How to Transition Your Career Into A New Industry

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If you only have job experience in an industry impacted by the pandemic, how do you transition your career into something new?

A girlfriend of mine and I plan monthly Zoom “Happy Hour” meetups. They include mimosas, home-cooked breakfast and LOTS of catching up!

During our last call, she seemed to be in good spirits, but when we got on the topic of the pandemic and its effects on jobs and our economy, she wanted advice on how to transition her career into a new industry.

Working as a travel agent before the pandemic, she built a solid clientele by giving young adults package deals on island-based trips. But post-pandemic, she has struggled to book anyone due to the virus and the U.S. recommendations on travel. According to the CDC, “Traveling poses the highest risk of getting and spreading COVID-19”.

Even though she has an emergency fund, she’s lost on how she is going to transition her career into another field that’ll pay her the same and be in demand no matter what happens next.

Industries like travel, tourism, hospitality and restaurants have really been struggling during the pandemic. Even though the U.S. started releasing the vaccines late last year, there are still millions of people who are out of a job!

If you only have experience in the industries that have been affected, then where do you go from there? It can be frustrating coming up with a new career game plan.

As many of us who’ve been affected by the pandemic are learning, if you want to speed up your chances of being hired, then you’ll need to pivot and start brainstorming on ways to become qualified in another field.

Below are a few tips that I’ve used to guide me on where and how to choose another career path during the pandemic.

What Skills Are Your Strongest?

I recommend taking a skills test. What is a skills test? It’s a test where you’re asked questions about your personality, hobbies and work scenarios that tell the database what your top strengths are.

One of my professors had his students take this at the beginning and end of the semester to help us evaluate what we needed to work on before graduation. CareerOneStop has a great Skills Matcher that can help in identifying where to start.

Are you a people person and express empathy? Consider customer service. Have you always been great with numbers and equations? Accounting may be your calling!

When I was choosing my major in college, I asked myself, “What would I enjoy doing even if I wasn’t getting paid to do it”? Naturally, it was a field where my skills aligned with my passions.

 

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Find Your Job Title

There are levels to job titles. Coordinators, specialists, managers, executives, vice presidents and so forth. You need to choose the exact job title that you plan on applying for. Since you’ll be new, I recommend starting off by looking into internships and coordinator roles. These are entry-level positions where you are still being taught on the job.

Depending on your situation, you may not want to do an internship; considering that most companies don’t pay interns or offer part-time compensation. You’ll be surprised what you find when you do enough research on a company, so don’t block your blessing!

Finding your exact job title is crucial since there will be a lot of competition and you’ll have a higher chance of securing certain positions.

University Degree or College Certificate?

Some fields don’t require you to go back to school to earn a university degree. But some fields will. This is when you have to put on your big girl pants and do some research on the best path forward.

Chanele McFarlane, Certified Career Strategist and Founder of Do Well Dress Well, recommends “Before you think about school, take a look at the skills required for the role you would like to transition into. How do they compare to the skills you hold right now? What are your transferable skills?

If you uncover that you actually hold a lot of the skills already, you could consider holding off on school and instead look for ways to gain more experience on a site like Catchafire and/or seek out stretch opportunities within your current role.”

If you do decide to pursue further education, Chanele suggests that you “spend time looking through the course outline. See if the assignments and projects are closely aligned with the type of work you’d like to be doing in a new career. You will want to be able to showcase this work online (for example, on Linkedin or your personal website) and speak to it in interviews to demonstrate that you know what you’re doing.

It’s also very helpful if the program is able to connect you with industry professionals because of course, we know that networking is the best way to get your foot in the door, especially in today’s economy.”

Networking

Why am I so obsessed with networking? Honestly, it has helped me land so many opportunities! Attending virtual conferences, reaching out to people in the field and even joining mentorship programs will help you during your career transition.

Now is not the time to be anti-social, you have to go out and get it! Let people know on LinkedIn that you are actively looking for a position and you’ll be surprised who may reach out to you.

Some people have said that the pandemic has served as ‘The Great Clarifier’  —Chanele McFarlane

It’s Never Too Late

The pandemic has put a lot of us in a hard situation when it comes to jobs and finances, but this could be the beginning of a fresh start. Don’t view this career transition as a bad thing, it’s great to enhance your education, diversify your skills, meet new people and start over.

Chanele says, “First and foremost, you have the opportunity to gain new experiences and skills. It’s so easy to get comfortable in a role but when you make a career switch, you’re faced with a new learning curve to tackle. This forces you to demonstrate key skills such as resilience, adaptability and problem-solving.

Another major benefit of making a career switch is your personal fulfillment! Perhaps with this switch, you are finally exploring a lifelong passion or maybe you’ll get to uncover a completely new field that you love.

Some people have said that the pandemic has served as ‘The Great Clarifier’, meaning that it has given us more time than we ever imagined to reflect on our careers and what really matters most to us.

Perhaps, a long-term goal that you had may not make sense anymore given the changes to the work environment or maybe it just doesn’t resonate with you. With a career switch, you have the opportunity to change that.”

No matter your age or experience, it is never too late to get back in the workforce and dominate another field!

 

Image via Brandy Kennedy on Unsplash