Looking back at the last few years, many employees found themselves looking for something more, whether in their work or life in general. Change is inevitable in this ever-evolving and advancing world we live in.
Welcoming Change With This Easy 3-Step Process
Change brings on a series of expected and unexpected events, so it’s not a surprise that we experience a bit of trepidation regarding the “unexpected” events. However, it’s these unexpected events that, more often than not, bring about the most interesting and surprising changes we didn’t think possible.
This 3-step process will ensure career transition will never feel overwhelming or intimidating.
Step 1 – How to Gain Clarity for Career Transition
In order to effectively rebrand or reposition yourself in the marketplace, it’s essential to gain clarity on the following:
– How do you want to be perceived by your audience?
– Your goals and desired timeline – if you don’t know where you want to go next and by when all the following steps are meaningless.
– Your new niche/audience – who needs to know you in order to help you achieve your career goals, and where can you find them online?
Gaining Clarity Tips
– Make a list of ideal companies you want to target.
– List those in your network that work or know someone in this ideal company.
– What are your must have’s in your next company /industry?
– Know your deal breakers (what are you willing to walk away from if they don’t or can’t accommodate you with x).
Step 2 – How to Assess Your Online Presence for Career Transition
Take inventory of your digital footprint and how you show up online. This will help you understand how much of your branded content is out there and what needs to change. You might find that your content must only be tweaked to fit into your new narrative. Or perhaps, you realized everything needs to change in order to fit into your new role/ industry. This step is designed to help you gain perspective on leveraging what you have and minimizing content that no longer serves you.
What content should you assess?
– Thought leadership content (blogs, articles, podcasts, interviews)
– Headshot /images
– Professional associations
– Endorsements
– Testimonials
– Social media platforms
– Videos
Assessment Tips
– Write down the common key attributes people use to describe you (great communicator, compassionate leader, relationship building, etc.) because these transferrable skills can help you land a job no matter how unmatched your skill set might appear to be.
– If you are going from a conservative to a more creative industry, ensure your personal brand visually supports this through your wardrobe choices, headshot, and image selections.
– Identify the social media platforms your new audience is on so you can be visible to them.
Step 3 – How to Identify Gaps in Your Network to Help Ensure an Easy Career Transition
Now that you have gained clarity on your goals, new audience, where they are online, how your current brand is perceived, and where the gap is, forming a communication strategy is critical. First, it’s important to understand how you can position your value swiftly and succinctly to those that need to know you. When someone is viewing your digital footprint, you want to be able to quickly convey your brand value so that it resonates with a future employer.
In my previous career as a marketing professional in tech, I crafted many position statements when launching a new product or service. A position statement is how a brand fills a particular consumer need in a way that its competitors don’t. In this case, you are the brand and will need to articulate how you can fill an employer’s need in a way others can’t. This is your positioning statement.
What to include in your positioning statement:
– Identify your target audience
– State their primary need
– How you will solve this need
– How is your value different from x
Career transition can feel overwhelming and stressful, but a transition will be easier if you plan ahead and leverage the 3 step process outlined in this article.
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*Source: Zippia 2022 Study: How Often do People Change Their Jobs?
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