More than any other time in my career, I have had more people ask me how I started The A Group. These are entrepreneurs who for a variety of reasons find themselves in transition. Look around you. A lot of us are in transition right now. Jobs are going away or morphing into something completely different than you signed up for. Jobs that were profitable a few years ago, are disappearing today, so now you’re re-evaluating your options. If you’re considering a career change, here’s a few thoughts.

Be honest with yourself. Yes, the recession has wreaked havoc in the job market, but it’s easy to blame the economy on our bad job performance or misaligned career choice. Ask yourself, “even if times were good, was that the best job for me?” A good friend came to a sober and yet liberating realization recently. He decided that his career path was not a good fit for his skills and personality. The tough job market forced him to rethink his choices and make a change that potentially would have taken much longer to make and keep him from personally fulfilling work.

Remove old labels. What worked in a now failed economy or industry most likely will not work in the new one. Don’t try to use the language of yesterday to created the position for tomorrow. I wrote a post about that here. Think about what you can offer, deliver, fix or create for someone or organization. What need do you see in ministry or in the marketplace that you can meet? When the rules change, there are always new opportunities that arise. Design your new business or position based on the new opportunity. No matter the economic climate, if you can deliver value, you’ll always have business.

Your self worth should come from who you are and not from what you do. The argument usually goes like “but I want to do work that matters, something that makes a difference.” While I understand the sentiment behind the words, I think we might be missing the boat here. Sometimes work done well allow us to find time, resources and tools to serve, give and do ministry. Somehow we have shifted our cultural status quo ideal from a highly lucrative work towards a socially-conscientious, environmentally-friendly and animal-protecting job. But as Christians, our value and personal fulfillment should come from our view of God and His value of us and not from what we do.

We have replaced money with social conscience. While it sounds more noble, it’s no less wrong.

What trends have you notice in your profession?