Mistakes People Make When Changing Careers | JobSearchTV.com

Jeff Altman 0:06
I'm Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter. I've worked with people who transition careers, transition jobs for many, many years. And here, I want to talk with you about a couple of the mistakes I've seen over the course of time that are going to help you not wind up in the wrong role, not waste as much time and not wind up risking a mistake.

The first thing I see people do is they don't really get clear about what they might want to consider next. And I say "might" because that's where you start-- you have a couple of ideas of things you'd want to do. And then from there, what you need to do is start getting real world advice about what it's like to work in the field. What do you? What do these people do on a typical day? What are they like? What problems show up? What gives them reason to question their sanity for staying in this field? What do they love about it? You come up with your questions, I have more at my website, TheBigGameHunter.us. And look for the category informational interviews.

Next thing is, once you get clear about what you want to do, you have to get qualified and people have the idea that all they have to do is decide and they don't do the work to get themselves qualified. So you may need to go back to school; you may need to take lots of online courses that organizations would recognize. As you're talking to people about what they like or don't like, ask them about whether their field accepts online courses readily for those who are in transition.

Another thing people make the mistake of not doing is they don't get connected with individuals who might be able to open doors for them. If you think you're going to be able to send a resume with your old experience in it, and simply say, "Hi, I'd like to transition careers into something new and yours is the perfect organization for me to get a job, " and that's not going to be the way to do.

The best way is always to networking and from introductions by people who know you, believe you can help the organization and respect you. And without those introductions, you'll wind up spamming lots of resumes, become frustrated, and it's not going to help.

Another thing people do is they become fearful. They never get started. Because even though they've wound up in situations where they've gotten all this knowledge in advance, they never get started in the search for fear of being rejected, or they put themselves in the position where they're rejected once " And no one's gonna hire me."

You need supporters around you to encourage you to help you. That can be family, friends, people with knowledge about your job search. It can be a coach. It can be any number of people who can provide you with support during the tough times emotionally and during the search.

But those are the four basics I see time and again. And I'll simply say, if you'd like advice, I have a ton of my website, TheBigGameHunter.us. If you're interested in my coaching you during this process, you can reach out to me through the site and schedule time for a free discovery call or time for coaching. I'd love to help. Also connect with me on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/TheBigGameHunter because my network is probably a lot larger than yours and thus it will help you expand your reach on LinkedIn to far more people.

Have a terrific day and be great. Take care