The road to a fulfilling career comes with much more ups and downs, disruptions and risks than a traditional career path.
Having experienced many career pivots myself – from engineering to marketing, across tech industries, and Fortune 500 firms to startups – and having met many colleagues in similar shoes, I continue to learn new insights on what it takes to successfully reinvent yourself.
If you’re thinking about making a career change but your job experiences so far are only loosely related to where you want to go, how do you pivot into a new role?
Inventory the skills and experiences you now have
List the hard and soft skills you’ve accumulated in your entire body of work. These may consist of software tools and platforms you’ve developed expertise in, or any other measurable skills (e.g. Photoshop, Python programming, accounting, customer service, Spanish). List any certifications completed too.
Soft skills that consist of transferrable skills such as leadership, writing skills, problem solving or working effectively with cross-functional teams are critical for success in the workplace and shouldn’t be overlooked.
What career and life experiences have you been in? Academic, non-profit, entrepreneurial, or corporate? Perhaps you’ve lived abroad, completed marathons, or dealt with health/life challenges.
Then line these up against your target role. How well does your story align with your desired role?
You might be surprised. Most experienced career professionals have more transferrable skills than they realize.
What’s your story?
Take the time to sit down and write YOUR story:
- What do you like to do?
- What are you good at?
- What’s most important to you from a values perspective?
- How do your values show up NOW in your career? What’s getting honored? What’s getting squashed?
- How does your target role line up with your values?
As Pamela Slim, author of “Body of Work” says, “When people make great career choices that align their strengths and gifts with a deeper purpose, we all win.”Believe in your own career journey and body of work, and tell it with passion and conviction!
This exercise will stimulate your creativity and re-ignite your purpose.
Skill up
Invest in continuing education to expand your skill set. There are a variety of online course offerings available today – from online degree programs with transferrable credits to continuing education courses in a variety of fields from data analytics to digital marketing.
Coursera collaborates with leading colleges, universities, and companies to offer a wide range of courses, certificates and degrees online. Udemy also offers a broad selection of courses from web development to graphic design and business. Here are 14 best sites for online courses.
Pivot in multiple steps
Let’s say you’re a product manager (PM) and aspire to work at a Fortune 500 software company in a product marketing (PMM) role.
Consider making a lateral move to your target company, in a similar PM role. Once you’re in and have proven yourself, start building relationships and networking within the company to learn more about PMM roles and what it takes to succeed there. If a PMM role still appeals to you, consider rotating into it in one to two years by discussing a career transition development plan with your manager. (Of course, a key part of this process is finding companies that support cross-rotational or lateral moves – this can be explored during the research & informational interview stages.)
If you aspire to run your own business one day, don’t quit your day job just yet. Maintain a steady income to keep the pressure off while you develop that side hustle. Give yourself time to explore and experiment, to discover what *really* resonates with you.
Connect and Collaborate (aka Networking)
I feel that these two words – connect and collaborate – are much more affirming than the dreaded word – networking.
Career pivots can feel isolating and overwhelming, and all career changers need allies, mentors, and supporters who can serve as your sounding board, advisors, or those who can benefit from YOUR body of expertise.
- Start with your warmest connections: is there someone whose expertise you value, or can introduce you to someone who does?
- Who can you barter expertise or knowledge with?
- Who is the networking maven in your social circle? Every one of us knows at least one such person who is very wired and connected in the community and can potentially make good introductions on our behalf.
Find those watering holes where people in your aspired profession would likely hang out, and join in. These can consist of online forums, industry groups, or conferences.
From there, build or join a support group of like-minded career changers to share knowledge, compare notes, and hold each other accountable.
I’m rooting for you!
