Career Transitions

When considering a career change, it’s important to ask yourself what parts of your job you want to change and why. Are you actually bored with your day-to-day job duties and want to learn something new? Does your industry demand long hours or too much travel? Does your industry or job function tend not to pay what you need? Be careful that you separate your career from your job—perhaps you’re really seeking a change because your current boss is difficult or your company has policies you dislike. In that case, you just need a new job, not a whole new career.

Once you’ve decided you want a career change, analyze what you want changed. Within any job, there are two main elements—what you do (job function), and where you do it (industry). It’s generally easier to change one element at a time rather than two. It’s much harder to get a new job in a new location, new industry, and new job function than to pick just one out of those three. The bigger the change, the more likely you will need significant new training, experience, or education, will have to deconstruct your resume, and will have to do extensive networking in your new field.

Perhaps you like your job function (what you do), but your industry is shrinking or has low wages, so you want to stay in the same job but move to a new industry. An example might be someone who has worked in human resources in the nonprofit sector and moves to a corporation. Certain jobs, like accounting, HR, IT, and sales, transfer fairly easily between industries. In this case, you might just need to change a few words in your resume and start networking in your new industry.

Or, you may have decided you are tired of your job function, but still like your industry. You can analyze which of your skills are most transferable to a new job function within your same industry or company. A classic example is a person who has been an individual contributor and is promoted to management—which is a whole new job function. Another might be a recruiter who transitions into training and development. It’s likely you’ve been doing some of the functions of the new job and just have to highlight them in your resume, or you can ask for some new assignments at your current job to build new, targeted skills.

In many cases, though, industry and job function are intertwined. For instance, there are many jobs in higher education—like a financial aid advisor—that don’t have a direct parallel elsewhere. Another example would be the newspaper industry – as print journalism shrinks, many reporters have looked to become digital media strategists—both an industry and a job function change. Big changes can happen, usually with extra effort, such as acquiring training in a new field, volunteering or interning, and by working with a skilled career coach who can help translate your experience into the wording of your future career, both within your resume and in an elevator pitch.