You
have made it to a senior level at your organization
and in your career. You may be a director, partner,
vice president, CIO, COO, CFO or even President
or CEO. What is your next move? Now more than
ever the decisions you make in your career should
be based on fulfilling any career passions and
interests as well as planning for the future.
Some questions you may be asking yourself are:
| • |
Do
I still love what I do or am I ready for
a change? |
| • |
Do
I want to move up in my company, agency
or organization? |
| • |
Do
I want to make a move to another company,
agency or organization as a senior level
executive? |
| • |
Do
I want to change careers? |
| • |
Am
I ready to retire or change to a slower
pace opportunity? |
| • |
Do
I want to start my own business or find
a great business opportunity? |
READY
FOR CHANGE
After
working hard to achieve the level of an executive
you know the importance of having a job you
love. If you are currently working in a job
that you hate, are unsatisfied with or no longer
find challenging you know how stressful, draining
and unfulfilling it can be.
In fact research has often times shown that
having a job you hate causes high levels of
stress, is emotionally draining and can ultimately
cause health problems.
Since you have been working for 10, 15 or 20
years or more you understand that being in the
right career has a major impact upon your success
in your career, work and life. You may now realize
that it is time for a change in job, employer
or career in order to find the job/career you
love. The first step to finding the career/job
you love is to assess yourself. Self-assessment
is the process of evaluating yourself and determining
your interests, skills, values, strengths, weaknesses
and personality style and how they relate to
your career choice, development and success.
There
are a number of self assessments including the
Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), Strong Interest
Inventory (SII), Campbell Interest Inventory
(CII), Self Directed Search (SDS), FIRO-B, and
numerous other career/self assessments. Taking
these assessments or doing your own personal
search and assessment of your interests, skills,
values, strengths, weaknesses and personality
style will help you in choosing the right career/job
for you. Start learning more about the self
assessment and the career change process by
reading the following sections below:
THE
JOB SEARCH
Finding
a job and conducting an effective job search
can be a job itself. It involves more than just
getting online or going through a newspaper
and finding jobs to apply to. A job search should
be targeted, strategic and planned. Major job
search engines like Monster.com, Careerbuilder,
HotJobs and others may not list the type of
jobs you are interested in or targeting. Depending
on your career field of interest you may have
to go deeper to find the jobs you are truly
interested in. Also consider that many smaller
and mid size companies cannot afford or will
not post job on major job search engines. They
will post jobs on their company or organization
Internet site or on smaller more niche sites.
Conducting a random job search where you are
searching anywhere and everywhere for jobs will
not be effective, will not produce the best
results, and can be draining and time consuming.
Conducting an effective and targeted job search
involves four steps. Learn about how to conduct
a targeted, effective job search by reading
the section below.
SELLING
YOURSELF TO EMPLOYERS
You
have put in the time, energy and hard work to
get to where you are as a executive. You now
want to take your career to a higher level.
Once you find the
career you love and the job that matches you
the next step is to make sure you have the right
self-marketing tools to target positions of
interest and win interviews. Developing a quality,
powerful, persuasive targeted resume, cover
letter and other materials that shows your skills,
education, experience, qualifications, success
stories, achievements and your ability to produce
results will open doors and help you win interviews.
After
securing the interview you will need to be ready
to sell yourself to win the job. Being prepared
is the key to making the right impression and
proving you are the person for the job during
the interview. Learn about developing targeted
self-marketing materials that win interviews
and preparing for the interview in order to
win the job in the following sections:
CARER EDUCATION & TRAINING
Even at the executive
level training and education is still important.
If you decide you want to change careers you
may need to go to school again for other certifications
or another degreee. The question you might be
asking yourself is what programs should you
enroll in? With so many options from degree
programs, distance education, certifications
and continuing education programs you want to
make the right decision. By going to and reading
the section below you will learn how to find,
evaluate and select the right career education
and training program for you.
MANAGING
YOUR CAREER
As an executive you know
career success did not just happen. It comes
from developing a strategy, planning and being
ready when opportunities present themselves.
Getting the job is just the beginning. In order
to achieve success and continue to move upward
you need to make the right moves, connect with
the right people, gather the right information
and make the right decisions. This is called
"Managing Your Career" and doing it
effectively, correctly and successfully requires
work. As a entry level employee you will need
to effectively manage and deal with a number
of issues in order to succeed in your career,
work and life. They include:
| - |
Balancing Career, Work and Life Issues |
| - |
Seeking
Mentorship & Advice |
| - |
Compensation
& Benefits |
| - |
Promotions
& Raises |
| - |
Office Politics |
| - |
Employment
Rights & Legal Concerns |
| - |
Communicating
(Internally & Externally) |
| - |
Presentation
& Report Development |
| - |
Professional
& Skill Development |
| - |
Networking
& Relationship Building |
| - |
Diversity
Issues |
| - |
Crisis
Management |
| - |
Next
Career Moves |
| - |
Retirement |
Learn
about how to manage your career by reading the
section below.
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
After becoming an executive and developing a
level of expertise and status in yoru field
you may feel like it is time to venture out
on your own. You may want to continue doing
what you are doing but instead be your own boss
or you may want to start a business that is
all together different. No matter what all businesses
start from an idea. So now you have an idea
in your head and want to start a business. You
want to be an entrepreneur and make your idea,
your dream into a reality. You want to be your
own boss and make all the decisions.
Starting
and operating your own business can bring pride
and a sense of independence and achievement.
You will be the boss, and you can’t be
fired. If your business is successful, you will
feel pride in ownership and receive great satisfaction
from offering a product or service that is needed
and wanted in the marketplace. Owning your own
business can also bring failure, frustrations,
disappointments, stress and financial losses.
Learn
about how to start your own business by reading
the section below.
