Are You Displaying Classic Career Change Symptoms?
If your job prevents you from spending quality time with your
family, prohibits your ability to enjoy outside pursuits,
leaves you impossibly stressed at the end of the day, consumes
your every waking moment, bores you completely, challenges
you less and less, feels out of synch with your interests
and abilities, or presents little opportunity for growth,
a career change could be in order. If you identify with any
of the following statements, you're probably ready (and perhaps
overdue) for a leap to a new career.
1. Faced with a choice between going to work and submitting
to a triple root canal, you'd be hard-pressed to pick the least
painful option.
2. You pride yourself on your in-depth knowledge of every
brand of aspirin, migraine remedy, and antacid under the sun.
3. You've got hair loss of epic proportions, not from premature
balding, but from repeated friction caused by that glass ceiling
you keep bumping your head against.
4. Your daughter didn't speak to you for a week after you
bought her a deluxe Easy-Bake Oven for her birthday. (You later
learned that she'd turned 18 and it wasn't even her birthday
- it was your son's.)
5. You recently filled out a volunteer firefighter application,
convinced that your years of experience battling burnout could
be put to good use.
6. When talk turns to current television programs at parties,
you contribute by discussing who shot J.R.
7. Parties? What parties? You haven't been to a non-office
party since your graduation celebration. (And who's J.R., anyway?)
8. The last hobby you can remember having time for was constructing
Popsicle stick birdhouses in fourth grade.
9. Your Monopoly game is missing all of its "get out
of jail free" cards. (You keep handing them to your boss
in the hope of escaping from your cubicle.)
10. Your biggest workplace thrill is the day they restock
the vending machines.
11. For on-the-job excitement, you change your computer password
every 15 minutes.
12. The last time you and your significant other had a night
out was at the premier of "Jaws."
13. The literary figure you most closely relate to is Dilbert.
14. Your leisure reading consists of your company's financial
statements and training manuals.
15. If asked by friends or family what you enjoy about your
job, the only response you can truthfully offer is cashing
your paycheck.
Reprinted with permission from The McGraw-Hill Companies,
excerpted from The
Career Change Resume by Kim Isaacs and Karen
Hofferber. Copyright 2003. All rights reserved.
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Karen's Bio: Karen is senior resume writer at ResumePower.com.
Her goal is to prepare clients for career advancement through
powerful resumes and career coaching services. Karen is a Certified
Professional Resume Writer (CPRW), demonstrating advanced proficiency
in the creation of winning resumes and cover letters. She has
served as the Resume Advisor on Monster.com's Resume Tips message
board and writes informative articles on how to write a winning
resume. Her passion for helping her clients achieve their dreams
is evident in every resume she produces. Karen's dynamic personality
and unwavering support help drive her clients to achieve their
goals. Karen coauthored The
Career Change Resume: How to Reinvent Your Resume and Land
Your Dream Job (McGraw-Hill, April 2003).
Karen won high praise for sharing her creative approach to
resume design as a speaker for the National Resume Writers'
Association's interactive chat.
