Submitted by editor on Mon, 06/23/2008 - 6:43pm.
There usually comes a time in everyone’s career when they question whether they’ve made the right decision. Some find that they have not, and feel that it may be time to change careers. They may be bored at their job tired of being passed up for a promotion at work, or even recently laid off. When an individual indentifies the need to change careers, he or she must also answer another question: how can I do it?
To effectively switch careers mid stream, you need to figure out which of two options work better for you. Should you take time to get more education, or should you work on improving and expanding your skill set and experience?
While both are viable options for career changers, the benefits of getting additional education and honing your existing skill set can be very different. I personally get very excited about the prospect of going back to school just because I love the opportunity to learn new things, network with classmates, alumni, and professors, and expanding my available career options.
But going back to school offers its own set of challenges. Getting into school itself can be costly and difficult, as you likely will have to take a test or series of tests (all of which require fees), pay application fees, and once accepted, find a way to pay for tuition. It’s much more than just deciding that you will go back to college and put forth the effort to do well in class. In addition, because you still need to eat, pay rent, and bills, you will need to decide if you want to go back to school full or part time. But no matter how you decide, going back to school will require that you sacrifice money or time to get the education you need to change the direction of your career.
Some careers require and advanced degree in order to be even considered for advancement to management, but it is best to consider all of your options before going back to school. You need to think about everything you will have to do to achieve your education goal and ask yourself if more education is really necessary. You may be able to rely on your experience and hard work to give you the upward boost you need for that promotion to management. In some cases, employers will substitute the advanced degree requirement with an experience requirement when they see that an experienced employee is putting in extra hours and demonstrating that he deserves to be moved up.
Going back to school to change your career is a very big change, so you need really think it through before you make your decision about whether or not to return to school. It would be nice if you could test drive what you believe to be your dream job well before you decide to switch careers and/or go back to school to earn a degree in another field.
It turns out that there is a company that offers individuals who are seeking to change careers the opportunity to “test-drive” their dream jobs. VocationVacations.com offers people the opportunity to try out their dream job to help individuals discover whether or not their dream job is what they expected. Such an opportunity allows individuals to get a feel as whether taking the big step of changing their career is the right thing to do.
Whatever you decide, choose carefully— because your future is on the line.
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