How does it happen? Perhaps you just begin to lose interest. Perhaps you find something that interests you more. Perhaps your company is downsizing. These are just some of the numerous reasons people find themselves on that precipitous cliff looking back on their career just as the dirt begins to crumble beneath them.

Are you facing that career change plunge? Do you wish you were? Take it slowly and make sure what you really want to do is change careers. Then use this 10-step plan, and you will be on much more sure footing -- and on a path toward career change success. Finally, remember that career change is a natural life progression; most studies show that the average job-seeker will change careers (not jobs) several times over the course of his or her lifetime.

Step 1: Assessment of Likes and Dislikes. A lot of people change careers because they dislike their job, their boss, their company. So, identifying the dislikes is often the easier part of this step; however, you will not know what direction to change your career unless you examine your likes. What do you really like doing when you're at work, when you're at home - in your spare time. What excites you and energizes you? What's your passion? If you're really unsure, consider taking one of more of these career assessments. The key is spending some time rediscovering yourself -- and using your self-assessment to direct your new career search. 

Step 2: Researching New Careers. Once you've discovered (or rediscovered) your passion, spend some time researching the types of careers that center around your passions. Don't worry if you're feeling a bit unsure or insecure -- it's a natural part of the career change process. How much research you do also partly depends on how much of a change you're making; for example, changing from a teacher to a corporate trainer versus switching from a nurse to a Web designer.

Step 3: Transferable Skills. Leverage some of your current skills and experiences to your new career. There are many skills (such as communications, leadership, planning, and others) that are transferable and applicable to what you want to do in your new career. You may be surprised to see that you already have a solid amount of experience for your new career.

Step 4: Training and Education. You may find it necessary to update your skills and broaden your knowledge. Take it slowly. If the skill you need to learn is one you could use in your current job, see if your current employer would be willing to pick up the tab. And start slowly. Take a course or two to ensure you really like the subject matter. If you are going for a new degree or certification, make sure you check the accreditation of the school, and get some information about placement successes.

Step 5: Networking. One of the real keys to successfully changing careers will be your networking abilities. People in your network may be able to give you job leads, offer you advice and information about a particular company or industry, and introduce you to others so that you can expand your network. Even if you don't think you already have a network, you probably do - consider colleagues, friends, and family members. You can broaden your network through joining professional organizations in your new field and contacting alumni from your college who are working in the field you want to enter. A key tool of networking is being active in social networking sites like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.

Step 6: Gaining Experience. Remember that, in a sense, you are starting your career again from square one. Obtaining a part-time job or volunteering in your new career field not only can solidify your decision, but give you much needed experience in your new career. You might also want to consider temping in your new field. Work weekends, nights, whatever it takes to gain the experience.

Step 7: Find a Mentor. Changing careers is a major life decision that can get overwhelming at times. Find a mentor who can help you through the rough patches. Your mentor may also be able to help you by taking advantage of his or her network. A mentor doesn't have to be a highly placed individual, though the more powerful the mentor, the more success you may have in using that power to your advantage.

Step 8: Changing In or Out. Some people change careers, but never change employers. Unfortunately, only the very progressive employers recognize that once happy employees can be happy and productive again - in a different capacity. It's more than likely that you will need to switch employers to change fields, but don't overlook your current employer. Remember not to start asking about a job switch until you are completely ready to do so.

Step 9: Job-Hunting Basics. If it's been a while since you've had to use your job-hunting tools and skills, now is the time for a refresher course.

Step 10: Be Flexible. You'll need to be flexible about nearly everything - from your employment status to relocation and salary. Set positive goals for yourself, but expect setbacks and change - and don't let these things get you down. Besides totally new careers, you might also consider a lateral move that could serve as a springboard for a bigger career change. You might also consider starting your own business or consulting as other avenues.

Catgory : News       Posted : 15th Oct, 2012

Six ways to foster solid relationships with clients, year after profitable year

Your business thrives on you making contacts and getting new business. What happens after you've made the sale and they are now a client? How often should you be in touch with that person? What are some rules of thumb for keeping in touch and nurturing your relationship? Staying in touch is an important part of the networking process. Here are several tips for keeping in touch and strengthening your business relationships:

1. Spread out your contacts. Regardless of the type of relationship with your clients, regular contact is generally good. Two short meetings or phone calls are more beneficial than one long session. Each meeting becomes an opportunity to strengthen the relationship and to enhance your visibility and recognition.

2. Schedule predictably. Stay in touch with your clients regularly. Train them to expect to hear from you at certain times. For example, if you usually contact certain customers during the first week of every quarter, they will come to expect it and will budget time for you. If they don't hear from you, they may actually call to see how you are doing on their own.

3. Make each contact lead to the next. Before concluding a meeting or telephone conversation, schedule the date of your next contact. In written correspondence, close by stating the date your customer should expect to hear from you again: "I'll send you a note or e-mail by the end of the quarter." Having made the commitment, you're more likely to follow through. This practice establishes a chain of contacts, with each meeting leading to the next.

4. Assume responsibility for making contact. You can't control whether clients will contact you, but you can control when you contact them. Take the initiative; stay in touch with your customers. This is especially important for your most important clients. When clients or customers do not feel cared for, they are more likely to try someone else. By staying in touch with them, you are much more likely to head off potential problems down the road.

5. Invite them to networking events. One way of making sure to stay in contact with your customers is to invite select ones to some of the networking events that you go to. This is a great way to meet with them periodically while getting you out of your cave to network and to meet other people.

6. Stick to your plan. As you achieve success in establishing routines with your sources, some of them may begin taking initiative with contact. Don't let this interfere with your contact schedule--that is, when they initiate the call, don't count it as one of the contacts you've scheduled.

About 45 lakh people in the textile sector have lost jobs in the last two years mainly due toglobal economic slowdown and problems at domestic front, apparel exporters body AEPC said today.

"About 7-10 per cent people have already lost their jobs in the textile sector in the last two years and still it is continuing. If the government will not intervene immediately, more and more people may lose their jobs," Apparel Export Promotion Council Chairman A Sakthivel said today.

The textiles industry employs about 4.5 crore people. He said that domestic banks are not cooperating and this is acting as a double-whammy for the sector, which is already in trouble due to economic crisis in the US and Europe. These two markets account for almost 65 per cent of the country's textile exports.

"Banking is one of the biggest problems for the industry. Banks are giving closure notices. Several small units are facing closures due to credit problem. Banks also create problems in giving credit at affordable rates," he said.

The industry has requested the RBI for restructuring of loans, the chairman said. According to estimates, the sector has a loan burden of about Rs 1 lakh crore.

The sector firstly saw a sudden rise in cotton and cotton yarn prices in October 2010, followed by crash in yarn prices from April 2011 due to poor demand in western markets, leading to a massive credit crisis in the industry.

"The sector is also facing problems of rise in raw material prices and high cost of credit," Sakthivel said.

He demanded export sops, interest subsidy in addition to assured raw material supply to deal with the difficult economic situation.

"To overcome this problem, the government should give 2 per cent interest subsidy to the sector in the forthcoming foreign trade policy. Increase in investment will help in stopping job losses," he said.

He also called for a regular policy on cotton exports so that buffer stock can be announced and maintained.

Besides, the chairman suggested other export incentives, ranging from benefits of the Market Linked Focus Product Scheme to the Focus Market Scheme, which can be used to push garment export.

Study says higher staff demands in sectors like healthcare, pharma, telecom and energy is one of the major factor for narrowing salary gap

Press Trust of India / New Delhi Jun 25, 2012, 17:46 IST

The gap between salaries paid to temporary and permanent employees are coming down, spurred by rising demand for temporary staff especially in fast-growing sectors such as healthcare and pharma, says a report.

An analysis by HR firm TeamLease Services has shown the difference between temporary and permanent staff salaries came down to around 4% over the past five years.

The relatively low gap, compared to 8% in 2008, comes against the backdrop of stupendous rise of temp-staffing industry -- that is estimated to be growing as much as 20% annually in terms of salary hike.

The report said that higher staff demands in sectors like healthcare, pharma, telecom and energy is one of the major factor for narrowing salary gap.

"...With more and more traditional sectors recognising temporary hiring as a key people staffing strategy, the trajectory is clearly in the direction of growth in hiring and salary increments," TeamLease Services Senior Vice President and Co-founder Sangeeta Lala said.

"The depression in 2008-09 did have an impact on the temp staffing industry, but it did recover well as is evident from the analysis. Temporary staffing industry continued to clock double digit growth (between going up to 20%) year-on-year in terms of salary hike," the report said.

From a temporary salary perspective, healthcare and pharma have shown the most impressive growth over the years as salaries grew by 7.96% in 2010, followed by 12.07% in 2011 and 18.87%  in 2012, indicating a nearly 45% growth every year.

On the contrary, telecom space which showed great promise in early 2009-2010 could not live up to the expectations and slumped to single digit growth in 2012.

In the year 2010, temporary salary in the telecom space grew by 7.7% and took a significant leap to 11.13% the following year. However in 2012, the salary growth slipped back to 7.62%.

The report revealed that there are certain industry-city pairs that are soon going to be impossible to beat, because they seem to be outperforming the market.

The most effective of these pairs in terms of incrementing salaries are automobile operations in Chennai, Food and hospitality business in Delhi, Mumbai's healthcare and pharma sector and IT space in Bangalore.

The report was examined among 318 different job profiles, 13 industries and 8 functional domains in 14 major locations in the country.

In 1998 the American Management Consultancy, McKinsey & Co coined the phrase The War for Talent about the problem facing many large American companies at the time, namely the recruitment and retention of executives. The report struck a chord because it coincided with increasing globalization of business; the boom in world economies; and the growing recognition of people as a source of competitive advantage. Success in this new world depended on a pool of skilled labour at a time when the demand for it was beginning to outstrip supply. Soon the war for talent went from being about filling a few senior positions, to recruitment problems at all levels. Talent and talent management became global phenomena across a wide range of business sectors.

As the war for talent spilled over into the legal profession, skills shortages were reported from across specialities and geographies as far afield as Japan, South Africa and Canada. There were shortages of lawyers to draft legislation in the Pacific region, federal prosecutors in Long Island and specialist lawyers in the Caribbean. These were serious resourcing problems and solutions were needed quickly. In the UK, a better work life balance was proposed as a way of keeping key lawyers in the profession. The American Bar Association thought that- shifting the age of retirement- might be one way of dealing with talent shortages by giving people longer careers; of seeing retirement as ‘more of a journey than a destination.’  And throughout the world, there was talk of creating corporate cultures that met career aspirations, and investing more in staff development as ways to retain key staff.

But, what of now? Has the worldwide recession created such a glut of legal staff seeking work that the war for talent is effectively over?

At one end of the scale- such as M&A, where legalweek.com reported a 70% fall in UK activity to the 1st Quarter of 2009- pressures to recruit were lower than for some time. Indeed, some Partner cuts or delays in promotion rounds were forecast in the City from corporate restructuring caused by the economic crisis. At the other end of the scale, the legal implications of the fallout from the crisis are significant. As one contributor to the Wall Street Journal recently noted in the wake of the growing workload resulting from shareholder and securities fraud suits, ‘Lawyers will be employed for a while.’

Is the war for talent in the legal profession over? Maybe the jury is still out.