Laura Rowley Money & Happiness

In his resignation speech last week, former New York governor Eliot Spitzer said he would "try once again, outside of politics, to serve the common good." Clearly, public life wasn't an ideal fit for Spitzer's extreme-risk-taking personality, and a career change was in order.

Client 9 isn't alone. Some 63,000 people left the workforce in February, the biggest drop in payrolls in four years. Whether the reason is a spectacular, Spitzer-like blunder or just a consequence of tough economic times, a layoff can prompt a reevaluation of your career path. If you, like Mr. Spitzer, find yourself considering a change, where do you start?

What Color Is Your Career?

First, get a handle on your personality, advises Shoya Zichy, a New York career coach and author of "Career Match: Connecting Who You Are With What You'll Love To Do."

"The personality is pretty stable throughout life -- your interests and values change, but your personality holds stable," says Zichy, who was in private banking for 15 years. "Understanding what drives you, what gets you excited, is really key."

In her book, Zichy offers a test based on the Myers-Briggs analysis, which teases out the ways you think and make decisions, and the working environment you prefer. Zichy says most people fall into one of four "color" categories: reds, who are competitive, adventure-oriented, good at improvising and managing crises; greens, creative, abstract thinkers who are empathetic and diplomatic; golds, goal-oriented, well-organized people who like procedure and structure; and blues, who enjoy theory, complexity, learning, and challenging the status quo.

Most people are dominant in one color with smatterings of another. Spitzer? "I think he's a blue with a backup red," Zichy surmises. "There's a fairly heady and theoretical piece to him and at the same time overly aggressive risk-taking. He would be comfortable anyplace where there's a lot of variety, where they appreciate his drive and innovative style -- but not someplace where he has to play by the rules closely."

(Your personality may cause you to earn less than you deserve; take Zichy's short test on my blog to see if this is you, and how to get what you're worth.)

Know Thyself

Understanding your personality should come before a skills assessment, agrees Travis Bradberry, president of TalentSmart, a San Diego consulting firm that provides training and testing to 75 percent of the Fortune 500. "There is a strong link between self-awareness and job performance," he says.

Bradberry, author of "The Personality Code," conducted a six-year international study involving 500,000 participants. He tested for self-awareness, and cross-referenced those scores with job performance ratings. More than 80 percent of top performers scored high on the self-awareness test, while just 2 percent of poor performers did.

Self-aware people "understand their own tendencies, what motivates them, what situations and people make them want to get out of bed," Bradberry says. People who are not self-aware "are not honest with themselves; they don't realize they are deceiving themselves. They point their finger at the boss or coworkers or decisions up top" because they don't recognize that the job or workplace clashes with their personalities.

The Joy of Work

How do you become more aware of your tendencies and preferences? "Look at the people you connect with and figure out what you like about them," Bradberry suggests. "Maybe you love to golf with your friend Jim, or you click with Sara at work or your brother-in-law. Maybe they're all extroverts and free-thinkers. Who you like to associate with says a lot about who you are and what's going to motivate you."

Next, identify your "joyful skills," advises Andrea Kay, an Ohio career consultant and author of "Life's a Bitch and Then You Change Careers." "People will say, 'I'm good at planning, but I don't like it,'" says Kay. "Joyful skills are the things that come naturally, that you enjoy doing and that others have rewarded you for."

If your joyful skills aren't readily apparent, start by listing what bugs you about your most recent job. "Saying 'I never want to deal with clients again' is another piece of data that helps you come up with vision of what you want," Kay notes.

Build a Career Bridge

Zichy suggests reflecting on peak experiences at work, school, leisure, or volunteer activities. "Sit down and analyze what you were doing, who you were with, and why you were so high about what you were doing," she says. "Find five or six of these stories and you'll start to see a pattern."

Even if you realize your heart lies elsewhere, it's not necessarily a matter of throwing away your profession and starting from scratch, but "finding that bridge -- taking what you know and spinning in a new direction that will be more satisfying," Zichy says.

She describes a successful partner in a Wall Street law firm who saw a therapist twice a week because she hated the brutal confrontations her job required. She went back to school for her master's degree in social work and became a therapist -- for lawyers. Another client, an investment banker passionate about making jewelry, runs his business on the weekends, and is managing his money so that he can retire at 50 and do it full-time.

"View your past life as a tapestry with everything contributing to where you're getting now -- if you remember that, you won't get discouraged in the process," she advises.

The Art of Self-Direction

Meanwhile, if you're laid off, take time to process the event, says Kay. Give yourself the space to examine why it happened, and quickly determine how long you can go without a paycheck. After a layoff, "most people are driven by fear rather than facts," she says. "If you're operating out of fear, you'll be panicked rather than prepared, and take the first thing that comes along. You're not going to examine all the information that will tell you if the next job or company is right for you."

Also take into account the cost of your lifestyle, and your willingness to change it, says Kay. For instance, you may love teaching, but "the market rewards certain industries more than others, and teachers are not rewarded greatly. If you need to make X amount, think about what industries value people who teach but also reward their skills and endeavor."

Although recessions often prompt vocational soul-searching, "people should be doing it when the economy is good," Kay argues. "This is the art of self-direction, taking charge of your career -- and not waiting until you get kicked in the butt."