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So, the first thing you need to answer for yourself is what you want kind of work you want to do now – and in the next few years. Are you interested in some sort of counseling position that utilizes your education or are you looking into other possible career paths? My best advice for you is to talk with various people to formulate some ideas on possible careers. Talk with the career services office at your alma mater, with one or more of your former professors, with your family, and with other trusted members of your network. If you did not want to go into counseling, your other career choices are really unlimited.

Next, take stock in identifying your accomplishments – in the classroom and from any kind of experiential activities (such as projects, volunteering, and work experiences). Whenever possible, quantify those accomplishments. For example, if you were a resident adviser in college, in your accomplishments section, mention how many residents you were responsible for, how many programs you developed, etc. I tell my clients this activity is where you describe how you made each job your own. As you conclude this exercise, I want you to then see if you can find the two or three accomplishments that make you unique – your unique selling proposition (USP).

The third step is writing or revising your resume to match the career field you want to enter – clearly identifying your accomplishments and your USP. You’ll also want to review all your job-hunting techniques – cover letters, interviewing skills, etc.

The final step is using your existing network of contacts while also building it with more local contacts since you plan on staying in the area. Networking is the key to getting your foot in the door to start your career. Your network of contacts – people who know you (or know people who know you) – is a key resource of information about potential job leads. You might also consider conducting a few informational interviews to learn more about possible career paths – and to build your network.

Tools from Quintessential Careers to help you in this process:

• Job-Seeker Accomplishments Worksheet
• Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
• Resume and CV Resources for Job-Seekers
• Networking Resources

Historical preservation is a growing career field – and involves many disciplines, including architecture, but also history, urban planning, environmental design, and geography.

According to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, “Positions exist at all levels of government, in nonprofit organizations, and with private firms. In the public sector, the National Park Service, state historic preservation offices, and local government preservation divisions all work to preserve America's heritage. Examples of nonprofits include the National Trust, statewide preservation organizations, and hundreds of local groups. Private firms that provide preservation expertise include architects, planners, archaeologists, and historical research firms.”

Besides national organizations, there are also state and local organizations. If this career truly interests her, I suggest she immediately talk with her professors and people from several of these preservation organizations to determine if continuing her current path is the right choice for what she wants to do.

Learn more about careers in historic preservation.

Once you have a better feel for yourself, then consider taking one or more assessment tests. Each one is different; some of these tests will give you results that give insight to your work or management style, others will show careers for people of similar types, and others will simply give you insight into who you are. For established job-seekers, my current favorite is CareerMaze (which you can find at CareerMaze.com). The results from this assessment include both a specific, career-relevant discussion of your workplace personality and a list of job types compatible with your personality. For high school or college students, I recommend the Jackson Vocational Interest Survey (JVIS). The JVIS accurately measures your interests, showing how they relate to the worlds of study and work, and mapping out your route to an interesting career (and you can find it at JVIS.com).

If you do decide to make a career change, then your next steps are identifying your transferable skills and accomplishments. Transferable skills are skills you have acquired during any activity in your life -- jobs, classes, projects, parenting, hobbies, sports, virtually anything -- that are transferable and applicable to what you want to do in your next job. General categories of transferable skills include: communications; research and planning; human relations; organization, management, and leadership; and work survival. (See the next answer for more details.)

And while I know my advice is beginning to sound repetitive, once you decide on a new career path, you MUST immediately begin building network contacts in your new field.

Finally, consider reviewing all the career change resources available at Quintessential Careers.

And since you know the career field, you can also develop specific skill sets for that particular industry, which might include skill categories such as technical, adaptability, multi-tasking, etc. Have your students conduct research of job postings for their career paths; it’s from these postings that your students should develop their skills categories. My advice is to keep the number of broad skills categories to three or four, and then to have detailed examples of the experiences with those skills within each category.

If you are advising your students to stick to chronological resumes, they can still use this skills information to rewrite how they describe their work experiences… emphasizing these skills with keywords throughout their resumes. They could also consider developing separate pages to enhance their resumes – a document for transferable skills and for completed projects.

Learn much more, including specific examples of job-seeker transferable skills, in this section of Quintessential Careers: Transferable Job Skills.

Dr. Randall S. Hansen is currently Webmaster of Quintessential Careers.

Dr. Hansen is an associate professor of marketing at the School of Business Administration, Stetson University. He has been a published career expert for the last 10 years and an employer and consultant with hiring/firing decisions for the past 15 years.

Through his experience as a professor of marketing, Dr. Hansen uses proven marketing techniques and applies them to job-hunting. He is currently working on such a book. Some of his work can be seen at his personal Web site.

He and Katharine Hansen co-wrote the very successful job-hunting book, Dynamic Cover Letters, published by Ten Speed Press. You can order copies from Barnes and Noble of this cover letter bible. He is also author of several career-related magazine and journal articles.

Finally, Dr. Hansen has been an employer and has firsthand experience in the hiring process. He also stays active in the field by reading magazine and journal articles and by talking with employers on a regular basis.