We all strive to be successful in our careers but these days the job market is very different from when our parents or grand-parents first entered the workforce. Generally speaking there is little chance of a job for life and people tend to switch careers, hold multiple jobs and have to continually retrain or keep up to date with new developments even if your career stays in the same industry. So it’s important to have a look at what we need to do to have a long and fulfilling career.
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Ensure You Have Transferable Skills
We could end looking for a new job at any point in our careers and so it’s a good idea to keep your set of transferable skills up to date as this will mean you are always ready for a new challenge. It’s good to be able to be a quick learner, manage your workload, be organised and keep your IT skills current and up to date. Also in certain lines of work it’s essential to ensure you have any licences and permits up to date.
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Make Plans For Unforeseen Circumstances
It’s important to make plans for an unforeseen loss of a job, which can happen to anyone as your company could downsize or go under without notice. You should have financial plans in place to protect you and your family in this event, putting money aside is a good idea and it’s even possible to get a whole range of different insurances to guard against certain things, for example, did you know there are even disability insurance coverage options and many others.
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Be Conscious Of Your Work Life Balance
It’s important to be careful of of your work life balance as well because as important as career is it’s not the only thing to make you happy. It’s been said that money does make you happy, but only to a certain point, which actually changes due to location.
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Don’t Be Afraid To Consider A Career Change After A While
With all of this talk of what to do if you are forced to change career due to external circumstances but it’s always important to occasionally question whether you are happy in your current job or career is still what you want to be doing as you spend 35% of your waking hours at work over a 50 year working career so no matter how much money you are making it’s worth considering if something better is out there for you.
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It’s Never Too Late For Education
You can always consider going back to study as a mature student later on in order to realise a change of career. This does often sound quite intimidating but there is always plenty help available to help get back into it, there are financial concerns but there is always financial options or the opportunity to study part time to enable you to continue earning.
