As a professional you have been working for several years and may be thinking about your next move. You are more than likely asking yourself some questions.

READY FOR CHANGE
After working for several years 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.

Now take a moment to imagine how it would be if you could wake up each morning energized and excited about going to work. From being a working professional you probably now realize that you will spend more time of your life working than doing anything else. Since you have been working several years 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 career choice process by reading the following sections below:

•	Self Assessment
•	Career Choice

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.

•	The Job Search

SELLING YOURSELF TO EMPLOYERS
You have put in the time, energy and hard work to get to where you are as a professional. 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 apply 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 win you 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:

•	Resumes & Cover Letters - Writing Interview Winning Self Marketing Materials
•	Interview Preparation

CAREER EDUCATION & TRAINING
As you continue to advance it is important to understand that you need to constantly gain additional education, skills, training, and professional development throughout your career in order to advance and earn more. 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.

•	Career Education & Training

ADVANCING & MANAGING YOUR CAREER
Career success in your professional life does 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 professional 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

Learn about how to manage your career by reading the section below.

•	Manage Your Career

ENTREPRENEURSHIP
After working for several years, developing a level of expertise and becoming a true professional in your 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.

•	Entrepreneurship