You Can Break Into a New Career: Just “Mind the Gap”

by Duncan Mathison

In London, there is a warning printed on the loading platform of the “Tube” (subway) station.  It says “Mind the Gap” between the platform and the train – a warning to passengers not to trip as they board the train.  When it comes to job search there is another gap that comes up – the one between your skills and knowledge and what a hiring manager wants.  This is a bigger issue when trying to “transfer skills” from past careers to new careers and industries.  On a practical level, we KNOW that skills are transferable to new jobs, new industries and new professions.  The problem comes from convincing a hiring manager that they should take the chance to hire you when you do not have the exact experience to fit their profession, their industry or the job they need to have filled – particularly when the job market is tight and there are plenty of applicants.

The solution is to do a gap analysis between what a job needs from a manager’s perspective and your skills.  Gaps will fall into specific groups and have specific approaches to closing them. 

The types of gaps are:

Real Gaps: these are specific licenses or certifications absolutely positively required to do the job. Few jobs have these. If they do, enroll in the program. Often enrollment is enough to be brought on board then moved to full responsibility once the license is complete.

Perception Gaps: You have done the same thing in a previous job, only it is called something different in the new job. Use the terms and language of the new job that a hiring manager would understand. If you worked with “clients”, but they call them “customers”, use the term “customers”.  Speak the language they relate to.  Educate them on the similarities of your past experience using their terms from their perspective in their world.

Negative Bias Gaps: This is an opinion a hiring manager might have of you based on a stereotype. For example, “You are from banking, bankers would not fit in this job.”  Smart job seekers tackle these issues upfront to clear them out of the way.  Talk to people who broke into the profession. Get their perspective. There is a 3-step sales method for overcoming bias or objections called ‘Feel, Felt, Found”.  Very effective. More about this in our chapter called, “Don’t Have the Exact Experience? No Problem”.

Many times an outsider with outside skills and perspective make a better employee than one who has done the job before.  Industries that are experiencing big change often are looking for an outside perspective.  Take advantage of this to make yourself an attractive alternative to the same-ol’-same-ol’ insider applicant.

Tags: Bias, Feel-Felt-Found, hidden job market, job interview, Transferable Skills

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 24th, 2009 at 6:53 pm and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.