Reinventing your career in a tough economy

Eve Tahmincioglu • Profile • E-mail

In this economy, there's a lot of talk these days about the importance of reinventing your career, especially if your industry or profession is dying.

But where the heck do you begin?

In 2001, Sheila Keahey was laid off for a second time after 11 years in the financial sector, this time from her job as a financial analyst for a telecommunications firm in Dallas.

“I was fed up,” says Keahey, who had relocated to Texas from New Jersey for the job a year earlier. “I knew I had to do something else.”

Unfortunately, she didn’t know exactly what that “something else” was, so she embarked on a journey to find out.

She tried substitute teaching and even worked as a sales associate at Neiman Marcus, but she couldn’t find her niche. The full-time retail job wasn’t paying the bills, so she started looking for a temporary position to supplement her income.

In the back of her mind, she had always been interested in health care, so she took a temp job at a local teaching hospital as a senior administrative assistant. There she was exposed to a profession she knew little about: medical coding.

“Here I am with an MBA doing administrative work, but I knew it would be a stepping stone for me,” she says.

Indeed, her step down paid off. Today, Keahey is a medical coder helping to manage health information for Parkland Health & Hospital System in Dallas.

Her story shows that it’s not always a direct route from your present career to a new one. Sometimes you may have to try lots of things in order to find out what’s right for you, and you may also have to swallow your pride and pay some dues along the way.

Identifying your transferable skills
“There’s an idealism in this economy that you should be making decisions out of passion, but that’s not always how it works,” says Marci Alboher, author of “One Person/Multiple Careers.”

Depending on your financial situation, you may not have the luxury to sit around waiting for a career eureka moment. That means you have to be proactive, realistic and take a structured approach when figuring out what to do.

“Start investigating yourself and identify your transferable skills,” says Alboher. “You should do an inventory of your skills and talents and go with the opportunities available to you.”

Special Report: Reinventing America As the economy gets uglier, Americans are adapting to the crisis. Here are their stories. About the series PART 1 Recession leaving some couples without work Vote: Which generation is suffering most? New beginnings: Your reinvention stories PART 2 Gen Xers get hit with a double whammy Reinventing your career |  8 reinvention tips PART 3 Boomers face stark choices in bleak economy Moving on: Diary of a busted Boomer PART4 Recession transforming the U.S. jobs picture Michigan looks to jump-start stalled careers For some, franchising a viable career path Downturn puts trucking firms in driver's seat Have a story idea? Send an e-mail to .

Once you come up with four or five ideas, Alboher suggests you find out more about what those careers or jobs entail and whether they’re right for you. Then you can assess what you need to do to reach your new career goal, such as whether you need to relocate to a new city or go back to school for more training.

That’s just what Keahey did. She had a strong foundation in numbers and data, but she knew she’d need further education to become a certified medical coder. She wrote out a map for her new career aspiration, including everything from the schooling she’d need to how she’d be able to survive financially in the interim.

She e-mailed all the health information management departments at hospitals in her area and ended up getting hired in yet another entry-level position by Children’s Medical Center of Dallas. One of the perks there was tuition assistance, which allowed her to take online courses from the University of Alabama. Because of her already extensive educational background, she was able to complete her four-year degree in one and a half years.

“I love what I’m doing now. I have no regrets,” she says about leaving finance career behind.

MORE FROM REINVENTING AMERICA

Reinventing America Section Front

Great Recession transforms the workplace As fees rise, airlines test flier limits Census: Americans hit hard by downturn How one family eliminated $106,000 of debt Credit crunch creates a delicate balancing act Urgency for new financial rules is slipping away Frugality is the new normal, by necessity For class of 2009, degree doesn’t mean a job NYT: Rise of the super-rich hits sobering wall Frustration rising over mortgage relief Reinventing America Section Front   Add Reinventing America headlines to your news reader: