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Welcome to the Green Career Tip of the Week

Online Version of this Issue                                         Green Career Tips Archive

 

Are you ready to take your quest for your green career to the next level? Then check out our special announcement about the Jump Start Your Green Career Intensive coming soon.

More teleclasses and events are coming your way. Find out more in the Highlighted Events section.

What steps should you take to transition to your green career? In this week's tip I'll give you the strategy for those of you who have a job now and want to transition to a new green career. Next week I'll outline the strategy for those of you who are currently unemployed.

 

All the best,

Carols Signature

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Special Announcement

Jump Start Your Green Career Intensive

Are you ready to take your quest for your green career to the next level?
Join us for the Jump Start Your Green Career Intensive!
May 20th – July 1st

As a result of this workshop by phone, you will:

  • Be able to state your green career goal with confidence, clarity, and enthusiasm.
  • Know how to use your goal to guide your research, networking, and education choices.
  • Have a personalized plan to guide your actions as you pursue your green career.

This 7-week intensive teleclass, facilitated by Carol McClelland and her team of career coaches, helps you shorten your path to your green career. Check out the details!

Early Bird Pricing until May 7th

 

Highlighted Events

Members Only Teleclass Events for April


Members Only Guest Interview - This month join us for our guest interview with Elinor Stutz, author of the upcoming book entitled HIRED! Did you know the interview really isn’t about you? Discover how you can use sales techniques to position yourself to outshine your competition. Even if you aren't quite ready to interview for your green job, use this opportunity to improve your interviewing skills.

 

Wednesday, April 28, 5 PM Pacific 8 PM Eastern - TONIGHT!
Log in to Register

We are putting together our Members Only events for May… stay tuned for the dates.

Upcoming Talks in the San Francisco Bay Area

Green to Gold: Get On Board the Cleantech/Green Business Revolution
Santa Clara
May 12, 2010
For more information and to RSVP, click here.

Connectivity Week - May 24-27, 2010 - Carol will give a talk entitled "How to Make the Most of Connections You Make During Connectivity Week" during the career development track.

May 26, 2010
Santa Clara
Register

Tip of the Week: Transitioning to a Green Career --- When You Are Currently Employed

 

The steps you’ll take to reach your green career goal depend on your current situation. If you are currently employed in a traditional job and interested in searching for a green job, your path is going to be a bit different from someone who is currently not working.

  • Today we are highlighting the process for those currently employed.
  • Next week we’ll cover tips for those who are not working at this time.

Your Challenges

Given your current workload… your biggest challenge is likely to be your time!

  • Where do you find the time to focus on yourself?
  • How do you fit in extra tasks associated with discovering what you want to do in the green economy?
  • How do you schedule in the longer term projects (short term projects, classes, volunteering) required to prepare for your new career?

Your Opportunities

The fact that you are employed gives you several distinct benefits.

  • Although you may need to readjust your priorities, you have money to invest in your future.
  • You can pace yourself during your transition to a green career.
  • You can plan your moves strategically.
  • You have the opportunity to interact with people through your regular job activities.
  • Depending on your interests, you may be able to find ways to green the position you have.

How to Focus Your Time

Transitioning to a new career – green or otherwise – takes time. There’s no way around that fact. The key to speeding up your journey is to take the process one step at a time. (If you are a Green Career Central member, you’ll see I’ve added a few notes for you so that you can connect the dots between this article and the resources you have access to as a member.)

 

The first part of your journey is one of self-discovery. By assessing your passions and interests and exploring the overall green economy you can pinpoint your green career direction, your green niche.

 

You can block out time in your schedule to do this self-reflection and exploration. Depending on how you work best, you may prefer to set up an hour or so each day, or you may want to set aside several hours at a time. To make the most of your time during this phase, you’ll want to make sure these times are uninterrupted.

(If you are a Green Career Central member, you can use the articles in Steps 1 – 3 to focus your exploration sessions or you can participate in our Jump Start Your Green Career Intensive.)

The goal of the second part of your journey is to research your career options.

 

Usually it works best to start by researching your green career options online. You might spend a few weeks exploring relevant sites to pull together a clear picture of your target green industries. You’ll be able to conduct your research on your own time – whether it’s early in the day before you go to work, during your lunch hour, after work or over the weekend. Fit your research into your schedule as you can.

The foundation of knowledge you develop becomes the jumping off point for the conversations you have with people who work within your target green industries. Although you can build your network online, you’ll also need to figure out how to connect with people for informational interviews and conversations to learn more about your target industry. Unless you are talking with people you know well, you’ll need to get creative about when you’ll connect with them – during lunch, right after work, on a day off, or during a break.

(As a Green Career Central member, you can use Steps 4 and 5 to guide your actions during this phase of your journey.)

During your next phase, you’ll be building your experience and knowledge to demonstrate that you are prepared for your target green career.

 

Depending on your background and your target green career, you’ll need to develop a strategy to strengthen your skills, knowledge, green values, and experience. This step entails attending professional meetings, volunteering, taking classes, and gaining relevant work experience. In most cases this is the most challenging aspect of transitioning to your green career. Early in your journey choose opportunities that are interesting to you.

Then as you establish your focus, it’s time to choose your activities more strategically. Make sure each of your activities plays a specific role in moving you closer to your green career goal. To be as efficient as possible, work through the previous phases (Steps 1-5) to identify your target career before you invest your time, energy, and funds in activities to build your experience portfolio.

Depending on your current employment situation, you may have a few months or even a couple of years to prepare for your next career move, or you may need to move your plan along to get out of a company that’s not a good fit for you. Determine your desired timeline and make plans accordingly.

(Articles in Step 6 on Green Career Central will give you pointers on how to choose activities to strengthen your experience.)

In the final phase, your goal is to start your green job search or prepare to launch your green business.

 

As you no doubt know, embarking on a job search or a green business takes time, commitment, and dedication. By the time you reach this point in your journey, you’ll have a much clearer idea what steps you need to take to achieve your goal. In addition, your clarity and motivation will help you stay focused and in motion.

If you aren’t yet clear about your green career goal, it may seem a bit overwhelming to envision this part of the process. Don’t let your feelings stop you in your tracks. Start with where you are in the process… by the time you get to this point, you’ll be able to see what steps to take.

You’ll be able to choose when you actually make the move from your current job to your green career. The benefit of taking it step by step is that you’ll have a good sense of your industry, the players, and whether the offers you get are a good fit for you at that time. You won’t have to make your decision on the fly with little knowledge; you’ll be in the driver’s seat, able to make a sound decision about your next move.

(Step 7 on Green Career Central gives you the guidance you need to move forward to reach your goal.)

Your Long Term Results

By taking these steps in order, you’ll leverage your time and effort. You’ll keep your focus and get results. By building on one step after the other, you’ll begin to experience a sense of momentum. Your clarity and focus will pay off in the form referrals, contacts, opportunities, and job openings.

Although at first glance it may feel as though this process will take a long time, you’ll find that the journey itself is exciting. As soon as you gain a clear vision of your green career direction (in Step 3), each step you complete will take you closer and closer to reaching your goal. Each step of the way you’ll feel motivated, knowledgeable, engaged, and excited about your future.

Enjoy the journey!

Copyright © 2010 Transition Dynamics Enterprises, Inc.

Green Career Central Blog:

 

Follow the Green Money: This week solar, plug in hybrid, energy retrofits, and lithium-ion batteries are receiving money in the form of venture capital, loan agreements and grants.

Green Career Trends: Trends this week include a new California Public Utilities Commission ruling that requires utilities to make energy consumption information available to rate payers and third parties. This opens new opportunities for real time reporting software. Waste, recycling and bike sharing programs also make the trends post this week.

 

Membership Has Its Advantages!

If you are searching for your place in the green economy, check out how Green Career Central can help you shorten the path to your green career.

  • You'll find green economy resources you can use to explore green industries and the green economy.
  • You'll gain access to the 7 Steps to Your Green Career, a step-by-step sequence of actionable tasks you can take to reach your green career goal.
  • You'll discover sources of support to help you stay focused and make progress faster.

"It's a hard to find an investment these days that pays for itself many times over but the annual fee for joining Green Career Central is certainly worth every penny. The process laid out is structured and easy to follow. It takes you through the steps to get a truer understanding what your interests and skills are and makes you excited about researching your career options, while giving you a sense of progress and accomplishment. Thanks Carol."

~WG Becoming an Energy Systems Consultant

 

Read what other members are saying about Green Career Central.

 

What's New at GreenCareerCentral.com

Do You Know How Well Your Green Career Search Is Going?

Have you checked out your progress? With our new Green Career Scorecard you can invest just five minutes to discover exactly where you need to focus your efforts to get the biggest results. Throughout the survey results you’ll find direct links to the articles that will be most relevant to where you are right now.

Listen to Our Interviews

We have five different kinds of interviews to pique your interest and inform you about the green economy.

Scan Our Green Job Board Reviews

If you are looking for additional sources of job opportunities, you might want to check out our 80 job board reviews. We’ve written reviews of general job boards, profession specific job boards, governmental job boards, regional job boards, non-profit job boards and international job boards.

Did You Know...

...if you missed a Tip of the Week, you can read the archived publications?

Green Career Tips Archive

 

About Us

Green Career CentralTM is an online resource center to help mid-career professionals, students, new grads, and career counselors make sense of the green economy and the green job market.

Carol McClelland, PhD, author of Green Careers for Dummies, is one of the nation’s leading green career experts. Throughout her career, Carol has helped thousands of people find work that matches their values and interests.

In addition to writing Green Careers for Dummies, Carol is the Founder and Executive Director of Green Career Central. This online resource center provides career guidance, coaching, and resources to clarify the ever-evolving world of green career possibilities for students, professionals, and career counselors.

Carol is driven by three passions: guiding people to discover fulfilling careers aligned with their values, learning about innovations that enable people to live, work, and play more sustainably, and marveling at the inspiring wisdom of nature.

Join Us Now!

Copyright (c) 2007-2010. Transition Dynamics Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Green Career CentralTM is a trademark of Transition Dynamics Enterprises, Inc

PO Box 354, Menlo Park, CA 94026
650 322 8661 | Contact

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