Learn to balance a dream and a job, until your dream becomes your job. — UNKNOWN
For better or for worse, the days of staying in one career for the length of your professional life are gone. It is customary, and quite honestly accepted, in this day and age for executives to be “career-switchers” and have three or more careers or jobs during their life span.
When I define careers in this case, I am speaking of working in multiple functional areas throughout one’s career, such as going from marketing to finance, or sales to supply chain. Some of the top Fotune-500 companies actually expect their high-performing employees to go through this transition, hoping to tap into the brain-power and innovative approach one could bring into a different functional role at a company. This is also what makes top companies attractive to many high-performing executives, knowing that they have the opportunity to work in multiple functional areas throughout their career and continuously be challenged in this way.
The same can be said for those individuals who seek a different career outside of the company they currently work for or the individual who is unemployed and looking for their next job. It is no longer looked upon as something negative in one’s work history to have roles in multiple careers and/or functional areas throughout a career. There are several examples that I can point to (including my own), of individuals who step right out of college working in one job, only to realize fifteen years later that they are doing something completely different, maybe even something that is not related to their degree of study.
How does one approach seeking a new career? Here are a few recommendations on how to become a “career-switcher” and seek that new and challenging job in something that may not look typical to your background, but can be exciting nonetheless.
INVEST IN YOURSELF AND YOUR NEW CAREER It is easy to communicate your idea of a career switch, but what are you doing to make it a reality? In this case, knowledge is everything; without it, you are lost and confused. It is extremely important to invest a significant amount of time and sometimes money, to seek the knowledge, education and contacts needed to be successful in your new career. Start with exploring executive education opportunities, functional and industry certifications and associations, and career and professional development workshops. Becoming involved in these types of things will help validate your career switch and start to make you “look” and “speak” like someone who belongs in that particular functional job. Your involvement in these types of activities is also great content that you can include on your resume, further communicating your commitment to a specific career in the eyes of a hiring manager.
BUILDING YOUR BENCH One great way to switch careers is to network your way in. The phrase “it’s who you know, not what you know” can certainly impact the outcome of your results when incorporating networking into your strategy. It will be important for you to build up a network of individuals around you who you inspire to be, can learn from, and can rely on for information and advice. Once you begin to build up your own positive reputation and rapport in the eyes of your new network, they will become your best advocates for championing your cause into a new career. This takes time though, so you want be patient and persistent when developing your new network.
Where do you find your new network? Refer back to my first recommendation of becoming invested in associations, executive education and certification opportunities. These are your people — so get to know a lot of them. Also, reach out to fellow alumni from your college or university institution who are already sitting in the new career you Alumni love talking about themselves and their successes, so learn and build rapport with them.
TRANSFERABLE SKILLS AND CONNECTING THE DOTS Identifying your transferable skills and associating them to your new job is one of the most important things you will need to spend time on when thinking about switching careers. One cannot automatically go from a chief marketing officer to chief human resources officer without connecting the dots and articulating why and how the current skills you possess make sense for your targeted new career.
Spend time reviewing your skills and actively writing down valid reasons and career experience stories, connecting them with and noting how they make sense for your new career. By conducting this exercise, you will be able to confidently communicate to a future employer how and why they make sense. The more you can validate this and make your case in a confident way, the more positive consideration you will receive. You want to make it very easy for them to see the correlation between your career experience and the position they are hiring for.
The idea of switching careers at some point in your professional life can seem like a daunting task. Some may say it cannot be done, and others will persuade you against even trying. If you believe in yourself and are passionate about that next move, incorporating the recommendations above will certainly bring you closer to that next dream job you seek.
Switching careers for some is not easy, but your dedication, hard work and investment in yourself can certainly make a potential switch a reality.
CRAIG W. PETRUS joined the Hough Graduate School of Business in June of 2009. As Director, Craig is responsible for the day-to-day operations of Graduate Business Career Services and ensuring the delivery of quality career development programming and services to students within the Hough Graduate School of Business at the University of Florida.