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In today's tight labor market, employed workers
are successfully changing careers. In fact, the average American has been
in his or her job only four years. And the average American can expect
to have five different careers -- that's not five different jobs, but
five different careers!
How do they do it? Here are a few steps to follow:
Decide what you want to do. Pick a career direction -- what are
the things you enjoy doing, and also do well? Which industries interest
you? Where do you see yourself in fifteen years?
If possible, pick growth fields. Better to go into the Internet
or telecommunications rather than farming or manual inventory management.
Explore them. Check out these fields on the Web -- as a quick pass
-- just to see if they still interest you. Find out the prognosis for
the field. Is it growing? Stagnant?
Meet with people in your target fields and industries to see if
it is what you imagined it to be. You may think you're interested in the
pharmaceutical industry, financial services, or the art world until you
actually have a few meetings. Do you REALLY want to be a lawyer? A lot
of lawyers are very unhappy because they did not explore the field ahead
of time.
Reposition yourself on your resume. Use buzz-words from the new
industry rather than your old one. For example, a bank operations manager
wanted to work in hospital operations. He had to change all the mentions
of check processing on his resume to transaction processing.
Hospitals process a lot of transactions, but not that many checks.
Consider making a half step. A tax accountant wanted to get into
Internet sales. First, he took a job as a tax accountant in an Internet
company. Then he moved to sales. Now he's head of Internet sales. Total
time for the complete change: 13 months.
Develop a consultant mentality. A senior executive in bank
marketing became the head of marketing in a hospital. He met with lots
of hospital marketing executives, read hospital marketing trade journals,
and attended the hospital marketing association meetings. He uncovered
the industry issues and was able to speak knowledgeably about them. On
his eighth interview at a major hospital, the executive said to him, "Are
you sure you never worked in a hospital before?" He got the job.
Offer Proof of Your Interest and Competence. Outsiders never get
hired; only insiders do. Those who successfully change careers become
insiders. Here's how you can prove your interest and capability in the
new field or industry.
- Read the industry's trade journals.
- Join its trade associations; attend the meetings.
Get to know the people.
- Be persistent.
- Show how your skills can be transferred.
- Write proposals.
- Take relevant courses, part-time jobs, or do volunteer
work related to the new industry or skill area.
- Be persistent.
Meet with dozens of people until you start hearing
the same names again and again.
Get a few offers from inferior companies -- those who would consider
themselves lucky to have someone like you.
THEN …
Make yourself more desirableby telling your primary target that you
are talking to a lot of other companies, and in fact, have a few offers.
Do not think that you will have to take a pay cut. This is the best
job market we've had in thirty years. Don't sell yourself short!
For further information on the Five O'Clock Club and its many resources,
click
here.
This article is courtesy of The Five O'Clock Club. Copyright, The Five
O'Clock Club. All rights reserved.
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