Monday, March 5, 2012

How You Can Change Career Paths

By Emory R David


Executive search firms routinely find people who have chosen to change professions. There was a time where you chose your profession and stayed with it until retirement and lots of people still follow that path. An increasing number of people, however, are opting to quit their first choice and try something new. For many, it is a move to a new country, or an investigation of a new skill, but for others, it's moving the skills they have to a new sector.

Should you be taking the plunge and changing careers, can you convince an executive search agency that it's all for the best? How can you demonstrate that you haven't lost any of your abilities?

Transitioning jobs is a daring thing to do. It may affect your wages, your working hours as well as where you live. It's not a decision that people take lightly, and it's one that will be viewed differently by everyone. If you take a career break traveling or to study, you have to be ready to turn that experience into positive ways for you to contribute to your new employer.

Executive search firms search for the best candidates for the position. If you have switched careers or taken a break and want to sign up with an professional search firm, then it's a good idea to make a scheduled appointment to go and see them. This will enable you to sit face-to-face with the advisor and clarify the reason why you took a year out, or the reason why you decided to change from medicine to law. No matter what your experience, you need to be able to use elements of it to illustrate how you might be valuable to a company in a senior position.

For instance, if you spent your time volunteering for a charity and working in Africa, you'll have learned better communication and diplomacy skills than most people. Had you been associated with a building project, you can demonstrate the way you managed the project, getting individuals to come together as a team to accomplish a common goal. While sorting out a problem in a business area is not the same as constructing a school, the things you learned from your project does apply in virtually any situation.

It's not whether you have switched careers that interests an executive search firm; it's why, and what you've discovered that may benefit their customers. It could be that your job switch gives the client exactly what they're searching for. It's up to you to turn it into the positives that may win you your upcoming job.




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