Whether you are just entering in an industry or changing career mid-life, this could be an extremely daunting process. When a person decides to alter a career path even if a pinnacle point is visible, it could turn the whole world upside down for him or her. However, if you are determined to make it big in the new field, what better way could be there than using your network for the very same purpose. Perplexed? This is not going to be as dramatic as the image in your mind and networking right would help you sail through the career transition phase more easily. Here are a few tips for networking when going for a career change.

Know what you want!

Wait! Before going with your desire to work in a role, know thyself. Howsoever cliché it sounds, an individual must be aware whether the new role would really make him happy. Transitioning jobs just because your friend thinks so or to reduce working hours is a complete no.

Know Yourself

Tell people about it 

People know about your current designation and responsibilities. However, if you have decided to shred off those old duties and embark on a new career, talk to people about it. Even if you do not have professionals from the same field in network, spread the word. It might help in establishing the right contacts as you never know who is connected to whom.

Tell People

Research

Unable to decide to whom you should contact? Do a little research of the target industry and check websites of organizations. Before directly getting in touch with people, follow famous professionals who are doing extremely well in their career and understand their career path to know what your ideal role would be like. Spending hours on this will help you think creatively and also realize your potential.

Research

Get in touch with similar professionals 

Once you get a hang of it, connect with individuals working in the target profession or like-minded people who have recently made the transition. Being active on LinkedIn could do wonders as you directly get to see the professional path followed by a person. People who have recently shifted careers can point out strategies in the transition period which you might have overlooked as you are busy craving for immense success in a new field.

Get in Touch

Don't hesitate to seek advice 

Networking to people who are not in your immediate domain might seem difficult at first, but it's actually pretty simple. When you are new in a field, use this opportunity to learn more. When you are a career changer, the entire story becomes more interesting, and you have freedom to ask questions, regardless of how silly they might seem. Converse, meet new people, or even try to set up an informational interview to get more idea about the target field.

Seek Advice

Make use of social media 

Are you a social media addict and can't resist scrolling down even after a hard day? Use this to your advantage. Social networking sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter are now increasingly used by employers to identify talented people and hire the best. Strike up conversations with people in your network and get to know their perception. Share your train of thoughts, comment on posts that are related to the target-career, and try to build healthy professional relationships.

Use Social Media

A quote goes,”To reach somewhere, you need to leave something behind.” Starting in a new field with no prior experience can be frightening, but at the end, everything would be worth it if you are willing to take on the challenge. While expanding online network is a smart way to aid career change, stepping out is essential as well. Attend industry events happening in the vicinity. This is not only for the company aimed at discovering new talent, but also for people looking to expand their contacts. Apart from this, scan contact lists, close supporters, college alumni group and other personal affiliations to get a head start in new career.

Changing career in the middle when an apex point has reached can turn anyone's mind shaky. It is natural to face those mind-boggling conversations inside your brain when the question of a livelihood would now depend on something that you have never tried before. Somewhere in the corner of your heart, there is a portrait of life you have always desired. You might be having an extraordinary career, are making the right impacts in professional life and even earning good, but there is this inner voice that doesn't let you sleep every night. The voice could become a distracting factor when there is a sudden realization that the current job is not meant for you, and it's time to pursue what you are passionate about. When it is decided to participate in the career change marathon, follow these building blocks of success to stay focused on the transition.

Focus on Career Change

Plan your career change

A part of Nelson Mandela's quote emphasizes the point, 'Vision without action is just a dream.' The revolutionary leader further says that 'It always seems impossible until it's done.' This stresses on how important it is to brainstorm a few key steps before you get bountiful success in a new career. Know what inspires you, and devise a career plan – what working style you prefer, which companies look best, what skills are essential and what is your future. Have those little milestones set and be patient with the baby steps you are taking on a new path.

Get the ball rolling

The fear of failure often paralyzes a person and can be a great demotivator when one is moving at a snail's pace. Dump such distractions in the bin and mark the calendar with actionable steps. Break these steps into sub-steps if needed and celebrate small victories howsoever insignificant they might seem.

Tell your story to the world

Want to keep the enthusiasm burning? Declare your dreams to the world and you will be now more accountable to prove yourself. For instance, go on a public stage and say where you would be in 10 years from now or just go out in the wild and shout out those desires in front of terrifically powerful waves of an ocean. Talking about goals compels an individual to swing into action and be dedicated to the new aim 24x7. Another way of keeping the inclination alive is writing goals on a piece of paper and sticking it to right where you would probably rest after a hard day. Seeing your goals written in own handwriting has a powerful effect on mind and works in many ways. It makes you feel more responsible, sends direct messages to the brain to achieve them and acts as constant reminders.

Eat, Work, Sleep, Repeat

Too desperate to succeed in your new career? The plan is set, the road is almost ready and when you are just raring to go, are hit by an unanticipated glitch. Heart-broken? Dejected? While unexpected situations or personal crisis could leave anyone disappointed and frustrated, remember those unplanned delays are nothing but postponements. In a way, they could be lessons which give you an opportunity to understand what went wrong and recreate that patch of your action plan. Getting setbacks can boost vigor and can only increase your want to be successful in a new field.

There will be times when self-doubts would be as high as a mountain, and you would wonder whether it was the right decision. There would be days when the productivity is too high and then those when work would be sluggish. Keep calm and believe in yourself, believe in those dreams.

While making a change you will probably come across many challenges, but being focused would ultimately help you to make a successful career change. Dealing with these challenges will make you strong, confident enough to achieve your goals. For those who dare, will fly one day and ultimately, you are always the driver of your own destiny.

It's never too late to jump ship and embark a new career as one must always follow the heart. A career in Human Resource is a safe bet since it deals with the most vital aspects of running a business, which is managing workforce. Career analysts and career counselors have predicted a rise in job opportunities in this field.

Human Resource Management

Have you finally decided to make use of your soft skills, people skills and experience to help others in finding a job? While transitioning from a career where you had gained expertise to an altogether new field is a bold paradigm shift and can make the mind go buzzing with endless questions, going for risk and taking the first step is always important. A human resource manager is entrusted with the responsibility of managing employees in an organization and his or her work may fall under one of the categories namely – handling staff, defining work policies and methods as well as offering employee compensation and benefits. Wondering whether you will be able to manage these responsibilities when there is no relevant experience or degree? While an official degree is an obligation in many companies, there are people who have done exceptionally well without it. If you have planned to make a HR career, taking baby steps in this field while pursuing an online degree course can help you get the hang of duties in this role.

How to make a lateral move in HRM ? 

A career in HR comes with an ample opportunity. Start taking additional responsibilities which are different from daily job assignments. Here are a few common ways which you can employ to make a transition into human resource management.

Take on some administration responsibilities 

This could be one of the best way to get an idea about how a HR goes managing different duties like payroll system, managing employee relations, providing benefits and solving employee issues. To be successful in a new career, one most show willingness to learn things right from zero.

Add HR professionals to the network 

What better way could be to start in this profile than interacting with individuals who have been working in this field and have a substantial experience? Become a part of HR group or community of different organizations until you get some clue about an opportunity. Interacting with people who have already been employed in this sector can help you learn from their experiences. Also, it could head start your new career when a professional is seeking a known employee for a junior position.

Demonstrate your desires 

While you are taking time to find the appropriate opportunity, express your wish to work in HR role to the current boss or senior official. Demonstrating abilities to take on new responsibilities can help you get noticed in the office and it might happen that boss would pay heed to requests and give small tasks. Also, you might get a chance to act as a substitute when the HR is unavailable due to certain reasons or when there is enough work pressure in the department.

Become a part of the recruiting team

As this role usually deals interacting with probable candidates and choosing the best, play an active role in deciding which individuals must be recruited. Apart from this, you can be a part of training sessions for HR or enroll in an internship to learn the technicalities of the job.

While getting a career switch in the current company lies completely at the mercy of boss, doing professional certifications and getting affiliated with communities can add weight to your request and justify the decision. Add new skills and HR-related education in your resume be referring HRM resume samples. Following these points will eventually help in making a successful career change.

Sales is an activity involving selling goods and services. In organizational parlance buying and selling are two sides of the same coin and a person or an organization showing interest in buying the products or services are potential buyers, and the people within the organization who facilitate this exchange are sales professional or salespersons depending on the type of business.

Sales is also considered as a persuading art and people in this profession are expected to have exceptional management and inter-personal qualities. These qualities are not only beneficial for them while working in the sales, but can also be fruitful for them in switching to a different career profile requiring a similar skill set.

Real Estate

Buying and selling of properties existed long ago and continues to be so. In recent times, most of the deals in the real estate sector are carried out through real estate agents. A real estate agent can work as a listing agent to help a client sell his/her property or as a buying agent to help clients buy new properties. Showing houses, coordinating appointments, negotiating offers, and closing deals are some of the duties that a real estate agent performs. As a major part of the duty is to work with clients and buyers, the job of a real estate agent is best suited for a person having good communication skills and having a prior experience in sales. So a person having a background in sales can be a real estate agent. Switching into Real Estate will also not be difficult as there are no specific prerequisites and joining a training program for a month or two would suffice.

Real Estate Agent

Customer Service

Companies provide customer service in order to address queries and resolve issues faced by the customers. The main intent of providing the service is to ensure customer satisfaction so that they keep buying their product or continue availing their service. Therefore, companies hire executives who help in achieving that objective. Attending phone calls and addressing the needs and concerns of the customers are the main duties of the customer service executive. The person best suited to perform this job must have a thorough understanding of consumer needs, their behavior and must have good communication skills. People in sales usually are adept in understanding the consumer sentiment and have a tenacious ability to satisfy the customers and meet daily targets. So a sales person can switch to this profile as core skills required in the profile are almost the same.

Customer Service

Academia

People working in a sales and marketing profile in a corporate sector usually hail from a commerce background. Some of them are postgraduates having a specialization in sales and marketing. Even companies prefer candidates having an academic background while hiring for sales. So, as sales professionals have a formal education in their respective domain, they always have an option of working in the academia.

Business Development

Business development typically involves growing a business by acquiring new customers, or by selling additional products or services to existing ones. Other than that, the executives in business development are responsible in pitching for new products, contacting potential clients, researching needs of clients or companies in case of B2B enterprise, and maintaining fruitful relations with the existing customers. Business development is a critical aspect in ensuring client acquisition and creating important tie-ups that help in business expansion. A person with a sales profile is apt when it comes to working in business development because both the departments have a target-oriented approach and progressively work with the intention of continuous and sustainable growth.



A career in sales is exciting and offers a lot of opportunities to grow. It is probably one of the few careers that people can pursue irrespective of their field of education, and it also provides opportunities for people working in sales to work in different domains that are mentioned above.

Career change is not a novel phenomenon. People today are willing to explore options, as they are in abundance. They are also susceptible to boredom due to the monotonous nature of work that they do, thus making room for exploring new options. Along with that the way a change in career was stigmatized initially is not prevalent these days. On the contrary, a person pursuing a different career and succeeding in it is glorified.

Therefore, it might sound exciting for a person who reads success stories related to career change. But it is important to realize that all that seems so easy is not actually the case. And a change in career involves a lot of efforts and risks. So it is advisable for anyone who wishes to change a career to scrutinize carefully all the variables at play and understand the key stages that govern the career change.

Stages in Career Change

Experiencing the need to change a career

This is often the first stage in switching a career. People who tend to pursue careers in which they don't have any interest, but still end up choosing it for various reasons, usually experience boredom very early in their career. However, there are several other reasons such as grim future prospects, stress, etc. that can induce the thought for a change and thereby force them to explore other options.

Contemplating on the reasons for the change

This is the next critical stage wherein a person who is serious about moving out of a career, pragmatically evaluates the need and reasons before taking any decision. The importance of this approach should not be undermined because if a person doesn't think critically and makes erratic decisions, it won't help him in the long-run and he/she might end-up getting trapped into a vicious cycle. He/she might suffer the same fate and would frequently experience the need to change careers.

Exploring different careers

Once there is a clear understanding of the need and reasons for the change, the next step is to explore the right career. Once people experience the pros and cons in their previous career, they have a vivid understanding about their own expectations from a career, which is helpful for them in the quest of a new one. For some people, exploring different careers might be based upon their childhood interests. And for others, it can be implementing an idea and be self-employed, whereas in some cases, it can be problems related to health or family issues.

Investing time and money in the new career

Changing a career is not easy. Initially, it involves serious thinking. And once you move into a different career, it can take a lot of time & investments before it starts yielding returns. Also, pursuing a different career may need you to acquire certain skills, which is time-consuming. Furthermore, individuals who wish to start something on their own may need a huge capital to invest.

Once an individual explores and finally decides the career to pursue, he/she arrives at a stage where investing time and money in order to nurture and develop abilities to withstand competition becomes necessary. This is the stage that can be challenging for a person as he/she might face situations that can be difficult to surmount.

Changing a career is a difficult choice. A proper due diligence and a right action plan is critical in ensuring a swift transformation. So it is advisable for individuals to factor all the critical stages and the necessary steps that need to be taken.