Career Choices for Ex-offenders
Take time to assess your skills, set goals and research the right careers for you. Making a career plan instead of looking for just any job will make your employment search more focused and effective.
Finding employment is an important part of making a successful transition after being incarcerated. In addition to the income brought in by working, having steady employment also provides:
- A chance to prove you are dependable and self-reliant
- An opportunity to learn about different cultures and ideas
- A feeling of pride and accomplishment
Taking time to make a career plan and thinking about which jobs are right for you will make your employment search more focused and effective.
Career vs. job
It's true that you might have to first take a job that you don't like. But after you have gained some work experience, you will want to find a job that matches your career goals, economic needs and your interests.
Your career is a combination of education, training, past jobs and other experience related to a specific occupation or career cluster. A job is what you do to earn a paycheck and gain new skills.
A person who has a career has thought about what type of work he wants to be doing in five or 10 years and what it will take to get there. Having a career is not difficult, but it does takes planning.
Creating a career plan has three main steps: Assess Yourself, Set Goals and Research Careers.
1. Assess yourself
Assessing yourself includes knowing what type of jobs match your interests and personality. It also includes thinking about type of skills you can offer an employer.
Ex-offenders who know what type of skills they have and why employers are interested in these skills are more likely to find a job that is a good match for their career goals.
2. Set goals
A goal is simply what you'd like to accomplish in your career and some ideas about how you will achieve that goal. Most long-term goals can be accomplished through a series of smaller and short-term goals.
If you know which career path you want to pursue, list the skills and education required for your career goal. In addition to doing the regular job search activities (create a resume, practicing interview skills, etc.), an ex-offender will also want to know if there are any barriers that might make reaching your goal difficult.
3. Research careers
The more you know about a career path, the better prepared you will be to job search. For example, if you are interested in a health care career, it's important to know which occupations require which levels of education, and what those occupations pay.
Another part of researching careers is understanding background checks and other parts of the hiring process. Knowing what information employers are looking for and how they use that information will help you to better prepare for interviews.
