Now that you’ve taken the first step in changing careers by doing a lot of soul-searching about your strengths, weaknesses, your comfort zone, etc., it’s time to do even more research.
Did I mention that job hunting and making a career change are hard work? Oh, yes, I did! So how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time, as they say. This applies to making a career change as well. Don’t take on more than is possible or feasible in this endeavor. Trying to go from being a waitress to being a rocket scientist is not only crazy, but really in most of our cases, impossible.
So take a deep breath and understand that a great way to make a career change is to make a lateral change or a step around the edge of your current role. Let me give you some examples:
Janice:
Janice was a registered nurse for over 12 years specializing in cardiology patients. She was
unable to continue in her career because of chronic back pain. She wanted to do something completely different, but didn’t have the funds to go back to school.
She was looking for a position that would allow her to work in an office with minimal lifting or physical labor. Her nursing work demanded that she be very organized, detail-oriented, comfortable with documenting every aspect of treatment plans and patient reactions and knowledgeable in medical terminology and cardiology medicine. At first, she considered jobs in doctor offices, but was afraid she would get dragged into patient care and other physically demanding work. Janice was even considering regular office work in non-medical related fields and retail jobs.
However, after some extensive research, soul searching and strategic networking amongst her colleagues and friends, Janice was able to secure an opportunity at a healthcare management organization as part of the cardiology services contract administration team. She was able to leverage her industry experience and education to change her career in a way that wasn’t unrealistic or salary-limiting.
Elaine:
After being laid off from her teaching job, Elaine didn’t know where to begin her job search. She needed a job that would allow her to be flexible in her hours since her children were in elementary school still. After teaching 4th grade for several years, Elaine wasn’t really sure how she could adapt to an adult only setting!
Elaine began working with a career coach who helped her develop a targeted job search plan. She assessed her knowledge, skills and abilities and reached out to everyone she knew or encountered in her daily activities. She realized that she missed meeting new people and interacting with adults and that she actually had strong skills in influencing people. After exploring several interesting opportunities in private schools, tutoring services, child care companies and even her local health food store, she was hired as a sales representative at a learning materials development company. Much of her work is done during school hours and out of a home office except when she’s making visits to school administrators.
As you can see, it is possible to make a career change that is different enough to avoid burnout and yet related enough to your experience and strengths to be fun and exciting. Here are some of the critical aspects to consider and analyze:
- Look at adjacent/complimentary industries or companies, and vendors to your current firm or competitors firms.
- Ask who supplies your company with various items or services, who does your web site, PR, marketing, CRM software, office supplies, food service, etc.
- Find out what some of their biggest challenges are and consider how your knowledge of being an end-user of these services and products could be helpful in addressing those challenges.
- How can you provide solutions to these companies and become an asset to them?
Chances are there is a company that services your current employer, or one like yours, who would be interested in hiring good people from inside the operation. Think about how you can apply your existing skills in other areas versus completely changing skill sets. Your industry insights can be extremely valuable to companies that are in competition with your most recent employer or to companies that provide services to your industry.
Don’t waste all the time and energy you’ve spent in learning your current and previous jobs—use all that accumulated knowledge in the most effective way!
Stay tuned for step 3!
