I am presently employed, but not enjoying my job. I am not sure that I am working in an area that is of great interest to me, although it pays well. How can I determine what suits me best? I am thinking about returning to school, soon, and would like to make a career change.

– A reader

Dear Reader,

Making a career change is quite natural. Career development specialists have found, based on research, that in today’s dynamic world of work an individual may change his/her career two or three times within his/her working life.

Many mid-life career changes occur because of a lack of job satisfaction, but may also be encouraged because of redundancies and lay-offs. But whatever the reason, some people may decide to retool before re-entering the job market, as this is a convenient time to make a change.

One of the first things you need to do is engage in some self examination. Look at your interests, abilities, skills and values, then align these with various career areas. Remember, financial reward is not the only determining factor for job satisfaction. A Career Counsellor will be able to assist you.

As soon as you have clarified these issues, you will need to look at your present qualifications to determine if you need to do additional qualifying subjects for entry to a tertiary institution. Identify a few institutions, look at the duration of their programme offerings and calculate the overall cost, making allowances for annual fee adjustments.

In addition, you need to check out the marketability of the new career that you intend to pursue, not only for the local job market but also the regional and international markets.

Best wishes.

Merrit Henry is career counselor and Students Services Manager at the Placement and Career Services unit, UWI, Mona. E-mail: merrit.henry@yahoo.com