While employees are changing jobs at a rapid pace since the Pandemic, we are also finding people are increasingly making a major career change.  If you’ve recently found yourself at a crossroads with your current career, you’re not alone and your timing is great. The Great Resignation has left a crazy number of roles wide open from candidates of all different backgrounds.  Employers are desperate for employees and are willing to consider people from other backgrounds with the right transferable skills.  

How do you know you’re ready for a career change?

Trust your intuition.  If you’re feeling down about your current job, but also don’t find any hope in a new job in the same field, you’re ready for a career change.  Ask yourself, “where do you want to be in 5 years?”  If the answer is nowhere near this career, it’s time for a change.  So what do you do if your gut is telling you that this whole job thing isn’t working out? Read on.

6 Things You Should Know About Making a Career Change 

1. Understand that the Road Will Be Slow

If you are making a major shift in your career, know this: it’s not going to happen overnight.  No shortcuts exist.  You are going to need to explore, fail, get back up, and keep moving toward your goal.  Just like starting your own business, success only comes to those who keep working day after day, month after month, year after year.  

2. You Need to Expand Your Circle

We’ve all heard that we are the sum of the five people we hang out with most…  If you are surrounded by people in your old industry, you need to branch out. Your existing network isn’t going to provide you with the connections you need for your new career.  Seek out people doing exactly what you want to do to learn from, it’s time to build up your new career network.  

3. You Will Have to Let Go 

At the same time, as you grow your new network, you will have let go of who you were and some of the people you spent your time with.  You will have to draw a line in the sand between the old you and the new you.  Decide exactly where and when your old career ends and your new one begins and don’t look back. 

4. Craft Your Own Narrative 

You write your own story.  Many driven, committed over achievers find it difficult to “quit” something they’ve started.  Failure is avoided at all costs, even when perseverance takes a mental toll.  Here’s the trick to making a career change without regrets: look at it as an opportunity, not a failure.  If you make a choice to do something that gives you energy and happiness, you have not failed even if your salary goes down in the interim.  

5. Be Willing to Explore 

In some cases, candidates will only know that they can’t take another day of their old career but have no idea what to do next.  That’s ok.  Changing jobs will require some serious soul searching.  You must be willing to explore and find a way to measure what kind of work makes you feel the best.  Experiment and give yourself time to try other career choices.  

6. You Must Walk Your Own Path 

In this world of 24/7 social media updates, it is hard to not focus on how you compare with others.  Like we said before, you are going to have to let go and not closely watch as your old colleagues get promoted at your old company.   Leaving the “rat race” can be harder than you think but the key is to only measure up to your own standards.  

If you understand these six things and still want to move forward, you need a plan…  Here’s where to start. 

How to Update Your Resume and LinkedIn Profile 

When you next apply for a job, start by getting to know your new industry and the skills that employers require.  Next make a list of all the ways you’ve built up transferable skills, and explain how you have used them in your CV or job application. 

Be creative and think outside the box as some skill transfers might not be obvious.  For example, for someone moving from sales to operations, you can highlight how you’ve guided your sales team through periods of change or how you trained and on-boarded new team members.   Also, give attention to skills you’ve acquired outside of work, say, from your side gig selling jewelry, working on the board of your kids’ school, or as the manager of your soccer team.  

Finally, be sure to be authentic.  Recently, we helped a sales manager from the beverage industry move to account management in tech, by demonstrating he honestly was passionate about working in software.  

Transferable Skills to Highlight When Making a Career Change 

Below are a few skills we suggest you consider when reshaping your resume.  Be able to provide specific examples on your resume and in your interview. Go beyond these general skills and demonstrate more specific to the new roles you are applying for.  You should leverage your current skill set from your work and personal life to its fullest extent when changing careers.  

Here are a few skills to consider: 

1. Creativity – can you think on your feet to come up with solutions that aren’t necessarily in the operations manual?  
2. People skills – how can you demonstrate you are a good listener, an empathetic teammate, and a culture fit in your new career?  
3. Adaptability – can you show you are able to adapt to new situations, new teammates, and big changes?  
4. Leadership – when have you been able to motivate, take responsibility for, and lead others to effectively accomplish objectives and goals?
5. Time management – how have you structured and arranged resources to achieve objectives?  
6. Ability to Use and Interpret Data – are you able to research, analyze, and critically evaluate information?
7. Life-Long Learner – can you give specific examples of being self-motivated to learn something new? 

If reading this post is making you think long and hard about a career change, use that motivation to get started.  At Uplift Recruitment, we are more than happy to talk through a career pivot.  Get in touch with our director, Simon, at [email protected] to have a free, confidential conversation about your career.  

As the author George Elliot said, “It’s never too late to be what you might have been.“