Notice: Undefined variable: apf_rel_post in /home/blogsites/worldbusinesscommunity/www/wp-content/plugins/add-post-footer/add_post_footer.php on line 373

Our life provides the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to make an effective career change. The key is to recognize this and then use your life experience as a basis for the transition.

Looking for a new job? If so, then think about everything (and I mean everything) you have ever done in your life.

We all begin our career path with some form of education or training. It could be high school, college, on-the-job, military, and possibly even just babysitting or lawn mowing. Something gives us either career experience or the knowledge needed to gain other career experience. Ignore the infamous expression, “How can I get a job if I don’t have the job experience?” Just recognize that you probably have far more experience than you think you do.

Small beginnings grow great opportunities. For example, if you have experience mowing a neighbor’s yard, that may provide the experience needed to work at a local garden nursery, or even the garden shop at a local big box store. Babysitting experience easily translates into education, day care, and other children-based careers. Military experience and training can lead to careers in a wide array of fields depending upon what one did (and the training one received) while serving. An infantryman might find that experience provides the qualifications for a security position, while someone working on the latest high technology equipment could find doors open to almost any computer-related position.

Even high school and college service jobs, clubs, teams, band, and other activities can provide skills, leadership and management experiences, team building opportunities, and more.

Sometimes, your avocation may become your vocation, just because you have been “working” at it for so long. One of my many careers involves photography. I have no formal training. But I’ve been taking pictures since I was in my early 30′s, learning as I went along. I’ve sold photographs to magazines, book publishers, newspapers, and even the U.S. Postal Service. I now lecture onboard cruise-ships about photography to willing and responsive audiences.

Whether you are actively looking for a career change or one is foisted upon you, the key is to look at your KSAs and see how these can be transferred into a new career path. Sometimes the links are not as obvious as my photography example.

Take my wife, for example. She has been involved in education for three decades. Recently, she was tutoring math to a 4th grade girl when she learned that the girl’s 9th grade brother needed help in Algebra I. Her background wouldn’t allow her to handle the assignment. But mine did. So, wearing her best management skills (one can only teach dozens to hundreds of kids daily with good classroom management skills), she tapped me for the job. Now she co-manages our growing math tutoring business.

Each of us typically has an incredible experience base on which to draw as we explore new and changing careers. Sometimes it is a stretch to jump from one venue to another; but often, the links are stronger than one can imagine.

I’ve provided a few experiential examples here to get you started. Now it’s up to you. Sit down and make a list of your KSAs. Then determine how these can fit the job for which you are applying. Be creative. Be forward thinking. Show how your KSAs can fit the job and help your prospective employer. You may be surprised to find out just how qualified you are for jobs you never even considered.

Resources
Post Your Resume to 65+ Job Sites
Resume Service

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post