New Career – Have you ever bought something without putting adequate thought into it and then tried to justify the purchase to yourself by thinking about all the different ways in which you could use it anyway? What do you do when you spend half your life working on one kind of job, building up qualifications and experience in it, and then find that there are no prospects in that industry anymore? You right away try to mentally assess if the skills you’ve worked so hard to build up over the years are actually transferable to a new career. Sometimes, this may be a general skill that has to do with something like knowing how to deal with customers; at other times, it may be far more specialized – like a mathematician being hired by a sports team that will find him an asset for the way he can work through all the different combinations of player positioning the team can think of. Let’s look at a few skills that you can build that can take you from one career to another one that appears completely unrelated.
Companies always need people with negotiating skills that they can see proof of as having helped a previous employer save money in a business negotiation. They want people who are good communicators, who are good with managing people and who have customer care skills. These are areas of talent and skill that are always transferable to a new career. How exactly do you find transferable skills to acquire and go about acquiring them? Some kinds of transferable skills come to you through actual book learning – at university. You can also gain some through experience. If you can show that you are really good at learning new computer skills on a job, that might show a new employer that you can be trusted to adapt to changing situations as far as technology is concerned – even if the specific computer skills they need at a new job don’t have anything to do with the ones in the old one. For a more proactive role in acquiring transferable skills to take to a new career, a strong reading habit, and an interest in seeking out new learning opportunities everywhere can be a real help. Have you ever noticed how there are some people at every company who will stand first in line to try to take on any new project? They aren’t being insufferable suck ups you know – they’re just trying to add new transferable skills to their resume.
But once you do learn a few transferable skills, how do you present them to a new employer when looking to start a new career?
And how do you convince them that your skills actually mean something? A great example of a transferable skill learned at an unrelated job is what military veterans have. Veterans typically have a great attitude, a strong work ethic, personal discipline and an ability to adapt. These are great skills to carry over to a new career. The fact that they come from the military gives a job prospect great street cred – an asset that many vets use to help prospective employers open their minds to what hidden talents they might have. If you are having a hard time presenting yourself when you don’t have that kind of elite training that everyone instantly respects, you can put together a resume that lists your talents and skills right off without any talk of a traditional chronological work history. Basically, you need to be able to study the company you are trying out for, and find ways in which your specific skills can help. You need to be able to demonstrate; and not just talk a good game when it comes to a new career.