Five Keys to Breaking in to a New Career

There is a lot of talk about transferable skills – taking skills and knowledge from one profession or industry and transferring them to a new career. This makes sense and is an essential survival technique when you come from an industry or a profession that has been deeply impacted by downsizing and you realize the jobs might be gone forever. But when the job market is tight, what chance do you have when an employer may have plenty of applicants with exact industry and job experience? What do you do if you are an outsider?

“Always make a great first impression.” I hate job search advice like this. What is that supposed to mean? A firm handshake? Shined shoes? A winning smile? Sure, interviewers will form early opinions of job applicants based on limited information in the first few minutes, but honestly… it’s the final and lasting impression that really counts.

And it is not just job interviews where this counts. Networking interviews – the one essential technique that will uncover the next job opportunity before the hoards of other job seekers – demand a lasting impression.  Don’t make the fatal mistake of treating networking interviews as job interviews “lite” or as a stepping stone to the next person. Treat every networking meeting as an opportunity to build a net of people who will care enough about you that when they hear of an opportunity they will make the effort to pick up the phone or drop you a note. Recruit them to become a permanent member of your job search network. And you do this by making them G.L.A.D. they met you.

Degree-less and Doomed???  You have got to be kidding.

I am all for a college degree. In fact I have a couple degrees myself. But for many people, getting the college degree didn’t happen either by plan or by circumstances. Despite this they have built a good career holding the types of professional jobs despite the fact most their peers in similar positions are required to have degrees.

How does this happen?

Simple actually. These degree-less people happened to join the right company and because they were smart and capable and learned quickly, they were promoted to higher level positions.