When you are facing redundancy or career change, you may wish to look at moving into an industry where you have little or no previous experience. In this circumstance, your transferable skills are paramount.
Consider the following three stories about clients we have coached recently:
Adam, was recently made redundant from a senior post within a financial services company. Adam is a highly experienced programme manager, who has led multi-million, multi-national projects and has a superb track record of delivering on-time and on-budget.
When I first met Adam, he was despondent. “The whole industry is suffering at the moment” he said “how can I possibly find a similar job?”. When we explored Adam’s circles of influence, we discovered that he had a few contacts through friends and relatives in the oil and gas industry. We agreed that he should discuss his situation with them. At our next meeting, Adam was overjoyed to discover that they were very interested in him. “I told them ‘I know nothing about the oil and gas industry’ but they said that wasn’t of relevance – they were crying out for my programme management skills and experience”.
John has recently left the RAF with the current round of defence cuts and redundancies in the armed forces. He faced his transition into civvy street with some nervousness, but when we looked at his transferable skills he was able to identify a whole range of managerial, project management, planning and logistics skills that would be valued in any industry, together with the experience of applying these in high-pressure environments.
Sally’s problem was a little different – from having been an HR business partner in a large retail chain, she took a 12-month career break to go travelling. On her return, she found that the market was tight, and so she did temping jobs for the next 6 months. When she got back into the job market, she was embarrassed by what she saw as an 18 month gap in her CV. During coaching, she looked at this period of her life differently, and enumerated the different skills that she had deployed to make her travelling successful, as well as the attributes that she had learnt during the experience. She then re-presented her CV and discovered that the “gap” was in fact of interest and relevance to prospective employers.
If you’re in a similar situation to Adam, John or Sally, then try this:
- Look at your skills from a different angle, and try to see what someone else would find valuable in you.
- Ask friends and contacts in different industries to tell you what parts of your skill-set are required in their industry.
- Remember that everything you ever do adds to your kit-bag of skills and experience. This includes career breaks, hobbies, your home life and voluntary work.
What have you overlooked in your life that adds to your worth?
Leading For Transformation 