Reinvent Your Career In Five Simple Steps

The phrase "reinventing yourself" seems to be popping up all over lately. Just a few days ago a friend asked me how he could do it without starting completely over. His concern was, "How do I move in a new career direction without sacrificing all the skills and experience I've worked so hard to achieve?" The underlying question is, "Is this even possible?"

Yes, it is possible to start fresh without starting over! Here's how:

1.) Take inventory of the skills, experience, credentials and achievements you've built into your career to date. Know your strengths and weaknesses, your assets and your liabilities. Recognize your transferable skills and how to market them. Describe the breath and depth of your work experience. Understand the value of your credentials. Match power verbs, specific nouns and quantifiable descriptors to your achievements and practice telling stories about them.

2.) Clarify your values. Dig deeply enough into yourself to know which values are yours and which are your parents', mentors', employers', culture's, society's or faith community's. Claim yours and release theirs. Look again at any value regarding money or security: What you think is a value may not be a value at all, but a mask covering a cluster of values. For example, "money", "benefits" and "security" often mask values such as lifestyle, adventure, independence and safety, so record these values as the latter, not the former, if you hope to actually live them.

3.) Identify the talents, gifts and passions that drive you. Be honest and real with yourself and if necessary, seek the objective opinions of others. Claim what is truly yours then describe it in who-what-when-where-why-how detail and practice condensing your description into a 60-second story. Note how related talents and gifts seem to cluster around passion themes. This is not coincidence, but a sign pointing the way to your life's purpose.

4.) Use all the data you've collected about yourself in Steps 1,2 and 3 to brainstorm a list of jobs, careers, employers and industries that match and make positive use of your skills, experience, credentials, achievements, values, talents, gifts and passions. Use career professionals and reference materials such as the Dictionary of Occupational Titles and the Occupational Outlook Handbook to assist you. Shorten, refine, categorize and prioritize your list.

5.) Develop a stellar self-marketing package to match each cluster of jobs, careers, employers and industries you want to market yourself into. Create multiple versions of your resume and cover letter to cover a series of related titles, career paths or industries. Use the key words associated with each profession. Distribute your resume and cover letter package to employers strategically via ads, online postings sites, networking, recruiters and targeted mailings.

It really is this simple! Yes, these steps are dense with all kinds of "to do's", but if you do everything suggested, you will get to where you want to be. The worst mistake you can make in career reinvention is to believe it you can't do it. Aren't you worth that hope?

Cheryl Lynch Simpson is a Spiritual Director and Solutions Coach who helps women discover and create the life they've always wanted to live. Cheryl is the author of over 30 print/Internet articles and the founder of Coaching Solutions For Women, a coaching website that produces and showcases career, business, and life solutions that improve the life balance of today's busy women. For a complimentary copy of her latest e-book, Ten-Minute Stress Zappers for Women Service Business Owners, visit http://www.coachingsolutionsforwomen.com.

In The News:


pen paper and inkwell


cat break through


Writing a Must-Read Cover Letter

If you want to land an interview, you'll need more... Read More

Change Your Career, Change Your Life!

Lots of times I see and talk to people who... Read More

How To Find A Job Writing Grant Applications

Do you have what it takes to land a job... Read More

Do You Have What it Takes to be a Successful Petite Model?

Want to break into the petite modeling industry but wondering... Read More

How to Manage Your Career Like a Business

Look upon yourself as a company with a product or... Read More

Serious Business Networking

As they always say "It's not what you know, it's... Read More

Doing What You Love

What do you want to be when you grow up?... Read More

Job Hunting Tips: Organizing Your Attack

Looking for work is an energy-devouring ordeal, often leading to... Read More

How I Joined the Outsourcing Revolution

Mention "outsourcing" to a programmer and you may as well... Read More

Working From Home - Could You Cope?

It is a well-known fact that more and more people... Read More

Growing Up On A Delaware Farm

Growing up on a Delaware farm was a wonderful and... Read More

Planning To Work Abroad

Working abroad can be an exciting, rewarding and horizon broadening... Read More

What Makes Americans Hate Their Jobs? This Advice Turns That Epidemic Around

Here are the sobering facts: studies show that almost 70%... Read More

How to Get Paid More Without Being Pretty or Good Looking

Guess what. The results are out they are ugly. Pretty... Read More

7 Secrets of a Highly-Effective Resume Cover Letter

Just like the late, great Rodney Dangerfield, the "humble" cover... Read More

Career Searching: A Vision Without A Plan is a Hallucination

Success is not always something you necessarily find when you... Read More

How to Pick the Best Career for You: Part 3

Marketing-with-Intent precisely drives you to your target and with greater... Read More

80,000 Americans Work in the Oil Change Industry

There is a huge shortage, which effects franchises costs in... Read More

How To Find A Job As A Copy Editor

Jobs for copy editors may seem like they are hard... Read More

3 Resume Secrets the Pros Use

You don't write a resume every day. Not even every... Read More

After Your Interview - What Must You Do Next?

Other than actually landing the interview itself and living through... Read More

Troubleshooting Your Job Search

OK. You've posted your resume online. You've sent out a... Read More

Dont Get Caught In The Security Trap

The day you begin to think of your job in... Read More

3 Secrets to Landing a Home-Based Position

Landing a telecommute position isn't easy. Finding them in the... Read More

Are You Bored By What You Do?

Is your working life in the doldrums? Do you feel... Read More

Loving What You Do

Man is a social animal and survival is his major... Read More

Creating a Feng Shui Power Office: 6 Easy Tips to More Successful Surroundings

More and more people are looking to gain an edge... Read More

Tips For Surviving As A Corporate Refugee

In her book "Are You A Corporate Refugee", Ruth Luban... Read More

How To Find Writing Work

Are you looking for new writing work? It can be... Read More

Job Interviews & the Magic of Music

Can music help you with your next job interview? It... Read More

How to Prepare for A Performance Appraisal

Performance appraisal should be treated as an ongoing developmental process... Read More

Interview Preparation

The dreaded job interview is the Number 1 source of... Read More

Look in the Mirror

Take a moment to step outside yourself. Now, be honest... Read More