Make a Career Change Your New Year's Resolution

You may be ready for a career change if you're feeling job burnout, your job is causing you excessive stress, or the job outlook in your career field has worsened. Also, if your career has begun to bore you or your personal circumstances have changed, it may indeed be time to think about making that career change.

As you begin researching your next career, you might consider some of today's most popular professional fields: business, criminal justice, health care, and information technology. The challenging positions in the business field include jobs as an advertising manager, financial analyst, loan officer, travel agent and underwriter, while the opportunities in the criminal justice area include jobs as a bailiff, bounty hunter, crime scene investigator (CSI), paralegal or sheriff.

When choosing amongst jobs in health care, you might consider positions as a child advocate, counseling psychologist, dental hygienist, physical therapist, or a social worker. Jobs in the booming information technology field include work as a computer programmer, database administrator, information security systems manager, network adminstrator, and web designer.

Many of these exciting professions can be seen in pop culture, whether on television or the big screen. Arts & Entertainment Networks' "Dog the Bounty Hunter" is a reality television show that follows Duane "Dog" Chapman's job at Da Kine Bail Bonds in Honolulu, Hawaii. The Emmy award-winning "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" on CBS chronicles the investigations of a team of forensic scentists as they try to unravel the circumstances behind mysterious and unusual deaths. A young computer programmer shared the big screen with Bruce Willis in "Live Free or Die Hard", while the AMC cable network's "Mad Men" takes place at a fictional New York City advertising agency.

If you've decided that a career change is in the works for 2008, the next step is to make it happen. Here's a step-by-step way to get that started:

• Get introspective. Take a look at yourself and figure out your likes and dislikes. Ask yourself a series of critical questions: What do you enjoy doing? What is your passion? What are the things you value most in a career, and what are your talents and personality traits? Knowing yourself and what you're seeking will help guide your search.
• Identify your possible careers. Spend time researching potential professional fields. Don't just stop at online research — get in touch with the people in the field you're considering and get the real inside track. Networking and finding mentors who can guide you on your way can be invaluable here.
• Make a list of your transferable skills. The things you learned in your previous career may be very applicable to your new line of work. Identify the talents that can help you in your future profession.
• Identify your new career and set the goals to get you there. By this point you should know what you want to do — this is the time to figure out how you're going to achieve that goal. Online education programs and online degrees can be very helpful when it comes to getting the career training you need to get a great job in your new field.
• Get career training. Enrolling in a degree education program or further career training classes will give you that leg up you'll need in your new profession. An online degree can help you start the New Year — and your new career — on the right note.