality, by finding a role which combines your skills, passions and core-values, whilst allowing your personality to shine through. This can often seem a daunting task. So where do we start?

Identify your core skills / expertise

A career review involves looking back over your career and identifying your core skills and your main areas of expertise. Once you have identified these, it’s time to assess which of these skills you most enjoy using, which skills you least enjoy using, and which skills you would be happy to never use again. Many people find it difficult to recognise their own strengths, so it may be helpful to undertake this exercise with someone who can help you to recognise these. It is also a good idea to consider the things you are passionate about, the main things which motivate you and to consider your core values, so you can look for a role which incorporate these.

Consider your options

Once you’ve identified the skills which you enjoy using it’s time to think about the types of roles which use these skills. Some of these may be obvious, others may involve more research. This requires a good knowledge of other careers, so you may benefit from professional assistance with this step. If you wish to undertake this on your own, you will need to research different career paths. You could look at job advertisements on career sites or the National Careers Service.

Career Planning

Once you have decided on your desired career path, you can develop a career plan which sets out the steps you need to take to achieve this. Most people begin with a long term career goal and then break this down into short term career goals.

If your long term goal is to become a Technical Director, look at a job description to identify which skills and experience you need to develop. Then plan how you can develop this e.g. training courses, education, or increasing your experience by undertaking interim roles. List the steps, and identify the roles you will need to gain this experience.

You should now have an idea of the type of role you need to seek now, or be ready to complete the relevant training. As you start to apply for roles – focus on your long term goal and only apply for roles which will help you to progress towards this.

Do you need career advice or professional help in choosing a new career direction, identifying your transferable skills and developing a plan which will help you to achieve your goal? As a Career Coach, I provide individual coaching, either as a one-off session or as part of a career coaching package – please don’t hesitate to contact me.