4 Crucial Things To Consider Before Making A Career Change

“I have been in the sales field for close to seven years, I feel I have exhausted the field and I would like to change my career to the Administration. I can’t seem to break it even in the admin sector, where am I going wrong?” This was a question from one of our readers.

We are going to discuss how Michelle and many others like her can overcome the roadblocks they are facing in the new field they look into venturing. First, you will need to know what is important to hiring managers in the new field, what skills and experience will set you up well and if you have what it takes.

Here are 4 top things to consider before making a career change move.

1. Get new academic qualifications

Moving from one career to another is not an easy task as one has to probably start from the bottom and grow.for your career change to easily take off, you will need to have the required academic qualifications. We’ve all seen job adverts requirements for academic qualifications, “The ideal candidate should have a degree in HR & Administration from a recognized university”.

Melody Mwendwa, career coaching manager at Corporate Staffing Services says, “Academic qualifications will go a long way in ensuring that you have your foot in the door in any organization”. If you are looking to change careers within the same organization, this can be easy, says Melody.

For example, Michelle can easily change her career within the current organization, she has dealt with the company’s clients as a sales person and it will be easy to transition into admin as she has knowledge of some of the organizational processes and she can feel in two positions making her an asset.

2. Get experience

Having gotten the academic qualifications, it’s time to get some experience. To perform the new function, you will need to get hands on experience where at the time you will be required to work long hours for very little pay. We’ve seen how job adverts ask for many years of experience “The ideal candidate must have 2 years of work experience”.

Many of us always think this is just something we can bypass, you cannot. Carolyne Kariuki, a Recruitment manager at Corporate Staffing Services, says “When I’m shortlisting, I adhere to the guidelines I stated in the advert, if I need a candidate with 2 years of experience, I will not consider applications with less than 2 years”.

Get an internship opportunity and gain experience as that will move you from the very little pay bracket to a place you can live off your salary comfortably. Volunteer over the weekends to gain experience and become marketable.

Highly Recommended >>> How To Change Careers

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