Have you written your lists of skills, likes, and desires? Last week’s article gave you three areas to focus on to help give you clues about your next possible career. If you missed the article, you can check it out here on my blog http://www.segaric.com/blog/.Now what do you do with these lists?Introspection will only get you so far. But sometimes, the things we think we’re good at, that we like, or that we want to do, are only that way while living within our minds. Once we give them a life of their own, we sometimes find that they’re not what we hoped they’d be. That’s why it is so important to put your lists to the test.1. Cross off those items that have an “ugh” factor.These are things you may have written down as skills, or even likes or dreams, but when you consider them more seriously, you wouldn’t want to actually do them on a daily basis.2. Create 3 job descriptions.Based on the remainder of your list, come up with descriptions of three jobs you would like to have. Don’t worry if you don’t have the skills for one dream job or the experience for another. You’re in the exploring phase of this process.3. Start talking to people and testing out these ideas.You can only make so much progress on your own. It’s time to reach out to people–lots of people–and see what you may learn about these three jobs. Talk to people you know and see what they know about these fields as well as who they know working in them right now. Reach out to people you don’t know, tell them you’re researching new career options, and ask if you can ask them a few questions about their jobs.What happens next is you start to learn so much more about these potential opportunities that you do one of two things: rule it out completely or decide to get in a little deeper and see what else you can uncover. The possibilities are endless–but only if you take that first step! Want to have someone walk you through your career change at the fraction of the normal cost of private coaching? Then this ebook is for you.

© 2007 Segaric Coaching Inc.

Annemarie Segaric is a respected career change coach, motivational speaker, and the author of the ebook, 107 Tips for Changing Your Career While Still Paying the Bills. Ready to switch careers and don’t know where to begin? Visit www.segaric.com and download your own career change toolkit today.