Work seems to falls into two categories, jobs and careers. Do you have a job or a career? If you are not sure, most likely you have a job. You work your 9 to 5 and leave the office. If you have a career, you often take your work home with you, at least mentally.

Many people take a position with intentions of leaving in a year or so to embark on a career. However, they become so comfortable that they don't make an effort to move out of the comfort zone. Holding a job instead of having a career is fine if that's what you want. However, don't settle for less. Jobs are often about security and finance. A career may be motivated by passion.

During a job interview, have you ever been asked "Where do you see yourself five years from now?" The interviewer is trying to find out if you are seeking a job or a career. Even you can't see yourself as a top honcho in five years; you probably don't want to think of yourself in the same place you are now. So what can you do now to move forward later?

Develop a career path. Go back to school and get a degree in business management if you are presently in a space you don't want to be. This all-encompassing degree is a good fit for most careers. Some organizations will pay some or half of your tuition if you are taking courses related to your present position.

If you don't wish to pursue a degree, attend workshops and seminars. If your employer encourages staff to attend these workshops, by all means, take advantage of the offer. Sometimes it's a far reach to find a workshop that is related to what are doing now, to what you want to do in the future. However, you can make it work since most workshops cover a full range of subjects. Let's say you would like to be an Event Planner, but the only workshop available is "The Basics of PowerPoint"; take the course. This is something you can in your office now. Plus you will be able to use PowerPoint to show your event planning presentation to a potential client later.

What do you know about the field or industry you are interested in? Not much? Then it's time to do some heavy researching. Go online and type in "event planning". Most of the returned searches will be people or companies offering their services. This is the information you are looking for. You will see what others are doing.

Check out specific industry news and forecasts. Go to the library and read periodicals. Some libraries have may have Entrepreneur Magazine's "Startup Guides" in their reference section. You can order them directly from Entrepreneur, but, my advice is to try the library first. If you like what you see, buy the manual. The Entrepreneur Bookstore site is www.smallbizbooks.com. This site is one of the best for getting started on a career.

Subscribe to magazines geared to the business that interests you. Search engines can guide you to a particular group of magazines concerning the following categories:

_Accounting
_Admin & Clerical
_Banking & Financing
_Customer Service
_Engineering
_Executive
_Health Care
_Hospitality
_Human Resources
_Information Technology
_Retail
_Sales & Marketing
_Science & Biotech

These are the basic categories but there are sub-categories as well. And, with technology changing as fast as a slight of a the hand trick, you will find many more categories and professions.