Are you standing at a crossroads? Is this a moment in your career where you’re looking at the road you’ve been traveling wondering if you should stay the course or chart a new path? That’s a broad question. It may even be an overwhelming question. Change, of course, can be thrilling…and it can be terrifying. Sometimes change can be self-motivated. Sometimes change is thrust upon us.
You may have arrived at this junction by choice. You no longer find satisfaction in the work you do and you’re ready for a new challenge. You may have gotten to this point by someone else’s choice – your role has evolved in a direction you didn’t sign up for or you’ve been informed that your role with the company will be cut. Either way, you find yourself scrolling through job listings, reaching out to your network, and wondering what happens next.
This juncture has the potential to open doors you didn’t know were waiting for you. This is an opportunity to evaluate what you’ve enjoyed about your current endeavors, what you would rather not spend your day-in-and-day-out doing, and where you want to grow. Before you start tossing your same old resume at job listings that read a lot like the one you already have, take the time to evaluate what you really crave from your career.
Just because you’ve always been in the finance department, doesn’t mean you need to stay in the finance department. The same skills that made you a good Accounts Payable Manager, as an example, may translate to other roles that require attention to detail, data management, solid communications, customer service, and problem-solving skills.
Before you start combing the listings of roles that look exactly the same as what you’ve always done, evaluate what you liked about this particular job and whether you want to continue doing it or if there are other roles that might offer more, or utilize the skills you’ve nurtured to date in a new way.
Of course, before you can determine what skills translate, you need to identify what skills you have. Take a look at your current job description. What skills do you need to complete the tasks outlined? If you were to hire someone to fill your role, what skills and traits would make a candidate a good fit? Start your list there.
Take a look at past performance reviews and evaluations. What skills and strengths have your supervisors and others noted in those documents? Scan through your post-project emails and client correspondence. What are others saying about you that might highlight specific strengths and skills? Talk to your mentor and others familiar with your work. What would they list as your skills and strengths?
This is the fun part. When you consider that list of skills and strengths you pulled together, which of them thrill you the most? What part of your current job energizes you and motivates you? What things drain you? What do you wish you had more time or opportunity to spend time at work doing? What skills and strengths do you wish you could develop more or utilize more?
Armed with the answers to those questions, start to look at roles in your current field and in others. Where is the overlap? What jobs – in your current field AND in others – utilize the skills you prioritized? This is key. You may find that the things you’re good at in your current job can also make you a strong candidate for your dream job…even if your dream job is a different field.
If you’re looking to leap from marketing to data analytics, a resume that follows the pattern of job title with lists of tasks and dates isn’t going to get you very far. Understand what your target role requires of a candidate and then identify which skills you’ve nurtured thus far in your career can apply. Highlight those skills on your resume.
As a marketing professional, you probably spent a decent amount of time plugging info in and pulling data out of a customer relationship management (CRM) system. To succeed in your role, you not only demonstrated clear communications skills, but you were also able to assess the data you pulled from the CRM system to develop an understanding of your current customers, identify patterns in market trends and customer behavior. You analyzed data and effectively communicated based on that data. These are also the sort of skills that many data analytics roles are seeking proficiency in.
Where else do you see overlap between your list of skills and strengths and the requirements for the new role you covet? Highlight them in your application.
You may absolutely love what you do and you want to keep doing it, just maybe not in the way you’ve always done it. Maybe you’ve been successful in sales and business development within the tech industry for the last couple of decades. While you enjoy most of what you do, you’re looking for something different. The good news is those same skills translate to a variety of opportunities outside of your current industry.
Instead of closing B2B deals on the latest systems, you could help a non-profit develop new donors and sponsors. You could take your comfort level with technology and your sales skills and help a medical device start-up find their niche. Your skills translate not just to other organizations, but also to other industries.
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