Many of us choose a career in our early twenties, often after university, with little real experience of working life. As a result, occupations often fail to live up to the level of our uninformed expectation. We become disillusioned within careers in which we have no real motivation: this is an increasingly common phenomenon. Due to freedom of information, greater choice and changes in social behaviour, more and more individuals are seeking a career change.
Despite the desire to move and change career, many individuals feel trapped - like a hostage to fortune. Many feel that they have become a slave to their corporate employer and regardless of their career stage, find it difficult to take the next step out.
However, there is now more opportunity for career change than ever before. Far from being trapped, hard working, talented people have choices as the economy reaches out for the huge diversity of skills it needs. That is not to say that tapping into these opportunities won’t be a challenge.
So how can it be done? There are a number of key “golden” words that we as career changers must understand. They include value, context and opportunity. The value you offer potential employers relates to your skills and experience. The context is an appreciation of the situation you found yourself in while performing past roles. Opportunity relates to a potential new career. Linking all three together is crucial.
Understanding and communicating this is difficult, however. There are several questions you need to ask yourself: What skills do I have? How do these add value to my current employer? If I left my current role how would my employer describe the skills needed to replace me?
What’s that last question about? Understanding the value you add to your current organisation is the first step towards successfully changing career. The next involves looking at the professional world and assessing how your skills and experiences can add value within a different environment, a different context, a different career.
Another two “golden” words are clarity and confidence. Being clear about your value and also about who would value you are the underlying elements of taking the next step. When you are clear, your confidence soars.
We must make sure to be always in control of what we do. Looking at ourselves as a product that is ready to go to market is a useful analogy. For example, does the product look right? Is the value it offers clearly defined? Can it slot into the current situation easily? Can it deliver from day one?
It may seem difficult to perceive your career in this way, but a new employer is likely to use these types of criteria to assess your suitability for a new role.
Author: Simon North-Position Ignition Co-founder and Career Guide
