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#YourCareer : 5 Common Career Change Fears And How To Handle Them. Study Shows 26% Want to Change Careers Entirely. How about Yours?

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More than a quarter of Americans might make a career change in 2023, according to Globalization Partners’ 2022 Global Employee Survey. The survey revealed that while 33% of workers are likely to switch jobs within the same sector, 26% want to change careers entirely. In terms of why they want to make a switch, workers ranked better pay (34%), the opportunity to change their work schedule (34%) and professional opportunities that weren’t available when they were younger (34%) as the most common reasons.

Hating your current job might be costing you job offers

But it can be scary to make a career change. In fact, according to the Holmes-Rahe Life Stress Inventory, changing to a different line of work ranks just below the death of a close friend. Fortunately, there are ways to mitigate the anxiety so it doesn’t prevent you from moving forward. Here are some of the most common career change fears and how to handle them.

Fear of failure

One of the most widespread career change fears is the fear of failure. The fear of failure often originates from a fear of experiencing shame or embarrassment. We worry so much about feeling humiliated and disappointing others that we give up on attempting to achieve our dream. The problem with fear of failure is that it can be paralyzing, causing us to do nothing.

Here is an exercise to deal with the fear of failure:

Consider all the worst-case scenarios and write them down on paper. Be specific. Then in a second column, write down what you can do to minimize the likelihood of the worst-case item happening. In a third column, decide what action you would take to get back on track if the worst case did happen. Then in a fourth column, rate how likely the worst-case scenario is on a scale of one (not likely) to 10 (highly likely). This simple exercise will help you put fear into perspective and realize that the worst-case outcome is unlikely or manageable.

 

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What Skill Sets Do You have to be ‘Sharpened‘?

Did you know?  First Sun Consulting, Llc (FSC) is celebrating over 32 years in delivering corporate & individual outplacement services & programs to over 1200 corporate clients in the U.S., Canada, the UK, & Mexico!   Visit & contact us @ www.firstsun.com

We here at FSC want to thank each of our corporate partners for the opportunity to serve & moving each of their transitioning employee(s) rapidly toward employment!

 

Article continued …

Fear of what others may think

If you’re afraid of making a career change, fear of people’s opinions may hold you back. Perhaps your father encouraged you to pursue a “secure” job in finance, and now you feel you’d let him down by becoming a professional chef. In the end, you’re the one that’s going to live with the choices you make, not others. To deal with this concern, start by cultivating authenticity and developing a strong sense of self.

Ask yourself some important questions:

  • What do I care about?
  • What do I really want?
  • What activities do I enjoy?
  • What legacy do I want to leave behind?
  • What would I pursue if I wasn’t so worried about being judged

Then focus on your purpose and intentions. Why are you thinking about changing careers in the first place? Is it because you want to make a difference in the world? Do you want a better quality of life? If you can remember your “why,” you’ll be able to stay focused and less concerned about the opinions of others.

Fear of being too old

Changing your career path may seem scary, especially if you are over 40. But it is not uncommon or impossible. The good news is that the majority of older career changers are successful, based on a study from the American Institute for Economic Research. One way to face the fear is to think about all the advantages that come with someone who has a significant amount of work experience. For example, as you progress in your career, you acquire valuable contacts and diverse hard and soft skills. You also may be more financially stable, which provides additional flexibility when planning a career change.

Fear of wasting experience

A typical career change fear is having to start from the bottom. To deal with this, recognize that you have more transferrable skills than you realize. Also, if you have a strong network, it will be easier to make the right introductions to make a smooth transition. Finally, don’t overlook your soft skills like leadership, communication and problem-solving, which are more in demand than ever. Everything you’ve done up until now has prepared you for what’s coming next.

Fear of uncertainty

There are no guarantees in life. When you make a career change, there is always some risk involved. But you can mitigate that risk in several ways if you:

  • Embrace uncertainty and look at it as a learning experience
  • Take small steps instead of giant leaps
  • Develop new skills outside your comfort zone
  • Avoid dwelling on things you can’t control
  • Seek support from a small group of people you trust

Uncertainty is all around us. But by focusing on developing a resilient mindset, you’ll be more likely to face the unknown with confidence.

The most important thing to remember is that it’s okay to be afraid. Just don’t let it interfere with your vision. Mastering fear involves learning how to recognize and change the conversation in your mind. Once you do that, there are no limits to what you can achieve.

 

Forbes.com Author:  Caroline Castrillon Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn. Check out my website.

 

Forbes.com | March 26, 2023

 

#BestofFSCBlog : How Often Should I Be Posting (job boards) Resumes for My Job Search?

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When searching for a new career position, the job seeker has two options – as an active search or passive candidate.  A passive candidate will update their resume, ensure their LinkedIn profile is robust and complete, and post their resume online to the big resume databases (e.g., Monster, Indeed), but then sit back and wait for folks to find them.

 An active candidate will update their resume constantly (especially if still employed) and consistently post to open positions. They will also upload resumes into company resume databases, regardless of whether the business has an open requisition that matches their skills.  The purpose of loading resumes into company databases is to help recruiters ‘harvest’ skills of qualified candidates from their ‘resume farm’ when that new job requisition is posted.

An active job seeker should be seriously networking with friends, peers, co-workers, clients, and industry group members. Statistics seem to support networking will result in hires for about 65% of the time.  It’s also productive to be a part of a trade group or industry organization. For instance, MeetUp.com has trade groups from computer geeks and coding programmers to quilters and writers and website designers and marketers.  Members in these network groups join to learn something new or interact with like-minded folks. Recruiters may pop in to scope potentially qualified candidates for future positions.   The human resources organization, SHRM, has job opening posted on their website, as well as monthly meetings for continuing education credits, where sometimes as many as a few hundred HR-related members will show up, including recruiters.

Sales reps should track top clients’ point of contact – not just to respond to work-related communications, but to develop friendships beyond work. If the job seeker is an amazing salesperson or customer service rep, that customer will remember you and maybe a great source for industry job openings – as well as being able to provide work referrals.

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What Skill Sets do You have to be ‘Sharpened’ ?

Continue of the article:

One overlooked source is state employment agencies. The Virginia Employment Commission is an example.  Job seekers can visit the website, create a profile, upload a resume, and post to positions online or wait until an employer reaches out.  Some companies post open jobs to this resource to save recruiting costs (its free to Virginia-based companies).  Other companies use this option to ensure Affirmative Action Plan goals by postings jobs to reach the minority, disabled, and veteran job seekers.

There is nothing wrong with driving around a geographic area and looking at businesses located within the desired commute.  Alternatively, use Google maps to search.  For instance, a Computer Scientist with a desired commute of no more than an hour from Gloucester uses the search term ‘Software Development.’ They may find a few software or IT companies in Gloucester, as well as a dozen potential employers in Richmond, Williamsburg, and Newport News.

So, the answer to the question, “how often should I be posting my resume into databases?” is varied.  If you are unemployed, and a serious job seeker, then your full-time job is ‘looking for work.’ You should be posting resumes to job announcements and uploading the resume into company resume databases (ATS) for between 10-20 resume uploads and applications daily.  Your goal is to get your resume into as many company databases as physically possible to increase the potential for ‘being seen’ by recruiters.

If you are a passive job seeker, then post your resume to the big databases once and ensure your LinkedIn Profile is ‘open for inquiries from recruiters.’ Both active and passive job seekers should revisit resume databases every 30 days to update (just add a line or space) by reloading the ‘updated’ resume to ‘trick’ the system into thinking it’s an entirely new resume.  (Most job board or resumes systems push resumes down in the results queue as they age.)

How long should a job seeker expect to search for a position?  If you have a well-written resume and are posting to the perfectly matched job descriptions and getting phone calls from employers for interviews (and you interview well), there is a loose standard for time expectations.

Before the 2009 market crash, during the economic boom, the expectations were an average of one month of job searching for every $10K in salary expectations over $40K annually. The present economic environment is similar, so if the job seeker is looking for a minimum of $60K annually, then about two months would be the average search.  To reduce that time factor, it’s vital to post hard, post fast, and apply for the maximum daily time allowance daily.  It usually takes about a week for valid job inquiries to come back from most recruiters who are actively searching for keywords and phrases in the resume.

 

FSC Guest Author: Dawn Boyer, Ph.D., owner of D. Boyer Consulting – provides resume writing, and editing/publishing/print-on-demand consulting in the Hampton Roads and Richmond metropolitan areas. Reach her at: Dawn.Boyer@me.com or visit her website at www.dboyerconsulting.com.

 

FSC LinkedIn Network |  February 19, 2020

 

 

 

 

 

Number of words, including title and POC info:  ~829

 

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Bio: Dawn D. Boyer, Ph.D., has been an entrepreneur and business owner 20+ years, with her own consulting firm (CEO) in Hampton Roads and Richmond, VA.  Her background experience is 24+ years in the Human Resources field, of which 12+ years are within the Federal & Defense Contracting industry.   She is the author of 822+ books on the topics of business, human resources research, career search practice, women and gender study, genealogy and family lineages, quotes for motivation and self-improvement, and Adult Coloring Books.  Her books can be found on Amazon.com under Dawn D. Boyer, Ph.D.