As you think about skills and tasks, do not limit yourself to your current job. Include your past jobs, volunteer experience, and any other experience that is relevant. Keep this list handy and add to it as you think of new ideas.

Exercise: Love It, Hate It, Tolerate It

What skills/tasks at work do you love?

What skills/tasks at work do you hate?

What skills/tasks at work do you tolerate (not love or hate)?

Step One - Brainstorm

Brainstorm a comprehensive list of all of your skills. Use your resume or a cover letter to jumpstart your brainstorming.

Step Two - Basic Elements

Take each of the skills on your list and break it into basic elements. What are basic elements? It might be writing, problem solving, customer service, planning, research, organization, supervising, etc.

Step Three - Jargon

Comb through your descriptions to pinpoint and delete any language that is specific to your current career, but not applicable to a new one. This might include words and phrases like: client with a capital C; work product; pitch; deliverables; ERP; BPI; operating units; deploy.

Step Four - Translate

Write your skills and experiences using the language of your new job or new career.

Not sure about that language? Use job postings for clues. What are the words that are used to describe the responsibilities or skill requirements in job postings in your new job or new career?
 

Without a clear set of criteria, lots of careers can look attractive, but you have no way of evaluating if a career is right for you and no basis for making a choice between two or more possibilities. Your criteria will become your guiding force in exploring changing careers or choosing a career, deciding what path to follow now and in the future, knowing when it is time to leave a position, and plotting your career plan.

Today, you can expect to have 10-12 jobs in your working life, and as many as 3-5 different careers. The younger you are right now, the more change you can expect during your working life.

In fact, you might even have more than one dream career during your working life.

Some very conservative organizations/industries (e.g., banking, Wall Street), do not like functional resumes, so be sure to check it out first, before you develop your resume.

The basic building blocks of a functional resume are:

1-Summary/Profile

2-Skill Groups

3-Work History (Usually just a list with relevant details, but without descriptions)
-Title, Employer, Location, Dates

4-Education

5-Other Pertinent Information
-Training, Awards, Volunteer Experiences, etc.

Sometimes a functional resume can be just the ticket to that job interview you’re seeking.

Answer:
Use a Stealth Search

You want to make a job change. You have identified some ideas. But, you do not want your current employer to know that you plan to make a change, until you hand in that resignation letter. A stealth search is the answer for you.

A stealth search is conducted differently from a normal job search. In a normal job search, you would apply openly for jobs, ask your contacts to keep an ear open for relevant opportunities, and although you might not tell your employer you were looking, you would tell other people. In a stealth search, you are not going to tell people you are looking for a job. You are simply going to tell them you are interested in learning more about a specific career.

The tactics of a stealth search are: networking, research, and a focus on exploration.

A stealth search may take a bit longer, but it is a very effective way to make a job change without your employer finding out.

These are the types of information you will want to track:

-Organization Name
-Contact Name
-E-mail Address
-Telephone Number
-Mailing Address
-Source
-Date Of Contact
-Description Of Contact
-Date To Take Action Or Follow Up
-Description Of Action Or Follow Up

Don’t try to just remember your job search contacts without writing them down or you might miss a great opportunity.

There are easy formats for cover letters that do not require strong writing skills and put your relevant qualifications right up front, where an employer cannot miss them.

One simple format that does not require a lot of writing is a bulleted cover letter.

Example - Bulleted Cover Letters

Dear Ms. Employer,

I would like to put my experience and knowledge to work as a Public Relations Manager for Organization.

My relevant qualifications include:

-Knowledge of communication theory and practices.
-Working with a broad array of organizations and issues.
-Experience in public affairs campaign development and execution, project management, event planning, and strategic relationship development.
-Working with local, national, and trade media, including pitching stories, writing news releases, developing media packets, organizing news conferences, handling inquiries, and conducting tours.
-Developing and managing relationships with clients, media, organizations, and advisory groups.
-Planning and executing a range of events, from receptions to multi-day conferences.
-Writing a variety of materials for print and digital media.
-Developing and managing complex projects, working effectively as a member of cross-functional teams and individually.

I would be an asset to your organization because:

-I have a track record of developing successful programs and cooperative working relationships.
-I am an innovative problem solver.
-I have excellent written and oral communication skills.
-I am committed to using my talent and skills to make a difference.

I am very enthusiastic about the opportunity to serve your organization as a Public Relations Manager. My resume, outlining my accomplishments, is enclosed. I look forward to the opportunity to discuss how my passion, experience, and skills could be an asset to Organization. Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,
Jane Applicant

When you write bulleted-format cover letters, be sure to highlight the qualification you feel are most important for your dream career. If you are responding to a job posting, pull out the most important information from the posting and include that in your letter.

Bulleted-format cover letters also have the advantage of being easily skimmable by a potential employer. 

Even if you are not a writer, you can easily write great cover letters. Just follow the bullet format.
 

Online Resources
Someone compared the internet to the Library of Congress, only with all of the books on the floor in no particular order. While it is getting easier to find information on the web, it still requires patience and persistence to find exactly what you are looking for.

Career Sites
A good place to start is with one of the career-oriented web sites like The Riley Guide, Vault or WetFeet. These sites specialize in providing real-world information about careers, and at some, you can purchase detailed information, including profiles written by people who actually work in the field.

Professional Associations
If you can find a professional association for the career or even for a related field, the web site will often include educational requirements, relevant trade journals or magazines, salary information, and sometimes, insights into the challenges and rewards of the career.

Colleges and Universities
The web site for the career center at your alma mater (or another university) can be a great source of information about careers, job opportunities, and salary expectations.

Online Bookstores
Depending on the career, it may be included in a career-oriented book or in a compilation of related careers. Online book stores, such as Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com are a good resource for finding publications to help in your research.
 
Offline Resources

Reference Librarians
The reference librarian at your local library can be a great resource for finding information about a specific field or career. Reference librarians specialize in research, and they have plenty of reference materials at their disposal. Even if a particular book is not available in your local library, you can usually get it on loan from a cooperating library through your librarian, or even online in some libraries.

The Career Center at Your Alma Mater
Your alma mater’s career center probably has a significant library that includes many reference books about different careers.

Local Chapter of a Professional Association
Many professional associations have local chapters that plan local or regional events. These may be networking events or educational events or both. Often the events are open to non-members who are considering joining the organization and want to learn more about it.

In a community that has a newspaper, these events are often listed on a specific day that the newspaper has designated. For example, some papers have a “Monday Business” section. Also, in cities that have local business journals, the event listings may appear in that journal.

Classes
Enrolling in a workshop or class in the field is another good way of learning more about that career. If you are taking the class or seminar at a community college or through a private educational organization, the instructor will likely be a professional in the field, and can answer many of your questions about the realities of that career.

Networking
The most effective way to research a career is to talk with people who work in the field. While you can learn a great deal about a career by reading about it, only the people who actually work (or have worked) in the career can give you the insights you will need to understand the positive and negative aspects of that career.

As you know, there can be big differences between the “official story” about a career and the everyday reality. A professional association might provide a comprehensive overview of a particular career, the qualifications needed to enter the field, and the opportunities it offers, but many will not talk much about the negative aspects of the career.

To find out the everyday reality of a career, you need to have the opportunity to ask questions of people who are working (or who have worked) in the field.

You can make a dream career come true through planning and execution. With a fantasy, you are completely at the mercy of chance. And you are usually dealing with outrageous odds. For example, winning the lottery is a pleasurable fantasy, but it is not the kind of dream you can work toward and attain.

Many people never get beyond the fantasy to actually creating a dream career.

Test Yourself: Dream or Fantasy?

Are these dreams or fantasies? The answers are in the next post down (no peeking).
1. Starting your own business.
2. Selling a patent or an idea and receiving instant millions.
3. Being the next major league ballplayer plucked from a weekend pickup game.
4. Becoming a published writer.
5. Catching the attention of a record producer while she is having dinner in the restaurant where you are singing.

Are you pursuing a dream career or are you lost in a fantasy?