By Judit Price, MS, CDFI, IJCTC, CCM, CPRW

There are many professions in which career changers are welcome.  Experience, valued skills, and employers who appreciate new ideas and fresh perspectives can facilitate the transition.

Unfortunately, that level of acceptance and receptivity to career changers is not universal.  Each career changer has to recognize the challenges may be significant.  There are barriers that must be overcome and it is important to be realistic.  The fact is when many hiring managers contemplate hiring career changers, they view that hire with a greater degree of risk.  Without a track record in a particular job there is a real downside in considering a career changer for a position.

• Will the candidate decide to change careers again?
• Does this person really have the staying power despite their obvious qualifications?
• Do I want to take that risk when there are plenty of unemployed people available?
• And what happens if the person decides that this company, industry, or organization culture is a poor fit?
• Here today, gone tomorrow?

These are some of the questions many hiring managers will ask themselves.  As a result, career changers are faced with potential employers who are considering these issues and as a result they have to develop some new strategies to cope.

The most important strategy is a laser-like focus on the industry, organization, and firm.  After establishing a new and clear set of career goals, focus on specific companies or organizations that might be the best fit.  Network with people who are currently working in that niche.  Forget about being open to “other alternatives” (in your communication with others).  It should be easily apparent to anyone with whom you communicate regarding opportunities, that you know precisely where you want to go.  People like that.  If you meet strangers in professional forums, be very specific.  Nobody wants to hear that you are a “people person.”

Become familiar with the jargon of the industry. Each profession has its own language and people instantly recognize if you are part of the cohort by use of language.  When you get an interview make sure you are familiar with the terminology, and the firm.  If you are still in the research stage and haven’t yet built your knowledge base, it is possible you are wasting opportunities that might have become available at a later time.

In interviews, discuss specifics. Demonstrate how examples of your success in the previous career relate to the challenges in the new career.  The important point is making the interviewer comfortable with your understanding and appreciation of the major challenges in their industry.

Never ask for a chance, an opportunity to show what you can do. Focus exclusively on the specifics of what you have done.  The key is communicating the depth and breadth of your experience and its applicability to the new situation.  No hiring manager is going to hire based on sympathy and your shiny disposition.  Their jobs are also on the line, today more than ever.  Than means they have to have the specific data to justify to their manager a decision to hire.

Ignore headhunters. These people are paid to find the best employees that have been doing the same thing for a long time.  Headhunters are really not interested in career changers because they are hard to sell.  Remember, they get job profiles that are quite specific.  The chances of a career changer fitting that profile is slim.

Finally, remember that positioning is everything.  The interviewer can only see what you reveal.  Call for an interview and position yourself as someone who has done specific work with a track record of success, again with specifics in a defined area, finance, manufacturing, marketing and so forth.  That is very different from looking like an unfocused wannabe looking for an opportunity, any opportunity.

In today’s reality, hiring managers will go “extra miles” to find the perfect candidate.  Good enough isn’t good enough, and “being willing” and “tries hard” will be rejected.  With a strong emphasis on basic skills and complementary organizational capabilities, the career changer can successfully position themselves as being right for the firm and right for the times.

About Judit  Price

Judit is an employment and career transition consultant and coach in private practice with over 30 years experience. She holds a Masters Degree in counseling and is a Masters level certified career guidance professional, Career Development Facilitator Instructor, International Job and Career Coach, Certified Career Master, Certified Professional Resume Writer and a Certified Personal Branding Specialist.  Judit is a senior consultant for outplacement and career marketing firms and has a private practice, Berke & Price, a full service career counseling firm, in Chelmsford, MA.

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