How to switch careers (without experience)

Read time: 3 minutes

Welcome to Career Confidence!

You ready to get one step closer to landing your target job?

Today I’ll be sharing how you can setup yourself up to switch careers.

Let’s dive in.

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Deep Dive

How to Switch Careers (Without Experience)

Switching careers is hard…

Especially without relevant experience. And this is a problem I see alot.

So how do you switch to a job you’ve never done for?

It’s not easy. But it is possible.

Step 1: Identify Transferable Skills

What are transferable skills?

Skills and experiences that are relevant to the job you want. Even though they may not be exactly the same.

For example…

You may want to be a project manager. But you aren’t one right now.

Look through the key skills and experiences you need to be a project manager. Have you used these skills in your current role?

Skills like “led a team”, “worked with multiple stakeholders" etc. might be needed but aren’t unique to project managers. You could’ve led a team at your local retailer. Or worked with different teams at your blue collar job to ensure the supplies come on time.

Whatever it is…

It could use the same skills without it being the same exact experience.

Now your job is to relate that experience to your target job.

It may not be obvious…

And you’ll already start behind the person applying who has had that exact job before (e.g., current product manager applying to be a product manager).

But transferable skills can help you get the job.

Smaller companies may be more likely to give you a chance. They might get less applicants that have the exact experience they are look for.

So once you’ve identified your transferrable skills, you gotta communicate them on your resume.

Relate them to the target job as much as possible (use the job description).

“What if I don’t have any transferrable skills?”

This would be a great time to get some. Through freelancing or independent projects.

The reality is… if you’re serious about switching careers you’ll have to do the work to gain some experience on your own.

But you’ll still need more to stand out.

You’ll need to network.

Step 2: Networking is Your Competitive Advantage

I know I know…

You’ve heard this a million times. And you’re sick of it.

Networking this, networking that.

I get it.

Networking usually sucks.

And career ‘gurus’ are always talking about it.

It’s not the end all be all but it does help if you do it right. And if you’re trying to switch careers it’s usually needed.

So where do you start?

Search on LinkedIn for people who do the job you want. Ideally find people who made the transition you wanna make.

Message them something like this…

Hey x, I saw you transitioned from a project manager to marketing analyst and I’m looking to do the same switch. I’d love to learn more about your current role and how the transition went for you.

Most won’t answer. But some will (it’s a quantity and quality game).

Speak with them and see if they can help you make the jump.

You’ll learn a ton about your target role too that you can call back to in interviews.

At the end of the day you gotta communicate on your resume and LinkedIn that you have the needed skills for your target job and know the right people.

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