THEY say change is as good as a holiday, and there is much to be said for venturing into a new industry. A career change can often guarantee steady employment and a new level of intellectual or creative fulfilment, but it can be hard to make the leap. Aequalis Consulting director Simon Boulton shows us how to identify, package, and market transferable skills to a different industry.
The success rate people experience when applying for advertised jobs and attempting a career change is, on average, very low.
It's not their fault – it's the process. The recruitment process is very arbitrary, subjective, and sometimes little more than a lottery.
So it’s important that you do something different. Take control of your own destiny. Be different, be proactive, know yourself, know your market.
Why rely wholly on a process that involves inevitable intensive competition and an arbitrary unknown selection method?
Knowing yourself and what's out there will help you to understand which employers and jobs will offer you the best fit.
Think and act creatively and innovatively on the way you “package” yourself – that is, the sort of image and presence you create.
A CV is no longer restricted to hard-copy paper or a digital document. Why not create a video CV, or an impressive web presence?
Being proactive in this way impresses employers and will give you choice. You become the buyer, not the seller, because all good employers want innovative, proactive, impressive people. So become one of these people.
Whatever you do, ensure you know yourself, honestly and objectively – especially all the skills and strengths that will be desirable to employers.
Think deeply about your passions, your loves, and what you genuinely enjoy doing. These are likely to be, or relate to, your key strengths and potential.
Employers need people with more important and meaningful qualities: things like creativity, humanity, determination, self-reliance, compassion, integrity, vision, ethics, and an awareness of the wider world.
List your strengths and dreams using this wider perspective. You will quickly see a person emerging who is unique, able to offer uniquely special qualities to all forward-thinking employers, and capable of adapting to change.
You'll now perhaps begin to imagine all sorts of different types of work that will provide a better fit for what you can do, what you love, and the changes you want to make in your career.
Now use this new view of yourself to change or
improve your resume.
When you've thought carefully and decided where the best fit will be for you, be proactive not reactive.
Approach at least 20 potential employers that you think will want what you can do. Fifty or 100 is obviously better, provided the fit is good and the data is reliable.
Marketing is a numbers game – hence the more, the better.
Present yourself in your CV and covering letter in terms of what you can do for the organisation or business. This aspect is crucial.
It's essential to describe yourself in a way that is immediately and obviously appealing to the reader.
You are managing your own personal marketing campaign and your destiny is in your own hands.
Remember, when your letter and CV arrives, it is unique and relevant and it's selling you. It is not one of a hundred other “send and hope” applications for an advertised vacancy that will probably be offered to the internal candidate anyway.
Sooner or later you will be offered meetings or interviews.
Aim to get two or more meetings or interviews. It will boost your confidence knowing you have other options, and it has a positive and helpful effect on the interviewer too. People want people who other people want.
All employers need good people, and when one comes along, many employers will try to find an opportunity, whether they are currently recruiting or not.
Being proactive and making your own opportunities will make the interview and the whole process much easier for you because you've controlled it.
Moreover, you look like a great fit for the organisation, you've proved you can get things done, and you've avoided most, if not all, of the competition. And you'll have saved them the hassle of recruiting too.
Anyone can take this approach. All it needs is a bit of thought, research and preparation.
Simon Boulton is director of accounting and finance recruitment practice Aequalis Consulting. He has more than 12 years of finance recruitment experience in London and Sydney, where he has launched multiple divisions for international companies. At Aequalis Consulting, he provides tailored strategies for companies in various industries to attract and retain the most talented professionals in the market.
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