A New Career
by Diane
Conlinn
January 28, 2001
I am going to speak today on getting
a new job. Not only a new job, but a new career. I personally have just started
a new job, and have just obtained my first fulltime job in my new chosen profession,
and I've gotten $12K more a year than my last job. The wonderful thing about
this strategy is that it works whether you are a two income or one income
household. In either case, you can work to get a better job and more income.
After tracking my expenses for a few months and working on truly living within
my means, I discovered that I truly didn't make enough money to meet my needs.
My next problem was what to do next? I realized that in my current profession,
it was nearly impossible for me to make the kind of money I needed to make.
So, at the age of 40, I decided to change careers. The first thing I did was
read lots of books, and look at various personality sites to find out what
my type was and what jobs were better suited to my personality.
No point in getting a new job I didn't enjoy. I finally decided upon a job
in the computer field, and started looking through job banks at job descriptions,
and decided generally what type of knowledge I needed to meet the job requirements.
And I went searching for online courses, and actively pursue job-reimbursement
for education. So, eventually, I got the courses I needed, next I needed the
experience. I tried, right out of school to get a new job. No dice. They all
said I had an excellent resume for XXX, but XXX was the job I already had,
and knew that it wasn't right for me any more.
So, I started more searching on line and discovered that what I needed to
do was gain experience. So, I volunteered to non-profits, worked on friends
websites, and computer problems. Surfed the web, and wrote offering my services
to various companies. And found out about email lists that matched the area
I wanted to get into. Thus, I started to establish a new network of acquaintances.
About two years ago was when i started after the experience, and about a year
ago, I started getting paid a decent hourly wage for my work.
This involved a personal cost. I started putting in 20 to 40 hour work weeks
above and beyond my permanent job of 40 hours a week. There were weeks I was
dead tired. Days I wanted to throw in the towel. And I kept applying for jobs,
one right after another. I must have applied for 500 jobs. Then finally, someone
recommended a career counselor to me Patti Wilson of http://www.careercompany.com
and I paid for a couple sessions with her. She helped me repackage my resume,
and taught me how to interview for the types of jobs I wanted, and voila.
I was offered two jobs within two weeks.
Today, I have been happily at my new job for the past two weeks. I find that
it suits me perfectly, and I just love it. Not only that my abilities and
knowledge more than match the job.
And, now I finally make enough money to formulate a decent savings plan. So,
just as a suggestion, if you are having real difficulties meeting your needs,
perhaps a new job or career is in order.
I am not a lawyer, thus, if you have questions, about this please check with your attorney. Thanks.