As job seekers exhaust the available resources and tools in search of employment they are left with plenty of time to reflect on their career choices. Due to high unemployment rates job seekers are experiencing a longer than normal duration of unemployment, which has afforded them the opportunity to consider a career change.
In Part 3 of the “Simply Hired” survey, respondents said they are now seeking opportunities where they can transfer their skills to new careers. Below are some tings learned from their responses.
- Job seekers are seeking career changes because the can’t find a job in current career (37%), are unhappy with current career (28%), or said it depends on the opportunity (23%). In contrast, some (7%) said they love what they do, while another (5%) said they felt it was too late to consider a career change.
- When asked about the relevance of work to their college degree, (26%) said their degree was relevant, (21%) said somewhat relevant, and a staggering (53%) said “not even close”
- (35%) said they would go back to school to help with their career change, others (10%) said they would take an unpaid internship, and (42%) said they would consider an internship depending on the experience or the company.
- Recent polls found that if given the choice, (59%) of job seekers would prefer to work from home doing contract jobs for various companies rather than (41%) those who would prefer to work in a traditional office setting.
- When asked about self-employment, (36%) said they would consider it, (28%) said they would definitely want to start their own company, (18%) already have, and the remaining (18%) said ‘no way’.
