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The Four Ns Of Career Change: How To Make Them Work For You

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Compared to a traditional job search, changing careers requires more effort and a different approach to the process. Sending out resumes and hoping for responses simply won’t cut it. This is especially true if you’re looking to change both your industry and your job function.

By successfully coaching scores of pivoters, I’ve developed a “four N” approach to the career change process. Here’s how to put this approach to work for you:

Narrative

Rather than a set of bullet points, recruiters and hiring managers are looking for the story behind your career change. They don’t take the time to read between the lines of your resume and imagine how you might fit into the role for which you’re applying; you need to do that work for them.

Questions you need to address in your cover letters, resume, LinkedIn profile, and networking conversations include:

  • Why you’re making the transition, succinctly and diplomatically
  • What transferable skills you bring to the new role, making use of key words relevant to the new role
  • Which of your past experiences—paid or unpaid—relate directly to the new role
  • How the change will be positive for their organization, not just your personal fulfillment

Try to present these details in a way that follows a story arc with a beginning, middle and end. Humans think in term of story so your transition will be more memorable in this format. Even in a resume, it’s possible to create this arc.

By sharing your change as a narrative, you’ll enliven the imagination of the listener or reader. They may begin to imagine possibilities that extend far beyond “open opportunities.” Through this approach, I’ve seen countless clients land jobs that literally didn’t exist before their outreach efforts!

It will take time to craft and refine your personal narrative, including leaving out extraneous details and sharpening your key points. Informational interviews help the most with this refinement process, leading us to the next “N.”

Network

There’s no way around networking to make a career change happen. Many of my prospective clients reach out after trying to avoid networking for months - and experiencing radio silence to their tens or even hundreds of applications.

When you’re making a big shift in career, someone is going to have to take a chance on you. You’re untested and that’s a lot to ask of any employer. Networking is the only way to create the trust that’s necessary to earn your first break.

Notably, networking for career change isn’t simply about finding or creating new paid opportunities. In fact, informational interviews are most powerful when you’re genuinely asking for and receiving advice.

As you talk with others about your intended pivot, you may:

  • Realize what you don’t know about the new industry and/or function
  • Learn how to fill in the gaps of your knowledge, including through specific conferences, professional organizations and online learning opportunities
  • Explore what a new role would truly ask of you, day in and day out - which may cause you to realize that a slightly different role would actually be a better fit for you (close call!)
  • Develop your skills in sharing where you’ve been, where you’re aspiring to be, and why you want to move there (i.e., the narrative we just discussed)
  • Find ways of proving your commitment to change through volunteer opportunities, contract work, or other things you can do on top of your day job

Think about it: if you were going to give an untested person an opportunity, who would you rather do that for? Someone who has sent in an application cold, or someone you’ve talked with and who has taken your advice and reported back on their efforts? There’s no doubt it’s the latter.

Narrow

The next “N” of career change strikes most pivoters as counterintuitive: to be most effective in making a major shift in your work, you need to get super specific about what you want to do.

Many of my new clients who want to make an industry change say something along the lines of, “I’ll do anything in finance! Anything would be a great starting point!” Or if they’re changing job functions, they’ll be very broad about that function: “Anything related to marketing!”

I understand the impulse: we think that by being highly flexible, we can be slotted into any role and will be most likely to land a job. In fact, I’ve repeatedly observed the opposite to be true.

When you’re vague during networking conversations and on your application materials, the person on the receiving end can’t put you into a “mental bucket” in their mind. Humans think in terms of categories, and we don’t remember what we can’t categorize.

In other words, by staying “open,” you become a shapeless form who isn’t memorable.

If, instead, you’ve developed your narrative to the point of clarity and narrowness, the person will think of you when related openings appear, or when they encounter resources or people that may be of interest to you.

A narrow focus would look like, “I’m looking to do employee retention work within HR, drawing on my skills of X and Y that I gained doing Z,” rather than “I want to work in HR, in any capacity, because I’m a fast learner and can do anything!”

Negotiate

Last but not least, we’d be remiss if we didn’t address an important reality: a major career change is unlikely to be made without compromise.

I’ve had clients who wanted to retain the same level of salary, seniority, flexibility, and other perks, yet make a major shift into an industry and/or function at which they were untested. That’s pie-in-the-sky thinking. While I’m all for shooting high, we also need to be realistic about the value we’ll immediately create in an untested career path.

Given this, a major part of the career change process is getting clear on what you are willing to negotiate - and what you’re not:

  • Could you build a financial runway while in your current role, shuffling some money aside every month for six months, say, to enable a salary downgrade?
  • Are you okay with a lower title in exchange for a new, more fulfilling role? Especially if you ask for clarity around promotion structure and know you can regain your old title relatively quickly, if you perform well?
  • What perks could you give up, and which do you and your family absolutely need? Are there ways to get to the outcome of these perks in another way? (e.g., instead of having a very short commute, could you use a longer commute to do the pleasurable reading you usually do at home?)

If the answer is that you truly need everything to remain the same, think long and hard about whether a career change is really what you want and need. You could instead make changes within your existing role through the gradual process of job crafting or perhaps turn to volunteer work or hobbies to add the fulfillment for which you’re searching.

Final Thoughts

Done thoughtfully, career change results in more fulfillment, purpose and engagement at work. The people who get to this point put in deliberate effort, working through an iterative process of refining their narrative, networking, narrowing their focus, and negotiating on some aspects of their compensation package.

Is the process easy? No.

Is it manageable and worth it? Absolutely.

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