We held our third Balancing Work and Cancer webinar last week. Longtime CAC collaborator and career coach Julie Jansen led the session on Career Shifting: Tips, Tools & Techniques. A main focus of Julie's presentation was going through her three-step process for shifting careers. That process includes:

1. Self-assessment. This first step involves looking inward to your values, your personality, your hard and soft skills, etc. Being able to articulate these to a potential employer are essential, especially when the inevitable question of "Why do you want to shift career paths?" comes up.

2. Identify opportunities and obstacles. Some examples of obstacles may include needing to take a cut in pay; finding similarities between your current/former industry and how you can relate the skills you've acquired into the new industry you are trying to get into; acknowledging you may not be passionate about a new industry (and that's ok). Opportunities however are limitless! You can ask for informational interviews with people working in careers you are interested in, or identify a problem you think needs to be solved and try to achieve that goal. 

3. Create an action plan. Julie encourages everyone to write down your plan. This will help you better understand what you are looking for and how to achieve your goal. She suggests using the SMART formula (Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic, Timeline).

If you'd like to watch the full webinar, you can do so in our video archive.

If you want more information on career change, you can read our article: Cancer as Inspiration for a Career Change. You can also get your career questions answer with Ask A Career Coach. Finally, if you have questions about your resume, CAC offers a free Resume Review Service to anyone who has received a cancer diagnosis.