 Career After College |
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Changing Careers |
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Changing Careers
The first step in changing careers is to understand your motivation for making a transition. If the industry you work in is in decline, your lifestyle has changed, you feel burned out, or if your values are not those of the business you work in, a change may be just what you need.
The key to successfully transition to a new career is to identify the skills that you're good at and enjoy, and determine where you can use those skills in a different job function or industry.
Changing careers is not unlike choosing a job for the first time, but with the added benefits of experience and insight. You know what you like and don’t like about your current career field, and the strategies that have made you successful in your current job can be applied to your new career search.
Career Outside the Cube offers the following service to address the unique needs faced by career changers:
Step One – Self Assessment
- Transferable skills identification
- Interest inventory
- Work/life priority planning
Step Two – Investigating Possibilities & Finding a Fit
- Occupation exploration
- Informational interviewing
- Industry and job function identification
- Evaluating retraining requirements
- Strategies for building and maintaining a network
Step Three – Self Marketing
- Create target list of companies & contacts
- Winning resumes and cover letters
- Personalized "elevator pitch"
- Mock interviews
- Mastering tough questions
- Track progress
Step Four – Action Plan
- Evaluating the offer
- Negotiating the offer
- Maintaining contacts
- Handling follow-up interviews
Career Outside the Cube has helped numerous clients change careers. Examples include clients who have transitioned from engineering to marketing, broadcasting to not-for-profit, and entrepreneurship to consulting.