
Financial Education Information
6 Steps To Career Change
You are what you do
First and foremost it’s important to realize that what we do in our lives defines who we are. More importantly, how we feel about what we do is vitally important to our happiness.
There may be many reasons you feel that your career choice was wrong. Maybe your boss is a slave driver or your co-workers are gossips. Take time to truly explore where your feelings of discontent originate. Maybe a scary economy has made you question your dream job. Maybe you’ve been laid off and can’t bring yourself to look for another position in your field.
A shift in how you feel about your career is worth a try. Set a timeframe for this effort and force yourself to re-evaluate. After you’ve established that you want to make a fresh start in a completely new career the next step is to notice what motivates you.
What do you rush home from work for?
Maybe you rush to daycare to pick up your kids and plan fun activities to help them do their homework. Do you love to spend the evening cooking beautiful dishes for your husband? Are you still looking at ‘handy man specials’ on the real estate listings even though you bought your house months ago?
These yearnings and hobbies will inform you of what you want to do in your new career. Take as many free personality tests for career choice as you can.
Do your research.
Whether you decide to become a teacher, chef, or real estate agent, the next step is to find out what these folks really do. Is real estate too risky for you? Can you handle the hours required of a chef? Find several mentors. For instance, contact a few teachers and let them do all the talking. Take notes and talk to as many people as possible. Once you have found yourself totally sold on your future career path, dig deeper. Once you are truly committed to your path, take action.
Discuss your goals with your partner and family.
Not all of us are completely unattached. Big decisions require the help, encouragement, and sacrifice of everyone involved. Maybe the only top chef school is 300 miles away. Will he come with you to pursue your dream? Will the kids be willing to change schools?
Get educated.
How much training is required for your new career and how do your current skills contribute to your goals? Even real estate investing requires some major preparation. Know the pitfalls before you take the dive. If college is going to take some time, you may need to supplement your income by staying at your current job or find a job with less responsibility in your chosen career. Find free money for college. Consider online training possibilities.
Make a plan, set a timeline and take action.
One day at a time, there is a list of action items you will need to check off your list depending on your career choice. Such as: submit for grants, meet with mentor. Each action will get you one step closer to achieving a completely new career. Start with a timeline and calendar. Cut images from magazines that represent your new career and place them on a corkboard along with the calendar and a printed list of actions. Feel good about your path by placing a present tense statement at the top of the board which reads: I am so happy that I have completed the steps required to completely change my career.
Understanding How Your Credit Impacts Your Employment Prospects
Your credit report is one of the aspects of applying for a job over which you have little control. However, that doesn't mean you have no control over your credit report. In order to maximize your employment prospects, you should check your credit report and clear up any inaccuracies before applying for jobs. If there are any information employers may take as being negatives about you as a prospective employee, you can take preemptive steps to allay such concerns.Understanding How Your Credit Report Impacts Your Employment Prospects
As if having your credit report impact your house payments, car payments, and credit card interest rate isn't enough, there has been an increase in employers using credit reports to investigate those applying for employment. In most areas, it is a completely legal practice. Not only that, but employers get bulk discounts for ordering credit reports on lots of applicants. Nowadays it is important to check your credit report before you apply for jobs.
Getting Your Credit Report
You are entitled to one free credit report annually from each of the three credit reporting agencies using a government mandated website, AnnualCreditReport.com. Additionally, the law entitles you to one free credit report per year when you are applying for jobs although you have to apply for this free report directly from the credit reporting agencies.
Before you go and apply for your dream job, you had better be sure there is no inaccurate, negative information about you in your credit report. But even when you're just applying for regular jobs, it is a good idea to know what your report says about you and to know that it is accurate. If you see errors in your report, the credit reporting agency displaying the errors has a process in place for you to follow to get the errors corrected.
If your credit report has accurate, negative information about you, there are things you can do to mitigate the impact of this information on your job prospects. Of course, you have to know the negative information is there if you're going to mitigate it. For example, you could mitigate the damage of some missed payments by mentioning in your cover letter or during your interview about a time you faced tough times financially but you struggled and overcame them by hard work. In doing so, you're not directly saying you were late paying bills, but you are saying something so that if prospective employers see that on the credit report, they will think back on it and may even see it as a positive.
What Employers Seek
Employers will typically look at just a few aspects of your credit report. As noted, they will look at how responsible you have been making payments. Being responsible is a must for most jobs. They also want to know how steady you are as a person, which may be indicated by how often you open and close credit card accounts. This may be seen as correlating to your level of job commitment. They may look to see if your previous addresses on your resume or job application correspond with what's in your credit report. They are looking at your level of honesty. They may look at how far back your credit report goes, as it throws up a red flag when someone of a certain age has a very brief credit history.
For the most part, employers will not care if you have one or two late payments in your credit report or a few inconsistencies here or there. They're generally more concerned with weeding out applicants who have shown a serious lack of regard for personal responsibility or ethics. On that note, some employers will just order your credit score instead of a summary of your credit history, just to ensure you don't have a really low credit score that would indicate a lack of responsibility or poor ethics. As such, all you need to really do is make sure your credit report is accurate and that you mitigate any negatives you can before you apply for jobs.


