How to transfer my skills from one industry to another? (Career Change)
One challenge of switching fields is the inevitable mismatch between your past experience and the job requirements - What you did in the last job will be different from what you need to do in the next one.
The truth is that the skills you developed in your past job will help you perform, even if you are coming from an entirely different space. For a job interview, the challenge is communicating the value of these skills to the interviewer.
When done right, this different background can be an advantage in the interview. It can provide you with a unique perspective from that which is trained into the average industry insider. Focus on the few key areas where you stand out from the competition, ensure a healthy profit margin on these items, and get rid of excess inventory and problem causing people.
The key is to differentiate between the technical skills and the analytical skills. Your knowledge of the operations of certain software won't transfer. Yet your reasoning skills and understanding of how to solve the problems where this software was used will transfer.
Here's how you can prepare for your next interview and make use of these experiences:
First read through the new job description a couple of times. If there are any terms that you aren't familiar with, search for them on the web. Get a basic sense of what they mean and what you would need to do to related to these items. Then write this down on the job description.
If you can't walk into the interview sounding like an expert, at least walk in there as someone who seems generally knowledgeable. (To gain this knowledge even more quickly, arrange some educational conversations with people who already work in this space, possibly even work at your target company.)
Next, cross out these unfamiliar terms from the job description and take a look for some of the critical terms. Circle any that seem to appear multiple times. If it says manage multiple projects three times, you know that is an important skill.
Now make a list of the top five skills the job requires, and next to these items, make a list of your past experiences that are the most relevant to these skills. It doesn't matter if these experiences are in an entirely different space, just do the best you can. (For members of Interview Success Formula - Take a look in the Research Section of the course under the Ideal Candidate Profile for worksheets to assist.)
Finally, prepare short stories that explain how you used these relevant skills in your past experiences, and the specific results you created. And of course, practice these responses until you feel comfortable. (For members of Interview Success Formula - Take a look in the Build Section of the course under Prepare Your Story for worksheets to assist.)
Bonus points: Think about the specific problems this new position requires you to solve and how you would uniquely solve these problems based on the experiences you had in your last job. Stories here can help you as well.
When you walk into the interview, remember that because your experience is different, you will bring something unique from the competition, a new perspective, and a different set of experiences. This can be to your advantage. Point out to the interviewers how different aspects of your background connect to the different job requirements. That way, they clearly see why you are a great match.
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