How Job Seekers Can Find Work in a New Field

Improve Job Search Success by Repositioning Expertise

Aug 7, 2009

Generally when people look for work, they know their skills and abilities and seek positions in their field or industry. But when that doesn't work, what can they do?

For job seekers who have been out there for months pounding the pavement in an effort to find a job unsuccessfully, now is the time to stop thinking the same old way. Looking for a job in this economy can have job seekers beating their heads against the wall. But only because they do the same thing over and over with the expectation that they will get a different result. It doesn’t happen that way.

Instead, job seekers should take a long, hard look at themselves and figure out how they can repackage the goods (that means their expertise) in order to sell their product (that means them) to a different audience. Companies do it all the time, so why shouldn’t job seekers?

Begin by Looking at Skills and Abilities

Too often job seekers get stuck in a rut because they have a linear view of where their talents lie. Consider a freelance writer. There is a world of different writing activities out there including articles, web content, press releases, newsletters, and ebooks, just to name a few.

Yet, often writers will stay with a particular type of writing because they’ve done it before and know how to do it again, or they don’t know how to break into another area of writing. Well, job seekers do the same thing. And with the economy the way it is, it’s time for job seekers to start rethinking how their skills can translate into another line of work. That means taking the time to carefully examine (even write down) what skills and abilities they have so they can better understand what qualities they bring to an employer.

From this list they can look at job openings to determine how their skills and abilities fit with jobs outside their usual area of work. Plus they are then in a position to create a functional resume instead of a chronological one in order to help employers see the value they bring.

Next Re-Examine Work Experience

Returning to the previous example, freelance writers tend to have a habit of writing about the same area of knowledge (say, human resources – wink, wink) because that is their comfort zone or what they know best. For a writer: not necessarily a bad thing.

However, given some time and a bit of thought, freelance writers can actually realize that they know a lot more than they are willing to admit. They have home life, family and friends, hobbies, sports and therefore, can examine more topics than what they currently write about.

The same is true for job seekers. Just because they have spent their entire career working in a particular field or industry doesn’t mean they can’t transition into another area. What about the engineer who becomes a teacher? Or the nurse who becomes a legal nurse consultant working for a lawyer or, better yet, returns to school and becomes a medical lawyer herself? Why can’t a job seeker move from customer service into human resources where the customer is internal instead of external? True, it would be helpful to have knowledge or background in the field. That’s when going back to school or getting additional training can help.

If job seekers take the time to review how their experience may apply to other areas of work and design their resume to specifically target the type of background requested in other positions, fields and industries they just may see how they can find work in a new field.

The copyright of the article How Job Seekers Can Find Work in a New Field in Job Search is owned by Deborah S. Hildebrand. Permission to republish How Job Seekers Can Find Work in a New Field in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.