The Keys to Effective Career Change

The process of orchestrating a career change or hunting for the “right” job is surprisingly an afterthought for many people. 

The days of working at a company like General Motors for 30 years until you retire are over.  Everyone, and I mean everyone, needs to become more pro-active in managing their career. Job hunting and career change is a repetitive activity. It is likely that you will need to do this exercise more than twice in your life, so it makes sense to do it with a strategic approach.   

Often candidates will come to me as they know that they need to be in a different job, but the very idea and the process of making a move seems like too daunting of a task for them. As the best-selling book “What Color Is Your Parachute” outlines, people place more attention and detail into planning their 224-hour family vacation then they do for planning their 80,000-hour career!

So, where do you start when trying to determine what you want to do for your career?  I propose to candidates that it is best to create three lists and that you should use three different pages for each of the lists.

The lists should be labelled, the What, the Where and the How.

THE WHAT

This is the first step and it is a critical one. This involves identifying your gifts or talents.  These are the parts of you that everyone you know, would agree are your greatest strengths.  They may or may not be used in your current job, but they are the strongest parts of your DNA.  These will represent your transferrable skills and should be used as the building blocks of your occupation.

 The gifts and talents outlined in this area should include Data (the systems, reports and processes that you are good at interpreting), the People (the personal interaction with a team or organization where you excel) and the Things (the activities or functions where you excel).

Not only is this area the best fundamental area to start in terms of a career change, but when you rank your skills, there is usually a tremendous boost of confidence developed as you are in essence, reminding yourself of where it is that you excel.  This can be a much-needed boost for someone who may be in transition and has perhaps lost some confidence in their abilities.

THE WHERE

This is where you record your favourite subjects or your fields of interest, as well as any geographical preferences.  This list will include indicating any fields of knowledge where you have intelligence and types of working environments that match your preference. 

Now you can define a field where you would truly enjoy working by considering:

 What subjects are your interests?

What fields do these interests point you towards?

Which occupation really stands out?

What career would give you this chance for happiness?

What are names of appropriate organizations in those fields?

 THE HOW

Now it is time to target the organizations that align with your “What” and your “Where.”  Develop a list of the companies that operate in the area where your “what” and your “where” intersect.

Use your network to locate people in those organizations that can assist you in targeting your dream job.  It is amazing how many people you will know who are employees, are former employees or know people who work at those organizations who can assist you. 

 The Best Part!!

 When someone can see that you have done “your homework” in terms of the “what” and the “where”, your network will be much more inclined to assist you and are more likely to facilitate an introduction because they can see where your passion lies and that you know precisely what you want!  People are only hesitant to share their network with someone if they feel that that person is unsure of themselves, simply looking for a job or feel that they may be embarrassed from a bad referral.

If you have followed all three steps, your passion and enthusiasm will show, and you will likely get an introduction to someone who can help you find your dream job.

 Good luck with the process.  I can tell you that I have used this approach more than once in my own career and so have many of my candidates!

Farewell,

Mike