10 Tips Before Changing Careers to Teaching

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• 10 Tips Before Changing Careers to Teaching
• You may call it a career transition or changing
  careers to teaching, career change to education,
  career move, or a job search.
• Are you bored while you are at work there is no
  challenge left?
• Are you tired all the time experiencing job
  burnout?
• Has your life changed in a major way maybe your
  kids are grown and money isnt the motivator?
• Do you want to make more money?
• Do you want to gain a broader base knowledge?
• Does the future look bleak in your current field
  or occupation?
• You cant stand your supervisor or boss any
  longer?
• Are your co-workers hostile or bullies?
• Does your position use too many of your
  weaknesses?
• Did you just have a brain-wave and discovered
  your calling?

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• 1. Evaluate Your Job Satisfaction
• When you are planning a career change, it
  is important to first evaluate your level of
  satisfaction in your current job. To do this,
  keep a daily journal to track your reactions
  regarding daily work-related situations, as well
  as to help you track the highs and the lows of
  your work life. This will give you some
  perspective on what aspects of your job you
  dislike. It will also, in turn, help you to
  decipher whether the issues you have are with the
  career field itself, or with your coworkers,
  department, or company culture. This will help
  you to make sure that it really is time for you
  to start looking for a new career, and not just
  that you are undergoing a certain rough patch
  that some much needed vacation time can fix.

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• Why Are You Making a Career Change?
• Making a life-changing decision can be a
  very daunting task. You want to make certain that
  switching career paths is in fact what you want
  before you go ahead and do it. Remember the
  education you had to acquire and the various
  skills you had to develop in order to obtain your
  current job? Choosing to now change careers will
  require the same effort. However, making a career
  change can definitely be worth it! So ask
  yourself this question, before you move forward.
  You need to make sure you are doing it for the
  right reasons.
• 3. Assess Your Skills, Core Values, Motivators,
  and Interests
• To effectively manage your career change,
  you will need to first evaluate your interests,
  core values, adaptability, work skills, and other
  related aspects by reviewing your successful
  roles in past jobs, projects, and activities.

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• You also have to identify the skills you
  developed or implemented recently in your current
  job and whether you enjoy these tasks or not. If
  you dont find satisfaction in many of the main
  skills and responsibilities you maintain in your
  current field, you know that you need to make a
  drastic change.
• 4. Identify Potential Career Alternatives
• You can evaluate other career alternatives
  by networking with people like your friends,
  colleagues, your family, or your counselor.
  Visiting ONET Online or a physical library (they
  still have these) for career information can also
  help you obtain valuable career advice and help
  you to discover viable options.

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• 5. Perform an Initial Comparative Assessment
• It is important for you to first conduct a
  comparative assessment on various careers based
  on your skills or proficiencies so you can
  identify several niche targets for more in depth
  research. You dont want to make the mistake of
  jumping into another career, only to find out it
  is also a poor fit. You need your new career
  direction to target your desires and match your
  values, motivators strengths, and ambitions.
• 6. Research, Research, and Research Some More
• You need to be absolutely positive as to
  why you want to change professions. Some people
  enter a different profession without
  understanding its unique challenges. Never enter
  a new profession thinking it will be easier than
  your last job. This will not be so. You might
  enjoy it more, but all professions are going to
  have difficulties and challenges.
• 
  

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• It will also help you to understand what
  type of skills and characteristics you will
  require in order to excel in the new position. In
  order for you to gain more information about
  possible careers, you need to read as much as you
  can and find out if you have contacts in your
  network of friends and colleagues who already
  work in these fields that can help you with your
  job search.
• 7. Evaluate Your Transferable Skills
• Do you possess the characteristics
  necessary to excel, such as patience,
  communication skills, organization, time
  management, problem solving, etc.? 

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• Do you have transferable skills from past
  jobs that would help you in this new position?
  How do you react in situations of turmoil? How
  fast do you learn new concepts? Can you figure
  out problems on your own? Do you work well in a
  team-oriented and/or independent work
  environment? Upon first glance, these questions
  may not seem relatable to your future or your
  present position, but if you dig deep and look at
  your current job responsibilities, you will find
  that you have many transferable skills, and are
  able to make them work in a new career.
• 8. Make a Realistic Plan
• A career change is not something that will
  happen overnight. It will take time, effort,
  sacrifices, and probably money in order to make
  it happen. You will need to put together a strict
  budget to ensure you will not run short of funds
  to make the transition. The end goal will
  definitely be worth the effort and risk (as long
  as youve done your research!), but you need to
  be realistic on your time line. For this reason,
  it is very beneficial to make a plan.

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• 9. Will You Need to Go Back to School Or Take
  Online Courses?
• Depending on the new profession you will be
  entering, oftentimes a career change means having
  to retrain. This could mean going to night
  classes, attending courses, or having to gain an
  additional degree, licenses, or certifications.
  Depending on what will be required, these will
  take time, money, and effort for you to
  accomplish. Therefore, this is a very necessary
  aspect of your career change that you need to
  consider. You need to be honest with yourself
  about whether you are willing to take four years
  to gain another degree.

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• 10. Are You Able to Be Flexible?
• Undergoing such a large life change like
  changing careers is going to require a lot of
  time and effort. In order to accomplish this, you
  are going to have to be flexible. For instance,
  are you willing to go back to school, take on an
  unpaid internship, or work multiple part-time
  jobs in order to gain experience and skills in
  your new profession? Are you willing to come in
  early, give up lunch hours, and/or stay after
  work to offer extra help to colleagues and learn
  your new duties? Will you strive to develop your
  own skills to ensure you are the best
  professional that you can be in this new role?
  These are questions that really need to be
  analyzed and answered before you commit yourself.

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• If you need help getting your LinkedIn
  profile put together or any other job search
  documents let Candace know via email at
  candoco_at_telus.net or call toll-free 877 738-8052
  (North America) or 780 513-0010.
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