Looking to make a career switch? You are not alone. Legacy employment is less of a standard these days. Recently, a Bureau of Labor Statistics study showed that the average tenure of employment was around 4 years per job. This means that turnover rates are high and it’s up to the average employee to regularly advocate for themselves in the job market while seeking new opportunities.
What do you need to make sure that you are in the best possible position to make a transition to a new career?
Be Upfront and Highlight Your Previous Career
It can be tempting to try to undercut or downplay a previous professional life if it seems far afield from what you are hoping to do now. Consider instead highlighting that path and focusing on ways that what you used to do can inform a new position.
For example, if you used to be an actor and now are looking to work in medicine, you could talk about your experience with active listening, working with people, learning to roll with changing circumstances, and being cool under pressure.
It’s true that most of the people applying for a position will have a more traditional trajectory. This makes your circuitous story more compelling and memorable. Make sure to play up the connections and never apologize for the fact that you weren’t on a straight and narrow path.
Gap in Your Story?
If you are coming from a place of inactivity professionally, maybe you took time off to take care of children or a loved one, it’s a good idea to look for ways to augment your professional profile and update your skills before entering into the job market.
- Get educated: A new degree or certification program that works toward your new career path might put you in the right company.
- Hands-on training: Volunteer at something related to the position you want and take a leadership role if you can.
- Shadow practitioners: Identify leaders in your chosen industry and contact them to see if you can shadow them for any time. You may learn that you prefer a specific aspect of the job, or that there are ways your skills jive with a position that you hadn’t anticipated.
More Things You’ll Need to Move to a New Career
- A new resume: Your new career change resume should try to highlight ways that your previous work applies to a new position while focusing on soft skills.
- A revised (or new) LinkedIn profile: Many hiring managers will look directly on LinkedIn for references. Get a profile together that emphasizes your new direction including a professional headshot.
- Financial clarity: Most professional transitions are accompanied by a period of financial instability. Before you make a move, work on your budget and really understand your credit in this transition. Try to cut down on the highest interest rate debt you have, and try to put away three to six months of ‘emergency funds’ that allow you to coast a little while you get on your feet in a new world.
- Consider retirement: Don’t forget to think about what your move means to your 401(K). Try not to give into the temptation to withdraw any funds as these will be heavily taxed and your retirement plan will suffer immensely.
- Prepare to market yourself: It may not be a natural fit for others to understand why you have made a particular change in your life. Practice a short elevator pitch that quickly gets to your reasoning for shifting careers.
Ultimately, you want to reinforce the idea that you are ready for a change and that taking a leap of faith is not a bad thing or something unprecedented. You just want to make sure you’ve taken all the precautions you can to allow this transition to be a smooth one.
Guest author Natalie Issa is a content specialist for Credit.com. Her experience spans working with a variety of content, including blog posts and journalistic articles, as well as film and podcasts. She’s applied her writing and editing expertise in the retail and digital industries at companies, such as Overstock.com and Deseret Digital Media, while applying her creativity to passion projects in her personal time. Natalie has her degree in English with a minor in journalism.
Graphic courtesy Credit.com
