Hi, everyone.
And welcome to Indeed Live.
I'm Abby Carlton, and it's great to be back
with you again this week if you are new to our live stream.
I am Indeed's Director of Social Impact,
so that means that I lead our work on how
we are looking to address bias and barriers in hiring
globally.
And we do that through product innovation,
through strategic partnerships, and through efforts
in our community.
We're really glad that you joined us here today.
If you've been here before, or if you're new, welcome.
Glad to have you here.
OK, this brings me to our tip of the week.
If you are interested in changing careers,
set goals, do your research, and be adaptable.
So let's break that down piece by piece.
In order to set goals, first you want
to get really clear about what you're looking for.
To do that, I would suggest thinking
about current job, or your most recent job,
and making a list of the elements
that you really liked or were really important to you
about that job.
And conversely, the things that you didn't like.
And I would just say make that list
as comprehensive as possible to start.
After you've done that, you can take that list,
and use it to pull out a shorter list of the factors that
will be most important to you in your next role.
That could be things like flexible hours, compensation,
whether you like to work solo or in a team setting, remote,
and so on.
Once you've done that, you can start
to do some research on the types of jobs
that could meet your needs.
Approaching a job search with this needs based mindset
may help you zero in on really what you're looking
for in that career transition.
And if you're still not sure where to start,
or you just want to get a broad sense of different options,
I'd encourage you to check out indeed.com/career.
You can go there, learn more about
different jobs, their average salary, typical career path.
It's a great way to just explore and learn more.
Another great way to do research is through your network.
If you know people in a field that you're considering,
and you want to learn more, don't
be afraid to reach out to them.
And see if they're willing to chat.
And we'll add down in the comments below,
we have a link to at Indeed career guide article that
has examples of questions that you
can ask in one of these informational interviews
where you're just trying to have that first conversation
and learn more.
So check that out.
Essentially, you want to use this conversation
to think about what are your needs and your expectations,
and how well do they line up with the role
that you might be considering.
And you know sometimes, you're going
to discover either in those conversations or in a role
that it isn't a good fit.
I can share earlier in my career,
I thought that I wanted to be a researcher.
And I got a job in that space.
And I'll say after trying that out, I realized that it
was really important to me.
That was a very sort of solo job, individual, contributor
job, and I really wanted to work in a team setting.
And so I ended up finding a new job that met that need for me.
So it's just really helpful to explore, and get a clearer
picture as possible of what it's going to feel
like to make that transition.
And have that new role.
So you can get a sense hopefully even before you're on the job
if you think it's going to be a good fit.
If you don't have personal connections in a field,
we have a couple of resources for you.
You can consider going to one of Indeed community threads
where you can learn about different roles,
talk to people there about the jobs that they have
or have had.
We also have a YouTube series that's
called career paths, which explores different industries
and jobs.
So you might find that helpful.
You can go to the Indeed YouTube page
to find that, as well as past videos from our Facebook lives.
By doing all of this research on the front end,
you're more likely to get a sense
of whether a new career is going to be a good fit for you.
And that research is just going to help
you stand out in the interview.
So that leads me to the final part of this tip, which
is to be adaptable.
First and foremost, I would really
urge you to consider how you can reframe your prior experience
in another field as preparation for what you aim to do now.
All experience is good experience.
So you just need to do that work if you're considering a career
transition from one role, one sector
to another to think about how do you
connect the dots for a potential employer,
so you can show them how the experience and skills
you have in your last roll map to this new job.
Go back to think about your transferable skills.
We've talked about this before.
Make a list of those hard and soft skills
that you have learned, and that you've
demonstrated in past roles.
And think about how those would equip you well here,
even if the role itself on the face
looks somewhat different than what you've done before.
And then just make sure that those strengths show up
in your application in a way that the employer can see.
They go through a lot of applications a day,
so you just want to make it as easy as possible
for them to get that relevant information quickly.
Put it in your cover letter, use your cover letter
to succinctly explain your past experience,
how it prepared you for this role,
and then I'd wrap up that cover letter
with a couple of brief sentences summarizing
why you're pivoting.
And why you think that your unique background would be
an asset for this new employer.
Refresh your resume with that same mindset.
You want to take out any buzzwords that
might have been really particular to your last job
or industry, and describe your past work experience in ways
that will be show that they could be clearly
useful to your new role.
For example, let's say you were a personal assistant,
and now you're applying for a sales role.
You can highlight how the learnings that you took away
around things like communication or organization,
prioritization, things that will be relevant in this new role
as well.
And then start applying.
It's a good idea to include relevant keywords
from the job description in your resume if applicable.
And we talked about this a couple of episodes back.
So if you want to do a deeper dive on refreshing your resume,
check out the--
we have a COVID-19 update's playlist that's
part of our YouTube channel.
So go to youtube.com/indeed, go to that COVID-19 updates list.
And you can see all the past episodes, as well as
other relevant content from this series.
OK, so to recap, if you're switching careers,
get clear on your needs, do your research,
and think about how to frame your past experiences in ways
that show your value.
And the value that you can bring to new employers.
OK, that is all for our live stream today.
Thank you so much for tuning in.
We hope you will join us next week for another update.
We hope you found this helpful, and we will see you soon.
Thanks