Changing career then and now
Posted on 11:56am, 30th March 2010 • 1 Comment
Daniel Defoe (best known as the author of Robinson Crusoe) could teach us all about the art of changing career and portfolio working. Born in 1660, he was a soldier, sailor and journalist, bred civet cats, smuggled tin into France, managed a brick factory and was a spy for a while too! Of course, he never had to fill in an application form or write a CV ……
Sadly, 21st century employers are generally a lot more risk averse than they were in Defoe’s day, preferring candidates to have a far less adventurous career history. So what can you do to improve your chances of landing a good job when you’ve been changing career with the same abandon as friend Daniel?
First, see things from the employer’s point of view. If they recruit you, they’ll want to know you’re definitely committed to the job and the organisation and you won’t be changing career again soon. So really work hard on deciding your career goals for the mid-term future and being able to explain them to a sceptical audience (eg your interviewer). Try not to apply for any jobs that don’t make sense from the perspective of your mid-term career goals. You won’t lose much by being selective about the jobs you go for because good interviewers quickly sense when candidates haven’t any real enthusiasm for the job.
Then look at your extremely varied career history and see whether it makes you an ideal candidate for particular “niche” posts. In effect, you turn the problem (changing career too often) into an opportunity. For example, someone with an HR / Training background and more recent experience of heading a team of volunteers providing pre-school activities and liaising with education sector professionals found that changing career as she had helped land her a senior role training and supporting school governors.
You now need to identify which types of organisations need “niche” employees like you and how they recruit them (eg they might advertise vacancies on their own web sites and nowhere else, alternatively they may welcome speculative applications).
Revise your CV (use a functional format) to show how changing career path actually makes you a better candidate for these “niche” posts than mainstream applicants.
Recruitment consultancies are generally bad news for candidates with a history of changing careers – you’ll do better if you organise your own job search.
An interesting article.
However, there is a balance between changing career infrequently or too frequently and each case needs to be examined individually.
For example, Isambard Kingdom Brunel had many jobs. He was a structural engineer, civil engineer, bridge builder, shipbuilder, railway engineer, tunnel builder and locks designer but it could not be said that he was changing career regularly.
A candidate who has only worked for one or two companies throughout their career may not be looked upon favourably by employers who may view their lack of changing career as unimaginative and restricted.
Applicants who have developed their skills and experience by changing careers may be seen by employers as a better option, who can bring more to the table.
I can’t agree with the writer’s comment that recruitment consultancies are generally bad news for candidates with a history of changing careers. A discerning, professional consultant will look at a CV for a best fit with their client’s requirements. The recession and current economic climate has resulted in changing careers, where people have had a number of jobs in a small space of time through no fault of their own following a succession of reduncacies.
I would invite those of you thinking of changing career to the logistics function to visit http://www.jlc-solutions.co.uk for a bit of free advice on how to go about it.
Terry Abra • 7th April, 2010 at 7:41 am