Rachel Zupek, CareerBuilder.com writer

At some point in their lives, most people will make at least one career change. It might be a slight adjustment, like to a different position within the company. Or, it might be a colossal change, to a completely different industry or sector.

Whatever the change may be, make sure you're ready for it. Check out the following successful career changes and see how these people made their dreams come true.

CareerBuilder.com

Starting any new job can be as nerve-wracking as it is exciting. While you're anxious for a fresh start and to meet new people, you're nervous that you won't be able to do the job or you won't fit in with co-workers. Things inevitably work out, but that initial doubt can be daunting. People returning to the work force after an extended absence have an additional concern: Will they even find a job?

Yes, they will, according to a recent CareerBuilder.com survey of employees who have recently returned to the work force. Of surveyed workers who returned to work after being gone at least one year, 45 percent found a job in less than one month. Thirty-three percent took between one and six months to find work, while only 14 percent took longer than one year.

Rachel Zupek, CareerBuilder.com writer

Today's economy has compelled job seekers to do some crazy things: standing on street corners wearing billboards advertising their unemployment, sending gifts to hiring managers, applying down for entry-level positions, or even switching careers entirely.

But you know what's really crazy? None of those things are that crazy at all. In fact, each of those things is a pretty smart move -- especially the latter.

Everyone's looking for a way to pick up a few quick bucks in this economy, making many wonder if selling cosmetics is as easy and fulfilling of a career as it is touted to be. Maybe or maybe not, say a variety of sources. A few cases of cosmetics won't necessarily get you the promised Cadillac after a couple of months (or years), and, if pursued improperly, your eyeshadow enterprise could put you in worse shape than before. However, if you're careful, crafty, cunning, and a cosmetics queen anyway, there's a chance that investing in door-to-door cosmetics companies could boost your self-esteem while putting a few extra dollars in your bank account.

by C. Howie for AOL Find a Job

It's hot, dry and dusty on a spring day at the Port of Los Angeles, but driver Hugo Salcedo is getting his feet wet as he hoses down the hood of his 80,000 lb truck. It's routine maintenance and just one of the tasks Salcedo, 37, has done every week of the seven years he's been driving. Being a truck driver may seem an unforgiving career to some, but to Salcedo it gives him the freedom of the road and a lifetime of travel.

Best time is baseball season, he says. Though today he sports a USC Trojans hat, the profession that takes him across 48 states allows him to catch the Red Sox in Boston, the Marlins in Miami and his hometown Dodgers in Los Angeles. Over the course of several months his job will take him from "Long Beach to Kentucky, Kentucky to New York, New York to Florida, Florida all the way across the country to Hayward, California."