How to Navigate Career Transitions

A career transition can be a very challenging decision and experience. It involves learning new skills, improving existing skills, rebranding yourself, updating your resume, etc., which can be a very tiring process.

To make your career transition journey easier and less stressful, there are certain steps you need to take and changes to make. And, in this article, you will learn some of the practical steps to help you transition into a new career quickly and efficiently.

8 Major Reasons Why People Make Career Transitions

There are a number of reasons why you may want to change your career and transition to a new one. Some of them include:

• Increased salary/wages.
• A flexible lifestyle.
• Risk of layoffs.
• Toxic work culture/environment.
• Work-life balance.
• Boredom and dissatisfaction with your current job.
• Burnout and stress.
• Limited opportunities at work, etc.

Any of these reasons and more can make you decide to transition into a new career path.

How to Transition into a New Career Path

As mentioned earlier, moving into a new career is not as easy as it sounds. It requires the right efforts and preparations. Here are 8 practical steps on how to transition into a new career:

1. Do a Thorough Research on the New Career Path

If you have decided to transition into a new career, then you must do a thorough research into that industry.

What problems do they solve? What language and terminologies should you learn? What soft and hard skills are required? How much is the salary range? What responsibilities is involved in this new career?

Examples of places you can do your research include career publications, websites like Indeed, Glassdoor, LinkedIn learning, job descriptions on job boards, asking questions from people already working in that role, attending industry events, joining professional groups, etc. A thorough research will also guide and help you create a detailed career transition plan.

2. Create a Career Transition Plan

This is a plan that outlines some of the steps and preparations you need to move from your existing career and transition into a new career. It contains important details like:

• Your career goals.
• The skills you need to learn or improve on.
• A timeline or set period for your transition.
• Job search strategies and tactics.
• Resume and cover letter updates and rewrites.
• Financial support during the transition period, etc.

With a career transition plan, you will know the right steps to take in moving to your new career path.

3. Identify Your Transferable Soft Skills:

These are skills that you learnt in your existing or past roles which can also apply to your new career. Identifying them will help you make the right updates on your resume, cover letter and even how you present yourself in interviews.

Some of these soft skills include time management, teamwork and collaboration, organization, leadership skills, etc.

For example, if you have worked as a secretary in the past and want to transition into a new role as a customer service representative, skills like communication, problem-solving, time management would also work for this new role.

4. Develop New Skills, Experiences and Qualifications

If your new career involves a new skill and qualification which you don’t have, you need to start learning or gathering them. For example, if you are transitioning into a role as a content marketer from a secretary, you will need to take online courses and learn how to write marketing content, etc

Examples of where you can improve or learn new skills include Udemy, Coursera, LinkedIn learning, YouTube, etc.

Also, if the role you want to transition to is a professional career like being a lawyer, doctor, etc., it means you need to go back to the university and study law or medicine.

Furthermore, some roles require a certain level of experience which you may not have. Using our example above, a secretary does not have experience in content marketing. So, if he wants to get that experience, he can decide to apply for internships, do some free work, volunteering, etc., just to get that experience.

All these will help you in gaining experience and building your qualifications in your new career.

5. Create a Career Transition Resume:

Your resume shows your relevant skills, experience and achievements which relates to a specific role.

Since you are moving into a new career, your resume has to be updated. It needs to contain experiences, skills and other details that only relates to the new career you want to transition into.

For example, a secretary transitioning into a customer service role would include soft skills like communication skills, multitasking skills in his resume. However, he would need to remove skills like record keeping, minutes taking, etc., since it doesn’t apply to customer service.

Characteristics of a Proper Career Transition Resume:

1. A good career transition resume should highlight your transferable skills and achievements that relates to your new career.
2. It should only contain educational qualifications, experiences related to your new career path. If you have no educational qualifications/experiences in that new career, then just briefly mention the existing ones. You can also highlight how some of your previous responsibilities of your past roles relate to the new role.
3. Finally, make sure to include a brief explanation of the reasons you are changing careers. You can add it very briefly to the resume summary.

6. Update Your Online Presence

This relates mostly to social media. If you have branded yourself as a customer service representative but now you want to transition into content marketing, your online presence must reflect this new career transition.

This will involve you updating your LinkedIn profile and all your other active social media platforms to reflect your new career path.

7. Attend Networking Events and Gatherings in Your New Career Path

It is very important that you try to meet and connect with people already working in the career you want to transition to. You can do this online or offline.

Doing this will help you get a feel for what your career path entails. You will also receive career tips, advice and even job recommendations coming from industry insiders.

8. Create a Financial Backup Plan

If you are moving into a new career, chances are you would most likely be starting from an entry level. And this could be a significant reduction in your finances.

So, you must also create a plan on how you are going to be financially stable while transitioning into a new career. Will you start a side hustle? Will you start saving? Would you stay in your present job until you are more stable?

You need to make provision for all this while transitioning into a new career path.

Simple Tips to Note While Writing a Cover letter for Career Transition

Now that you have learnt some practical ways to help you transition into a new career, here are some tips to guide you in writing a good cover letter that reflects your new career change:

1. Explain why you are making the career change: Apart from cover letter basics, you should also include the reasons why you are changing your career. This should be really brief, maybe in one sentence.
2. 2. Highlight your transferable skills: Apart from adding this to your resume, you should point out your transferable skills i.e skills from your previous career that also applies to your new one. Remember, this should be done as briefly as possible.
3. Show your passion and enthusiasm for this new career path: In your cover letter, try to show that you are very much passionate about this new career role. The best way to do this is to show proof or mention any courses, experiences, that reflects your passion and interest in the new role.

Related: How to Write a Compelling Cover Letter

Should You Get a Career Transition Coach?

Just like its name implies, a career transition coach is someone that helps and guides you in taking the steps required for your career transition or career move. A career transition coach will also help you stay accountable and push you to take the right steps to achieve your new career goals.

What to Expect from a Career Coach?

1. Personalized Guidance: A career transition coach will help you create an effective and personalized career map/plan in line with your new career path.
2. Motivation and Encouragement: A Career transition coach will help you stay motivated especially in times of doubts and disappointments in your career transitioning process.
3. Resume and Interview Preparations: A career transition coach can also help you update and refine your cover letter and resume so it relates to your new career change. They can even help you prepare for your interviews.

To improve your career transition process and receive practical guidance and directions while transitioning to your new career, it is advisable that you get a career coach to hold your hand along the way.

Also Read: How to Effectively Prepare for an Interview

Conclusion

Transitioning into a new career path is not easy at all. You are starting from scratch and it will take time for you to grow.  In this new journey, you are bound to experience some setbacks, difficulties, disappointments, doubts, etc. However, you need to stay determined and focused if it is something you really want.

Using some of the steps mentioned above, you can make your career transition process less overwhelming and seamless.