What once were considered ground rules in both job seeking and recruiting are changing rapidly. As the pace picks up again, both candidates and employers need to examine post-Covid job expectations and recognize that new opportunities have entered the mix. Here are some examples.
1. Should you take the opportunity to change industries?
Sometimes a well-qualified candidate, who is clearly ready to assume greater responsibility, is reticent to change industries or deviate from a traditional career path.
Today there are more compelling reasons than ever for changing industries. These include accelerating your professional development, broadening your skills, adding interesting and accomplished people to your network, increasing employment opportunities going forward, accessing the global world, challenging yourself, and finding greater engagement via pursuit of something you are more passionate about.
Changing industries may benefit a candidate in the following ways:
Allow for More Rapid Professional Growth
Changing industries may allow the candidate to take on more responsibility as a manager and grow his or her salary more quickly than staying in one sector.
Unleash Innovation Potential
When you change industries, you see the possibilities for innovations. Post Covid brings greater expectations Your mind broadens and you can create something new by combining different skills that you have developed from different places. There are many individuals who have found great success by moving from one vertical to another because cross-pollination can lead to greater creativity.
Increase Your Network
When you have moved industries, you will have different connections from different backgrounds. This will increase your reach and help you grow in your future. When you have a good network, you can use it for building a business, for hiring good people, or for finding new opportunities for yourself.
If a candidate has spent significant time in one industry, they may not realize how well their experiences and skills may translate elsewhere. Not every industry is the same. Some industries and companies will value certain skills more highly than others.
Some verticals organize themselves differently and a candidate may be happier in some circumstances than in others. It’s not that the grass is always greener. It’s that we tend to thrive better in a garden than in a forest.
2. Should you consider embarking on a new career?
Over the last decades, having multiple careers within a lifetime has become increasingly common, not just in the U.S. but also in Europe. With technology giving us the ability to work from anywhere (and COVID demonstrating to everyone that this is possible) even more people are now considering a working life that spans multiple careers.
Understanding that you need not follow a single career path can open up new vistas. Creative thinkers have discovered the antidote to boredom, burnout, job insecurity, and many other workplace woes may be “The Slash Effect.” This is when you move successfully from one career to another, and maybe even to another. You may know of lawyers who became entrepreneurs, journalists who became marketing executives, doctors who became venture capitalists, or CEOs who became teachers. I even know of a pharmaceutical marketer/HR executive/company founder/executive recruiter.
A few things that may help you prepare for your next “slash”:
Use your current career to help you cultivate the skills required for your next one.
Take opportunities provided by your current employer to expand your skills set, be curious about what other departments in your company do and consider taking classes in areas that interest you.
Think about investing
Many people are interested in the investing world regardless of their career. Investing can give you the freedom to pursue other careers smoothly. When you invest, your money works for you so you can work on other things that interest you and you create capital that you can use to start a business.
But understand that if you’ve got household obligations or a family depending on you to be there physically and emotionally, the timing might not be right today. That doesn’t mean that you can’t make plans for a second career later in life. If that’s the case, understand and establish expectancies to work, leisure, finance and health.
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