Making a Career Change, Is now the time?
Making a Career Change later in Life can be difficult but not impossible. It is all about considering all of the different factors and what you are actually trying to do.
So think about it, lets be practical about this, what you are actually saying is, I have lots to offer in terms of my business practical experience but I don’t know anything about this job however I would like to give it a go because………
Well this is it in a nutshell, so will a company actually buy this? Buy I hear you say? Yes remember they have to pay you a salary so they are buying your time. Your salary is your cost and a company has to evaluate a return on investment for every cost. So lets turn it around, if someone is buying you, are you selling yourself correctly? And that is what it is all about, so we need to change the second paragraph to a SALES PITCH!. Yes I know you might not be a sales person but job hunting in the 21st century no matter what stage you are at, requires you to become the sales person of you. You are the product you are taking to market.
The more you know about why you want to make a change the more you can articulate and communicate this effectively. You will not be sending your cv to a job as your cv will not demonstrate any experience if you are going for a change in career. You will be phoning up companies and selling in what you have got to offer and how it compliments or could work well in the role they are recruiting for .
I know this is a tough ask but it is essential. The other key area you need to think about is a change of career may require you to consider a much lower salary than what you have been on. Remember a company can get the individual with experience at the market rate, the person without experience is going to be a bigger cost on training so you need to be coming in at well below market rate for them to take the risk on you. As it is a risk for the company, but it could be the best decision they ever made but as always with a risk there is an air of caution so help them decide and go in at a lower level.
Don’t devalue yourself significantly as then you are too cheap and they will wonder what you can offer them if you don’t even value what you have done in the past. So there is a fine line. Understand the market rate, understand what you have to offer and negotiate in the middle.
Getting on the phone will be your biggest success, as it will demonstrate why they want you over someone perfect on paper!!
