Rather than searching for another job, many people start their own consulting businesses based on the expertise, and often the contacts, they have built up in the course of their careers.    Countless numbers succeed in their new ventures, a few succeed brilliantly, and some determine that it’s not right for them.

Very talented people are unemployed right now, and, if they are like me when I was laid off in 1994, they are wondering if they can trust another employer again.  Or face another job search again.

Perhaps surprisingly, as I’ve written before, that job loss was a GIFT to me – truly a blessing in disguise!  It set me free of the corporate world.

I started my own very small consulting business in 1995.  If I screw up, I am the only one who pays the price.  If I am brilliant (and/or lucky) and do quite well, I reap all the benefits.  That seems more fair than a corporate job, and, frankly, not that much more work than my last corporate job.  It is a whole lot more rewarding, in many ways - and, actually, much, MUCH more fun!

This week on Job-Hunt, Bruce Katcher begins his column, Starting a Consulting Business, to help you consider a consulting business as, perhaps, the next step in your career.  His first article offers “7 Reasons Why Starting a Consulting Business May Be Right for You.”  It is good food for thought.

Bruce L. Katcher, Ph.D. is an Industrial/Organizational psychologist, Executive Director of The Center for Independent Consulting and president of Discovery Surveys, Inc. He is author of “An Insider’s Guide to Building a Successful Consulting Practice” (AMACOM) and “30 Reasons Employees Hate Their Managers” (AMACOM).

Starting a consulting business isn’t for everyone.  Some people seem to instantly understand it, and others seem to struggle to learn.  But both can and do succeed.  Hopefully, Bruce’s first article will be followed by many more that will help job seekers determine whether or not independent consulting is for them and figure out how to do it well.

Stay tuned…

© Copyright, 2012, Susan P. Joyce. All rights reserved.

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About the author…

Online job search expert Susan P. Joyce has been observing the online job search world and teaching online job search skills since 1995. Susan is a two-time layoff “graduate” who has worked in human resources at Harvard University and in a compensation consulting firm. In 1998, her company, NETability, Inc. purchased Job-Hunt.org, and Susan has been editor and publisher of Job-Hunt since then. Follow Susan on Twitter at @jobhuntorg.

I am a member of the Career Collective, a group of  resume writers and career coaches. Each month, all members discuss a topic, and this month’s topic is out-dated job search beliefs. Please follow our tweets on Twitter #careercollective. See the links to the other Career Collective articles at the bottom of this post.

The Numbers Game theory:

Just keep applying over and over and over and over again on every job board and employer website you can find, and sooner or later something will click. 

Like buying lottery tickets every week?  And, how well does that work for most of us!

Next to “being flexible” and “keeping your options open” (in other words, not knowing or communicating what job you want – see this post about that major mistake), this is the next most out-dated job search belief I see. 

What Does Work?

If you were responsible for hiring a new employee, you would want to hire a person you could trust and work well with, who would do a good job and make you look good to your boss.

So, assume you had these two choices. Who would you hire:

1. A total stranger.  OR
2. A person already known to you, either a member of your own personal network (LinkedIn, etc.) or referred by a current employee or by a member of your network.

You would probably pick # 2, so would – and do – most of us.  It doesn’t mean that the person carefully submitting a targeted resume with a great, customized cover letter (or email) has no chance at all.  It just means that the person known by someone trusted has a much better chance of being hired.

So, How Do You Get Known and Referred?

You find a way to connect with people who know you (hopefully):

• People you worked with in the past – colleagues, former bosses, even former subordinates.
• People who were your customers in the past.
• People who worked for your employer’s suppliers or other allied organizations.
• People you know who work for competitors of your former employers (be careful with this one).
• Participate carefully and professionally in social media online to become more “known” in a wider circle than the total stranger.

These days, your chances of connecting with former colleagues, customers, suppliers, etc. is much higher than it was in the pre-Internet (pre-LinkedIn and pre-Facebook) eras: 

• Check the LinkedIn Groups Directory to find hundreds of corporate “alumni” groups. 
• Job-Hunt links to over 250 corporate, military, and government employee “alumni” groups, most of which are not LinkedIn Groups.
• Jump on Facebook, and search for the names of people and the names of your former employers, ask your FB Friends, place a FB ad, etc.

Note!  In Jobvite’s social recruiting survey in 2010, 65% of employers surveyed reported that they rewarded the employees who referred a successful job candidate.  The employee making the referral got paid by the employer when their candidate was hired! So everyone wins!

Bottom Line

When I ask people new in their jobs how they got the job, often they tell me, “My former boss called me,” or “A guy I used to work with contacted me,” and other personal referrals.  You can be that person, too!  LinkedIn, Facebook, Google/Bing, and the Internet make it easy to reconnect with people you worked with and make it easier to become a “known quantity” to a wide circle of people.  Take the time to expand your network, and you can beat the numbers game, too.

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About the author…

Online job search expert Susan P. Joyce, USMC veteran, has been observing the online job search world and teaching online job search skills since 1995. Susan is a two-time layoff “graduate” who has worked in human resources at Harvard University and in a compensation consulting firm. In 1998, her company, NETability, Inc. purchased Job-Hunt.org, and Susan has been editor and publisher of Job-Hunt since then. Follow Susan on Twitter at @JobHuntOrg.

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The Career Collective Articles for February, 2011:

• Juice Up Your Job Search, @debrawheatman
• It’s not your age, it’s old thinking, @GayleHoward
• Want a Job? Ignore these outdated job search beliefs @erinkennedycprw
• Job Search Then and Now, @MartinBuckland @EliteResumes
• Break the Rules or Change the Game? @WalterAkana
• The New: From The Employer’s-Eye View, @ResumeService
• Job Search: Breakable Rules and Outdated Beliefs, @KatCareerGal
• Job Hunting Rules to Break (Or Why and How to Crowd Your Shadow), @chandlee @StartWire,
• Shades of Gray, @DawnBugni
• 3 Rules That Are Worth Your Push-Back, @WorkWithIllness
• Your Photo on LinkedIn – Breaking a Cardinal Job Search Rule? @KCCareerCoach
• How to find a job: stop competing and start excelling, @Keppie_Careers
• Be You-Nique: Resume Writing Rules to Break, @ValueIntoWords
• Modernizing Your Job Search, @LaurieBerenson
• Don’t Get Caught With an Old School Resume, @barbarasafani
• How Breaking the Rules Will Help You in Your Job Search, @expatcoachmegan
• 25 Habits to Break if You Want a Job, @CareerSherpa

The U.S. Department of Labor analyzes employer practices, the economy, and many other factors to develop a list of the top careers. This is the list of the top 20 careers, based on anticipated job growth, through 2018.

Choosing a New Career

Top 20 Careers through 2018

* Remember that salaries vary by location and employer, so these are not guarantees or minimums, they are what all employers across the country pay, on average.

For full-time jobs (40 hours a week), the over-time rate is 50% higher than the normal hourly rate. So if the normal hourly rate is $10, the “over-time” rate is $15 per hour. If you work 45 hours in a week, your salary would be $475: $400 (40 hours x $10/hr) plus $75 (5 hours x $15/hr).

Important Criteria:

1. Take the time to carefully consider what you enjoy doing.

Because a job you don’t enjoy is probably one you won’t do well. And, if you don’t do it well, you’ll be miserable and probably doing another career change or job search too soon.

If you don’t know exactly what you enjoy doing, read “What Color Is Your Parachute” and do all the exercises. It’s probably at your public library, your local bookstore, and – of course – all the online bookstores. 

2. Don’t undervalue something you do well just because it’s easy for you.

So often, we seem to think that something we seem to naturally do well doesn’t have any value. Think of your hobbies and your natural abilities – cooking, driving, writing, mowing, knitting, analyzing a column of numbers, or understanding how to arrange flowers attractively or keep a car engine running smoothly. We seem to think that something needs to be difficult for us to do in order to have value.

Unfortunately, doing something well doesn’t guarantee that you can “make a living” doing it, but maybe you can. Think of all the people who have turned their hobbies into successful Websites, YouTube videos, or books. 

3. Don’t let salary be your only criteria for a job.

Just because a job may pay well, doesn’t mean you would be happy or successful doing it. For example, people who are attorneys are among the best paid, but the rate of job satisfaction is often quite low.  However, the good news is that the education and experience that an attorney has is a great foundation for many, many different careers. 

Bottom Line:

If you feel you’ve run into a career “dead end,” don’t be discouraged.  We all change careers many times during our lives.  The key is to make the best-informed and best-considered change you can make for your next career.

For More Information:

See Job-Hunt’s Career Changers’ Guide to Careers for detailed data on over 200 different careers, including descriptions of what the jobs involve, and, often, videos with additional information.  Also read the articles on Career Change written by Job-Hunt’s Career Change Expert Randi Bussin.

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About the author…

Online job search expert Susan P. Joyce, USMC veteran, has been observing the online job search world and teaching online job search skills since 1995. Susan is a two-time layoff “graduate” who has worked in human resources at Harvard University and in a compensation consulting firm. In 1998, her company, NETability, Inc. purchased Job-Hunt.org, and Susan has been editor and publisher of Job-Hunt since then. Follow Susan on Twitter at @JobHuntOrg.

You’re not that crazy about your job and where it’s leading (or NOT leading).  Other jobs or careers interest you, but you prefer to avoid making the proverbial out-of-the-frying-pan-into-the fire mistake.

So what do you do now?

Speaking as a person who has made the frying-pan-fire transition at least twice and had 5 majors in 5 years of undergraduate study (I’m interested in everything!), this is not a simple question to answer, particularly when you are working full time.  Or, when you are looking for a job full time.

My advice:  Try, before you “buy!”

Having also been unfortunate enough to discover in the last semester of my 2nd senior year in college when my student teaching experience convinced me teaching high school American History or English was probably the last thing I wanted to do, trying a job before you are committed to it is smart.

So, how?

• Figure out what interests you.  What would you enjoy doing to make a living?

If possible, take some career assessments to help understand yourself better. If you’re frantic to find a new job, you may be thinking I don’t have time for this!

The reality is that this is one of the best things you can do right now.  If you don’t do it now, when will you do it?  Take the time to think about where you’re going before you get there.  What if you hate that next job and need to start looking too soon?  How does that save you time?

My two frying-pan-fire experiences happened when I was so interested in leaving a job I no longer liked that I didn’t pay enough attention to where I was going (new job).  In both cases, I was job hunting again in less than a year – in one case, less than 2 months (turned out the “assistant office manager” was the one who was supposed to clean the toilets once a week).  Who needs that aggravation?

• Once you have some possibilities in mind, talk to people who actually have those jobs.

Ask questions, like:

*   What happens in a typical day?  Typical week/month/year?

*   What are best and worst parts of the job?  What do they like/hate about the job?  What are the toughest issues/situations?  What are the most enjoyable aspects of the job?

*   What is a typical career path?  What options open up with this job on your resume?

*   What job(s), experience(s), education would be the best preparation?

*   Which are the best employers, and what makes them the best?

*   What organizations are most helpful to people with this job?

*   What education/certification is required/helpful?

*   What experience is great to have as a foundation?

Take it all in, but don’t believe 100% of it – we all have our biases and very different backgrounds.  What is a negative for one person (perhaps, all those pesky people asking too many questions) may be a positive for you (maybe, a wonderful opportunity to meet new people and learn new things).

Again, time for thinking and evaluating what you’ve heard and learned, and what you know about yourself.

DO NOT ASK THESE PEOPLE FOR A JOB!  You are asking for advice and information, not a job, and YOU pay for the coffee or lunch or whatever if it’s a face-to-face meeting.  Be sure to see  if you can help them in some way.  And, be sure to send a thank you, particularly if they’ve taken time out of their schedule to talk with you.  Respect your network!

• Test-drive the job by volunteering, if possible, or by interning.

So many worthy charitable organizations, even political campaigns, need help!  Find one you believe in, and see if you can help them in a way that also helps you.  Thinking about changing from journalism to PR, offer to help with the organization’s PR.  Thinking about changing from HR to marketing, offer to help with their HR.  I know so many people who kicked off their Web development/marketing careers by working on their church’s Website or their kid’s hockey team or hockey league.  It happens!

Of course, other big benefits from volunteering include filling an experience or skill gap in your resume, perhaps gaining a good recommendation, relevant to the field you want next, and – of course – expanding your network!

Bottom Line

Sometimes change is involuntary (read Involuntary Change Can Be Good), and even when it is involuntary, doing some solid research can help you avoid grabbing the first frying-pan-to-fire job opportunity you have.

About the author…

Online job search expert Susan P. Joyce has been observing the online job search world and teaching online job search skills since 1995. Susan is a two-time layoff “graduate” who has worked in human resources at Harvard University and in a compensation consulting firm. In 1998, her company, NETability, Inc. purchased Job-Hunt.org, and Susan has been editor and publisher of Job-Hunt since then. Follow Susan on Twitter at @jobhuntorg.