Thursday, July 8, 2010

How to Change Careers to Find a Better Job

When the U.S. economy faltered in the 2007 / 2008, it dragged down the economies of most of nations in the world. Suddenly, careers and industries that seemed secure were drowning in red ink, and millions upon millions of successful people were thrown out of work.
In a flash, it became important to look for work not only in the industries and career paths that were familiar, but to explore strange new possibilities in hopes of finding viable income opportunities.

Fortunately, there are many traits that successful people can transfer easily from one career and industry to another. They include:

Analytical Skills - Nearly every industry and organization needs someone to look a little deeper than the surface of situations, performance, and possibilities. Analysts come in a wide variety of specialties, but they almost all have a penchant for understanding the big picture in terms of its structural elements and its details. Whether you’ve been analyzing financial performance, system behavior, marketing results, or anything else, you can probably find another organization in a different industry that can make use of your talents and experience.

Communications Skills - Today’s large organizations attempt more, and accomplish more, than any small group has ever been able to do on its own. This kind of coordination and pulling together of so many individual efforts requires people within the organization to be brought on board with the organization’s strategies and tactics. The tool for doing this is carefully planned and executed communications programs. And when these organizations reach out to their various stakeholders — including both customers and vendors — there’s even more need for informative, powerful, and persuasive communications. If you have done it for one company, you can do it for another.

Leadership and People Skills - People’s basic natures haven’t changed for thousands, perhaps millions, of years. The same traits that made Oggabogga the leading caveman of his time can be found in today’s leaders, including charisma, intelligence, and persuasive skills. Because people the world over are nearly all the same, leadership and the ability to motivate people to work shoulder to shoulder with you as a team are among the easiest skills to transfer into a new industry and a new career.

Problem-Solving Skills - As with analysis, problem-solving is a generic capability that works in a wide range of industries and positions. Sure, solving engineering problems requires a different set of technical skills and aptitudes than solving quality control problems, motivational problems, or pilferage problems. But they all rest on a foundational mind-set that allows the problem-solver to grasp the situation, identify its constituent elements, and test to see which ones are farthest out of alignment with ideal standards. If you can solve problems in your current industry, you’re automatically in great shape to learn how to solve problems in a different one.

Sales Skills - Here’s another skill set that depends on understanding and exploiting basic human character traits. It’s well known that if you can sell refrigerators in Iceland, you can sell encyclopedias in Poughkeepsie. You may have to learn a good deal about the new product or service you’re selling, but you’re already an expert in the relationship-building and sales-closing techniques that differentiate top sales people from the rest of us. It’ll be a piece of cake for you to go forth and accept that new job in that entirely different industry.

Technical Skills - These may be the hardest to translate from certain industries — perhaps energy generation or oil production — to certain others — perhaps health care or education. But the ability to absorb and utilize large amounts of highly technical information is itself a skill and an ability that can help you find work in a different field. Obviously, the more of your existing technical knowledge you can utilize in your new career, the easier this transition will be. But it’s a mistake to think your technical background locks you into a narrow range of future job possibilities.

To transfer from your current industry and career situation to an entirely new one, simply break down your skills and abilities in terms of these fundamental characteristics, then look for opportunities to apply your basic strengths in new (but essentially similar) areas.

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