How Do I Generate New Career Ideas?
You have decided a new career is for you, but you are unsure where to start. Here are some tips on how to generate ideas and validate them.
1. Keep an open mind – prepare yourself for new career ideas, remove judgement and banish the inner critic. Go for a ‘bluesky’ approach.
2. Become a curious researcher – use newspapers, websites, TV, inspirational people, friends, family, conversations, to stimulate ideas.
3. Write everything down – decide on where you will document your new career ideas, aim to add to it everyday.
4. Do include concepts, parts of job descriptions, do not restrict it to job titles. Aim for over 30 new career idea components.
5. Ensure you do this exercise over at least a month and be dedicated to it.
6. From your new career idea components pick the stand out themes.
7. For each theme note what values, strengths and skills you will use if you worked in that area. The must haves.
8. Select the theme that will use your values, strengths and skills the most.
9. Decide what steps you could take to have that new career theme in your life in a small way, give it a trial.
10. Commit to taking those initial steps in a set period of time.
New Career Resources:
www.escapethecity.org Inspiring stories about people who have got out of corporate life
www.careers.guardian.co.uk Guardian’s careers pages including advice on changing careers
www.newlifenetwork.co.uk Content rich resource site offering free articles, tips, links, stories complementing the publication Rebuilding Your Life After Redundancy. Useful for career changers as well as those taking redundancy.
www.careers-gateway.co.uk Careers information.
www.I-resign.com Resources for people considering resigning from their job.