13 tips for success

Jurgen Wolff suggests a number of basic steps that can help anybody move creatively into a new job.

Ask yourself if you really want to change jobs. Finding a new job and making the transition is a major undertaking. Look carefully at the reasons why you are not happy in your current position first. If salary is the main reason for your dissatisfaction and you have a tendency to lack assertiveness, pluck up the courage and discuss the issue with your boss. 

If you're planning to leave your job, prepare first. Get new skills (such as learning another language or learning software programmes) while you're still earning.

If you foresee redundancies ahead, offer to go before you're pushed - in exchange for a leaving package that include retraining and help finding a new job. Employees who leave early often get perks not given to those made redundant.

Aim high. Start with your ideal job and define it clearly. What does this new job look like? What steps do you need to take in order to get there? Write your own job description so you start to live your end goal and make it real.

Focus on your strengths. Remember the challenges you have overcome in the past, and list the talents and skills that have helped you. Consider how you can apply these to the challenge of your job search and to your new job.

Don't try to write your CV in a day. Big goals are overwhelming until you break them down. Monday's step can be to focus on how you can tailor your CV to the job you aspire to. Leave updating your skills to the following day. Then put it aside and take a fresh look and polish it.

Find a mentor. Who is doing the kind of job you'd like to do? What would you like to ask them? Contact them and invite them out to lunch. Most people are flattered to be asked their advice, and are willing to help someone just as they were probably helped when they were starting out.

Network. Research shows that networking is one of the most useful tactics when looking for a new position. Start with people you know well and then widen the pool to include anyone who could help with an element of your job search.

Use your intuition. A survey by the creativity newsletter, Brainstorm, shows that 59% of people find intuition helpful in business. Even mega-investor George Soros says he relied on instinct in helping him make decisions when hundreds of millions were at stake. If you feel drawn toward a position or career even though it doesn't logically seem the right one, at least explore it.

Be balanced. Don't let the search for a job, or a job itself, take over your entire life-leave room for relationships, fitness, community involvement and other elements as well. One way to keep balanced is to write your own obituary-when you die, what do you hope will be written about your life?

Learn from experience. If your CV is rejected, don't be disheartened. Make your campaign bigger than just success or failure. Ask yourself why your application may not have been progressed, learn from the experience and get back on track. · Protect your own best interests. Many people are threatened by change and this may even include people you thought you could count on for support. Be careful to choose carefully the people you share your aspirations with so they will offer encouragement and support.

Visualise success. Just imagine sitting at your new desk in the office of your dream job. Visualise what you will see, what you will hear and how you will feel. Used regularly this technique will give you extra motivation and will help ease you into a positive state of mind about the big move you are planning.