Career Change - what is a portfolio career?

What is a Portfolio Career?

If you are thinking of changing career and having difficulty deciding what to do, a portfolio could be the ideal option for you. After all, in reality it is unlikely that you will find all the ingredients of your dream job in one place.

For many people, the idea of a world with no more "jobs for life" is a scary prospect. But it doesn't have to be. To read more go to What is a Portfolio Career?

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Career Change Course

Career Change

Hate your job?

Make a list of all the things you hate about your job. And then make a list of all the things you like about it, or liked about it when you first started. Think about why you chose this job and the hopes you had when it was new.

Go back over the list and see what you would like to change (either in this job or in a new one).

Were there things which were promised but which didn't materialise?

Would you like more training?

More responsibility?

Perhaps you'd like to set up a new project or initiate some measures which will make things run more efficiently.

Is there anything you can do about this? Some changes you can just get on with, if they fall within the scope of your existing job description. Others you may need to discuss with your boss.

Improving things in your present situation will have several benefits:

• you'll feel better
  
• you'll make your job more interesting
  
• you'll gain experience which will help you get a new job.

If you need help with career change ideas or finding a job, check outJobseekers' Success Kit

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www.coolercareers.com

hate your job

Career Change

Career Change
Career Change

If you want a career change, but haven’t a clue what you’d like to do, spend some time doing things you enjoy. This will make you feel better and everything is easier if you are feeling better! So make a list of all the things you enjoy doing and do at least one a day. It can be something very simple, such as reading a good novel or going for a walk in the park.

You could also take up something you’ve always wanted to do – a sport, craft, short course. This will raise your energy levels and get you in the right frame of mind for tackling new challenges.

If you would like to learn a quick technique for raising your energy, click here for a free report.

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Career Change

Unhappy at work?

Career Change, CV tips, jobsearch tips
Unhappy at work?

There are some very good reasons for this, which should come as a relief, if it applies to you. In fact, with the exception of those who have what is often called a calling or vocation, ie they know, often from a very early age, exactly what they want to do, most people haven’t a clue what they want to be when, and if, they grow up.

You may have a dream job in mind, but feel it isn’t possible to change, or you may know what you don’t want, but still be unclear about what you do want.

It may take a little while, but it is possible to find a career which would be more fulfilling.


If you would like to find out what would make you happy, sign up for my free newsletter : Newsletter

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Getting the Dream Job

Online Applications

Web CVs (and where to get help setting one up!)

This type of CV could be useful if you want to put your work, in the form of art, photography or music on display, or if you are a performer and want to include photographs of yourself.

If you want to have a web CV, in other words, a webpage with your CV on it, you will need to learn HTML or use an HTML editor. There are plenty of free HTML tutorials online on sites such as www.htmlgoodies.com.

If you’d prefer not to learn html, you can download a free wysiwyg editor at: www.nvu.com. Click the download button and scroll down the page until you find Windows, or whatever your operating system is, and then download and save. Once you’ve done that, you need to double click on the icon to install the program. You’ll also need an ftp program to upload files (I use Dreamweaver which has inbuilt ftp) but there are plenty of free trials or free options, which you can find at www.download.com. And of course, you’ll need a domain name and hosting. You can get free hosting, often from your ISP, but this will usually involve a long address before your chosen name.

You can get a domain name for around £14 a year, which comes with free hosting at www.nameroute.co.uk or www.nameroute.com. This will give you plenty of room for a CV, but if you want to develop a website with more functionality, there are plenty of options out there. I use Host4profit, which has an affiliate program – for each person who buys hosting via your site you get $10 a month. So if you get 3 friends to sign up, that will more than cover the cost of your own hosting. If you want to check them out, go to:Host4Profit .

You can search for cheap domain names – one of the cheapest sites is at www.godaddy.com.

If all of this is too much hassle, you can pay a web designer or web savvy teenager to help you out.



To download the full report go to:

Full Report
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Career Change - applying for jobs online

Career Change

Content

The content is very similar to that of a standard CV, but keywords, important on a printed CV, are crucial on a text CV. If the computer doesn’t find the words it’s looking for, your CV will not make it to the next round, however well qualified you might be for the job.

Keywords and phrases will be the qualifications, skills and experience that are needed for the post. You’ll find them in the job description and can also look at the company website. Human scanners prefer to see this information in the form of phrases containing active verbs, but computers prefer nouns. So make sure you include plenty of them, including industry buzzwords and abbreviations, but be careful if you are moving from one field to another – only use terms which will be understood in the new area. Get yourself into the mind of the machine! Try to work out exactly which keywords it will have been programmed to find.

To learn more about how to apply for jobs, go to :Jobseekers' Success Kit

Online Job applications,

Online job applications.

Format for a Plain text CV

Whichever method you are using to deliver your application read the instructions. Some companies have a preferred format for text CVs.

If you aren’t given detailed instructions for a plain text CV, the usual rules for the layout are as follows:

Use a font such as Times, Verdana, Arial or Helvetica (fancy fonts sometimes have letters which touch each other and these can’t be read by the software)

Keep to approx 10-14 point.

Use bold or capitals for headings, but don’t use italics or underline

If you use bullets, stick to the solid dots

Use plenty of keywords – these should be nouns

Justify to the left

Have a maximum of 65 characters on each line

Leave space at the top, bottom and between sections

If you are sending your CV via snail mail, use good quality white paper and do not fold

Use a good quality printer, laser if possible, so that ink doesn’t run letters together

Don’t use staples to attach extra pages

Download the full report at :Online job applications.


For Careers Advice Click Here

More tomorrow

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