Career Transitions

Career transitions

When the time is right to move on

Story by Helen Scott, Careers Consultant

There may come a time in your career when you’re ready to move on from your job and go into another field.

This can happen for a variety of reasons, like your current role no longer provides the challenge and interest it once did. Perhaps you’ve worked alongside someone, seen what they do and feel that their role would be a better fit for you. You could even be in a company or job you really don’t like and just want to ‘jump ship’.

If this is your situation, the first thing to do is to acknowledge that it’s normal. At some point in their career, everyone feels like this. These days, people move on from jobs more frequently than they ever did and it’s usual for people to move between jobs, employers and sectors that often seem quite different. Unfortunately, many of us are still brought up with the idea that there’s one ideal career for everyone, with family members asking ‘What are you going to be when you grow up?’ This puts considerable pressure on us from an early age to choose a career and stick to it for life, even when we know we’ve made the wrong choice or just want to try something else. It’s important to distance yourself from the outmoded idea that you’ll have one career for life. With people living and working longer, together with the transferable skills we develop in the contemporary workplace and the challenges presented by the fourth industrial revolution, most of us will have a very diverse CV by the end of our working lives. There will be twists and turns, sideways moves and even complete career changes along the way.

Employers rarely find applicants who match every desirable criteria

So what are these ‘transferable skills’ and how can you identify the ones you have in order to help you transition into a more satisfying job? There are a number of generic skills that are crucial, which appear on most job descriptions. These include high level written and verbal communication skills, the ability to work in a team, leadership experience, personal organisation and time management, the ability to use IT competently — with PowerPoint, Word and Excel being commonly used in most work environments — research and analytical skills and a good level of numeracy.

If you’ve been working for some time, it’s likely that you’ll possess most, if not all of these skills, albeit at different levels of competence. Make a list of the skills you’re particularly strong in and the projects you’ve worked on where you’ve made use of them. When you see a job opening that interests you, read the job description and person specification to find out what skills the employer is asking for and identify where these overlap with your own. If you can meet over 75% of their criteria, it may be worthwhile applying for the role.

Employers rarely find applicants who match every desirable criteria on their list and sometimes, even if such a person exists, the employer might feel they are not the right ‘fit’ for the company. If you decide to make an application, highlight the skills you’ve got which ‘overlap’ and explain why these would help you in the career transition you want to make. Mention that you are happy to undertake further training and the employer will see that you’re willing to develop new skills — an important attribute in today’s ever-changing career landscape.