I was delighted this week to introduce CareerActually readers to my good friend and brilliant career adviser Les Emery.  In his first post, Les highlighted five fundamentals for career change through these important questions:

• Vision – what do you hope to achieve by making a career change; what is the ‘ideal’ that you are striving for?
• Skills – do you have the adaptability, self-belief and resilience to make a change?
• Incentive – what is your motivation and reward for making a change?
• Resource – are you prepared to invest time in the change process?
• Action plan – what’s your ‘plan of attack’; how are you going to make things happen?

Changing jobs and/or career direction can be one of the most exciting, exhilarating and downright scary things to do. Securing a better job usually requires a good deal of effort  and, for many, presents a considerable personal challenge in putting yourself out there and testing your worth in the open market. I know many of my clients still struggle with this, despite being experienced, talented and apparently confident.

Despite the struggle, I believe we all seek to improve ourselves, to offer more of what we are and to realise our potential in our work. That is why most of us seek change and new opportunities. Its natural and to be encouraged, especially if you are guided by the sorts of questions that Les proposes.

There will always be better jobs that you don’t have  and  isn’t that an exciting prospect?

Have a great weekend everyone!

Carole