Empower Network

If you are in search of career change advice, you are not alone.

A recent survey by Mercer shows millions of Americans going through the motions at work and losing heart in their jobs. That same survey found that half of this nation’s workforce is unhappy. A third of employees are so miserable that they are seriously considering leaving their jobs.

However, leaving jobs now is not easy.  The unemployment rate for November was 8.4 percent, with 13.9 million out of work (this just counts those still receiving benefits). Another 10 million are underemployed in part-time jobs or other employment that lacks what they need or had before the recession.

So the big question is, how do you change careers after investing so much time mastering the career you have built, and do so without going the time and expense of going back to school?

Seeking Career Change Advice?

The Path of Career Change and the World of Self-Teaching
In 1994, I was working as a computer programmer and had been for about 12 years. An instructor from a big software company came to our company to teach us new programming tools. The instructor was dynamic, smart, and engaging and inspired me to want to make a change. I had never taught before, never been up in front of a room of people. Friends told me I was good at teaching at an individual level and gave me the confidence to think I could do it.

In order to see if I could speak in front of people, I joined Toastmasters International. They are an organization that fosters people to excel at public speaking. I stayed active there part-time, writing and delivering speeches until I was comfortable doing so. I then pursued the job, seeking out the instructor for a referral, then applying for the job. During the interview I was asked to teach something. Using the skills I acquired at Toastmasters, I comfortably got up and drew on the whiteboard, explaining the current project I was on. Having no teaching experience, but showing that I was knowledgeable and comfortable in front of an audience, I got the job.

I went on to teach as a technical instructor for over 5 years. It got me out from behind the desk programming computers all day, out of my comfort zone, but into something that I truly enjoyed doing. The key was that it was related to my old job. I used to program computers, but now I taught people how they could program computers. Making that transition enabled me to make a significant career change 12 years into a discipline that was all I knew and all I ever thought I could do.

At Another Crossroads
I stayed at that software company for over 17 years. I started a career in IT that I never planned for and spent 30 years in the industry. I have now held a variety of completely different jobs within the same career, including Programmer, Technical Instructor, Instructor Manager, Product Manager, Product Engineer Manager, Strategist, and Marketing Director. I have led teams of up to 25 direct reports and have been a dedicated corporate employee. But recently I found myself at another crossroads. The economy has been declining for a while. I saw many people and friends lose their corporate jobs. My company was doing well, but for how long? How would I protect myself and my career? I came to another career challenge and had to see how I could reinvent myself once again.

Life as an Internet Marketer
While happy with my job, I knew that in order to help secure my future I needed to become independent of corporate America. Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki have both stated publicly and in their co-written book ‘Why We Want You To Be Rich’, that due to low startup costs, training, and entrepreneurial mindset, Network Marketing was the best place to start your own business and become an entrepreneur. I knew I wanted my own business, but starting one from scratch seemed daunting.

After much research on Network Marketing on the internet, I made a decision to give internet marketing a try. With the internet as the foundation, again I felt that it was something completely new yet related to how I had spent my 30+ years in the computer industry. In network marketing, you build your own business. You move from the mindset of being an employee to being an entrepreneur. You learn how to sell. You learn how to take rejection. You learn how to build a residual income. Good training is essential for you to accomplish all of these things, and these companies will work with you.

I was also comfortable as an Internet Marketing Consultant because I get to help others learn to do the same thing. It employs my joy of teaching, learning, and computers while allowing me to build my own business and put control of my future into my own hands – all while keeping my day job.

Now…The Career Change Advice
If you are out of work and need to find something new or just one of the unhappy 45% of the population considering a job change, think about changing careers. It will get you out of your comfort zone but what you will find is that you will thrive there. It will be new and exciting and you will learn a lot. You don’t have to go back to school. Do some self-teaching through research and the internet, and then seek out a company that will train you and work with you until you are successful. Find something that is either related to what you do today or something that has always been a dream. Go after it. Do not let anyone tell you it is crazy or that you cannot do it. Only you can determine that. Your fate is in your own hands – now go get them dirty.

Please leave me a comment with your thoughts on this post, or if you’ve gotten other great career advice I’d love to know that as well!

Yours in mentoring,

P.S. If you are interested in making a career change and want to make some money online with a new business, take a look at this secret PROVEN method that will help you.