Most of the people we talk with know they want a green career, but they don't know how to find that new career. When you look for a new career, what's your first action?

• Do you start doing informational interviews?
• Do you go directly to job boards looking for positions that might work for you?
• Do you talk to your contacts to see if they know of any job openings?
• Do you start going to networking events to try to meet people who can help you find a job?

Although all of those steps are important, viable steps, none of them is actually your best first step. In fact, without completing the first task, all of the actions above will lead to limited success. It's like you are rolling the dice or throwing a dart to find your green career. There's a much better way. After helping thousands of people find careers they love, I know there's a process people go through to discover, confirm, and find their ideal work.Understanding the process gives you a map to follow to reach your goal.

What Steps Should You Take to Find Your Green Career? If you are committed to greening your career, you'll have a better, clearer journey if you follow the steps below.

Step 1. Discover Before you step out to talk with others, your first task is to discover your green niche. What industry or profession are you most interested in targeting? What position will allow you to use your passions, interests, talents, and experience? Although you may feel you don't know what green options are available, this question is really one you answer from the inside out.

• To uncover your green niche,begin by creating a list of your favorite skills and interests. Don't limit yourself to one or two passions. Keep collecting clues until your list contains 20 skills and 20 interests.

• Then look at various combinations to discover your favorite possibilities. (If you think you'd benefit from choosing your favorite skills and interests from checklists, take a look at our What's Your Green Niche? ebook (members download or non-members visit Shopping Cart). This ebook takes you through the entire process of discovering your target industry/profession.)

Step 2: Think about Your Favorite Work Setting Although what you do is important to determine, how you work can also have a big impact on your sense of fulfillment and happiness. Spend some time thinking about the kind of work setting that allows you to be productive and feel good. Do you want to work inside or outside? Do you want to be in a large corporation or in a small office?

Step 3. Explore Your Possibilities When you have two or three career ideas you are drawn to, you are ready to move to Step 3.

• In this step, you do online research and informational interviews to understand your target industries/professions. You don't have to be 100% sure about your targets, you just need to feel excited and drawn to each of your ideas. Before you begin talking with people to set up informational interviews, do as much online research as possible so that you know the questions you want to ask.

• When you are ready to do your informational interviews, refer to one of our previous Green Career Tips entitled Not All Informational Interviews Are Created Equal for guidance. During this step, focus your attention on researching your ideas. Don't try to make a decision yet. Until you complete your research, you don't have enough information to make a solid decision. (If research isn't your thing, don't worry. Green Career Central provides a lot of resources and tips to make your exploration focused and productive.)

Step 4. Choose Your Path When you feel you have a good feel for each of your options, assess which idea is the best fit for you personally and professionally. It's possible one or more of your ideas will drop to the bottom of your list.

• Now that you know where you are headed, it's time to decide how you are going to reach your green career goal. Your path will be the one that works for you. If you can move right into job search mode, you'll do that.

• If you aren't able to move toward your goal that quickly, you may decide to green your current job, give back to the community, or work on a project to gain more green experience. Knowing what path you want to take, will help you determine who to network with and what action to take.

Step 5. Network With your target career and your path in mind, you'll have a much easier time creating a network that will help you reach your green career goal. You'll know what networking events and conferences to schedule into your calendar. You'll know what professional associations to explore. You'll know who to target to talk to about the best way to reach your career goals.

Step 6. Take Action on Your Plan When your network is in place, it's time to unroll your plan.

• Do you want to green your current job?
• Do you want to give back to your community?
• Do you want to gain more green experience?
• Do you want to get more green education?
• Do you want to start your green job search?
• Do you want to launch a green business?