You feel like it might be high time for a new challenge and you want to do new things in your professional life. You start looking at job descriptions and begin to feel a little bit defeated – like there’s nothing you can do differently since it feels like every job posting wants previous experience in that particular field or industry.
With a confidence (and maybe some naïveté?) in positivity, I believe you can transition to a new career but saying it is easy is bad advice. So what do you have to do?
Buckle up because it takes a bit of time and commitment but you can make it happen.
1. Conduct informational interviews with those working in a position/job/field/industry that interests you. These interviews give you insider advice on where to find these opportunities and what types of skills they are looking for. They will either give you a green light (yay! You have the right skill set) or indicate areas you need to improve upon (software skills, project examples, writing samples, etc.)
2. Get out of your home/office and go to meet ups, networking events, seminars, speakers, career fairs, coffee chats, boot camps, etc. Ok, not all of them but finding ways to “break in to” a new industry means you need to be around the people working in it. Are there any organizations that host recruiting nights or info sessions (Ideas: check Meetup.com, Google for Career Fairs in your city, see if there are information sessions and co-working spaces)?
3. Find 1-3 job descriptions that really interest you (don’t worry if you don’t have the set skills YET). Copy/paste the job description in to a word cloud (like worditout.com) and set the frequency to 2+ mentions. You can then easily see some of the words that are mentioned repeatedly and what are some of the more important clues to who they are looking for.
4. Make a list of what you are willing to do to move in to this new position. Is it more schooling like grad school? Is it reading a book or books in the field? Is it taking a pay cut and/or internship? Is it shadowing? No matter what it ends up being, that’s ok. At least you’ll know how badly you want it and if you’re willing to take that next step.
5. Utilize the Find Alumni tool on LinkedIn to see if your alma mater has anyone working where you want to work/doing what you want to do. Someone how this just gives you a good outlook on seeing yourself there or knowing what backgrounds they may look for.
6. Identify the transferrable skills that you have (Customer Service, Communication, Public Speaking/Presentations, Supervisor experience, Project Management, Sales/Business Development). You can google for “Action Verbs by skill set” and find a lot of great lists that show you the skills that most employers look for. Identify the ones they want and make sure to feature those transferrable skills in your top 2 bullets on your resume.
7. Ask for someone working in that position to review your resume. Can they help identify ways you can make it a better match and/or share with you things that they would be looking for if they wanted to hire you. If you cannot find someone, hire me. I can usually figure it out if you can share a job posting and your resume with me. Ok, that was half joking.
Personal example:
I decided after some internal soul searching that I wanted to switch from Corporate Marketing/Advertising in to Career Services in Higher Education. I did the following:
1. I reached out for an informational interview via LinkedIn and invited someone to lunch that I didn’t know but she was working in a position I thought I wanted at Loyola University in Chicago (the lady said yes! I’m still so grateful).
2. I asked my friend working in Career Services to review my resume. I made her suggested changes/edits.
3. I decided that I was NOT going to go back for more schooling (I already had my graduate degree) but I was open to pursuing a certificate for example. I did buy books about Career Exploration theories per my friend’s recommendation. The informational interview informed me that I was ok with the degrees I had – there wasn’t a need for a more specific degree or more schooling. YAY!
4. I started looking and applying to positions in the Chicagoland area.
5. The position I am currently in was shared with me from my friend and I was definitely interested in relocating.
Did the stars align? I think so but you have to be the one out there investigating and taking action with what you can do to help them along. You also have to practice patience since it’s hard to make it happen overnight.
If you are struggling with any of the above, please feel free to reach out and I’ll try to help you!