Written by Paul Slezak, Area Manager, Aquent Sydney

A few months ago I caught up with a friend who I hadn’t seen for a few years. When I had first met Penny, she was a very successful physiotherapist with an established practice and regular clientele. Over dinner I asked her how her business was going and she told me that a year ago she had sold the practice and she was now working for a leading telecommunications company as their Senior Public Relations Adviser.

Not quite the response I had been expecting.

In short, Penny had not felt challenged for quite some time, and whilst she had been “totally fed up with being a physio”, she had not been prepared to throw it all away and start from scratch.

She knew that she possessed several skills and competencies that could certainly be transferred from the health sector to the corporate world, which is where she wanted to be.

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Your transferable skills will determine not only how realistic a particular career change could be for you, but also how easy it will be for you to sell yourself to a prospective employer in your newly chosen field.

A career change (as opposed to job change) is one of the biggest decisions anyone may need to make. Deciding to move from one job to another within the same industry is often tough enough (for all the obvious reasons), however it is usually made easier by the fact that at least you know exactly what is involved in your field and you hopefully enjoy whatever it is that you do. And besides the grass may not necessarily be greener by simply moving to another organisation.

It is important not to make the mistake of hating your current job as opposed to hating your current career. There is a big difference. Only you can decide whether you are in fact running away from (for example) a problem in your current workplace, or whether you are running towards a new career challenge because you are feeling bored or lost in your current one.

Whilst you should never underestimate your ability to market yourself outside the sphere of what you do now, you must understand how much preparation and research is required before you can successfully embark on a career transition.

Never attempt to make a career change without a plan, as it is only through ample preparation that your transferable skills can become your competitive edge. A successful career transition can take months to accomplish, even with a carefully thought through strategy.

If you rely solely on your previous position descriptions or present a résumé which categorises you based on your former job titles alone, you will not convince anyone. You are just re-enforcing your former work life. It may take time, but you need to craft the perfect career objective and design a competency and achievement based document that highlights all the valuable and transferable skills you have gathered not only through work, but also through extra-curricular hobbies, further study, and general life experiences such as travel or community involvement.

Consider some of these transferable skills …

• communication skills
• people skills
• teamwork
• leadership skills
• negotiation skills
• planning and organisational skills
• a proven ability to motivate others

… or perhaps even personal qualities such as initiative, drive, independence, confidence, creativity, or self-discipline.

These skills and qualities are by no means limited to the career or industry in which you may have gained the majority of your experience to date. You know your own values and interests well enough to determine what other industry or career could potentially allow you to best utilise these skills.

Explore all your options and choose a new career that will challenge you and one in which you will be satisfied.

Never attempt a career change without consulting a specialist in that industry.

Making a successful career transition will be far easier for you if you can meet with key people already in the field you are hoping to shift into, or perhaps by simply talking to people doing a similar job to the one you are hoping to do. In either case, your major objective is to gain sufficient information and advice as to what skills are required to ensure you can make the move as smoothly and effectively as possible.

Networking and “information interviewing” can really allow you to explore your career options as long as you are confident and comfortable asking for the right information. By speaking to “experts” you can decide whether a particular career move is right for you.

Preparing your own SWOT Analysis can also be a very useful activity when considering a career transition as often this acts as a reality check by revealing potential areas for improvement, personal development or perhaps even further study.

If you do not have all the necessary skills required to change careers, but you have some of the key qualities or competencies, you should understand that you may need to make a “Knight’s move” as the initial step in your transition. Like the Knight in the game of Chess, you may need to move across before moving up … but this is often a very successful and carefully executed move.

I am sure if you think about it, you will know someone who has taken the plunge, followed their ambition and pursued a career in their dream field. My friend Penny moved from physiotherapy in to public relations. I moved out of the world of advertising in to recruitment, and another colleague of mine left a top-tier law firm and is now a very successful corporate staff motivator and trainer.

Whilst each of these newly chosen fields may appear totally unrelated to the careers which came before them, a positive mindset, the belief in oneself and one’s transferable skills, together with a carefully thought out strategy will ensure that your decision to make such a major career change was always meant to be.

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Paul Slezak is the Sydney Area Manager for Aquent (www.aquent.com/mcs), a global firm that specialises in staffing solutions for the creative, marketing and communications industries. Through a network of nearly seventy offices in fifteen countries, Aquent services in the areas of print and Web design and production; advertising and media, marketing, public relations and business support. Paul also speaks and trains on career and recruitment issues and can be contacted on (02) 9264 1888 or e-mailed via pslezak@aquent.com