.:: K-HITS ::.

Concert Calendar
New Releases
Artist of the Week
Classic Hits Links
Listen Now

Join the Workforce
Promotions
JC & the U-Man
All Around Town
Singles Connection
Air Personalities
Contact Info
Advertise With Us

Half Price Deals
Great Outdoors
Clubs / Venues
St. Louis Attractions

Career Channel
Autoworld
Traffic

The Secret to Successful Career Changing

By Richard Price

The Secret to Successful Career Changing
By Richard Price

There are many professions in which career changers are welcome such as business people who shift to non-profit work and engineers who teach. These are only two examples in which the transition is easier. Experience, valued skills, and employers who appreciate new ideas and fresh perspectives can facilitate the transition.

This week's job searching tip deals with changing to a new career. The key point author Richard Price makes in the article is you have to have a clear focus and know the industry and job you are going after. If you already have that focus and are ready to get yourself in front of employers looking to hire, we recommend using a service like the Employ.com Resume Posting Center to get your resume posted on all the job boards at once. Their service will post your resume on over 90 job sites including HotJobs, Monster, CareerBuilder, etc. To find out more about it, visit this web address:
http://posting.employ.com

Unfortunately, that level of acceptance and receptivity to career changers is not universal. Each career changer has to recognize the challenges may be significant. There are barriers that must be overcome and it is important to be realistic. The fact is when many hiring managers contemplate hiring career changers, they view that hire with a greater degree of risk. Without a track record in a particular job there is a real downside in considering a career changer for a position. Will the candidate decide to change careers again? Does this person really have the staying power despite their obvious qualifications? Do I want to take that risk when there are plenty of unemployed people available? And what happens if the person decides that this company or industry or organization culture is a poor fit? Here today, gone tomorrow?

These are some of the questions many hiring managers will ask themselves. As a result, career changers faced with potential employers who consider these issues have to develop some new strategies to cope.

The most important strategy is a laser-like focus on the industry, organization, and firm. After establishing a new and clear set of career goals, focus on specific companies or organizations that might be the best fit. Network with people who work in that niche. Forget about being open to "other alternatives" (in your communication with others). It should become easily apparent to anyone with whom you communicate regarding opportunities, that you know precisely where you want to go. People like that. If you meet strangers in professional forums, be very specific. Nobody wants to hear that you are a "people person."

Don't try to become an expert in the whole field such as marketing or healthcare. Pick specific targets and move ahead aggressively. The supply of family friends and contacts will run out very quickly before you get a job unless you focus. Convincing someone to talk with you is very different than speaking with a real hiring manager.

Become familiar with the jargon of the industry. Each profession has its own language and people instantly recognize if you're part of the cohort by use of language. When you get an interview make sure you are familiar with the terminology, and the firm. If you are still in the research stage and haven't yet built your knowledge base, it is possible to waste opportunities that might have become available at a later time.

In interviews, discuss specifics. Demonstrate how examples of your success in the previous career relate to many of the challenges in the new career. The important point is making the interviewer comfortable with the understanding that you really appreciate the major challenges in their industry.

Never ask for a chance, an opportunity to show what you can do. Focus exclusively on the specifics of what you have done. The key is communicating the depth and breadth of your experience and its applicability to the new situation. No hiring manager is going to hire based on sympathy and your shiny disposition. Their jobs are also on the line, today more than ever. Than means they have to have the specific data to justify to their manager a decision to hire.

Ignore headhunters. These people are paid to find the best employees that have been doing the same thing for a long time. Headhunters are really not interested in career changers because they are hard to sell. Remember, they get job profiles that are quite specific. That chances of a career changer fitting that profile is almost non-existent.

Finally, remember that positioning is everything. The interviewer can only see what you reveal. Call for an interview and position yourself as someone who has done specific work and have a track record of success, again with specifics in a defined area, finance, manufacturing, marketing and so forth. That is very different from looking like an unfocused wannabe looking for an opportunity, any opportunity.

In today's reality, hiring managers will go "extra miles" to find the perfect candidate. Good enough isn't good enough, and "being willing" and "tries hard" will be rejected. With a strong emphasis on basic skills and complementary organizational capabilities, the career changer can successfully position themselves as being right for the firm and right for the times.

This job searching tip was contributed by Richard Price of the career and job search counselling firm Berke and Price Associates. Berke and Price provides job search and career counselling sessions by phone. To find out more or to schedule a phone consultation, visit this web address: http://www.jobsearchinfo.com/bp.htm

« Return to Previous Page

What do you like the best about St. Louis?

• KHIT's 96

• The Pot Holes

• Gus's Pretzels

MO Power Ball: 9, 17, 32, 41, 47, Powerball: 8, Power Play: 5

IL Mega Millions: 9, 10, 17, 41, 52, Mega: 19

results posted by 9am following day

Saint Louis, MO

Sunny
83°F
MORE→