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Top 7 Tips for Successfully Switching Careers

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It's a simple fact that people change. Sometimes you're in the middle of your career when you realize you're no longer the person who chose that lifestyle. Changing careers jobs is one thing, but switching careers mid-stride presents conflicts in both the short- and long-term. You don't necessarily have to start over at an entry level position if you approach a career change conscientiously.

Do you want to transition into a similar career or a new field altogether? Do your existing skill sets transfer smoothly? Do you have enough experience and field knowledge for what you want to pursue, or should you take a class or entry level position to prepare? That's not to mention the more practical concerns regarding financial stability: can you earn a living wage in your desired career? Do you have enough savings to hold you over while you transition?

Here are the top 7 tips from financial advisers and employers for a successful career change:

1.Good Timing

Boredom and frustration are inevitable in every job, but that's not the same as feeling stagnated. The midpoint of a career is about 10 years. If you've acclimated and committed to your job that long and still feel unfulfilled, it's time to consider if you want to make a permanent change.

2. Realistic Goals

Maybe demand for your current career is shrinking or just undergoing a massive change. That could be the source of your unease and a good sign that you shouldn't expect a similar field to offer expansive opportunities. Be realistic about your current skills sets. Maybe take an aptitude test or pursue career counseling.

3. Expand your Network

Perhaps your current employer has connections to other fields that you could transition to. Expression respectful interest could alert the people familiar with your work that you're expanding and open doors for a new position. But your network of friends, college classmates, and even acquaintances is a valuable resource, as well. Make your interest known and ask questions about their fields, particularly if they're expanding.

4. Job Shadow or Volunteer

Depending on what your career goal is, some companies allow interested individuals to volunteer at their workplace. Some professionals allow people to job shadow them at the office. Additionally, many colleges maintain an alumni network of professionals who are open to be contacted.

5. Take a Class

Update your knowledge of the field you're targeting. Do research online and consider if enrolling in an evening course or online seminar could bring you up to speed. You could even reach out to professionals in the field to inquire what skill sets are most promising and desired right now

6. Refresh Your Skills

If you can't take a class, you can also sharpen your skill sets by taking on extra tasks at your current job or beginning your own independent project. Many organizations, including college alumni groups and employers, offer professional training. Depending on your skill set, you can also freelance to contract extra work on the side before you completely jump fields.

7. Update Your Resume and Cover Letters

You'll need to re-package yourself and your work experience to impress prospective employers. This is especially crucial if you're new to that field. Make sure your cover letters focus on your existing skills that qualify you for the job; don't dwell too long on your on work experience that's unrelated to the job you're applying for. Be sure to re-design your summary statement or objective section to convey your new interests, goals, and qualifications.

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Top 5 Tips for Successfully Working Two Jobs

Whether you supplement your full-time salary with a part-time position or you rely on multiple part-time positions for your income, juggling more than one job is challenging. Managing your time, stress, and energy levels effectively for success takes conscientious lifestyle changes.

From maintaining your physical and emotional health to balancing your personal life with your professional goals, working two jobs can take a toll on your financial and mental stability.

Finance experts, lifestyle bloggers, employers, and even college students agree that enhancing your organizational and planning skills can help you keep a healthy perspective while also staying on task. Here are the top recommended principles to help you work two jobs:

1.Make a Daily To-Do List

Aside from keeping you organized, the advantage of list-making is learning how to prioritize the importance of each item. In as little as 15 minutes at the beginning or end of each day, you can stay task-oriented and focused. "I've worked a full-time job while maintaining several freelance contracts on the side, and the critical advice I can give is to stay organized," said Glenn Carter, author of the personal finance blog The Casual Capitalist.

2. Begin Each Day with One Easy Task

The first action you take in the morning sets the tone of the day, so an easy micro-habit of accomplishing one easy task, such as taking a walk or watering the plants, can set your mind in a "proactive" mode rather than a "reactive" mode, according to Nick Loper, founder of the Side Hustle Nation.

3. Communicate Well with All Your Employers

After assessing the time and energy commitments each job requires of you, divide your availability responsibly between employers. Clearly communicate to your bosses when you are available in order to avoid conflicts of interest that would cause your performance to suffer. Generally, the highest-paying or most stable job should take precedence, so be realistic about your motivations for working for each employer. At BalanceCareers, they urge, "Do not let the second job encroach on the quality of your work performance of your first job," because ideally you've picked your second job carefully in order to best suit your availability and skill sets.

4. Have Clear End Goals

Ultimately, working more than one job is rarely tenable. Stay reflective and self-aware about your reasons for balancing two separate work schedules. Bobbi Rebell, financial expert and author of How to Be a Financial Grownup, urges people who work multiple jobs to have a strategy for accomplishing their final goal. "For example, to earn money to pay down a debt," she says. "Or to save for a vacation. Or to acquire a new skill that can expand your professional options. Or to explore whether a business is financially viable. You have to be careful not to just work two jobs for the sake of it, because that can be exhausting,"

5. Do NOT Neglect Yourself

Sleep needs to remain a priority, even if it seems counterintuitive to optimizing your productivity. Jeff Proctor, finance expert, reminds his clients, "Missing sleep can quickly compound into less focus and decreased productivity at work, which can actually lead to depression. Moral of the story: get your sleep." Eating well and exercising are equally important in order to ward off avoidable illnesses and physical burnout.

No one makes perfect plans the first time around. Balancing your personal and professional well-being is an ongoing process for every adult. When you're working two jobs, the challenges can seem overwhelming, but these small, daily lifestyle changes can add a sense of structure and stability to otherwise chaotic schedules.

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10 Most Valuable Business Skills You Need to Succeed in 2019

The business landscape of 2019 is changing with the turbulent times, and to succeed will require high emotional intelligence as well as mental acuity.

According to business strategists and high-powered employers, the most valuable skills an employee can have are a mix of in-demand "hard," or technical and knowledge-based, skills and "soft," or behavioral and attitudinal, strengths. Here are the top 10 skills to help you succeed in 2019:

1.Problem solving

It takes holistic thinking to be able to grasp a problem quickly and produces viable plan. But strong problem-solving skills also require a continual process of absorbing information and taking multiple factors into consideration.

2. Critical thinking

Delving into a problem beyond the surface is the extra step it takes to be the most productive. Furthermore, in the trial and error process that can occur when plans go wrong, looking at a problem from multiple angles becomes vital.

3. Creativity

Be a unique contribution to your workplace. According to Marty Neumeier, "It is important to keep learning. Others cannot duplicate or reproduce your original work. If you want to be original, you have to become an inventor and build the foundation to the structure of your invention from scratch."

4. Communication

In a media-laden world of constant information, the ability to not only retain but transmit information is highly valued. Both written and oral communication build the connections that keep teams together and tasks goal-oriented.

5. Empathy

Whether working with co-workers or clients, the ability to recognize and respect others' emotions and sensibilities and respond accordingly is an irreplaceable skill.

6. Time Management

This straightforward skill has clear advantages of keeping yourself and your team on-task and productive in the most efficient use of time.

7. Collaboration

The ability to be a team player is crucial in a workplace. Working well with others enhances productivity and morale, even during times of high stress.

8. Resourcefulness

Combining creativity and problem-solving skills with heightened awareness of the work space and its resources allows optimal productivity. Employers notice workers who are able to face a challenge head on and achieve their goals despite it .

9. Adaptability

When things inevitably deviate from scheduled plans, it's crucial to have the "cognitive flexibility" to be able to improvise. As Alvin Toffler said, "The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn."

10. Cultural Awareness

Similar to empathy, employers are recognizing now more than ever that in order to contribute meaningful work to the public employees must demonstrate cultural awareness. That means recognizing and appreciating diversity in terms of acknowledging the needs of disparate communities and being sensitive to ongoing issues within those groups.

In 2019, the most valuable skills an employee can have combine humanity with efficiency. Whether a company provides a product or a service, it's vital to understand how society can benefit from the fruits of its labor.

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How to Tell If You’re About to Be Fired

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No one's job is easy, even when things are smooth sailing.

But when your job starts to feel more challenging out of the blue, it may be time to sit up and pay close attention. Lynn Taylor, the author of Tame Your Terrible Office Tyrant: How to Manage Childish Boss Behavior and Thrive in Your Job, told Business Insider that the savviest professionals always keep an eye out for the classic signs that their job is in danger.

If and when you notice red flags popping up, you can attempt to turn the tides before it's too late. That said, it's not always easy for employees to pick up these signs. "What's important is to be alert of situations around the office to ensure the security of your position in the company," Ryan Kahn, a career coach and author of Hired! The Guide for the Recent Grad, told Forbes. Here are the most common signs that you could be walking the line between hired and fired.

You've received a poor performance review:

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Most people on the job are subject to an annual review, that awkward one-on-one meeting with your boss where they're obligated to offer you constructive criticism. Most bosses won't turn down the opportunity! But if you find yourself leaving the meeting feeling completely slammed with a whole wheelbarrow full of unexpected complaints, it might be time for a reality check. "Critical performance reviews could be a major sign that your job is in jeopardy," Kerr told Business Insider. If this happens to you, it might be a great idea to start looking around for other opportunities before you need to. Meanwhile, try to stay calm and work towards making improvements in the areas that were brought to your attention.

You've been left out of the loop or removed from projects:

When your colleagues are working on new projects, or attending meetings that somehow never made it onto your calendar, you'd better pay more attention to the dynamics. Keeping you out of the loop is often one of the biggest signs that trouble's around the corner. "The more distance, the better--and since they [colleagues] know you'll soon be gone, they want information to stay proprietary," says Taylor.

You sense tension with the boss, or with other employees:

Work environments can feel like families—there's no shortage of competition, camaraderie, and casual banter. Think of what your "baseline" for good relationships with your boss and your colleagues would be. Has that deteriorated into petty digs and heavy sighs? If you feel like your colleagues are doing anything and everything to limit communications around the office—whether personal, or work-related—it might be time to polish up your resume.

Written complaints about your work are piling up:

Too many emails detailing small work issues can add up to a big problem!pngimg.com

Your email has blown up with the strangest things lately: "Hi X, I've noticed that the latest memo you sent out had a couple of mistakes that I thought we had cleared up. Just FYI!" If the FYI's are mounting up in your inbox, your boss and colleagues could be working to build a case against you. Or, not. This isn't a marching order to feel paranoid, but rather to take a serious look at written communications between you and your colleagues that are changing in tenor from easy to terse, with a whole new level of specificity. Also, be mindful of who's being cc:d on these communications. If you notice that supervisors are being brought into the complaint loop, it's important to pay attention.

Request for details about expenses and more job oversight:

Don't get in trouble for slipping your cat food into the petty cash fund!c1.staticflickr.com

Being a bean-counter is one of the worst parts of running a business. Keeping track of every little expense can be tedious, even for the most Type-A organized people. Petty cash privileges are implied in a lot of jobs. If you've been doing a decent job of gathering up your expenses and filing them without getting them bounced back for careful review, that's a sign that you're being trusted to do the right thing. If, however, your boss makes a change in tone and requests receipts and lengthy-explanations for every penny spent, you may be getting a signal that things aren't as copacetic as they used to be. Be sure to keep all of your receipts in case accounting suddenly becomes more intense.

It's important to listen to your intuition. If you begin to have doubts about your standing in the workplace, don't push those feelings aside. Don't panic—but pay attention to warning signs and address them as they arise rather than let them pile up.

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