3 Tips To Help You Switch Into a New Job
Source: LinkedIn
Have you been considering switching into a new job or career?
Let’s agree on one thing, career transitions are never easy. Here are few tips to aid your career change.
1.The Job Conundrum
When you are looking to switch into a new job and particularly a new career, what’s the real issue? Why does it cause us so much stress and anxiety?
When looking for a job in a new field, you are facing the chicken and the egg problem – getting hired requires experience, which is why you need to get hired. You know that you can do a good job, but you have to stand out in the crowd somehow in a way that doesn’t make you seem risky.
Sometimes the solution is simpler than you think. It can be as plain as asking a few questions, and getting good at repeating the answers. That might sound stupid, but these aren’t easy questions.
Your value is stuck inside your own head until you are forced to bring it up, and then you do a terrible job explaining it out loud.
2. Stick to Your Story
Use something called a Personal Value Proposition Diagnostic, which is a fancy way of saying “This is why I’m an accountant.” For each job opportunity, answer the following questions:
- What problem do I solve?
- For who specifically?
- What proof can I submit?
- What process or skill makes this proof repeatable in this position?
No matter the company or position, they come up with the unique answers to these questions for every job to which they apply. After that their approach follows a pattern, based on what has worked for decades in the professional world.
3. The Logic of the 4 Questions
Why does this work? Many companies will take a softer stance on their official job requirements if you demonstrate initiative. Prove that you have a deep interest in the company by doing your homework. Learn about their products and services, looking at the language they use to describe themselves. Use this as a guide.
When you are obviously prepared, it sends a strong signal to the person interviewing you. These four answers should be sufficient to cut to the chase, clearly positioning you as a great (probably the best) candidate.
They force you to think critically about your skills and whether they are relevant to this opportunity. If they are, you have a fighting chance to leapfrog some of the more “experienced” folks and snag a great job.