I remember the shockwaves when I made  ”the big move” many years ago, switching from a pure journalism career as a small-town newspaper editor to accept a position in public relations with a huge corporation.  Mouths dropped open and fingers wagged. You would have thought I’d put my mother on a Greyhound bus with a one-way ticket to a destination unknown.

I mean . . . who goes to college, prepares for one career, commits to it for a lifetime and then switches for . . . gasp . . . the money?

I did.

This “sell-out”  — as my purist journalistic comrades called it — changed my life. I had new challenges and greater opportunities.  I came to realize that most of us really aren’t cut out to make lifelong career commitments, nor will we receive a guarantee of such in return.

Times have changed. Switching horses midstream doesn’t look like such a dangerous and acrobatic move anymore.  Plus, I bailed (albeit in ignorance) before the newspaper industry began its downward spiral into redefinition. It turned out to be good timing.

Hopping Off the Horse You Rode in On

In today’s economy — there we go with that again — many people are exploring career switches.  It may be time to hop off the horse you rode in on.  

Kris Dunn of The HR Capitalist cites a Newsweek study that says an emerging structural shift in the U.S. economy has led to shrinking sectors such as construction, finance, and retail.  Kris says employees in these fields need to get the skills and training to move into the growing fields of education, accounting, health care, and government.  

Moving from construction engineering to hospital management will take a little saddle-switching for sure.  Ah, the lure of a fresh horse — and a steady paycheck.

These days, companies are actually more concerned with a candidate’s core skills and how those can be applied in their industry.  Recruiters realize people from outside an industry bring new perspective and new ways to approach old problems. Casting a wide net in a job search improves the chance of success. 

Take your base skill — maybe it’s in accounting, computer technology, engineering or marketing — and re-tool it for a new industries. A marketing manager for a manufacturer of airplane components can shift his skills to become a marketing manager for an medical supply company, moving from a slower industry to a faster one, riding on the same skills.

Here are three tips for saddling up and sitting tall as you conemplate a career change:

1.  Identify your core skills.

Most of these will, of course, be workplace skills.  The tried and true.  But don’t overlook skills you’ve gained through volunteer work or life experiences.  These may apply to your new career even better than they did your old one.

2.  Sell your skills, not your past.

You’ll have to move beyond the basic resume.  A bare list of past positions and responsibilities could read like an “I don’t fit here” memoir.  Go beyond the facts and focus on the application of your skills.  Convince the potential employer that the skills you carry with you are transplantable and productive in his environment.

3.  Project confidence to seal the deal.

Don’t appear desperate, with statements like “If I had known that technology would have made my career obsolete, I would have chosen differently.”  Instead, project confidence:  “I’m interested in being where the future is and I can tell it’s here.  I want to be a part of your success.”

Whether you change careers because you want to — you’re bored, you want a better salary, your mother-in-law moved in next door — or because you have to — your industry tanked, your current career is a mismatch, you feel stymied in your path — you can do it. 

Get ready to loosen the reins; the stream is just around the bend.

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