Picture this, it's Sunday evening, you're sitting on your porch sipping a cold drink watching the sun go down over the hills as a cool breeze blows gently through the yard. You can hear the neighborhood kids playing across the field and a dog barking in the distance. Suddenly all goes silent, a shiver runs down your spine and you are overcome by a feeling of impending doom. You've just realized you have to go to work tomorrow.

Sound familiar? It was all too familiar to me. I've hated almost every job I had. Changing careers can be a difficult transition at any age. I am somewhat of an authority on this subject, having changed careers no less than 6 times in my 50 years on this planet. I have gone from steel fabrication to carpentry, back to steel, to real estate sales, back to carpentry, to insurance sales, back to steel, to automobile sales and finally to copywriting. I seem to be good at changing careers, but not so good at choosing which career to switch to.

Throughout all of this, I have managed to learn a few things (mostly the hard way) about how to make the transition as smooth as possible. So, when you find yourself in a dead end job and you know you have to leave, for your own mental health, and maybe even the safety of your co-workers, here's what to do.

First, decide what you want to do. You can start by making a list of all the things you don't want in a career. This will help you decide what you do want. I'll give you an example, when I was about 45 years old, I decided that I wasn't much into physical labor anymore. I wasn't too old; my body just didn't like me very much when I did it. So I made a list of all the things that I didn't want. No physical labor, no long commute, no crazy hours, and no more lousy pay. Then I knew that I wanted a good paying job that was close by, with decent hours and was physically easy on my young body.

Next you must do some research. I went online and googled and yahooed and everything else I could think of to find out what kind of careers met my criteria and interested me. This can take a long time and, if like me, you have no college degree, and have been a blue collar worker most of your life, can be kind of discouraging. But don't give up! There is something out there that you, can do, will enjoy doing, and will pay well.

You might want to make a list of all the careers that interest you, then, ask a series of questions for each to see if it fits. Just keep narrowing down the list with more questions. Remember, you probably don't want to do this as many times as I have, so take your time and be choosey.

O.K., now you know what your next career is going to be. What do you need to be, do, and have to do it? Do you need schooling, experience, or some special skills? Will you need a new wardrobe? How about tools? Figure out what you need, then TAKE ACTION! Without action, nothing happens. Learn what you need to learn, buy what you need to buy, and do what you need to do, to get what you want. One word of caution: don't quit your old job too soon. Another thing I learned from experience.

You will soon be comfortably set in your new career. Now maybe you can enjoy that lazy Sunday evening on your porch watching the sun go down. Have a nice cold drink for me.

Learn more about this author, Jeff Denoncourt.
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