Nataly Otero
May 9th, 2014
Term Paper
Career Transition: How to make the change a successful one.
Introduction
In the past years has been really common of people continuing change of organization or the lack of holding a job for a long period because life continues a periodic change and society ask for people to remain in constant change. This change can be seen when comparing different generations; in past generation people spent their lives working for a single company until retirement. In today’s workplace people had to adapt to the rapidly change in the work environment.
While employees in some cultures and economies stay with one job during their career, there is an increasing trend to employees changing jobs more frequently. The main reason of this is because organizations has been affected for society economy and new global world. Companies have been focusing in downsizing, restructuring, corporate takeovers, and outsourcing, therefore jobs that once people believed to offer lifelong job security no longer have such guarantees

As mentioned in the essay “Career Transition Education Resources” by Sandra Myers:
Career transition can be a daunting process for many workers who are unsatisfied with their current careers, or who find that their skills are becoming outdated. Colleges and universities, state job service agencies, private companies, and even some employers are all ready to help workers by offering job training, tools for job searching, and tips for interviewing and writing effective résumés and cover letters. Resources are also available for workers transitioning into retirement or for those who are considering starting a small business.

As mentioned in the Queensland Government Department of Education a job is a paid position requiring a group of specific attributes and skills that enable a person to perform tasks in an organization either part-time or full-time for a short or long duration. While a career is the sequence and variety of occupations which one undertakes throughout a lifetime. A career is often composed of the jobs held, titles earned and work accomplished over a long period of time, rather than just referring to one position.
A career change has always been part of the workforce, because people sometime have the needs to change their career life choices. Sometimes the reason of that career change can be because voluntary or involuntary reasons. As mentioned in the article “Voluntary Midlife Career Change:
Integrating the Trans-theoretical, Model and the Life-Span, Life-Space Approach” Career change may take place at any age across the life span; however, a critical time for a change is during middle adulthood. Before starting a career transition there are some stages before as mentioned in Midlife Transition Decision Processes and Career Success: The Role of Identity, Networks and Shocks there is a career identity or career shock after there is a career review and a career identity discrepancy judgment. After the network range, the career transition consideration takes place and the career transition magnitude, at last the career outcomes.
A career transition is the process of finding and moving into a new career. There is no set period of time for career transition and no limit to the number of times you might decide to change. The transition period may start years before you consciously decide to make any change. (Work Coach Cafe webpage)
As explained in the “Career Transition and Change by H. Ibarra” People change career because exogenous conditions and individual factors can pull the person towards a new career path. This factors can be the external market forces that determine what alternative are available, this could be the result of restricting or downsizing. Also there is a self-conception that motivates people to change from an established career path, such as, reward preference, reduce of opportunities to work towards one’s career goals.
As explained in the article “How to prepare