The Filmore CV
Professional CV Writers

Changing Careers

So you’ve made a conscious decision about changing your career.  Whether it’s because you are under pressure to earn more money or whether you are bored, or even if you feel your chosen career can no longer give you the satisfaction it once did, it’s a big development and will have life-changing consequences for you.

If you are surveying the scene for a higher paying career, then you need to plan for challenges of all sizes, shapes and magnitudes.  You will have to persuade prospective employers that you are more committed and more qualified than any other applicant – it is true that younger people starting out in their career have more drive to make a mark and that they are more malleable and anxious to cover all manner of challenges to get to the pinnacle of their dreams and desires.  There will also be applicants with highly relevant industry and job experience and you will have to work hard to persuade them that you are serious and want the challenge.  You’ll also have to convince them that you are prepared to take a lower salary to obtain your ultimate position and that is a fact.  Consider also that you may not even make it…

To achieve your financial goals, you will most likely have to start lower down on the ladder and work your way up.  However, you are more likely to rise quicker than your younger counterparts because you have more life experience and are more commercially aware.

Let’s step back for a moment and consider what could happen along the way: 

•    Let’s say Mr X, who left university with a BA (Hon’s) 2:1 in Electronic Engineering, joined and moved his way up the ladder of a prominent, global electronics manufacturer.  After 10 years in the same industry and 3 years in the same job without the prospect of a higher or better paid position, Mr X decides he really wants to be in a position where he feels he plays a real part in the development processes of the company.  He explores the various resources open to him to help him make up his mind about crossing over to being a “Business Development Professional”.  The only relevant experience he has in relation to his desired role, is his relationship with customers through the design and manufacture of certain electronic components, an understanding of quality management and product turn-around time-scales.

•    Having persuaded others over to his way of thinking, he gets a job as a “Sales & Service Engineer”; he takes a huge drop in income and has to fight for survival for the following 12 months by not having a fixed income, since his earnings are now based on a set salary and commission from any sales he makes.  Twelve months go by and every payday is closer to the end of his self-imposed probation and his earning potential starts to exceed his basic salary.  His boss is really pleased because Mr X now makes a huge difference to product development, P & L and the Balance Sheet and has happier customers, since he is able to explain why things happen in a certain order.  Low and behold, 18 months down the line, Mr X is happily earning twice as much as he used to and has his own territory to develop as an Area Sales Manager.........................and he has the potential to rise further than he could have in previous career!

This is just an example of how mind over matter worked and could have had very disastrous consequences given different circumstances.  Mr X went on to be Sales and Business Development Director of global a conglomerate based in the United States.

To make things work for you, you need to adopt the following principles:

• Prepare yourself to take a step back

To achieve your financial goals, you will more than likely have to start lower down the ladder and work your way up. The positive side is that you are more likely to rise quickly in your new career than your younger counterparts because you have more life experience.  When Mr. X set out to change careers, he had a BA in Electronic Engineering, his experience of sales was limited to his brief exposure to dealing with things that either don’t work or were badly put together on the production line.  As an Electronic Engineer at 39 years of age he was used to earning in the region of £40k pa, the change in career initially reduced his income to £25kpa; but this rose gradually over a short period of time and it took him 4 years from that point to get to his current executive position on the board of directors and he now earns in excess of £150k pa.

• Use persuasion to engineer your goal

An employer may not see how a certain kind of job is relevant to you. You have to demonstrate that your skills are relevant and that they are portable from one job to another.  If you really want something, let it show.  Make a clear plan on paper and show how you see your future developing within that industry or specific career.  Make out a list of debits and credits – a list of good points or negative ones.  If you make your motives and thoughts behind the reasons obvious to prospective employers, the more you will succeed in your endeavours.

• Change your CV to correlate with your chosen career/job

Any CV or Resume, no matter how good or how bad, has to give a certain direction or demonstrate the person’s objective.  A CV with little or no detail tells the reader that the person is probably not the right candidate as they haven’t taken the time or consideration to build the document properly.  Likewise, a CV that goes on for pages shows the person is over meticulous and bogged down in detail.  If you want to demonstrate your abilities for your new career, again write out debits and credits as detailed above, put all the positive and relevant parts at the forefront of the CV; it might also help to build a CV that is based upon skills rather than producing  a chronological CV that will more than likely cloud issues. Include a description of your key accomplishments in each area, but the sooner you make your point on the first page of your CV the better, as recruiters and prospective employers spend very little time in scanning applicants’ CV’s.  Things that are pointed out on the CV that are irrelevant to your new career will raise the red flag and your application will most likely not be taken seriously.

• Look the part

When you appear at any interview, whether it’s directly with the prospective employer or whether it’s a recruitment consultant or head hunter, it’s taken as read that you will dress to impress.  Think about how people might view you if you were already in the role that you want to be in now and dress the part.  By looking at yourself in a long mirror ready for your interview in your best “power” suit will help you visualise yourself in the position.  The more you think about this, the more your confidence will grow.  Even if the company is quite casual in their dress code, it doesn’t matter.  As well as that, make sure your clothes fit you; if you are going along in a suit you bought 5 years ago and you’ve either put on or lost 10 pounds since, the suit won’t look good.  You don’t have to spend a fortune to look good……I’ve been an off and on visitor to charity shops where you can pick up the most amazing bargains.  At the end of the day, your clothes must be comfortable for you, if you’re going to sit and fidget, feel like your skirt is too tight around the waist, your shoes hurt or your tummy is sticking out due to several “just one more’s” down the local Dog and Duck, wear something different, experiment, but get comfy and feel/look good.

• Be ready to discuss your career change

Recruitment consultants and prospective employers will ask what is motivating you to change careers and seek proof that you're truly committed.  It's really important to think things through in advance because you'll need to exude confidence.  Answer honestly, but be sure to express the reasons why and how you can add value to an employer/company.  If your goal is to earn more money, you might say you're seeking financial stability; this will suggest to them that you are looking to settle down in a long-term role.  Every company wants to believe you're coming on board to help it achieve its objectives and you have to tell them what they need and want to hear.

An important addendum to the above! 

You may find you will need to use a professional writer/copywriter, experienced in CV and Resume Writing, to build your new CV.  The reason for this is that you need to channel the reader’s mind into the career that you want.  If you keep the current aspect of your CV (your previous/old career), you won’t be selected for interview(s), people won’t take you seriously and by applying for jobs in your new/intended career, you’ll end up at the bottom of the pile because those all important “keywords and phrases” are not incorporated into your CV.  Anyone reading your CV will be totally oblivious to what you want to do.