Saturday, December 27, 2008

Career Opportunities|Evaluating Your Best Career Option.

In this article I'll be sharing thoughts on winding up in your best career opportunity. Not necessarily the career move that will earn the most money, but finding the career opportunities that are the best match all the way around. Without getting into all the career fields and career information that goes along with them, lets think about you. Or me.

Often times good is the worst enemy of the best and one could say settling has become common place in the unfulfilled work place. It is comical when I think about assessing career opportunities my freshman year in college. I remember going down a list of career fields looking for the one with the biggest figure in the right hand column. Sound familiar? You've probably figured by this point, that you haven't stumbled upon a list of the high powered careers for the next decade. For good reason, I've decided on a different approach.

I remember the career information I received and the the advice I heard from my advisers, parents, and peers. I also remember, distinctively, not having a plan or even an inkling really of what I wanted to do. To be honest, it seemed insane to me that an expectation as such, even existed. I mean come on, give me a break. That was many years ago and I'll continue with things I've learned since. Both career experience and reflection upon the ways careers were, are, and could be approached shape my view on best career opportunities today as well as the advice I give.

My first thought can work for a person looking for a new career or person who has yet to hold a job. I've learned that adjustment are easier with motion. Much like it is tough to steer a sailboat that is making no headway, changing careers is real bugger when your stuck dead in the water. We all have necessities we have to provide for and regardless of the means we go about that it can positively impact a future career. I know for myself, I received a lot of clues during different career opportunities about who I was and what I was uniquely gifted to do. Working from a place of core strength or "purpose" is an intelligent way to evaluate the best career options.

If, for example, you constantly see your role as helping others, you may think about a career opportunities that rewards that mindset or talent. I think people tend to find a way to express their core talents in which ever career they find themselves in, but I also think choosing a career opportunity that is uniquely matched for your core talents is best.

We can read about careers trends, economic forecasts, and get unsolicited career advice from just about any chap on the street, but their are some timeless ideas that bear mentioning and keeping in mind.

Choosing what you love to do or something you would do for free if you could is good advice. I know it isn't new but this seems like a tough proposition and one not taken up often enough. Why? Well as simple as it sounds, the logical mind and circumstances have a tendency to create a different popular path. What is logical is not always right. When thinking about choosing your first career opportunity, you'll probably notice that is was really someone Else's choice and not your own.

I know was true for me. Its comforting to choose a life path similar to parents, siblings or other role models and many of us do..

The problem with that is we are all unique and this career selection process leaves many people unfulfilled and holding the bag years later. The good thing is you can always change careers and many times without changing industries completely. This is where the idea having momentum rewards those who take their career and professional lives seriously. Human being hire other human beings and explaining how you changed careers to someone will almost always have a positive effect, especially when you can show diligence in the one you decided wasn't right for you.

Have some thoughts on changing careers, evaluating career opportunities, or an experience with forced career change?

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Career Change: Career Change Qoutes


Career Change: Change Quotes To Put Options In Perspective.

What we think determines what happens to us, so if we want to change our lives, we need to stretch our minds. Wayne Dyer


A leaf that is destined to grow large is full of grooves and wrinkles at the start. Now if one has no patience and wants it smooth offhand like a willow leaf, there is trouble ahead. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe


What changed in the United States with Hurricane Katrina was a feeling that we have entered a period of consequences. Al Gore


The Internet doesn't change everything. It doesn't change supply and demand. It doesn't magically allow you to build businesses by turning investors' money into operating expenses indefinitely. The money always runs out eventually.. the Internet doesn't change that, as we have seen. Andrew Grove

Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future. John F. Kennedy

I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause. I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views. Abraham Lincoln

We all are learning, modifying, or destroying ideas all the time. Rapid destruction of your ideas when the time is right is one of the most valuable qualities you can acquire. You must force yourself to consider arguments on the other side. Charlie Munger


The world is changing very fast. Big will not beat small anymore. It will be the fast beating the slow. Rupert Murdoch

It's the little things you do that can make a big difference. What are you attempting to accomplish? What little thing can you do today that will make you more effective? You are probably only one step away from greatness. Bob Proctor

Your income is a direct reward for the quality and quantity of the services you render to your world. Whatever field you are in, if you want to double your income, you simply have to double the quality and quantity of what you do for that income. Or you have to change activities and occupations so that what you are doing is worth twice as much. Brian Tracy

You are what you are and where you are because of what has gone into your mind. You can change what you are and where you are by changing what goes into your mind. Zig Ziglar


I did something that challenged the banking world. Conventional banks look for the rich; we look for the absolutely poor. All people are entrepreneurs, but many don't have the opportunity to find that out. Muhammad Yunus

Thursday, April 10, 2008

High Income career options: Changing Ideas and Methods.

Many people choose the career path they do when they are in collage based on one thing and it probably won't come as a big surprise. I remember going to the student servies building to "decide" what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I was 19 years old.

I was handed a four or five page career and salary guide of sorts. As I sat and looked at the writing I scanned to find the "biggest" numbers. I can't recall what careers were listed on that hand out and I don't remember the numbers. I remember feeling like I was finally looking at the menu of what life had to offer and I was not impressed.

I felt dupped in way. Kinda like going to a fancy resturant with a beautiful location and elegantly designed building, only to discover when you got inside they were only serving Hot Dogs. I can't recall what the conversation went like with my "advisor" but I left with two ideas, one of going into something to do with computers, and the other was finding something better.

I new there had to be other options and ther were. I choose to start a business when I was 21. Best decision I ever made. Sometimes we just need to do what we know we want to do. If you are wantint a high income career option and don't find one that appeals to you, Create One.

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Greg Mankiw's Blog: BPEA

Greg Mankiw's Blog: BPEA

Greg Mankiw's Blog: BPEA

Greg Mankiw's Blog: BPEA

Greg Mankiw's Blog: Who are the richest rich?

Greg Mankiw's Blog: Who are the richest rich?

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Best New Careers Of 2008

Looking at changing careers can be a daunting task. Many wait until it actually becomes a crisis. Which is really nothing more than not recieving a paycheck for a couple months at most usually. It's more than that thought. Its being exposed, unwrapped from the illusion of job based security you had grown into so well.

Change can be very difficult for us human beings. Removing the cloak of career comfort reveals that we have evolved it seems into something much closer to human doings. When we are lost without a place to exert our self it can be frustrating and down right depressing.

Some reading, may be shouting, "Whatever, I love it! I don't have to go to work, and you expect me to be depressed?" Whatever way you take a career change, forced or otherwise, is up to you. The idea that there are options today is comforting to most of us. Changing careers at first can seem like a complete upheaval, but it's really not.

You will still deal with people, contribute, learn, earn, maybe complain. You will meet new friends and probably retain some from your previous career many people even find themselves changing careers with friends. In 2008 many careers are just plain a different animal than they were a decade ago. Times are changing rapidly. Out sourcing, technology, and more streamlined business systems are making the possibility of a career change or complete overhaul much more likely.