If you’re considering a career change, you’re not alone. In a recent survey from EdX, about a third of respondents said they have seriously considered switching careers. Yet thinking about making mid-career change and actually taking that leap are often two very different prospects. Contemplating the possibilities beyond your current field is exciting. The idea of starting back from square one, after putting in years of work for your current career path, is often a much more intimidating prospect.
The good news is, making a career transition doesn’t need to mean completely starting over. The experience, skills, and network you’ve built in your current job can still play an important role in a different industry, allowing you to reinvent yourself professionally without going back to entry-level roles (and the often low salaries that come with them). In this article, you’ll learn some career change steps to take that can smooth your transition onto a new professional path.
Step 1: Self-assessment.
Before you start taking steps to make a career pivot, it’s important to clarify for yourself why you want to take this step and what you hope to gain by making a job or industry switch. Are you hoping to shift to a new role with a higher salary potential, or is it more about finding a field that excites you, brings you more job satisfaction, or allows you more freedom and flexibility to maintain your ideal work-life balance? The answer to that question will influence which second career options are the best fit and help you decide what steps you should take to make your move.
Along with understanding your motivations for changing careers, it’s also important to think generally about what you want out of your job and workplace. Determine your non-negotiables in terms of salary, benefits, time commitment, and flexibility.
Finally, it’s important to understand yourself and do a thorough skills assessment. Take a moment to honestly assess your own strengths and weaknesses, both in terms of technical capabilities and your personality and the soft skills you bring to the table. If you struggle to make this kind of assessment for yourself, it can be helpful to seek out input from a mentor or colleagues who can help you answer those questions.
Identifying transferable skills
There are some skill sets that are broadly needed across industries and roles. Identifying transferable skills that you can highlight is one of the key first steps for changing careers without starting over from zero.
Some of the most valuable and in-demand transferable soft skills include:
- Communication – The ability to express yourself clearly, and effectively communicate with others both verbally and in writing, is a must-have skill in just about every role.
- Problem–solving – Employers across sectors value individuals who can identify challenges and find effective solutions to them.
- Adaptability – The ability to quickly learn and adjust to new environments or responsibilities is a core competency for making a mid-career transition.
- Teamwork and collaboration – Any role that exists in a team environment relies on individuals who are able to work effectively with others, making this another core skill to include on your resume for career switchers.
- Leadership and people management – Nearly every industry has roles that are primarily responsible for overseeing other people. Even if you’re not moving directly into a leadership role, skills like conflict resolution, delegation, and motivation are highly valued within teams.
- Time management and organization – This includes the ability to prioritize tasks, set achievable goals, and meet deadlines consistently.
- Negotiation and persuasion – These skills are especially useful in sales roles, as well as those related to project management or leadership.
- Emotional intelligence – Understanding and managing emotions allows you to navigate workplace relationships smoothly, and is another key competency many look for in leadership candidates.
There are also several more technical skill sets that can be very valuable for making a career shift, such as:
- Project management – From technology roles to those in fields like marketing, architecture, healthcare, and manufacturing, expertise in managing complex projects can be an asset in a wide array of industries.
- Data analysis – This is a skill that is increasingly needed across domains as more companies employ big data to better serve customers and optimize their operations, making the ability to interpret and leverage data for decision-making one of the most valuable transferable skills for a career change.
- Customer service – Every business needs to ensure the satisfaction of its customers or clients to thrive, making the ability to manage client relationships an in-demand skill for the majority of sectors.
- Marketing – Just like all businesses need to serve their customers, they also all need to attract new ones to grow. Expertise in branding, content creation, or digital engagement can apply across industries.
- Financial literacy – This includes skills like budgeting, forecasting, and cost management, which will apply to various roles.
- Technical proficiency – Just about every business uses some kind of software in the modern landscape, and needs individuals who are able to utilize these tools effectively.
- Compliance knowledge – Even if the specific regulations are different in your new industry, an understanding of regulatory requirements and how to ensure compliance with them is valuable in a range of sectors.
Leveraging your experience
Once you’ve identified your transferable skills that could prove useful in other fields, the next step is to frame them effectively in your resume or on your LinkedIn profile to attract employers from your new sector.
The first tip is to use industry-neutral language when describing your past experience and accomplishments. Distill your responsibilities or achievements from past roles down to their core concepts. For instance, instead of saying you “managed retail banking operations”, which is highly specific to a single field, instead say you “led operational strategy improvements”— something that applies to a much wider range of roles.
Another smart career transition strategy is to highlight the results of your work rather than just listing your responsibilities. Demonstrate how your contributions made an impact on the business, following the same advice above to keep it industry-neutral.
One last piece of career change advice in this area is that you’ll attract more attention if you can build an effective narrative that explains why you’re transitioning and presents this move as a logical progression from your past work. Highlight how your recent positions give you unique expertise that will allow you to thrive in your new chosen industry, and make use of storytelling techniques to make your motivation for changing careers clear.
Step 2: Research and explore potential career paths.
This step will differ slightly depending on whether you already have a new career path in mind or if you’re still open to a variety of careers. For those who have a target industry in mind, this research should focus on identifying those roles that will make the best jobs for career changers. For those who haven’t yet picked a new path, it should instead focus on identifying industries that align with the transferrable skills and career aspirations you identified in the previous step.
A good place to start is to browse career sites and industry reports. Look at websites like Glassdoor, LinkedIn, or the Bureau of Labor Statistics and review the descriptions of jobs listed there. Check out the skills required, typical job responsibilities, and salary trends. This should help you to build a list of potential roles that could be a good fit.
It’s also a smart move to target fields that are currently growing or have skill gaps. Companies in these industries are likely to be more open to career switchers since finding professionals with direct experience in the field is more of a challenge. You can use resources like LinkedIn’s Emerging Jobs Report or the BLS list of Fastest Growing Occupations to do this kind of research.
Once you have a short-list of potential new careers to pursue, it can be beneficial to conduct informational interviews. Connect with professionals in your target field who can give you insider knowledge you won’t find online. You can find these individuals by joining industry-specific groups and communities on sites like LinkedIn, Reddit, or Slack, or by perusing the forums of professional organizations related to your new industry. Ask them questions like:
- What does a typical day look like in your role?
- What skills are most important for success in this field?
- What advice would you give someone switching into this industry?
- What are some challenges people don’t expect when transitioning into this career?
Step 3: Strategically fill skill gaps.
You can absolutely make a career change without going back to school. However, gaining a bit of extra knowledge by upskilling for a new career is often still a smart move. Not only will this make your resume more appealing to recruiters and hiring managers, but it also demonstrates your commitment to your new career path, helping to assuage concerns about your dedication or reliability.
Compare your list of skills from step one with the key requirements for the roles you identified in step two, and find the places where they don’t align. You can also use skill assessment tools like O*NET’s Online Skills Matcher or LinkedIn Skill Assessments. Target those skills that are both the most critical to success in your new role, and will be the most feasible for you to obtain.
Here are some ways to gain skills for a career change without a degree, often without spending a fortune or needing to make a huge time commitment.
Online courses and certifications
These are a great choice for self-directed learning that let you gain new skills on your own time, making them ideal for those undergoing a career transition while working. Platforms like Coursera, Udemy, edX, and LinkedIn Learning offer professional courses, often at a low cost or even free, which culminate in professional certification.
Researching current job openings can help guide your efforts. Identify professional certifications that frequently appear in job descriptions for the roles you’re targeting. These will boost your credibility and help you make a career change without experience in the field.
Bootcamps
For those who need to acquire highly technical skills, or who are looking to fast-track their learning, bootcamps offer intensive learning that goes deeper than online courses. These programs also frequently include job placement support after you complete the bootcamp, which can help you to make your transition faster.
Bootcamps do cost more than online courses, though still typically less than you’d spend on a degree program. Usually, the total cost is somewhere in the range of $1,000-$15,000. They typically last anywhere from 8-24 weeks, and may be full-time or have a part-time option for those with other commitments.
Freelance and contract work
For some roles, you can start to gain hands-on experience in your new field before you get your first job by taking on one-off projects as a freelancer or contractor. You can find these projects on marketplaces like Upwork, Fiverr, or Toptal, just to name a few options. There are also industry-specific freelance platforms in many fields that could be a faster way to find the specific types of projects you’re looking for.
Apprenticeships, internships, and on-the-job training
An apprenticeship or internship is a middle ground between education and landing a new role. These positions may be paid or unpaid and allow you to learn directly from established professionals while gaining hands-on experience. They typically last for a designated span of time, anywhere from a few weeks to a few months. While some are reserved for students in degree programs, others are open for anyone to apply to. In some cases, internships can lead directly to a permanent role if you do well in the position and feel like the company is a good fit.
Another potential option for some career changers is to check for options with your current employer. This will often be most useful if you’re switching to an adjacent field, or into a role that’s broadly used by companies across sectors, such as marketing or accounting. Tell your employer about your career transition plan and ask if you can take on some responsibilities related to that new domain. Again, this is an option that may eventually lead to a full-time role in your new field, sparing you the need to conduct a job search at all.
4: Plan for your switch.
While you’re pursuing career development to fill in any skill gaps, you can also do a bit of career planning. The best first step is often to create a timeline for your transition. Consider factors like the length and extent of the skill building you want to do and how much time you have to search for jobs in between your other responsibilities.
Along with this, it’s smart to do a bit of budgeting and financial planning. Even if you’re changing into a higher-paying career path, the initial switch may mean taking a temporary pay cut. It may also be beneficial for some people to quit their current job first, giving them more time to look for a new role. Consider your living expenses and other potential sources of income, such as if you have a spouse who works or if you can take on freelance work during the transition.
This is also an excellent time to start networking for your career change. LinkedIn is a good place to start building connections in your new industry. You can also join professional organizations related to your new field or attend industry events like trade fairs and conferences. These can often be beneficial for career switchers in multiple ways, serving as knowledge-building as well as networking opportunities.
Step 5: Start your job search.
The process of looking for a job is basically the same in any industry, and will likely feel familiar from past job searches you’ve conducted to start your current career. That said, there are some job search strategies for career changers that can help you land a new role faster.
First, you’ll set yourself up for faster success by targeting companies that value candidates from diverse or non-traditional backgrounds. These will often include startups, mission-driven organizations, and companies that primarily make use of skills-based hiring practices. Check company websites, Glassdoor, and LinkedIn to research companies that fall into this category. It’s a good sign if they mention hiring flexibility or openness to nontraditional backgrounds.
Regardless of where you apply, you should expect to get interview questions about why you’re changing careers and develop a concise narrative for how you’ll answer them. Explain how your past experience can be relevant for your future in your new career path, as well as why you’ve chosen this specific field for your next career and the steps you’ve taken to prepare for the transition.
Finally, remember that you don’t need to make the transition on your own. It can be helpful to seek out career counseling or work with a career coach who can provide guidance on how to optimize your resume and otherwise make a successful professional reinvention. Working with a recruiter can also be beneficial when making a career transition without experience. Look for a recruiter who has a tight focus on your new industry or specializes in working with candidates from nontraditional backgrounds.
Common challenges of changing careers (and how to overcome them)
Career changers do often face hurdles, but the good news is that none of them are insurmountable. Here are some of the most common challenges and tips to overcome them.
Age-related concerns
When you’re changing careers at 40, or even 50, it can feel like you’re a step behind the other job seekers applying for the same roles. The truth is, though, that you’re actually ahead of the pack. Your experience is an asset for employers who value adaptability, business acumen, and leadership skills younger candidates often lack. Reframe your experience as an advantage and make smart use of referrals who can demonstrate why your age is an advantage.
Handling pay cuts
Taking a position that pays less than your last one can feel like you’re going backwards. It may also mean making some lifestyle adjustments so you can continue to live comfortably at your new salary rate. Review your expenses and look for places you can cut back. Particularly target expenses you may no longer need in your new career. For example, if your new career allows you to work remotely, you can cut out expenses related to commuting without the need to make sacrifices.
Imposter syndrome
It is common to feel some self-doubt when you’re pivoting to a new role. The best way to overcome it is to focus on your strengths and reframe your mindset. Instead of seeing yourself as an outsider, celebrate that you bring a unique perspective others in the industry don’t have. Also keep in mind that many successful professionals don’t follow a traditional path. Learning about their stories can help you to put your switch into a different context.
Motivation and burnout
Often, the first steps of a career change need to be taken while you’re still employed. Add in the uncertainty of switching industries and the disappointment from setbacks, and the process can be mentally and emotionally exhausting. To combat this, remind yourself why you’re changing careers and what you’ll ultimately gain by doing so. Set small, achievable goals that make the process feel more manageable, and make sure to take time to rest and practice self-care along the way.
Making your career transition
Career transitions can take time, and you may not land your dream role right away. Even following the advice outlined in this career change guide, you may find you need to take a stepping stone position that will lead you into your ideal role in the future. This doesn’t need to mean starting back on the bottom rung of the career ladder, though, and the experience you accrued in past roles will likely translate to faster progress into positions with more responsibility and higher pay than when you built your career the first time around.
