People choose to change their careers for different reasons: some are trying to get to a new stage of their life and do something different; others think there is more money in one industry than another. However, it is not easy to ensure a smooth transition from one career field to another. The vast majority of job seekers have already realized that finding another job (within the same career field) is pretty tough because of high competition. Changing careers is even more difficult because you will be competing with experienced professionals (as opposed to no specific experience on your side). And the matter of fact is the further you are moving away from your industry skills and proficiencies, the harder it is to get hired (unless you are ready to start from the very bottom and agree upon significant cut in your salary). In this case, saying “I know how this should be done”, “I know how to...”, “I am sure I can be a worthy” is not enough because these phrases will be competing against years of the industry experience, skills, and proficiencies. Who will take the risk of preferring an unproven person over a professional with the needed experience and documented success? The answer is obvious…
So What Can I Do? If you are currently considering changing careers, the first thing you need to do is to check whether you really have what it takes to do what you want. Very often our desires don’t match our opportunities. In other words, if you want to change your career to playing professional football, but find out you don’t know basic football rules you may want to reconsider. Or you can ask yourself a question that goes something like, “If I were a selection specialist, would I consider such a person as a potential team member?” The answer is again too obvious… First and foremost then, one has to assess own skills in order to see what are his/her strengths. There are plenty of organizations and companies who are in the business of helping people do such assessments.
Another essential thing to remember is to get ready to start at the very bottom even of you used to be a manager. To be hired by a business that operates within the field you know nothing about, one has to demonstrate that you will be an asset for your prospective employer. If possible, list your skills and experiences that could be related to the applying opening. For example, the experience of sales management in a software development company could be useful for a sales manager opening in the e-commerce shoes company. Very often sending out your resume is not quite enough to land you an interview. This is the case when one has to do more to get a chance for a job. It takes more than common approaches to finding a job. Calling and pushing your way into a face-to-face interview.
Personal contact is the key here that can make the difference between getting the job and being ignored. As you can see, one has to develop a plan for how to make this transition to another career field smooth and successful. It is no easy task, but nothing is impossible if you work hard enough.