If you are bored of your current profile and looking to make a career change, you can be anything but not reckless about it. Career change has to be a very carefully thought and conscious decision that cannot be taken in a haste. Whatever be your reason for changing the job, you have to make a very informed and well thought out decision. You have to consider a lot of factors and have to be very careful on each step. You would be investing a lot of time and probably money too in this decision, so take it wisely. A career change can make or mar your future so be vigilant about it.

While making a career change, here are a few steps you should consider. These are general help tips that can help you not stumble and make a wise and careful career decision. Following these, you can be sure that your career change is successful and lets you make that big leap. Also, since a career change always comes with its share of doubts and apprehensions, it is important to take each step carefully. You wouldn’t want to do anything in hurry now that will ruin your chances later and make you regret for life.

Firstly, give a careful thought to whether you really want this career change. You may have got bored of your current job and you may want to look for a new job, which is not easy either, but going for a career change is a different thing altogether. You have to be very sure that you want to go ahead with it. Chalk out what all you dislike about your current job. Are you completely disillusioned with it? What is it that motivates about the new career option? Can you do with a small break or career change is the only thing that you want. These questions are not to dissuade you but to make you all the more sure that your decision of a career switch is the right one.

Once you are sure that you want to go ahead, next thing is to evaluate what are your chances. That means, you have to assess your own skills, interests and personality and basis that decide what would be the best option for you. Many consultancy firms and career sites offer skill assessment tests. Once you have taken a skill assessment test, it will list your strengths and weaknesses and on the basis of that it will suggest the appropriate career options for you. You can even take the services of an experienced career counselor.

Next to that, you should carefully evaluate the list of career options available to you based on your skills. There would be many options in there and you should go about eliminating first, which means that just strike out whatever you feel you cannot do at all or do not wish to do. Post that, you will be left with narrower options that enthuse you. Once you are ready with a list of four to five options, you can start self-talk and figure out what are the most appealing options in there. If there are options that you have considered earlier too and are excited about, keep them as hot favorites. There may be some new options that you didn’t think about earlier but which sound exciting to you now. Once you have a final list ready, now is the time to explore each occupation on this list. Look in detail on the job descriptions given, educational requirements for that job, future scope in that career, and of course earnings.

On the basis of these criteria, you can narrow down your choices further. While you are conducting research, you will realize new avenues and get to know more about each career option. This way, you will have a clear idea what each career holds in store.

Now, with this research you are ready to pare down your list even further. Thus, if you think you cannot invest the required amount of time and energy to acquire an advanced educational qualification for a particular career, you can rule that option out. Or if you feel the compensation offered in a particular career is not good enough, you can strike that off too. Doing all this, you will be left with one or two options from which you have to choose. You can then go about talking to people in those careers and take their first hand experience report. With all this detailed information, you will be ready to make an informed decision regarding a career change and the chances of a blunder would reduce considerably.

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