The Yellow Brick Road?

Your job-search journey begins with a few simple steps

So much has changed in the work-a-day world, one hardly knows where to begin. For some job seekers it goes far beyond recognizing and implementing new aspects of how to look for a job. Some job seekers need to determine what their skills are and how to utilize (and/or how to “sell” them) as you pursue future employment.

Updating your current skill set is one thing, completely overhauling what you do and how you do it is something totally different.

Which path to take

Into which camp do you fall? Do you simply need to hone your existing skills. Learn a new version of software you’ve been using? Become adept at new extensions to what you already know? Or, is there simply a declining need for what you’ve been doing and do you need to head in a whole new direction?

Those are necessarily easy choices to make. While it might seem easy to learn a new and improved version of what you’ve been doing, it’s an entirely different state of mind to accept that what you’ve been doing is no longer needed or is slowly, but surely going away.

If you need upskilling, it’s comparatively easy to make that assessment. Talk to other people who do what you did on your last job. Learn what’s different, what’s new and what you need to do to get back into the game. In the job-seeking vernacular, those are called “informational interviews.” You should be doing those no matter what.

But if it’s retraining you need, that’s a much harder pill to swallow. Again, informational interviews may provide the kind of insight you need. It might even be possible to go back to your previous employer to learn where they’re going, where the industry is going, etc.

If you decide to go in a different direction, the real bad news is that you need an entire new line of soul searching to move foward. Is it possible to take your existing skills and apply them in a new and different area? Or, is it time to explore new job functions, new industries, etc.? If that sounds like a Herculean task, you’re right. It is. But it’s not impossible and it can pay big dividends for you in the long run.

And it is a long run.

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